Art often hides secrets and mysteries, and one of the fascinating aspects of this world is mystical mirrors that reflect not only everyday images, but also deep secrets. Among the works of great artists, from the great van Eyck to the talented Serov, you can find amazing artistic techniques in which mirrors become an integral part of the narrative. From mysterious reflections to terrifying images, let's embrace the magic of mirrors in paintings and explore their hidden meanings. The topic of mirror symbols was discussed in the previous article.
Reflecting mysticism: Mysterious mirrors on the canvases of great artists
“The mirror becomes a second canvas on which I paint not only the face, but also its history, dreams and fears.” - Leonardo da Vinci
A mirror is not just an everyday attribute, but a gateway to a mystical world where unknown forces intertwine their threads. And if you are ready to feel the trembling inside, let's look together in the mirror, where the shadows dance between life and death.
The night before Epiphany is the time when girls, on the verge of reality and dreams, are immersed in a mystical ritual. The mixture of light and shadow created by their flickering candles is like a harbinger of something unusual. These mirrors become their guides into the world of mysteries and forebodings.
In search of unusualness, we turn our attention to the works of great artists, where mirrors cease to be simply image reflectors. From van Eyck to Serov, artists create mirrors that contain something more than what we see at first glance. They are like magical portals, leading us to other worlds within the canvas.
So, keep your eyes ready for adventure as we dive into the world of seven unusual mirrors. Mirrors containing unanswered questions, secrets protected by a thin layer of glass. They don't just reflect, they evoke excitement and joy, making us look deeper and deeper into them.
Guests in van Eyck's mirror
Of course, this review cannot do without one of the most famous and most mysterious paintings in the world - “Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple” by Jan van Eyck.
This painting is full of details that were probably clear to the customer of the painting and his contemporaries, but cause conflicting interpretations centuries later. One of these details is a mirror in the back of the room, decorated with medallions depicting the Passion of Christ. On the left (from the man’s side) the events of the medallion depict episodes that took place before the death of Christ, while on the right (from the wife’s side) - what happened after death. This is an argument in favor of the theory that the portrait was commissioned from Van Eyck by his inconsolable husband in memory of his late wife. On the other hand, the mirror itself is a symbol of the Virgin Mary and the purity of the bride: an argument in favor of the fact that the portrait is a wedding one (or the merchant Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini wanted the posthumous portrait of his wife to be executed in the form of a wedding scene).
The mirror reflects two men entering the room. One of them, the man in blue, may be a self-portrait of van Eyck. It’s not for nothing that the artist wrote above the mirror: “Johannes van eyck fuit hic,” which is usually translated as “Jan van Eyck was here” (the reading of this phrase and its translation also has several versions).
Diego Velazquez was probably familiar with this painting: it had been part of the Spanish royal collection since 1530, and Velazquez was a court artist. And under her influence, he created his masterpiece with a mirror and a couple reflected in it.
The royal couple in Velazquez's mirror
“The world of Velazquez is an amazing mixture of mysteries and great artistry, where every brush stroke hides an unexplored plot. In his famous work “Las Meninas”, secrets flow like oil paints on a canvas, and in every frame the reader can find its own meaning.
The artist's gaze, unsolved and mysterious, creates the feeling that he has shared with us the key to the secrets of his world. Who is Velazquez's attention paid to: us, the audience, or the king and queen who entered the room? Perhaps this look contains a whole story that needs to be unraveled, like the code of a great work of art.
However, that's not all. The mirror in the background becomes another link in this carousel of mysteries. It, like art, reflects reality, but what kind of reality? Perhaps it is an invitation to enter the painting, where everyone can become a participant in the plot captured by Velazquez. Or perhaps the mirror is a symbol of the illusory nature of life, a world that we see, but which perhaps exists only in the reflection of our imagination.
The great artist, who has drawn the splendor of his world on canvas, asks us the question: what is more real, the reflection in the mirror or his work of art? In response to this question, as in the old dialogue, we could say: “What is the strength, brother?” - “In art.” This is precisely the great strength of Velázquez - in creating a world where reality merges with mysticism, and art becomes a reflection of life itself."
The most important question: what kind of painting is Velazquez painting? Perhaps the king and queen did not just look into the artist’s studio (although this could have been the case - the artist and Philip IV were connected not only by service, but also by friendship), but in order to pose: in the mirror they are in the background of the drapery - a finished portrait. By the way, there is a mirror hanging among the paintings, it can easily be confused, and this again pushes to the idea that everything is illusory, including the border between illusion and reality. But there is no paired portrait of the royal couple in Velazquez’s heritage. But he wrote them one at a time, so that we can see those whose faces are very blurry in the mirror. Portrait of Philip IV and Marianne of Austria in a mirror.
Another fuzzy mirror portrait by Velazquez
Let's face it, there is a lot to admire in this painting. But in addition to the spectacle, viewers also demand facts. I would like to know who this woman is who captivated Velasquez so much that he performed in the nude genre, which was unusual for him. Obviously, the artist himself preferred to keep this a secret: the reflection in the mirror is extremely illegible - you can’t see the face. Moreover, a study of the painting showed that initially the heroine’s head was turned a little more to the left and the woman’s nose was visible. But the artist abandoned this idea - perhaps fearing that the person depicted in this way could be identified. Well, or that we won’t be intrigued enough.
One wonders why he then introduced a mirror into the painting at all. Everything is simple here: painting ordinary women naked at that time was unthinkable, only goddesses could be without clothes, and a mirror instantly turns any woman from a painting into a goddess, because it is a traditional attribute of Venus.
Diego Velazquez, "Venus in front of a mirror", 1651
Diego Velazquez, "The Spinner, or the Myth of Arachne", 1650s
There is a suspicion that the same woman is also present in Velazquez’s painting “The Spinner” - already dressed, but again without a face.
