Because human beings like nothing more than their own stupid faces, self-portraiture has been an enduring form of artistic expression since basically the beginning of time (the Biblical Adam could, in fact, be considered the first self-portrait).

Popularized by the Renaissance masters, the art of rendering one's own image on canvas is still going strong -- even in this era of the much more elegant iPhone mirror pic. As with everything else, celebrities do self-portraits better than us laypeople. Or at least they do them much, much weirder.

#12. Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brosnan

Something between Bruce Willis in Die Hard 3 and McBain from The Simpsons is what Pierce Brosnan sees whenever he looks in the mirror.

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I bet you looked at this portrait of Pierce and immediately picked out its best part. And I bet you think it's the blue car in the background exploding into a Michael Bay of flames (that's the collective noun for that, FYI). Or maybe you're partial to that sad-face-emoticon mustache, or those badass shades that came free with the family-sized bag of sunflower seeds at 7-Eleven. Perhaps your favorite part is even Mr. Brosnan's magenta pixie cut -- "Hairline be damned," says Pierce. "I will let my inner Kelly Osbourne run free!"

But you're wrong. The best part of this painting is its intricately rendered chest hair, a detail that lets us know that although Pierce took liberties with skin color, hair color and realism in general, he isn't cutting any corners where his masculinity is concerned. No sir: Those loopy black hairs promise us that had Pierce decided on a full-body portrait, he would have made his penis a python.

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#11. Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson

Well, now we know what Marilyn Manson looks like in his birthday suit. Before the lipstick comes out and the monster-eye contacts go in and the bucket of baby powder gets dumped from the ceiling, Carrie-style, Marilyn Manson is nothing but a skinny, almost innocent-looking homunculus.

A skinny, innocent-looking homunculus who happens to have surprising insight into the psychology of school shootings.

#10. David Bowie

Kwisser.be

In addition to showcasing impressive technical skill, this painting also proves that David Bowie has a pretty decent sense of humor. No ordinary idealized self-portrait, the image above is a reference to an incident that occurred at a Norwegian concert in 2004, when someone in the crowd threw a lollipop at the singer. The sucker hit Bowie smack-dab in the eye, lodging itself in between his eyeball and his socket.

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Escaping relatively uninjured, Bowie painted his interpretation of the incident a few years later -- and inexplicably gave himself the hands of a 6'10" NBA power forward.

#9. Matthew Gray Gubler

Matthew Gray Gubler

Criminal Minds actor Matthew Gray Gubler is exceedingly handsome.

Getty

The man portrayed in this portrait looks like he contracted walking pneumonia five days into a bath salts bender, tripped over a zombie, landed face-first into his grandmother's makeup bag, and had an allergic reaction to everything inside of it.

#8. Rosie O'Donnell

CBS News

I have to wonder if Rosie O'Donnell is using papier-mache as a metaphor here. Something about the many masks an American celebrity must wear just to get through the day unscathed. Which layer of Rosie is the real layer of Rosie?