The Arnolfini Marriage or The Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife (english version)

Author: Jan Van Eyck

Creation: 1434

Location: National Gallery, London (UK)

Style: Early Netherlandish

Technique: Oil on oak panel

Dimensions: 82 x 60 cm

National Gallery

The author and the Flemish school

Van Eyck is considered as the best representative of the early Netherlandish´s school and, during a lot of time, it was thought that he had been who invented the technique of oil painting. Today it´s believed that he improved it in the way that his brush-stroke with a slower drying allowed him to represent with higher accuracy the figures in his paintings. In this way, this small work is a summary of all the school features: attention to detail, interest in colour, naturalism and perspective study.

Painting description and sociological contextualization

The context in which is developed the painting of the artists called “early Netherlandish”, of which Van Eyck is his maximum exponent, is within a consolidated bourgeoisie, thriving in business, attracted by the interest of interior decoration with wall hangings and, as in this case, paintings where portraits take up an important role.

Giovanni Arnolfini was a rich Italian dealer, coming from Lucca, who was settled in the city of Bruges (Flanders) attracted by the commercial possibilities of that area, in which he reached an extraordinary fortune, of which the painting we are talking about is a good reflection. The represented objects are, in themselves, exponent of the extensive geographic relations of his owner.  

The Arnolfini Portrait

In The Arnolfini Marriage what is represented is the celebration and ratification of the agreements to a future marriage (with an official sponsalia) or an agreement ceremony in the present of two witnesses. The engagement agreements, besides being solemn promises of a future marriage, had the intention of legalizing the new alliance between two families, which was the true intention of the wedding with frequency and where the bride used to be a simple pawn in a wider political or economic context.

Both characters, painted at the forefront, are situated in a room with wood floor and illuminated by a window that is opened to its left. At couple´s feet appears a dog and, stayed in the background, it can be observed the carpet corner and the bed canopy. In the centre of the composition appears a lamp that hangs from the ceiling and, in the back wall, a mirror in which is reflected all the contents of the room. To its left some rosaries are hung and, on the frame, we find a Latin inscription, in Gothic characters, with the following text: “Johanes de Eyck fuit hic, 1434” (Jan Van Eyck was here, 1434).

Giovanni´s Wife

Giovanni Arnolfini appeared in a serious attitude, richly dressed in dark colour with a cape and a wide hat. His right hand, that is raised, seems to swear or bless, while the left one hold his wife´s hand, Giovanna, richly dressed in intense green colour with a white veil. Her bulky belly, on which her other hand is resting, seems to reveal with clarity that she is pregnant. A soft light surrounds the stage, hitting it right over the female face, while it´s mitigated over the dealer´s face.    

Thematic-symbolic analysis (the iconographic value of the daily life objects)

Symbolically the Arnolfini´s painting has originated a great controversy because of its significant quantity of symbolic elements and the difficulty of interpretation of some of them, up to the point of debating if the painting gets really the scene of a marriage celebration, being like a kind of previous compromise to itself, or an exorcism ceremony of a couple who try to put off evil of not having had descendants from themselves.

Some objects that appear as the own scene setting refer to the Arnolfini dealer richness: clothing, furniture, carpet, living room decorations or the presence of oranges close to the window that, due to their origin from the south of Europe, it could be considered a true luxury in Flanders during the XV century. The bed with canopy, in particular, was so

important as a symbol of status, richness and privilege that became to appear in the reception chambers as cult objects and aristocracy synonym. Consequently, the bed, in a middle-class environment, was usually placed in the main room of the house.

The two pair of clogs (hers, close to the bed; his clogs, at the forefront, to the left) connect both spouses with home and,

the fact of which we suppose them barefooted, refer to a fertility idea, very common in that epoch. Nevertheless, it´s

possible that, for Van Eyck and his contemporaries, the daily life common objects didn´t have an iconographic value. High-class fashion of using clogs seems to appear from the use that the Burgundy duke did of themselves. The flogs, in Van Eyck´s work, could be, consequently, goods footwear, because with them he highlights the important social condition of the male figure, connotation that apparently lived on until the XVI century.

Small Terrier

The interpretation of the small terrier as fidelity symbol is applied to almost whichever dog, associating with the female figure, as much in later works as previous ones, is found in many female graves. However, frequently, dogs are particularly common in the Flemish manuscripts enlightenment where they usually take up an empty area at the forefront of the pictorial field, exactly like in the double portrait, suggesting that the primary function of that animal is the composition.

The lamp, in which we only find a burning candle (whose light would pass unnoticed broad daylight), is a clear reference to Christ, (divine presence) and, at the same time, it comes to represent the love flame that can be consumed. Nevertheless, the same as the clogs case, the candle as a daily object couldn´t have iconographic value. The candles price was very high in the XV century. Because of this, if the candles use affected the domestic economy, the only burning candle could answer to a domestic expense control without further ado.

The rosaries, placed to the left of the mirror, refer to the necessity of persevering in prayer while the predominant colours are clearly symbolic as well: while the green one refers to fertility, the red one does it to passion.

The mirror with circular shape and in whose framework is shown to us ten of fourteen Stations of the Cross shows the room scene from an inverse perspective, where it could be appreciated the back of the couple, just like the presence of two others, who could attend like witnesses to the ceremony for which, in that epoch, isn´t necessary a priest. Therefore, the mirror would include the essential element to identify correctly the represented scene: the arrangement ceremony for a future marriage in presence of the witnesses, one of whom could be the painter himself.

As much the tassel that hangs from the bed as Giovana´s bulky belly are clear allusions to fertility. Exactly, on the tassel, in the bed headboard, appears a female figure who could be Saint Daisy (births patron saint) or Saint Martha (home patron saint).

On the couple´s hands appears a gargoyle in smiling attitude. Some authors consider that this element is basic to understand the painting meaning: an exorcism by which is expected to move the evil away that grips the couple: descendants lack.

To sum up, apart from a possible complex symbolic lecture, the daily elements represented in the pictorial work can be

Oranges Detail

seen as a studied representation of middle-high class richness: the bed and other goods furniture at the bottom, the lamp and the expensive mirror, the beads of a rock crystal rosary, the oranges that were extremely expensive in the north of Europe during the XV century, the small carpet close to the bed, the woman´s sumptuous clothes and the man´s fashion clothes and, finally, the woman´s small terrier. Without a doubt, it´s a company animal, without another function of giving pleasure to its owner, that may have seen as another way of emulating the high society, where the tendency to possess dogs as pets was a common practice in the XIV century.

Technical-compositional analysis

The painter´s signature encourages us to look closer into the mirror that, due to its distorted reflection, takes the spectator to look for more in the reflected image and, at the same time, increase our vision out of and beyond the front shot of the painting.   

Mirror Detail

The mirror positioning at the bottom of the scene supposes a true innovation in the painting world, thinking that this work had influence in other paintings that use the same resource decisively, as happens in Velazquez´s Ladies in Waiting.

The light is made into a spaces configurator element and contributes to power, through its reflections, the particularities of physical and sensorial character of each object. At the same time the perspective contributes to develop and goes in depth relating to this figurative conquest.

What it gives plasticity to objects is Van Eyck´s skill as naturalist painter combined with a wide range of possibilities that provides him the use of oil technique while he manipulates the colour scale, light and shadow to improve the three-dimensional quality of his images.