oil on canvas, 60×50 cm
signed and dated lower left P. Conti 1921
In this Self-Portrait with a Mirror , presented at the 1922 Florentine Spring Festival and awarded by the City of Florence, there is still a reminder of the self-portraits of 1914, where Conti allows his painting tools or other elements to appear, indirectly suggesting their presence in reverse shot. Here, the play of the pictorial prism is evoked in the backward movement of the easel into the mirror. The entire composition reveals Conti's contemporary studies of the 15th century, but without the clear universe of that painting's central period, but rather with the restless mood of Mannerism, its bravura pieces, which keep the mind on an intellectual high.
