Commenting a work of art

"The Arnolfini Portrait"

The Arnolfini Portrair

The painting I have chosen to describe is "The Arnolfini Portrait" or "The Arnolfini Wedding". Its author was Jan Van Eyck, who painted it 1434. This painting is known for having opened the painter's period of maturity, when he started being considered a master across Northern Europe.

To describe the picture, I will begin talking about its composition. The painting is formed by many elements, however, the main focus lays on the two persons that fill the centre of the picture. They are Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife. In fact, this painting is  a double portrait.

Regarding the clothes the characters are wearing, they denote the wealthy world that surrounded Arnolfini's life at that time. His tabard and her dress are completed with fur elements, and presumably, are made of silk. Nevertheless, is not only the clothes what shows the economical level of the couple, as there are some other elements inside the room that denote wealth. Good examples of this are the chandelier we can see on the top of the painting, the convex mirror on the background, whose frame is made of carved wood, or even the oranges on the left hand side, a product very expensive to import during that period.

Dealing with the colour, we could say that the painting is not especially vivid. We cannot see excessive saturation on colours in any of the elements, except for the lady's dress. However, the mixture of light and shade in most of the parts, provide the general the picture with an intense sense of depth.

Talking about interpretation of what Van Eyck wanted to convey through this work of art, There are many icons worth to be commented. Having that in mind, I will focus on the ones I believe are key elements to understand the painting.

To begin with, it seems that the main topic of the picture is marriage. If we pay attention to the couple joining their hands, we can interpret that a wedding could be taking place, something that could be possible at that time without the presence of a priest.

To continue mentioning another topic, we must wonder if she was pregnant, due to her prominent belly. Today, we know that the couple never had children, so we can understand the presence of the dog in the picture as the desire to have a baby. What is more, the green colour the dress is said to be strongly linked to fertility.

To finish, I believe it is also important to mention the position of the couple inside the frame of the painting. She is near the bed and more inside of the room, and this can be interpret as a symbol that shows that she is the one in charge of taking care of the house, while he is closer to the open window, meaning he is the person in contact with the open world, as he was a merchant.

The reason why I have chosen to comment this painting is that I had a print of it in the first student's flat I had in Granada (it was already there when I arrived). Years later, when I visited the National Gallery I automatically recognized it and when I got home I started searching for information about it and Van Eyck.