Centered in the middle of the frame, it balances the composition and gives a sense of reality and religiousness.
The next scene introduces Hutter. This scene is divided into two: On the left, Hutter is fixing his shirt through a mirror placed on top of a portrait. Hutter’s back drives our attention to his reflection on the mirror where he looks smiling narcissistically. On the right, a window and a single almost dried out plant. He is only concentrating on his reflection(the present), ignoring the portrait (which is smaller and placed under his mirror) as if ignoring the past and the plant (symbol of life/nature which is real in contrast of his virtual reflection/image).
A cut, then, introduces Ellen: A girl playing with a kitten. Contrasting Hutter’s bare/dead window, Ellen is playing at a window filled with plants and flowers, and has her back turned to the a flowery wall paper covered almost entirely with portraits. Their backs turned to the “nature morte” may imply their desire to escape what is dead. She is shown as the typical feminine woman of the 1850’s smiling joyfully and