Glass Acts
PAINTERS HAVE LONG USED MIRRORS TO REFLECT THEIR SUBJECTS’ INNER LIVES. GAZE AT THESE STARTLING EXAMPLES
C. 1524: Self-Portrait in a Convex
Mirror. The Italian painter Parmigianino worked on a convex wooden panel to create this work, celebrated for its distortion of perspective.
C. 1555: Venus with a Mirror.
Titian and his apprentices produced at least 30 versions of this scene. The mirror highlights the goddess’s epic self-regard.
1646: Self-Portrait. This playful performance by Johannes Gumpp allows a strikingly intimate view of an artist at work—possibly through the use of a second, unseen mirror.
C. 1790: Naniwa Okita Admiring
Herself in a Mirror. In this woodcut by Kitagawa Utamaro, a girl studies herself using a relatively new tool in Japan: a large mirror.
C. 1905: Woman with a Sun
flower. The sunflower was a symbol of suffrage; Mary Cassatt depicts a mother urging her daughter to see herself as powerful.
1960: Triple Self-Portrait. Norman Rockwell borrowed from Gumpp for this witty rendition. The mirror mocks his vanity: Rockwell doesn’t wish to be seen in glasses.