The Middle Ages

Claricia

1200 BCE

Claricia or Clarica was a 13th-century German illuminator. She is noted for including a self-portrait in a South German psalter of c. 1200, now in The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. In the self-portrait, she depicts herself as swinging from the tail of a letter Q. Additionally, she inscribed her name over her head.

Guda

1101 BCE

Guda or Guta also a German 12-century nun and illuminator she created a self-portrait in an initial letter in a homiliary. The German Nun Guda in another historical initial, this one from Westphalia in Germany. Her self-portrait was symbolically placed in the ninth homily of St. John Chrysostom, a position ideal for witnessing the Second Coming of Christ. Her inscription, “Guda, a sinner, wrote and painted this book,” was used to confess to her sinful way..