| Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror | |
|---|---|
| Italian:Autoritratto entro uno specchio convesso | |
 | |
| Artist | Parmigianino |
| Year | c. 1524 |
| Type | Oil on convex panel |
| Dimensions | 24.4 cm diameter (9.6 in) |
| Location | Kunsthistorisches Museum,Vienna |
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (c. 1524) is a painting by the Italian lateRenaissance artistParmigianino. It is housed in theKunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.
The work is mentioned by Late Renaissance art biographerGiorgio Vasari, who lists it as one of three small-size paintings that the artist brought to Rome with him in 1525. Vasari relays that the self-portrait was created by Parmigianino as an example to showcase his talent to potential customers.[1]
The portrait was donated to popeClement VII, and later to writerPietro Aretino, in whose house Vasari himself, then still a child, saw it.[2] It was later acquired by Vicentine sculptorValerio Belli and, after his death in 1546, by his son Elio. Through the intercession ofAndrea Palladio, in 1560 the work went to Venetian sculptorAlessandro Vittoria, who bequeathed it to emperorRudolf II. It arrived inPrague in 1608, and later it became part of the Habsburg imperial collections in Vienna (1777), although attributed toCorreggio.
The painting depicts the young artist (then twenty-one) in the middle of a room, distorted by the use of aconvex mirror. The hand in the foreground is greatly elongated and distorted by the mirror. The work was painted on a specially prepared convex panel in order to mimic the curve of the mirror used. "Along the very right edge of the composition the artist has even included an indication of the gilded wooden frame containing the portrait he is ostensibly working on, made visible by the acute angle of the mirror’s surface.... The sheen of the mirror is evoked in the lustrous tone of the artist’s forehead and right cheek; the texture of his garments by a range of brushstrokes.... As a support for the portrait, the artist even used a curved wooden panel that mimics the precise shape and size of the convex mirror he used to view his reflection".[3]
