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Painting:
Arnolfini Portrait, 1434
Painter:
Jan van Eyck
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About The Artist - Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck (c. 1385 - July 9, 1441)
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Jan van Eyck was an Early Dutch painter and is considered as one of
the greatest painters of the late Middle Ages.
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About The Painting - Arnolfini Portrait |
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Jan van
Eyck was a remarkable painter of the late middle
ages and he perfected some highly remarkable and
new (at that time) effects using oil paint. |
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Arnolfini
Portrait is one of the masterpieces of Jan van
Eyck. Interestingly, the painter had inscribed
on the back wall of the convex mirror in this
painting, his name and signature. It reads: "Johannes
de Eyck fuit hic 1434" (Jan van Eyck was
here, 1434). The Arnolfini Portrait is one of
the most frequently analyzed paintings by art
historians and has over the years given birth
to a number of popular interpretations that are
now being questioned. This portrait is also known
by other titles such as "The Arnolfini Wedding",
"The Arnolfini Marriage", "The
Arnolfini Double Portrait" or the "Portrait
of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife". |
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Believed
to be the portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini
and his wife in a room in their home in the Flemish
city of Bruges, this painting is considered to
be the most original and complex paintings in
Western art history. |
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Arnolfini
Portrait shows the couple in a room in summer
(indicated by the fruit bearing cherry tree outside
the window), but the room is not a bedroom. The
detailing in this painting is unmatchable, for
the two foreground figures are dressed in rich
clothes (trimmed with fur), the man’s outer
garment is lined with expensive sable and he is
wearing a hat of plaited straw, while the woman’s
is lined with ermine or miniver. The woman is
only wearing a plain gold necklace and plain rings,
but her outfits are expensive. |
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The interior
of this room shows signs of wealth in form of
brass chandelier, which is very large and elaborate
and expensive. Then the convex mirror at the back
of the room is set in a wooden frame and depicts
scenes of the Passion painted behind the glass.
Other details include elaborate bed-hangings,
carvings on chair and bench and the small Eastern
rug on the floor by the side of the bed. |
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