Petrarch and the masks of ancient characters

The paper examines Petrarch's self-portrait as it can be reconstructed from excerpts from his Latin and vernacular works (mostly from the Familiares). It is a dynamic self-portrait: Petrarch disguises himself as an ancient character, different time after time. When he paints his portrait as a young man, he disguises himself as Bellerophon, Alexis and Virgil; when he depicts himself in his later years, he wears the mask of the Philosopher and disguises himself as Democri-tus and Homer.