The optical image of a luminous mass under the influence of its own gravitational field near the Schwarzschild radius, as in the case of a dense neutron star, is studied. It is found that two important deviations from the classical nonrelativistic behavior occur. First, the stellar body appears to be enlarged by a gravitational self-lens effect. In the limiting case for the star approaching the Schwarzschild radius, the disk appears to be larger by a factor approx equal 2.59. Second, the observed light intensity of the stellar disk appears to be nonunifonn. In the case of a body near the Schwarschild radius the intensity first drops towards the limb of the stellar disk and then sharply rises, forming a system of rings with high-peak intensity near the limb. (auth)