Willem van Haecht - Archduke Albert Visits the Kunstkammer of Cornelius van der Geest (1628)
Besides their own artistic and historical value, such paintings also serve as catalogues of major art collections of the time, the so-called kunstkamers. In this case, we see the large collection of Cornelis van der Geest, a wealthy spice merchant from Antwerp.
Thanks to this painting, we also know of a second 'art mirror' by Jan van Eyck - the first being, of course, the famous Arnolfini Portrait.
In descriptions of this painting by van Haecht, this work is identified as Woman Bathing by Jan van Eyck. Since Willem van Haecht was in fact the curator of the collection, the attribution carries some weight.
Unfortunately, this panel did not survive to our day - or at least has not yet been (re)discovered. Fortunately, a smaller version did survive - it was either as a preliminary study (unlikely) or a later copy made by an apprentice (perhaps with a light touch of van Eyck himself).
It is a very small panel, ~ 16×36 cm, currently in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums. It is a very strange work, and scholars continue to argue about what exactly is depicted there, and who the figure is. The interpretations range from Bathsheba, though without King David, to perhaps a scene just before the application of a love potion held by the maid. Or something else.
I wrote a short post about this Lost Mirror of Jan van Eyck, some ages ago, but to my knowledge the enigma still remains unsolved.
Back to van Haecht: his painting actually has another mirror, which I myself noticed only recently. It is not a mirror within another painting, but an actual mirror hanging on the window wall:
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