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| yna@yna.co.kr 2023-12-14 17:22:24
'Mirror, Mirror'
By Do Gwang-hwan
Artists have often used the mirror, a tool for reflection, as a recurring motif in their paintings.
"The Arnolfini Portrait" (1434), painted by Jan van Eyck (1395–1441), was the first work in Western art to utilize the mirror as a tool to paint one's own reflection. The work symbolized the witness of marriage. In the central mirror, the artist depicted himself in a minute but detailed manner.
▲ "The Arnolfini Portrait"
(The National Gallery London collection)
▲ The enlarged mirror section from "The Arnolfini Portrait" (The National Gallery London collection)
There are numerous reasons why this painting is considered "timeless," but in a nutshell, it poured contemporary figures, customs, religion, and various symbols into the artwork, reflecting societal desires.
In the painting "The Money Changer and His Wife" (1514) by the 16th century Flemish painter Quentin Matsys (1466–1530), reality and allegory are subtly combined. The wife, anxiously looking at her husband's earned money instead of prayer books, exposes the materialistic tendencies prevalent in society at that time.
The mirror placed in the foreground reflects the external scenery and figures rather than the protagonist of the painting. It prompts contemplation about whether it signifies "expansion," indicating a broader world, or "reflection," suggesting introspection. It is a depiction of material desires.
Caravaggio (1571–1610), although not using a mirror, vividly portrayed the reflection of the protagonist in a work.
He painted "Narcissus" (1599), and there is no more intense portrayal of Narcissus than this. It delves into psychological desires.
Here's a painting that has been endlessly analyzed and interpreted in art history and philosophically due to scenes reflected in mirrors: "Las Meninas" (1656) by Diego Velázquez (1599–1660).
Surrounding Velázquez on the large canvas are Princess Margarita, maids, and court dwarfs. In a small mirror, one can see the reflection of Philip IV and his queen. The moment when the "current us" observing the painting meets the gaze of Velázquez, the subject and object of the painting become intertwined.
The royal couple is standing in the place where the "current us" is admiring the painting. Velázquez's perspective, looking outside while painting, is both the royal couple and the "current us."
Picasso was deeply inspired by this work, imitating it more than 40 times. Michel Foucault, a French structuralist philosopher, analyzed it as the emergence of "subversive thought shaking the foundations of Western epistemology." It reflects desires for power.
Velázquez also used mirrors to paint nudes, as seen in "Venus at her Mirror" (1651). Despite the mythological title, it is a work depicting his lover during his Italian study period. It is a representation of sexual desire.
A work that vividly projects sexual desire onto a mirror beyond continents is "Woman at her Toilet" (1793) by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806), a master of Japanese genre painting "ukiyo-e" during the Edo period.
The woman, meticulously adorning herself, can also be interpreted as a voluptuous courtesan. The painting reveals the fashion and appearance of women in contemporary Japan, which was male-centric.
The woman reflected in the mirror painted by Impressionist master Edgar Degas (1834–1917) evokes an eerie feeling. It is "Woman Before a Mirror" (1875).
The woman, heavily dressed, appears different in the mirror. It's not "symmetry" but "contrast." Painting the fair-skinned woman in black seems to express inner conflicts or disjunction. It symbolizes the reality colliding with the imaginary, representing the desires of the era.
Exploring various paintings that express beauty, desire, reality, and illusion through mirrors, we have enumerated them under categories like societal desire, material desire, psychological desire, power and sexual desire, and desires of the time.
As we codify it this way, it may feel forced, and the true intentions and answers lie only with the artists.
However, one thing is certain: the hands, minds, and hearts of artists could not escape the historical conditions and philosophical reasoning of their contemporary era.
Humans, bound by desire, cannot escape the confines of their time.
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