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Object Timeline
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1946 |
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1991 |
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2014 |
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2025 |
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Print, Hand Mirror with Scenes from the Story of Medea
This is a Print. It was print maker: Etienne Delaune. It is dated 1561 and we acquired it in 1946. Its medium is engraving on white laid paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.
Animals and allegorical figures adorn this gem-encrusted mirror, encircling a scene from the story of Medea. The sorceress appears in her serpent-drawn chariot, scouring the earth for potion ingredients to rejuvenate her lover’s father. Medea lowers the old man into her cauldron, draining his blood to restore his youth. Designed to decorate a mirror, these scenes hint at painstaking and paradoxical measures pursued for beauty’s sake. The frame’s interwoven emblems of birth and death, pleasure and pain, likewise confound conceptions of beauty.
It is credited Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. John Innes Kane.
- Hand Mirror Hand Mirror
- silver, glass.
- Museum purchase from Walter R. Scholz Memorial Fund.
- 1998-21-1
- Hand Mirror
- nickel-plated copper alloy.
- Gift of Teresa Kilham.
- 1958-80-8
- Hand Mirror with Dragon Hand Mirror
- silver, glass, steel.
- Gift of Fong Chow.
- 1996-109-2
Our curators have highlighted 8 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Drawing, Design for Hand Mirror with Floral Motif
- graphite, color pencil, pen and black ink on cream tracing paper.
- Gift of Donald Cameron.
- 1998-19-109
- Print, Design for Ornament: Two Seated Women
- engraving on off-white laid paper.
- Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. John Innes Kane.
- 1942-36-27-2
- Hand Mirror
- cast brass, cut mirrored plate.
- Gift of Unknown Donor.
- n-a-612
Its dimensions are
H x W x D: 22.2 × 11 cm (8 3/4 × 4 5/16 in.) Mat: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.)
It has the following markings
Unidentified, indistinct brown collector’s mark: ovoid topped by a royal crown and showing crossing diagonal lines; escutcheon of pretence.
It is signed
Signed in plate, bottom left: Stephanus F(ecit)
It is inscribed
In plate, bottom right: Cum pri. Regis (with royal privilege)
Cite this object as
Print, Hand Mirror with Scenes from the Story of Medea; Print Maker: Etienne Delaune (French, 1519 - 1583); France; engraving on white laid paper; H x W x D: 22.2 × 11 cm (8 3/4 × 4 5/16 in.) Mat: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.); Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. John Innes Kane; 1946-13-1
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibitions Fragile Beasts and The Cooper-Hewitt Collections: A Design Resource.
