Ted Scheinman, Glass Act. Painters have long used mirrors to reflect their subjects' inner lives. Gaze at these startling examples. Smithsonian Magazine, November 2020, at page 20,
which is a sidebar to a story:
Clive Thompson, You Are So Vain. Today's obsession with selfies had a surprising mirror image centuries ago. starting at page 16.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/i ... -culture-180976038/
About two-thirds down the Web page is this sidebar. Click the five icons one by one.
(1) caption of the first icon: "C. 1524: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. The Italian painter Parmigianino worked on a convex wooden panel to create this work, celebrated for its distortion of perspective. (Kunsthistorisches Museum)"
Note:
(a) Parmigianino
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmigianino
(1503 – 1540; real name: Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola; more commonly, as Parmigianino "the little one from Parma"/ the painting at issue is at the top of this Wiki page)
(b) Italian-English dictionary:
* parmigiano (adjective or noun masculine; Parma + -igiano ("[equivalent to English suffix:] -ian [as in Bostonian]" ):
"adj: (now rare) of, or relating to Parma, its inhabitants or culture. Synonym: parmense (now more common)
noun: (now rare) a native or resident of Parma. Synonym: parmense m or f (now more common)"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/parmigiano
^ -igiano (suffix): "forms nouns and adjectives indicating geographical origin <Marche + -igiano → marchigiano resident of March; Parma + -igiano → parmigiano resident of Parma>"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-igiano
^ English dictionary: parmigiana (adj; etymology: "Italian parmigiana, feminine of parmigiano of Parma, from [place name] Parma"): "made or covered with Parmesan cheese <veal parmigiana>"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parmigiana
* -ino (suffix masculine; plural -ini, feminine -ina): "alternative suffix used to form diminutives <[noun masculine; feminine: gatta] gatto cat + -ino → gattino kitten>"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-ino
(c) Kunsthistorisches Museum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunsthistorisches_Museum
German-English dictionary:
* Kunst (noun feminine): "art"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kunst
* historisch (adj; from Latin and Ancient Greek historia, from Ancient Greek verb historein to narrate): "historical, historic"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/historisch
(2) "C. 1555: Venus with a Mirror. Titian and his apprentices produced at least 30 versions of this scene. The mirror highlights the goddess’s epic self-regard. (National Gallery of Art [at Washington DC])"
Note:
(a) Titian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian
(c. 1488/90 – 1576 (born and died in Venice); real name: Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio
(b) Italian-English dictionary:
* Tiziano (proper name; from Latin Titiānus, patronymic of the Roman gens [akin to surname in English] name Titius ['from the praenomen [akin to give name in English] Titus': Wiktionary]): "a male given name from Latin"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Tiziano
(3) "1646: Self-Portrait. This playful performance by Johannes Gumpp allows a strikingly intimate view of an artist at work—possibly through the use of a second, unseen mirror. (Alamy)"
Note:
(a)
(i) Johannes Gumpp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gumpp
(1426 - ['died after 1646': from the Web]; Austrian)
(ii) The preceding Wiki pages says that the painting is a collection of Uffizi Gallery (Italian: Galleria degli Uffizi), in Florence.
Italian-English dictionary:
* degli (contraction of di gli of the, from the)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/degli
^ gli (definite article masculine (plural); from Latin illī; gli's singular: lo): "form of the [definitive] article [masculine] i [which is plural for nouns starting with a consonant, singular being il] (the) used before a vowel"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gli
* uffizio (noun masculine; plural: uffizi): "(literary) alternative form of [noun masculine] ufficio [office]"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/uffizio
(b) "a second, unseen mirror"? I do not think it is necessary, and find nothing in the Web about yet another mirror.
(4) "C. 1790: Naniwa Okita Admiring Herself in a Mirror. In this woodcut by Kitagawa Utamaro, a girl studies herself using a relatively new tool in Japan: a large mirror. (Harris Brisbane Dick Fund)"
Note:
(a) KITAGAWA Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿 (c 1753 – 1806) was born with the surname 北川, pronounced kitagawa (kita is Japanese pronunciation of kanji 北). He changed his surname to 喜多川- by splitting kita into ki and ta, which might be represented by kanji 喜 and 多, among other choices. His birth name was not Utamaro, either -- which he took as 号 (per ja.wikipedia.org).
(b) Sugatami Shichinin Keshō 姿見七人化粧
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugatami_Shichinin_Keshō
("Only one print from the presumed series is known, and is believed to be of the tea-house girl Naniwa[sic; should be Naniwaya] O-Kita")
(c) 難波屋おきた
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/難波屋おきた
, where Naniwaya is the surname and Okita, given name.
(d) Japanese-English dictionary:
* sugatami 姿見 【すがたみ】 (n): "full-length mirror" (The mi is Japanese pronunciation of kanji 見.)
^ sugata 姿 【すがた】 (n)" "(1) figure; form; shape (2) appearance"
* keshō 化粧 【けしょう】 (n,v): "make-up; makeup; cosmetics"
(e) Harris Brisbane Dick. British Museum
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG155015
says his surname is Dick, with Hrris and Brisbane as first and middle names. He was an art collector.
(5) "C. 1905: Woman with a Sun-flower. The sunflower was a symbol of suffrage; Mary Cassatt depicts a mother urging her daughter to see herself as powerful. (National Gallery of Art)"
Note: Mary Cassatt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Cassatt
(1844 – 1926; American; never married (and childless; Cassatt was her father's surname); she supported women's suffrage)
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