Shop art print and framed art The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck

The Arnolfini Bride and Groom is the name given to a painting on wood (82.2 × 60 cm) by the early Flemish painter Jan van Eyck, dating from 1434 and now in the National Gallery in London. Little is known about the painting before it went to the National Gallery in London. The painting is said to depict Giovanni Arnolfini, a wealthy Tuscan merchant based in Bruges (wearing a black doublet and a purple velvet hull lined with fur), and his wife Giovanna Cenami (wearing a blue dress, a white hull and a green surcoat trimmed with grey fur), with a small dog at their feet. The exact subject of the painting is a matter of debate among art historians. According to Erwin Panofsky, it is the private wedding of the two figures, witnessed by Van Eyck (the other witness being the man in the mirror) and the painter. The woman's left hand, resting on her rounded belly, would indicate that she was already pregnant (a speculative hypothesis, as the size of her dress was in keeping with the fashion of the time), which would explain the secret marriage. The painting is said to be a legal document attesting to this marriage, hence the grandiloquent signature above the mirror (calligraphed in bad Latin, it reads "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic 1434"). However, this theory is now fairly controversial. Nevertheless, this painting is considered to be one of the artist's major works. It is one of the earliest surviving non-hagiographic portraits. What's more, the painting's realism reveals many details [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the renaissance period. It belongs to the symbolism style.

 

« The Arnolfini Portrait » is kept at National Gallery, London, United Kingdom.

 

Find the full description of The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck on Wikipedia.