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Field name | Value |
---|---|
Title | The Arnolfini Portrait, Jan Van Eyck |
Library | The National Gallery |
Date | 1434 |
Description | This mysterious work is likely to be a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, but it is not intended as a record of their wedding. His wife is not pregnant, as is often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress in the contemporary fashion. Arnolfini was a member of a merchant family from Lucca living in Bruges. The couple are shown in a well-appointed interior. The ornate Latin signature translates as 'Jan van Eyck was here 1434'. Van Eyck often inscribed his pictures in a witty way. The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway. One may be the painter himself. Arnolfini raises his right hand as he faces them, perhaps as a greeting. Van Eyck was intensely interested in the effects of light: oil paint allowed him to depict it with great subtlety in this picture, notably on the gleaming brass chandelier. |
Document Type | Painting |
Primary Commodity | Miscellaneous |
Theme | Trade and Commerce; Advertising and Consumption; Art and Literature |
Keywords | merchant, social class, clothes, fur, fancy goods, commerce, fashion, furniture, candles, consumption, fruit, oranges, importation, exportation |
Region | Europe |
Places | Belgium, Bruges |
Copyright | Jan Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, © The National Gallery, London. |