“Magic mirror” found - really amazing.

[Johnny Dangerous]

The third such known to exist, just beautiful.


https://news.artnet.com/art-world/magic ... 1/amp-page

It makes think of the Asian art museum in Seattle, every time I go there I feel a little sad that it’s all locked up in a museum, but then, it is quite a blessing just to see such things, and some of them simply don’t exist outside a museum. E.G. Ghandaran sculptures, one of the exhibits I have seen.

[Kim O'Hara]

Great find - thanks.

The article reads as though the reporter didn't have much of an idea what they were reporting on, e.g., the 'six characters' are not on the polished side but on the back of the mirror.

I do wonder about the physics of the reflection, though. Whoever came up with the technique was pretty smart.


Kim

[narhwal90]

An interesting counterpoint to the Zen argument against polishing tiles achieving anything....

[PadmaVonSamba]

Great find - thanks.

The article reads as though the reporter didn't have much of an idea what they were reporting on, e.g., the 'six characters' are not on the polished side but on the back of the mirror.

I do wonder about the physics of the reflection, though. Whoever came up with the technique was pretty smart.


Kim

It’s a kind of trick. The image to be reflected is etched in a way imperceivable to the naked eye. But it is also identical to what is raised on the back side. So, the impression is that the light is going through the mirror to the back of it and back out the front again, projecting the raised image. Scratching the metal surface will give it a kind of translucent sheen. This is often done on sheets of steel using a rotary sander.

[Kim O'Hara]

The image to be reflected is etched in a way imperceivable to the naked eye.

Okay, I figured it had to be something like that.

But it is also identical to what is raised on the back side.

Not in this case, if you look carefully at the images (the text is confused, as I said). The back has half a dozen big bold characters, while the reflection is (only) a Buddha image with solar rays.


Kim

[Matylda]

The image to be reflected is etched in a way imperceivable to the naked eye.

Okay, I figured it had to be something like that.

But it is also identical to what is raised on the back side.

Not in this case, if you look carefully at the images (the text is confused, as I said). The back has half a dozen big bold characters, while the reflection is (only) a Buddha image with solar rays.


Kim

but characters and the image of other side correspond perfectly. characters say NAMU AMIDA BUTSU or NAMO AMITO FO /Chinese way to say I guess, just those are words of the famous Pure Land nenbutsu of Amithaba Buddha, and in the East Asia Amida is portrayed often on the painted pictures as one in glorious rays of light.