When looking at a portrait painting, it is obvious to see the numerous qualities which represent the theme of that painting, including historical, cultural, and biographical representations of the subject. Through a self-portrait, one can portray an exact internal feeling, or sense of being, into an external emphasis on canvas. One's complex self can be understood easier by an artist's work.
             A particular self-portrait would be that of Charles Willson Peace, entitled "The Artist In His Museum" (1822). In Peale's self-portrait, he portrays himself and his works through emblematic portraiture. This portraiture is a unique way of expressing one's self through organized objects. These objects do not exactly show meaning, but they represent the meanings of the picture. They are the meaning. These objects actually represent the culture by their carefully placed positions in the portrait. These are symbols that all have a relationship with the portrait. Peace's use of emblem portraiture brings nature and art together and also examines the rise and progress of the museum as told by Stein. Stein explains Peale's use of emblematic portraiture through his use of numerous objects, each with extremely significant values.
             The first emblem would be a dead turkey lying on a taxidermist's table waiting to be transformed into a life-like exhibit for the museum. The turkey, which was brought to the museum by his son, was from a westward expedition to Missouri. When alive, this turkey roamed the forests and represented in the naturalist's mind, the clear vitality of the American wild; but when dead, shows the first step in recreating the bird, giving it life inside the museum. The turkey was also a naturalist's response to Button and other European naturalists that believed North Americans' contribution to natural history were small in the New World.
             Another example of Peale's use of emblems in which Stein talks about would be the portraiture loc...