Wednesday, 7 October 2026

The convex mirror as a picture within a picture, one of its earliest depictions in painting

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A saint in a red cloak with a lamb and a kneeling man in a dark habit in an interior with a convex mirror on the wall.

For a second I thought Robert Campin's "Saint John the Baptist" of 1438 was standing next to a washing machine.

If you look closely, the convex mirror on the wall is, as it were, a picture within the picture, offering a glimpse of the interior and of the artist himself.

It is one of the earliest depictions of mirrors of this kind

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