348. Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Mazzola) (1503-1540),

Italian, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, c. 1523-1524.

Oil on wood, Tondo, diameter 24.4 cm.

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

 

 

Vasari celebrated in Vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori Italiani Parmigianino’s unusual special-effects, “Inquiring one day into the subtleties of art, he began to draw himself as he appeared in a barber’s convex glass. He had a ball of wood made at a turner’s and divided it in half, and on this he set himself to paint all that he saw in the glass, and because the mirror enlarged everything that was near and diminished what was distant, he painted the hand a little large.”