Velazquez's biographers have one assumption. That during his second trip to Italy, the painter, who was legally married, began an affair with a young Roman artist named Flaminia Triva. According to another version, her name was Flaminia Triunfi - this name is mentioned in connection with Velazquez by Antonio Palomino, the author of a collection of biographies of Spanish painters “The Museum of Painting and the Optical Scale”, a kind of Spanish Vasari. So, Velazquez allegedly started an affair, wrote nude to a colleague, left (and never visited Italy again), and she gave birth to his son Antonio.
And Bosch has some kind of devilry with the mirror
It takes place in hell, that is, on the right wing of Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” Instead of a mirror, the beauty is offered the ass of a monster. Why is she serving her time here? Perhaps her sin is lust, and her external resemblance to Eve from the left wing of the triptych is not at all accidental
Hieronymus Bosch, "The Garden of Earthly Delights. Musical Hell. Right wing", Fragment, 1500s
Hieronymus Bosch, "The Garden of Earthly Delights. Left wing", Fragment, 1500s
Pride is also possible. It is with the help of a mirror provided by evil spirits that this sin is illustrated in the work attributed to Bosch, “The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things.” The girl’s eyes are closed: maybe she abused narcissism during her life, and now she doesn’t want to look in the mirror forever?
In Bosch's "Garden..." many popular proverbs are encrypted (yes, Bruegel was not the first to entertain himself by illustrating popular expressions, often strong). And this scene may be a visualization of the proverb “If you admire your reflection in the mirror for too long, you will see the devil’s ass,” clearly warning about the punishment for pride.
Manet's devilry
The wrong, the impossible, the inexplicable are not uncommon in the paintings of Edouard Manet. At the same time, one can never say for sure whether the artist made a mistake or intended it that way. For example, when he allowed the outrageous juxtaposition of oysters and coffee on the table and either sent a giant woman to splash in the river, or deliberately compressed the perspective. But in the painting “Bar at the Folies Bergere”, it is not Manet himself who is mistaken, lying and/or confusing, but the mirror in a gold frame, against which stands a girl in a velvet dress. Yes, yes, all this noise and din, with spectators drinking and gymnasts flying in the air, is not behind her, but behind us.
And in this mirror, the bottles are not in the place on the table where they are in reality (we will consider the foreground of the painting to be such). And this mirror makes the girl look pretty fat: from the back she looks too massive. Okay, a mirror that makes you look fat is not a trick: these can still be found in every second department store fitting room. But the girl from the reflection leaned towards the man and maybe even talking, flirting with him. While the girl from the foreground reality stands straight, looks indifferent.
The artist did not say what he wanted to say. And we are free to see our own in this mirror confusion. The bartender, disconnected for a second from all this vulgar fuss (with a look like hers, in the movies the dead look at their lifeless body from the side and realize something important, here she is - as if she was separated for a moment from her routine role, heard the silence at the epicenter of a noisy party). Or a visitor for whom everything is swimming before his eyes from the amusements, champagne and beer, and perhaps from the discreet but undeniable beauty of the heroine.
Magritte's mirror with bugs
Hiding human faces is Magritte’s favorite technique: remember, for example, “The Son of Man”, or “The Lovers”. When Edward James, a British millionaire and patron of the surrealists, commissioned two portraits of himself from Magritte, the artist resorted to a proven method: in one he depicted the customer with a luminous lamp in place of his face, in the other - in front of a mirror, which instead of a face reproduces the back of the head.
Magritte painted the painting “Reproduction Prohibited” based on a photo he took himself - in the same 1937 in the London mansion of Edward James: in the photo, James stands in front of Magritte’s painting “On the Threshold of Freedom” that he owned.
And now, although reproduction is prohibited, Magritte’s painting with the “faulty” mirror is reproduced by film directors when they want to cause anxiety in the viewer from a lack of understanding of what is happening and uncertainty about what is real and what is not.
Serov's friendly gesture
Henrietta Girshman believed that this portrait of her, with its compositional play with mirrors, echoed Velazquez’s painting “Las Meninas” (Serov loved Velazquez and even copied it). A modern viewer will find a reason to compare this portrait with Magritte’s painting: look, in the mirror behind Henrietta Leopoldovna’s back, it is not the back of her head that is reflected, but her face! Mirror reflection of mirror reflection.
But we are talking about something else now. Take a look at the lower right corner of the mirror from this canvas: here is direct evidence that the gloomy, unsociable, taciturn Serov, whose portraits were often called evil, knew how to be kind and witty, not to everyone, but to many of his models with sympathy. Igor Grabar, who wrote a biography of Serov, argued that Valentin Aleksandrovich was very disposed towards Henrietta Girshman, “finding her smart, educated, cultured, simple and modest, without the manners of rich upstarts, and very pretty.”
“I remember how, with his usual ironic smile, he thanked me for my patience; work on the portrait lasted a year and a half - and pointed out a surprise: in the depths of the portrait, in the mirror, he painted his own miniature self-portrait! (from the memoirs of Henrietta Girshman)
Welcome to our catalog of art, where each painting is a unique immersion into the world of mystery and beauty. Here you will discover wonderful works of different genres, each of which seems to open the door to an amazing universe of artistic expressions.
Our catalog is rich in a variety of styles and themes, from classical painting to contemporary art. Each painting is a unique story, and what is especially attractive is that each of them contains hidden details. These details can be either symbols invisible at first glance or magnificent nuances of the artist’s skill.
Get ready for a fascinating exploration - in our catalog, each painting becomes a guide to the wonderful world of art. Discover the secrets hidden in each brush and enjoy the brilliance of creative expressions from various artists. With us, every painting is not just a work of art, but a source of inspiration and delight.