Decoding Reflections: The Meaning of Mirrors in Art

Alternative realities and symbolism through paintings

Narcissus (1594–1596) by Caravaggio. Oil on canvas. 110 × 92 cm. Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome, Italy. Image source Wikimedia Commons

Artists have long been fascinated by mirrors. In art, the reflection in a mirror becomes a portal into an “anti-world” — a more truthful version of our own.

Hence, the symbolic use of mirrors in art has often been to expand the limits of the subject matter, to…