The Maddalena convex mirror is unusual for me because of its shape. It is a stretched diamond shape with a pronounced, high central setting for a mirror. It also came broken. Some of the rays of the sunburst were broken off and lost. I re-carved the lost pieces and bolted them onto the old frame. The frame was then gilded with silver and gold foil and encrusted with many layers of Venetian glass. The center is a large cabochon backed with a mirror. Another mirror-with-no-reflection.
It measures about 31 inches high by 20 inches wide.
If you are interested in the Maddalena mirror it currently resides in my studio. It may be off to a showroom in Europe in the near future but, for now, I have it. Contact me through this website.
The mirror’s design was inspired by a scene in the movie Philadelphia where the hero, an AIDS patient played by Tom Hanks, listens to a Maria Callas recording of an aria from the opera Andrea Chenier. The aria is “La Mamma Morta” and the character’s name is Maddalena. The scene is devastating, the pain and fear of AIDS fused with the passion and grief of Maddalena’s tragic situation. Surely this scene won the Oscar for Hanks.
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