Mirror
From Inventions
From the Latin speculum (that which serves for looking), derived in turn from specio/spicio=I look.
Historic Period
15th-16th C.
Description
The mirror was one of the most widely used instruments in painters’ shops. It served mainly to detect any flaws not revealed by directly inspecting a painting. The mirror was, moreover, a useful instrument for the “pictorial” representation of reality insofar as it showed objects on a two-dimensional surface like that of a painting, allowing the artist to study the effects of light and chiaroscuro. For this reason Leonardo deemed it the master of painters: “When you want to see if your picture corresponds throughout with the objects you have drawn from nature, take a mirror and look in that at the reflection of the real things, and compare the reflected image with your picture…take the mirror as a guide… your painting will look like a natural scene reflected in a large mirror” (Richter, par. 529). According to Filarete (Antonio Averlino), the mirror was actually the basis for the invention of perspective: "And if you wish to consider better [equidistant beams], take a mirror and look into it; in this way you will see clearly; and should be just opposite the eye, they will all appear the same. It is in this way, I believe, that the Florentine Pippo di Ser Brunellesco found the way to make this plan, and it was truly a subtle and beautiful thing that through reason he should find that which is shown us in the mirror, although with the eye, if you well consider, you will see those changes and diminutions" (Treatise on architecture, XXIII, p. 653); and again "If you wish to depict anything by another easier method, take a mirror and hold it up to the thing you want to draw. And look into it, and you will see the contours of things more easily, and thus those things that are nearer to you, and those further away will appear smaller and smaller. And truly, I believe, this is the way that Pippo di Ser Brunellesco found this perspective, which had not been used before” (Treatise on architecture, XXIII, p. 656). Giulio Romano used the mirror later to draw architectural quadratures, by placing the model of a building on a mirror and drawing its apparent form (Cristoforo Sorte, Osservazioni nella pittura [Observations on painting] Venice, 1580).
Bibliographical Resources
Filarete, Antonio Averlino detto il, Trattato di architettura (1461). Testo a cura di Anna Maria Finoli e Liliana Grassi. Introduzione e note di Liliana Grassi. Milano, Il polifilo, 1972, XXIII, p. 653, 656.
Leonardo da Vinci. "Le manuscrit A de la Bibliothèque de l'Institut [de France] ", in "Les manuscrits de Léonard de Vinci". Avec transcription littérale, traduction française, préface et table méthodique par Charles Ravaisson Mollien. Paris, Quantin, 1881, 1r..
Leonardo da Vinci. "The literary works of Leonardo da Vinci". Compiled and edited from the original manuscripts by Jean Paul Richter. London, Phaidon, 1970, I, par. 529.
Leonardo da Vinci. "The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci". Compiled and edited from the original manuscripts by Jean Paul Richter. New York, Dover, 1970, I, par. 529, pp. 264-265
Leonardo da Vinci. "Libro di pittura: edizione in facsimile del Codice Urbinate lat. 1270 nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana". A cura di Carlo Pedretti. Trascrizione critica di Carlo Vecce. Firenze, Giunti, 1995, I, 39.
Sorte, Cristoforo. "Osservazioni sulla pittura", in "Scritti d’arte del Cinquecento". A cura di Paola Barocchi. Milano, R. Ricciardi, 1971, I, pp. 271-301, in part. p. 268.
Author of the entry: Filippo Camerota
