Bridge Over the Abyss. Great Masters

What appeared first—man or the mirror? This is the question Paola Dmitrievna Volkova asks in the fourth volume of the series “Bridge over the Abyss.” For great masters, a portrait was always more than an image of a person: it was a mirror reflecting not only external, but also internal beauty. An autobiography, in turn, is a question to oneself, self-reflection, and the answer that follows. Diego Velázquez, Rembrandt, El Greco, Albrecht Dürer, and Vincent van Gogh— all of them leave us in this genre a bitter confession of an entire life. What mirrors did the beauties of the past admire? Venus, rising from the waters, saw her reflection in them and was pleased with herself; and Narcissus froze forever, stunned by his own beauty. Paintings that reflected, during the Renaissance, only an ideal image—and later, a person’s character—became eternal mirrors for anyone who dares to look into them—as into an abyss—really, completely.