Jan Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, tempera and oil on wood, 1434 (National Gallery, London)
[0:00] [music]
Dr. Steven Zucker: [0:06] We’re in the National Gallery, and we’re looking at Jan van Eyck’s portrait of…well, I learned this painting as the “Arnolfini Wedding Portrait.”
Dr. Beth Harris: [0:16] So did I.
Dr. Zucker: [0:17] But there’s been a lot of scholarship subsequently, and there’s a lot of disagreement over what this painting actually represents.
Dr. Harris: [0:24] But the National Gallery, which probably represents the most authoritative view right now, the most widely accepted, says that in fact this is not an actual wedding taking place or being witnessed, as you and I were taught, but that it’s simply a double portrait of a couple who are already married.
Dr. Zucker: [0:41] Some scholars have suggested that perhaps it’s a memorial portrait and the woman on the right actually had passed away the previous year, but that’s only one of a variety of theories. We’re not even sure which Arnolfini this actually is. What we do know is that whoever’s represented here was an Italian merchant who worked in Bruges.
Dr. Harris: [0:58] And Bruges was a thriving economic town in the early 15th century.
Dr. Zucker: [1:03] His wealth is quite apparent throughout this portrait.
Dr. Harris: [1:05] In a way, the portrait is about his wealth. Everything from both of their clothing to the furnishings of the house.
Dr. Zucker: [1:13] Some have suggested that perhaps this is a witnessing of the male actually giving a kind of authority to the woman in legal affairs.
Dr. Harris: [1:23] I don’t think we’ll ever know exactly what this represents. The thing is that it’s always seemed to me that it can’t simply just be a double portrait, because it really looks like something important is happening. They’re joining their hands. Their shoes are off, which can…
Dr. Zucker: [1:39] Now, those all have symbolic value. And this is a period when there’s tremendous importance put on symbolism. The shoes being off, for instance, as you mentioned, is often a reference to a kind of sacred event taking place.
Dr. Harris: [1:50] We have a single candle in the chandelier, which I was taught was a symbol of the presence of God, but again we’re just not really sure. But the way that they’re joined together, the way his hand is up — perhaps he’s just greeting the visitors who we see in the mirror.
Dr. Zucker: [2:07] There are two people who are in the doorway, actually wonderfully situated where we would be looking at this painting.
Dr. Harris: [2:13] It does seem to me like something significant is going on.
Dr. Zucker: [2:16] There is a kind of witnessing taking place.
Dr. Zucker: [2:17] I think that that’s reinforced by the signature that we see above the mirror and below the chandelier that says “Johannes van Eyck fuit hic” or translated, “Johannes van Eyck was here.” There is that sense of the artist’s presence, the artist witnessing, the artist being here in this room with these figures.
Dr. Zucker: [2:39] Let’s go about this painting, and really look at the different elements, because there are many things that we do agree about as art historians.
[2:45] The mirror in the center is one of the most compelling elements. You have, not only in a sense the greater visual reality of this room depicted, because we can actually see as if we’re standing in the back of the room looking forward. But you see actually…
Dr. Harris: [2:58] Scenes from the Passion of Christ.
Dr. Zucker: [3:00] Painted on the backpieces of glass panels that are set into that wooden frame.
Dr. Harris: [3:05] I have to say that it’s hard to get a sense of this when you’re watching a video, or looking at illustrations in a book, but those little roundels around the mirror, how big would you say those are?
Dr. Zucker: [3:15] They are, I would say, about half the size of my…
Dr. Harris: [3:20] Half an inch.
Dr. Zucker: [3:18] Half the size of my fingernail.
Dr. Harris: [3:21] They’re tiny, and yet we can make out what scenes from the Passion of Christ are represented there. There’s that attention to detail. Detail painted in enormous clarity that we associate with the Northern Renaissance.
Dr. Zucker: [3:33] Some of this painting seems to have been painted with a single-hair brush. Absolutely.
Dr. Harris: [3:36] If you look at the hair of the dog, for example.
Dr. Zucker: [3:39] So, the dog is an interesting element because you wouldn’t expect to see a dog in a formal portrait. How many wedding photographs have you seen with a dog in it?
Dr. Harris: [3:45] Actually, dogs are common symbols in paintings of couples, because the dog is a symbol of fidelity or loyalty.
Dr. Zucker: [3:52] Of course. There’s tremendous attention that’s been paid to the dress of both figures. And there’s a kind of curious element, because they’re wearing fur-lined clothing, and yet there is fruit on the tree outside. It’s a warm moment, and yet they’re wearing their finest winter wear. That’s an issue that has, I think, perplexed art historians.
Dr. Harris: [4:12] That fruit on the windowsill may also be a symbol — or a sign, I should say — of their wealth since oranges were very expensive in Flanders.
Dr. Zucker: [4:22] Some have suggested that that was one of the items that the Arnolfinis actually imported. A reference to the source of their wealth.
Dr. Harris: [4:28] This is a good example of one of the ways that it’s easy to misinterpret. It looks as though the scene is taking place in what we would think of as a bedroom, in a private space. In fact, bedrooms were not that in the 15th century. They were rooms where you received visitors.
Dr. Zucker: [4:44] And a symbol of wealth. And there are all kinds of symbols of wealth here. Beyond the oranges, if you look at the carpet down on the floor, that would have been a symbol of both taste and wealth.
Dr. Harris: [4:53] Look at the way that the…we see those tiny little cuts in the green robe that she wears. Those heavy…
Dr. Zucker: [5:01] That’s been frayed out.
Dr. Harris: [5:03] It’s amazing.
Dr. Zucker: [5:04] That was very fashionable.
Dr. Harris: [5:06] The crispness of the lace that she wears around her head.
Dr. Zucker: [5:10] Now, there’s a mistake that is often made, which is people often look at the bulge of her belly and suggest that she’s pregnant. We’re pretty clear that she’s not. This was very much an expression of the fashion of the day.
Dr. Harris: [5:22] Another way that it’s easy to misinterpret based on what we know in the 21st century.
Dr. Zucker: [5:27] Van Eyck is, I think, critically important not only because of the brilliance of his painting, but because he was using oil paint in a way that had never really been used. He’s able to create a kind of luminous quality, a richness of color that tempera simply couldn’t achieve.
Dr. Harris: [5:41] Yeah, and he’s doing this because he’s applying thin, multiple layers or glazes of thinned-out oil painting so that each layer is translucent and layer after layer applied creates these incredibly deep, rich colors.
Dr. Zucker: [5:56] Which allows him to then produce this rich, luminous, incredibly subtle light. Look at the way that light comes in through this room and moves across the faces of the figures, their hands, across the furniture.
Dr. Harris: [6:11] On the chandelier, the little shadow cast by that bottom bar of the window. There’s a real love of light here that also is very typical of the Northern Renaissance.
Dr. Zucker: [6:22] And the way that he can brilliantly pick up a color, like on the oranges, for instance, or define an object such as Arnolfini’s shoes.
Dr. Harris: [6:29] The figures are kind of elongated. The base of the room seems very cramped. It’s filled with all of these material objects.
Dr. Zucker: [6:37] It’s certainly not perspectively correct.
Dr. Harris: [6:39] Right, and both of those things — that lack of interest in human anatomy and a rational, perspectively correct space — really tell us that we’re not in the Italian Renaissance. We’re in the Northern Renaissance. That love of texture, the use of oil paint, the attention to detail. Van Eyck is a master — or the master — of the Northern Renaissance.
[7:01] [music]
