The Mirror's Evolution

Every advance in mirror technology changed how artists saw themselves. Ancient polished metal produced dark, distorted reflections. Medieval glass mirrors were clearer but small and costly. Large, flat glass mirrors made in sixteenth-century Venice finally gave artists accurate, full-size reflections to work from.

Rembrandt used this technology more systematically than anyone before him, painting and etching roughly eighty self-portraits that record his aging with unflinching honesty — sagging jowls, reddened nose, weary eyes — rejecting every flattering convention.