on mirrors, tables and walls (and yes, girls too), now in context

art mirrors art 2014 © ©

On mirrors, tables and walls (and yes, the girls too); but now in the context(s)


The broader (European) context


And more narrow Dutch context

Mirrors in the works by:

Frans Hals

Pieter Codde

Caspar Netscher

Gabriël Metsu

Frans van Mieris

Pieter de Hooch

Cornelis de Man

&

Pieter Janssens Elinga


The siege (and fall) of Antwerp in 1585


Frans Hals (1582 – 1666)

Self-portrait (c.1630)


Portrait of a Dutch Family (1630)

No mirrors !


Pieter Codde (1599 – 1678)



Cavaliers and Ladies (1633)

Table mirror set


Sebastien Stoskopff - Vanity (c.1630s)

A beauty set?


Woman combing her hair in front of a mirror (с.1625)


Woman at her toilet (1630)


Woman holding a mirror (1625)


What is the meaning of that mirror?

She holds the mirror, not look at it


(presumably) Self-portrait (c.1675)

Caspar Netscher (1639 – 1684)


The visit (c. 1658) (after Gerard ter Borch’s Paternal Admonition)


Lady at her toilette (c.1670)


Young woman with a magnifying glass (?) (1667)

A magnifying glass – or a medallion of her future husband?


Venus with Cupid (??)(c.1660s)


Girl Standing before a Mirror (1668)

Mirror is a symbol of virginity – or a readiness to part with it?


Rembrandt - Young woman trying earrings (1654)


Portrait of a lady at her toilette, attended by a negro page with a dish of fruit

Or a bride with large dowry?


A lady washing her hands (1657) … or preparing to be ‘consumed’ ?


What is the meaning of this whole scene?


Mother combing her son (1669)

Does she play with a mirror? Or with the symbol of her future marriage?


Gabriël Metsu (1629-1667)

(presumably) Self-portrait (c.1652)


Lady at the mirror (1667)


Not one, but two mirrors!


A Man Visiting a Woman Washing Her Hands (c. 1662)

…but the mirror is turned away.


The Intruder (c. 1660)

…she actually doesn't’t mind to see (and to show him her ‘ mirror’)


Woman reading a letter (1662)

Wall mirror, decorated with a ribbon


A Hunter Visiting a Woman at her Toilet ( c. 1661)

Is her mirror ready to be shown?


A Woman at her Mirror (1657)

One of a very few mirrors in these paintings that is actually ‘used‘


Lady at a Virginal

Why would they cover the mirror? Only to protect from the sun?


Frans van Mieris (1635-1681)



Woman in her bedroom with a dog (1670)

Mirror migrates from a table…


Woman before the mirror (c.1670)

… to a wall – creating an entirely different way to look at herself!


Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684)



Woman with a Water Pitcher, and a Man by a Bed (or The Maidservant) (1667)

Mirror firmly occupies the wall


Leisure Time in an Elegant Setting (1663)

Mirror shrinks to a beam of light


The bedroom (1658)


One mirror, or two?


And is the right one actually the mirror? Jan de Beer - The Birth of the Virgin (1520)


Cornelis de Man (1621-1704)

Self-portrait (c.1670s)


The Music Lesson (c.1670)

Mirror on a wall allows more interesting situations


Geographers at Work (c.1675)

Liberating mirrors from a ‘female-only’ status


Pieter Janssens Elinga (1623-1684)

Perspective boxes


3D models of the Dutch houses of Golden Age


Interior with a painter, his wife, and a maid (1676)

Still two different mirrors in a living room


Interior with seated husband, his wife, and a maid (1670)

Gradually a table mirror migrates to another place


Reading woman (1668) Maid in a Dutch house (1655) Wall mirrors will

lose the tables underneath


One simple conclusion is that during the Golden Age the mirrors transformed from ‘ table gadgets only’ to hybrid formats, including wall mirrors, with different patterns of use.


The second transformation is more elusive: mirrors seemingly lost their symbolic connotation of a sexual (matrimonial) marker, digressing to a merely functional gadget.


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on mirrors, tables and walls (and yes, girls too), now in context

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