The series of self-portraits by Antonio Ligabue began in the 1940s and, for the most part, were made at San Lazzaro, the neuropsychiatric institute in Reggio Emilia where the artist was hospitalized several times. The self-portrait in question dates back to the end of the 1950s and the artist, known for his wild character, is represented in the foreground, with a white shirt with blue stripes and an open, high neck that frames a deformed and emaciated face, characterized from the deep wounds that he himself inflicted with practices of sacrificial self-mutilation. The look is restless and nervous. Behind him is a countryside landscape with a small church in the distance and some elements that help to accentuate the sense of isolation of the figure: the lonely tree, the only scarecrow and the stylized crow flying alone in the sky. The artist's self-portraits are famous for their obsessive repetitiveness and constitute a veritable diary of a personal history recorded between different emotions, under different moments of self-perception and self-proposal.