Great Works: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1524), Parmigianino

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Since Brunelleschi created linear perspective early in the 15th century, thousands of painters have created the illusion of credible three-dimensional worlds into which we have all been invited to step. Some painters have found that depth of illusionism too shallow a challenge. They have wanted to persuade us that there are super-subtle tricks of painterly effect which make mere three-dimensional illusionism seem as easy as winking by comparison.

The Mannerist painter Parmigianino painted his Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror in 1524 when he was 21 years of age – in fact, he may have been slightly younger. It was thought by the great 16th-century biographer Vasari in the first version of his life of the painter, written about 30 years after Parmigianino's death, that it may have been painted as a gift for Pope Clement VII. Parmigianano made it, quite deliberately, as a bravura performance, to prove, at a stroke, his own brilliance, and Vasari duly waxed lyrical about its extraordinary qualities. This was not the only time that Parmigianio was to paint or to draw his own features. Like Rembrandt, he found his own image utterly absorbing. Unlike Rembrandt, however, Parmigianino died young – at the age of 37 – and so he was not able to chart the fascinating subject of the ageing of human flesh.

In the Self-Portrait, Parmigianino is very young – and he looks younger still – so young that he could almost be a prosperous child of aristocratic parents. Throughout his career he was fascinated by distortion – the way that a face or an arm, when it draws away from the eye, seems to elongate. How to take this fascination to such lengths that the viewer would be awe-struck?

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　15Cの初め、Brunelleschiが遠近法を編み出して以来、何千もの画家が三次元の錯覚を創りだしてきた。中には、表面的には難解な幻覚法の深さを発見した画家もいる。彼らは、比較による三次元の幻覚法の非常に難解な仕掛けの効果を説得したがっている。
　マンネリズムの画家のParmigianinoは21歳のときに自画像を描いたが、それは本当に若すぎた。彼が死んだ約30年後に、16Cの伝記作家VasariによってParmigianinoの画家人生が書かれた。Parmigianinoは彼自身の華麗さをひと筆で証明するという非常に勇敢な行為をした。そして、Vasariはその並はずれた特質を適切に磨き上げた。
　Parmigianinoが自画像を描いたとき、彼は非常に若く、ただ単に貴族の両親を持つ経済的に成功した子供のように見える。彼の経歴の初めから終わりまで、彼は歪曲に魅了させられた。見る人が畏敬の念を起すような魅力をどのようにつくりだしたのだろうか。

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perspective/遠近法
dimensional/次元の
illusionism/幻覚法
shallow/表面的な
Mannerist/マンネリズムの
portrait/肖像画
biographer/伝記作家
bravura/勇敢な行為
duly/適切に
lyrical/熱烈な
extraordinary/並はずれた
aristocratic/貴族の
prosperous/経済的に成功した
distortion/歪曲
awe-struck/畏敬の念を起した

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-selfportrait-in-a-convex-mirror-1524-parmigianino-2106646.html