Now that the holidays are almost over and winter has begun in earnest with lots of snow, the sky can be overcast for days on end. It doesn't take many of these cloudy days to cause us to wish for the sun to shine once more.
The Wall Street Journal recently posted an article, "The Ever Stylish Sunburst Mirror." It begins by saying,
"With bleak winter days upon us, a mirror will refract each precious ray of sunlight -- and the sunburst mirror seems to stand in for the sun itself."
The sunburst mirror dates back at least as far as the 15th century when the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck, placed a sunburst mirror in his Arnolfini portrait of a married couple. As he lived in Bruges in Belgium, the winters would have been heavily overcast.
Louis XIV established the first glass and mirror factory in Northern Europe in the 17th century and made mirrors bigger and clearer than ever before. However, in the Wall Street Journal article, a Manhattan antiques dealer is quoted as saying we have the French Revolution to thank for the sunburst mirror's debut. Read the entire article to see the Van Eyck portrait as well as other examples of sunburst mirrors.
The overscaled oval shaped La Barge sunburst mirror above is finished in wood tones with gold rub through.
Here a smaller round sunburst mirror is completely different from the one above, and its leafy, free form pattern has an antique gold gilded finish.
This 59" diameter mirror below has a silver gilded frame with a mirrored sunburst pattern in the center.
Each of these mirrors reminds us of the sun, yet each in a completely different way, based on the designer's creativity and vision.
Spring will come eventually, but in the meantime, you may wish to bring a little of the sunshine indoors by hanging a sunburst mirror where it will remind you of warmer days.
La Barge... a reflection of all that you are.
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