The Art of Jan van Eyck - The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434.
The National Gallery.
This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, but 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'. The similarity to modern graffiti is not accidental. 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.

A couple stands hand in hand, in a room illuminated by daylight from an open window.

The identity of the couple is most likely to be Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife, Giovanna. However, there were several Arnolfini men living in Bruges in 1434, and although the painting has traditionally been acknowledged as a portrait of an Arnolfini, there is still some uncertainty as to exactly which member of the family this painting depicts.

The man wears a large, broad-brimmed hat and an exquisitely painted fur-trimmed and lined velvet tabard, while the woman gathers a sumptuous fur-lined green wool dress to her stomach; its long train folded at her feet.

Dressed in the latest fashion, the couple are surrounded by objects that denote wealth: the oranges on the windowsill and chest, the gleaming brass chandelier, and the bed with its elaborate rich, red hangings.

The striking convex mirror on the wall behind the couple is also an indication of prosperity. However, its presence is more than symbolic. Reflected in the mirror, painted with remarkable precision, is an intriguing image: It shows the back of the couple and two figures beyond, one dressed in blue and the other in red, entering the room through a passage lit by an open window. light blue wedding dress

The figure in blue appears to be raising his arm, possibly in greeting. Above the mirror, written on the wall much like graffiti, is the phrase 'Jan van Eyck was here, 1434'. Could the reflected figure in blue provide a glimpse of the artist himself?

Courtesy The National Gallery.