Mirror, Mirror

To mark Velazquez's 410th birthday - and as a service to devotees of Venus Callipyge everywhere - here's the Rokeby Venus. As has often been remarked, the image in the mirror, if that is what it is, is 'wrong' - not least because it's actually larger than the original. As Gombrich point out in (I think) Art And Illusion, images in mirrors are surprisingly small - you can find out how small by looking at your face in a mirror, from quite close up, and marking the top and bottom of the image. Step back and you'll be surprised by how small it was - though you had seen it as something like full size. Velazquez was a famously tricky painter when it came to images and reflections - think of the endless complexities of Las Meninas, or several of his works which include something that might be seen in a mirror, or through an opening in a wall, or might be a picture... Anyway, one thing we can be sure of about the Rokeby Venus: to borrow Peter Cook's art gallery gag - the bottom follows you around the room.