自画像是指由艺术家为自己所绘的肖像作品，而雕塑家类似的创作则称为自塑像。

法国艺术家Jean Fouquet于1450前后创作的自画像或为西方传统中现存的最早的自画像，若不拘泥于平面，则埃及法老Akhenaten之雕塑家Bak早于公元前1365年前后已完成雕刻自己与其妻Taheri的作品。

西方绘画传统中的自画像，于文艺复兴时代为人瞩目。当时，艺术家被视为优秀乃至卓越的个体。独立的自画像的出现，常与给予艺术家的这种巨大肯定相联系。这一时期亦有大量的自画像涉及作画者之外的他人。这其中，有赞助人，或是夫人子女。亦有艺术家在画幅中纳入友人、情人、老师、学生、模特甚至死神。

A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century that artists can be frequently identified depicting themselves as either the main subject, or as important characters in their work. With better and cheaper mirrors, and the advent of the panel portrait, many painters, sculptors and printmakers tried some form of self-portraiture. Portrait of a Man in a Turban by Jan van Eyck of 1433 may well be the earliest known panel self-portrait. He painted a separate portrait of his wife, and he belonged to the social group that had begun to commission portraits, already more common among wealthy Netherlanders than south of the Alps. The genre is venerable, but not until the Renaissance, with increased wealth and interest in the individual as a subject, did it become truly popular.