The Sense of Sight

The mirror projecting a woman’s face toward us has been included in order to create an allegory of sight, probably based on prototypes by Jusepe de Ribera, a Spanish painter active in Naples from 1616 until his death in 1652. The present painter’s name remains unknown, though similar handling and palette are found in a small group of works executed in Naples between around 1620 and 1640. The conceit of the mirror offering two views and evoking sight and self-knowledge are found to similar effect in Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s Julie Le Brun, Looking in a Mirror (1787), also part of The Met’s collection.