这幅自画像命名为“生命·艺术的摇篮”，尼采哲学的主题是生命的意义问题，而他对这个问题的解答便是：靠艺术来拯救人生，赋予生命以一种审美的意义。程亚杰艺术受尼采哲学影响很大，21世纪初作品流露出存在主义和后现代主义的痕迹。创作风格上同样和尼采关系密切，尼采是西方现代哲学的开创者，同时是卓越的诗人和散文家，他的写作风格独特，经常使用格言和悖论的技巧，1868年秋，尼采在莱比锡瓦格纳姐姐的家里结识了他仰慕已久的音乐大师瓦格纳，两人久久地谈论他们共同喜爱的叔本华哲学，随后的几年中瓦格纳和妻子成为尼采在艺术和理智方面的良师益友，而文学、音乐同样的深植在了程亚杰的艺术思想和作品中。这幅自画像画的技法上是程亚杰素描作品的里程碑，笔触凝重大气，艺术家的眼睛，艺术家的手刻画的细致入微，光影明暗适度，充分反映出大家风范和睿智深邃的内心世界及谦逊谦卑的人生态度。

　　This self-portrait is named "Cradle of Life and Art". The theme of Nietzschean philosophy is about the meaning of life. And Cheng Yajie's answer to this question is that "Save life with art, and endow it with aesthetics". Nietzschean philosophy has left a great impact on Cheng Yajie's art. In the early 21st century, his paintings showed existentialism and postmodernism. His art style was closely related to Nietzsche, the founder of modern Western philosophy and a prominent poet and essayist, whose writing style was unique with the technique of maxims and paradox. In the Autumn of 1868, Nietzsche made the acquaintance of the great musician Wilhelm Richard Wagner whom he had admired for a long time in his sister's home in Leipzig. They talked about their favorite Schopenhauer's philosophy. In the later years, Wagner and his wife became mentors of Nietzsche in the aspects of art and sense. Additionally, both literature and music also deeply rooted in Cheng Yajie's artistic thoughts and works. In the aspect of technique, this self-portrait with imposing brushwork and style is a milestone of his sketches works, delicately depicting the artist's eyes and hands with perfect effect of light and shade, which reveals master's demeanor, sagacious and abstruse inner world as well as modest attitude towards life.