Girl Before the Mirror

This work is a replica of the picture which in 1515 was in the Gonzaga collection in Mantua and which is now in the Louvre. It is one of the finest works from Titian's youth. The scene shows a young girl combing her hair with the help of two mirrors held by a man. It has been interpreted as an allegory of Beauty flaunting herself at the same time as she grieves at her short-lived existence, a form of eroticism tinged with moralism. It has also been suggested that it could represent a sonnet by Petrarch describing a three-way love affair between the woman, the mirror and her lover, who is jealous of the object that draws his loved one's gaze.