Spiegel im Spiegel William Bogle I have always loved mirrors. As a child I wanted to step into the mirror and maybe, live the rest of my life back to front. Later I was seduced by the glories of Velazquez's 'Las Meninas' and am still baffled by the positioning of his canvas with The Family of Philip 1V and the reflections in his painting. Van Eyck too with his exquisite convex mirror, reflecting The Arnolfini Betrothal. Q. Which object in Van Eyck's picture does not reflect in the mirror? Ans. The dog. My Still Life was set up with the hand mirror facing the easel and canvas. I sat between them (almost), careful not to block the reflections in the mirror as I worked. The mirror, at the speed of light, reflected back what I had painted, much reduced and laterally inverted and so on. I would like to say something like, 'the rest is history' but… Painting the picture infuriated me on so many occasions. I huffed a lot and twice the picture spent a day in the wheelie bin, only to have me, shame faced, when it was dark, fishing it out of the bin and putting it back on the easel. Cocteau said, 'Mirrors would do well to reflect a little more before sending back images.' "Right on, Jean !"