This dissertation examines the iconography of the mirror in the art of the Middle Ages. An object of multivalent and often contradictory meanings, the medieval mirror symbolized perfection and imperfection, eternity and evanescence, virtue and vice, often simultaneously, and became an attribute for several allegorical and Biblical figures. This study discusses new subject matter for the mirror, as seen in prototypical images, and considers possible sources, whether in earlier art or in classical, Biblical, or medieval works or traditions.
Following an introduction to the subject in Chapter I, the second chapter surveys the mirror as a symbol in ancient art and charts its major uses in the Near East and Egypt, and in Greece, Etruria, and Rome, through the late classical period. Chapter III focuses on the symbolic mirror in the Middle Ages and its transformations as classical imagery was syncretized with Christian, and new image types acquired the attribute of the looking glass. First, symbolic mirrors of perfection, truth, and virtue are considered in images of visions of God, of angels, holy figures, and Virtues such as Prudentia and Fides. Representations of Luxuria and the Great Whore of the Apocalypse with the attribute of a mirror, are discussed, along with other mirrors of imperfection, delusion, and vice. The mirror as an object of scientific study is also considered here, as is the question of their availability in daily life. Chapter IV summarizes the mirror's many transformations in medieval art. An increase in mirror types is noted, especially those of a cautionary nature, beginning in the mid-thirteenth century and continuing in the fourteenth century. By the time of the devastating Black Death of 1348, the terminus of this dissertation, the principal meanings of the symbolic mirror have been established for the art of the Renaissance.