I bought the catalogue of mirrors in Brussels. I’ll collect my notes here.
The catalogue describes the head at Minerva’s feet as a likely personification of body of water. I’m not sure at all. Typically I’d see such a head as oracular but how that would work with the scene is as unclear as it would be if a water personification.
This one I like for its suggestion of the use of the cistae, bronze cylindricaltoilet boxes. Also the body necklaces are delightful as ancient lingerie.
Here the head on the ground is interpreted as a mask of Silenus, as an attribute of Fufluns, associated with Dionysus/Liber. More sensible but still not clearly correct. The catalogue associates Esia with Ariadne and her slaying by Artemis cf Hom. Od. 11.321-325. The childlike characteristics of Esia and her being held make me think this image is connected to a very different narrative than any we know.
While the catalogue seems to endorse Helbig’s interpretation of this as Eos’ seizing of Cephales even if not fully explained, I’m inclined to see this as the union of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus. While most have seen Ovid Met. 4.306ff. as an Augustan age literary invention, it would also fit this scene. The figure to the far right would be their final joined forms marked by the velafactio. Saturn, the right hand figure, stands for tradition and how this new form is to be rejected.
TBC
Liv Mariah Yarrow 