The Eye of the Mirror: Sight and Subjectivity in Classical Greek Art

This lecture takes its cue from a particular type of ancient Greek object: a folding ‘case-‘ or ‘box-mirror’ (‘Klappspiegel’ in German). Over 300 such mirrors survive, mostly dating from the early fourth to mid-third centuries BC. They consist of two circular bronze parts, joined together with a hinge. Within was a disk, polished on one side; the outer layer formed a protective case around it, usually decorated in relief.

Classical archaeologists have classified Classical Greek box-mirrors. But they’ve been less interested in how these objects embody larger philosophical debates about vision, perception and replication. Starting with one particular example, the lecture demonstrates the deeply self-reflexive way that box-mirrors could interrogate the production of mimetic imagery – especially the dynamic relationship between three-dimensional outer relief and inner reflective surface. As a corpus, Classical box-mirrors materialise thinking about what it means to see. But their speculations also reflect a profound transformation in sight and subjectivity, in turn pivotal to the entire subsequent western tradition of theorising and making images: they hold up a mirror to the interplay between object viewed and viewing subject.