''Woman with a Mirror'' (french: La Femme au miroir) is a painting by

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

, dated to c. 1515 and now in the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

History

It is known to have been in the Gonzaga family's collection in

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

from which it was bought by

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of ...

. After Charles' execution, it was sold off and purchased by

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Versa ...

for the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 19 ...

Several attempts have been made to identify the main female figure – these have included Titian's lover,

Alfonso d'Este Alfonso d'Este (21 July 1476 – 31 October 1534) was Duke of Ferrara during the time of the War of the League of Cambrai. Biography He was the son of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Eleanor of Naples and became duke on Ercole's death in ...

's lover

Laura Dianti Laura Dianti (Early sixteenth century in Ferrara – 25 June 1573 in Ferrara, Italy) was a lover of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara after the death of his wife Lucrezia Borgia Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 A ...

, or Federico Gonzaga's lover

Isabella Boschetti Isabella Boschetti or Boschetto (c.1502 – ?) was a Mantuan noblewoman and lover of Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. She was nicknamed 'La bella Boschetta' (the beautiful Boschetta). Life She was the second daughter of Giacomo Boschetti, a ...

. None of these theories fit the date ascribed to the painting through analysis of its style, which is 1512–15, when the courts of Mantua and Ferrara were first becoming interested in Titian. Dianti was painted by Titian in a portrait of 1523. She is probably just a model who appears in other paintings

Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...

, 2 December 2010 – Supplemento "Eventi Mostre" – the same woman with frizzy reddish blonde hair appears in a series of paintings from around the same time (including the ''

Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

'' at the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

, the ''

Vanity Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant ''futility''. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic s ...

'' in Munich, the ''

Salome Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, an ...

'' in the

Galleria Doria Pamphilj The Doria Pamphilj Gallery is a large art collection housed in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome, Italy, between Via del Corso and Via della Gatta. The principal entrance is on the Via del Corso (until recently, the entrance to the gallery was fr ...

, the '' Violante'' and the ''

Young woman in a black dress The ''Young Woman in a Black Dress'' is an oil painting by Titian, dating to around 1520 and now held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It was later misattributed to Palma il Vecchio, then to Giovanni Cariani, until Roberto Longhi reattr ...

'' in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

) as well as several Madonnas and the clothed figure in ''

Sacred and Profane Love ''Sacred and Profane Love'' ( it, Amor Sacro e Amor Profano) is an oil painting by Titian, probably painted in 1514, early in his career. The painting is presumed to have been commissioned by Niccolò Aurelio, a secretary to the Venetian Counci ...

''. As happened with the 'Bella' series, it was still customary for the artist's workshop to create similar works with variations from the same studies if not from the same

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

. Many versions of the work are known, equal in quality to the original but not as large. The best are in the MNAC in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, the gallery of

Prague Castle Prague Castle ( cs, Pražský hrad; ) is a castle complex in Prague 1 Municipality within Prague, Czech Republic, built in the 9th century. It is the official office of the President of the Czech Republic. The castle was a seat of power for kin ...

, and the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

in Washington.

Description and style

A woman of idealized beauty overlooks a parapet and touches a bottle placed on it (which contains, perhaps, a perfume or ointment). With her right hand, she caresses her hair. A man behind her lifts a mirror to show the woman from behind and the window that illuminates the room – his presence is linked to the Renaissance

Paragone Paragone ( it, paragone, meaning ''comparison''), was a debate during the Italian Renaissance in which painting and sculpture (and to a degree, architecture) were each championed as forms of art superior and distinct to each other. While other ar ...

debates over artistic skill. According to Paragone ideals, painting, like sculpture, should offer multiple perspectives on its subject. The man holds a second mirror, visible in profile, in which the woman gazes at herself while she dresses. ''Woman with a Mirror'' demonstrates a harmony of color and composition typical of the young Titian, who exalted the beauty, even sensuality, of his subjects. Women of the era wore loose hair only in the intimacy of the home, which confers to the painting an erotic character that prevails over the other elements of the ''

vanitas A ''vanitas'' (Latin for 'vanity') is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. Best-known are ''van ...

'' theme (the bottle of ointment, the play of the mirrors).

References

Bibliography

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External links

Louvre catalogue page

Titian Vanitas exhibition in Prague
{{Authority control 1515 paintings Allegorical paintings by Titian Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists Gonzaga art collection Portraits of women Mirrors in art