Tarsila do Amaral's 1924 Self-Portrait Reinterpreted as a Modern Achiropita Image

In a 1925 letter to journalist Joaquim Inojosa, Tarsila do Amaral described a new artistic rigor, comparing her painting's finish to a Rolls-Royce leaving the workshop. This shift from her earlier rapid 'Spanish' portraits began around 1923, marked by her 'Autorretrato (manteau rouge).' The work synthesizes modernist angularity with a centralized, traditional composition, aligning with the international Return to Order. Art historian Aracy Amaral notes Tarsila's practice of copying her own works, preserving 'riscos' like embroidery patterns. The 1924 'Autorretrato' is analyzed as an achiropita image—not made by human hands—connecting it to the Veil of Veronica and the acheiropoietos tradition of Christ's image. This links the painting's mechanical, photographic quality to industrial objects and 19th-century photographic theory, as discussed by Philippe Dubois. The self-portrait is further contrasted with her extravagant Parisian persona, dressed by Jean Patou and Paul Poiret, yet documented in repeated, elegant attire in photographs from 1923 onward. The analysis positions the work as a unique artifact in both Brazilian and international art, as the only known self-portrait by an artist adopting the Veil of Veronica iconography.