Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini

Date

1434

Description

Creator of the image: Jan van Eyck
Date of the image creation: 1434
Medium of the image: Oil on oak
Person depicted: Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini

Painted by early Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck (c1390-1441), the Arnolfini Portrait is widely considered one of the most complex and important artworks in the history of Western art. The artworks intricate details were created via the application of layer upon layer of thin translucent glazes, possibly with the aid of a magnifying glass, which give the painting an intensity of colour and heightened sense of realism. The opulent material world of the merchant is rendered with subtle variations in light, both direct and diffuse, which give a sense of volume and depth to the artwork. Innumerable scholarly debates have taken place discussing the rich symbolism and iconological details of the painting.

With this painting, Jan van Eyck is eye-witness to a posed but everyday scene. According to the British National Gallery: ‘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’.

Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini was a member of a merchant family from Lucca, in present-day Italy, who was living in Bruges. His heavy eyelids weigh on his thin blue eyes, which gaze towards the viewer’s right, perhaps looking at someone entering the room he finds himself in. What could be something of a smile plays at the corners of his lips, which when taken in the context of his whole face give his expression a complex and ambiguous emotional charge.

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