Art Appreciation: Mirrors and Reflections in Art

In paintings, mirrors, and the images they reflect, are often puzzling. The reflected image they let us see points to a world beyond the canvas’ edges, i.e. a world beyond the picture plane. It can be the artist at her/his easel, a royal couple watching the artist at work, the skyline of the New Jerusalem, or mysterious people coming into the depicted room…

From Vermeer to Manet, and van Eyck to Rossetti, we will study paintings from the Renaissance to the 19th century in which reflected images play a key role. We will study reflections in convex and flat mirrors, on shiny armors and polished glassware, on windows and on water. As we do so, we will see how reflections are used to complexify the painting’s meaning. In other words, the mirrored image adds another layer of meaning, often less straightforward and more reflective.

In many ways, the mirrored image is in itself a symbol of the painting, which used to be considered as “a mirror to nature”. Maybe this explains the painters’ long-standing fascination with the reflected image.