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The Narcissus myth gives rise to a representational strategy that confronts the person with his or her own image through a medium. It thus becomes paradigmatic of any reflection that involves an individual facing his or her own image in the mirror, and seems to be equally authoritative in considering an individual’s relation to looking at his or her image, represented no longer only in the mirror but also on any other two-dimensional support : the canvas or the screen. This study attempts to elucidate the situations of illusion that structure this founding narrative, in its Ovidian version, and examines their visual reformulation in the works of Caravaggio and Bill Viola.