Editing Mirror (section)

=== Fine art ===

==== Paintings ====
[[File:Titian - Venus with a Mirror - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Titian]]'s ''[[Venus with a Mirror]]'']]
Painters depicting someone gazing into a mirror often also show the person's reflection. This is a kind of abstraction—in most cases the angle of view is such that the person's reflection should not be visible. Similarly, in movies and [[Photography|still photography]] an actor or actress is often shown ostensibly looking at him- or herself in a mirror, and yet the reflection faces the camera. In reality, the actor or actress sees only the camera and its operator in this case, not their own reflection. In the psychology of perception, this is known as the [[Venus effect]].

The mirror is the central device in some of the greatest of European paintings:
* [[Édouard Manet]]'s ''[[A Bar at the Folies-Bergère]]'' (1882)
* [[Titian]]'s ''[[Venus effect|Venus with a Mirror]]''
* [[Jan van Eyck]]'s ''[[Arnolfini Portrait]]''
* [[Pablo Picasso]]'s ''[[Girl before a Mirror]]'' (1932)
* [[Diego Velázquez]]'s ''[[Rokeby Venus]]''
* [[Diego Velázquez]]'s ''[[Las Meninas]]'' (wherein the viewer is both the watcher - of a self-portrait in progress - and the watched) and the many adaptations of that painting in various media
* [[Paolo Veronese|Veronese]]'s ''Venus with a Mirror''

Artists have used mirrors to create works and to hone their craft:
* [[Filippo Brunelleschi]] discovered linear perspective with the help of the mirror.<ref name=camp2014/>
* [[Leonardo da Vinci]] called the mirror the "master of painters". He recommended, "When you wish to see whether your whole picture accords with what you have portrayed from nature take a mirror and reflect the actual object in it. Compare what is reflected with your painting and carefully consider whether both likenesses of the subject correspond, particularly in regard to the mirror."<ref name=mccur1938/>
* Many [[self-portraits]] are made possible through the use of mirrors, such as great self-portraits by [[Dürer]], [[Frida Kahlo]], [[Rembrandt]], and [[Van Gogh]]. [[M. C. Escher]] used special shapes of mirrors in order to achieve a much more complete view of his surroundings than by direct observation in ''[[Hand with Reflecting Sphere]]'' (1935; also known as ''Self-Portrait in Spherical Mirror'').

Mirrors are sometimes necessary to fully appreciate art work:
* [[István Orosz]]'s [[anamorphosis|anamorphic]] works are images distorted such that they only become clearly visible when reflected in a suitably shaped and positioned mirror.<ref name=orosz2015/>

==== Sculpture ====
[[File:Arnaldo Dell'Ira (1903-1943) Sala d'aspetto per la casa di M.me B.,1939.jpg|thumb|Mirrors in interior design:
"Waiting room in the house of M.me B.", [[Art Deco]] project by Italian architect [[Arnaldo dell'Ira]], Rome, 1939.]]
* [[Anamorphosis]] projecting sculpture into mirrors
Contemporary anamorphic artist [[Jonty Hurwitz]] uses [[cylindrical]] mirrors to project distorted sculptures.<ref name=hurw2013/>
* Sculptures comprised entirely or in part of mirrors include:
** ''[[:File:Infinity wulsin.jpg|Infinity Also Hurts]]'', a mirror, glass and [[silicone]] sculpture by artist [[Seth Wulsin]]
** ''[[Sky Mirror]]'', a [[public art|public sculpture]] by artist [[Anish Kapoor]]

==== Other artistic mediums ====
[[File:130 - Grove Of Mirrors, Hilary Arnold Baker (4655892606).jpg|thumb|''Grove Of Mirrors'' by [[Hilary Arnold Baker]], [[Romsey]]]]

Some other contemporary artists use mirrors as the [[List of artistic mediums|material of art]]:
* A [[Chinese magic mirror]] is a device in which the face of the bronze mirror projects the same image that was cast on its back. This is due to minute curvatures on its front.<ref name=unesco-courrier/>
* [[Specular holography]] uses a large number of curved mirrors embedded in a surface to produce three-dimensional imagery.
* Paintings on mirror surfaces (such as silkscreen printed glass mirrors)
* Special mirror installations:
** ''Follow Me'', a mirror labyrinth by artist [[Jeppe Hein]] (see also, Entertainment: Mirror mazes, below)
** ''Mirror Neon Cube'' by artist Jeppe Hein

==== Religious function of the real and depicted mirror ====
[[File:Melong Dorje.jpg|thumb|Drubthob Melong Dorje (1243–1303), a lineage holder of the [[Vima Nyingtik]], depicted wearing a mirror hanging from his neck]]
In the [[Middle Ages]], mirrors existed in various shapes for multiple uses. Mostly they were used as an accessory for personal hygiene but also as tokens of courtly love, made from [[Ivory carving|ivory]] in the ivory-carving centers in Paris, Cologne and the Southern Netherlands.<ref name=court2018/> They also had their uses in religious contexts as they were integrated in a special form of [[Pilgrim badge|pilgrim badges]] or pewter/lead mirror boxes<ref name=bojm2018/> From the late 14th century. Burgundian ducal inventories show us that the dukes owned a mass of mirrors or objects with mirrors, not only with religious iconography or inscriptions, but combined with reliquaries, religious paintings or other objects that were distinctively used for personal piety.<ref name=sche2013/> Considering mirrors in paintings and book illumination as depicted artifacts and trying to draw conclusions about their functions from their setting, one of these functions is to be an aid in personal prayer to achieve self-knowledge and knowledge of God, in accord with contemporary theological sources. For example, the famous [[Arnolfini Portrait|Arnolfini Wedding]] by [[Jan van Eyck]] shows a constellation of objects that can be recognized as one which would allow a praying man to use them for his personal piety: the mirror surrounded by scenes of the Passion to reflect on it and on oneself, a [[rosary]] as a device in this process, the veiled and cushioned bench to use as a [[prie-dieu]], and the abandoned shoes that point in the direction in which the praying man kneeled.<ref name=sche2013/> The metaphorical meaning of depicted mirrors is complex and many-layered, e.g. as an attribute of [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]], the "speculum sine macula" (mirror without blemish), or as attributes of scholarly and theological wisdom and knowledge as they appear in book illuminations of different [[Four Evangelists|evangelists]] and authors of theological treatises. Depicted mirrors – orientated on the physical properties of a real mirror – can be seen as metaphors of knowledge and reflection and are thus able to remind beholders to reflect and get to know themselves. The mirror may function simultaneously as a symbol and as a device of a moral appeal. That is also the case if it is shown in combination with virtues and vices, a combination which also occurs more frequently in the 15th century: the moralizing layers of mirror metaphors remind the beholder to examine themself thoroughly according to their own virtuous or vicious life. This is all the more true if the mirror is combined with iconography of death. Not only is Death as a corpse or skeleton holding the mirror for the still-living personnel of paintings, illuminations and prints, but the skull appears on the convex surfaces of depicted mirrors, showing the painted and real beholders their future face.<ref name=sche2013/>