Mirror
Depending on context, a mirror can represent vanity and self-regard, or — held by an allegorical figure — truth and self-knowledge.
The mirror is one of the more ambivalent symbols in the period's visual vocabulary. In a vanitas or moralizing scene, a woman at her mirror is usually a warning about vanity. In an allegorical context, the same object held by a personification of Prudence or Truth means almost the opposite: honest self-examination.
Mirror in the collection
Paintings in the catalog documented as featuring this symbol.
