‘Gazing in hir glasse of vaineglorie’

Abstract

This chapter explores the problems that mirrors presented for women, at whom they were often directed, and discusses the potential for women to circumvent some of the mirror's negative associations. This essay will present three self-portraits by Sofonisba Anguissola and Artemisia Gentileschi which will reveal the different approaches of these women to the problem of representing themselves. These women seek out a new method of either sidestepping the issues of self-representation, often through a redirection of the gaze, or by presenting themselves as adhering to a particular set of societal conditions. Herbert Grabes's seminal work The Mutable Glass: Mirror-imagery in Titles and Texts of the Middle Ages and English Renaissance explores comprehensively the multiple meanings applied to the mirror in the early modern period, covering a vast number of exemplary texts from the period. He notes that the 'various properties of mirrors' were 'frequently the chief stimulus for employing the mirror-metaphor', and includes the 'false or flatt'ring' glass, which makes the individual appear more attractive, the 'true' or 'pure' mirror, which is 'closely associated with […] knowledge of the Divine', the tarnished or darkened mirror, which is 'an expression of a lack of moral integrity […] relating to knowledge of the Divine', and the brittleness of the mirror, which was used to signal transience. 1 The mirror metaphor, however, has yet more uses and Grabes describes instances in which 'man, or specifically another human being' is reflected in the mirror, and examples are frequent in literature which 'can offer us a mirror-image of human existence'. 2 William Rankins's A Mirrovr of Monsters (1587) is just such a text. Rankins's focus is on the dangers of 'show' and his text addresses the 'manifold vices' and 'spotted enormities' that are the result of the 'infectious sight of Playes'. 3 Rankins is particularly concerned with pride, and notes that players 'colour their vanitie with humanitie […] because vnder colour of humanitie, they present nothing but prodigious vanitie'. 4 Rankins expands his thoughts on pride and 'lecherie', using the character of Luxuria: Amongst y e rest to make hir séeme more amiable to hir best beloued shée painted hir faire face w t spots of shadowed modestie: not fro~ Apelles shop, whose colours