Reflecting on the Mirror in the Fifteenth Century: The Case of Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait

Abstract

The mirror invites a multitude of possible interpretations when used in artworks during the Renaissance. It can be represented as a symbolic attribute for both vice and virtue, depicted as a torture implement in hell in one case (Figures 1-3) and as a window onto the heavens in the other (Figures 4-6).1Associated with both devil-worshipping witches (Figures 9-10) and the Holy Virgin Mary (Figures 11-14), the fifteenth-century mirror seems to be as untrustworthy as the distorted reflection offered by mostmirrors at the time.2The mirror in the Arnolfini Portrait of c.1434, painted by Jan van Eyck (Figure 15), is perhaps the clearest indicator of the difficulty that one might face when attempting to interpret the mirror in a work of art. Despite numerous articles and books having been written about the painting over the last century, there is still no definitive consensus as to the purpose or meaning of the Arnolfini mirror.