Mirrors in the art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mirrors in the art - Essay Example Mirrors were used in European art with the development of Christianity. The symbols of beauty, inner-knowledge, vanity, and fertility of the mirror are expressed. As they became more popular and more accessible, mirrors were used in self portraits and in paintings. It is an important point to make that might not be clear. As the church became the controlling facture in Europe, there started to be sub-cultures. It can be explained with music. All pieces of music were written for the church. "Folk songs" were written with the same music but with different words. As with music, the mirror was used to show two aspects: one aspect done for the church and a second aspect done for the people. The symbols and position of the mirror will be looked at in the 15 and 16th century then it will be compared to the 19th 20th century where the church no longer controlled culture across Europe. Van Eyck's, Marriage portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife . The mirror, showing 180Â ° vision of the room, shows the full window and how bright it is outside. There is a third person in the mirror. Some say it is a self portrait of Van Eyck. The frame has the scenes of Christ. This is a perfect illustration of church, fertility, light, enlightenment and the mixture of society with the Church. Diego Velazquez, the Spanish painter born in 1656, painted the scene The Maids of Honor. It shows a group of children and their servants, the child of Philip IV, the king of Spain, is watching Velazquez paint an oil canvas. The viewer has to look carefully to find the secret of the painting. On the back wall, he can see the reflexion in the mirror of a couple. He notices that there are the children looking forward and someone in the hallway who is looking in. The man and woman in the mirror are the parents of the princess, the King and Queen of Spain. Philip IV was in the last years of his life and did not want to be painted. There is speculation as if it is the royal couple being painted. Ve rmeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring shows purity. Her earring is a sign of what is going on in her world. The women in his paintings are educated, knowledgeable and enlightened. The light displayed by the earring is bright as a mirror. One can imagine seeing his own reflexion. Most of the young women in his paintings wear pearl earrings. This one has a mirror like quality. Though Degas shows his danseurs in mirrors, he has not left the impressionist school in his later painting, At the Milliner, (Lazzari & Schlesier 60). It must be noted that the woman is looking into a mirror that we cannot see. We know it is a mirror because her friend is looking away. It would have