The Arnolfini Wedding - Jan Van Eyck

Four Million!?
四百萬!?

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The Arnolfini Wedding - Jan Van Eyck
阿諾菲尼的婚禮 - 范艾克

Oil on oak panel of 3 vertical boards
82.2 (panel 84.5) × 60 (panel 62.5) cm, 32.4 × 23.6 in
National Gallery, London

This painting is believed to be a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife in a room, presumably in their home in the Flemish city of Bruges. It is considered one of the most original and complex paintings in Western art history.

The illusionism of the painting was remarkable for its time, in part for the rendering of detail, but particularly for the use of light to evoke space in an interior, for "its utterly convincing depiction of a room, as well of the people who inhabit it".

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnolfini_Portrait ]

I would like to briftly talk about the significant points of this painting. This is a sence of Arnolfini's marriage. Besides the detail drawings of the room, decoration sand the clothes of couple, his uses various of the Symbolism in this painting to record, to witness, to celebrate the marriage, it is a real and meaningful merry certificate for them. Jan Van Eyck leaves us "a moment of history".

1. Do you think that the bride is pregnancy? Actually, it's not! The dressing of the bride was the fashion dressing in that century, to put many layers in the waist which symbols the viltality of pregnancy. Besides, you also could see the cuff of skirt of the bride is edged by feather which shows that they are rich.

2. There is a mirror on the wall and it reflects the foreground of the room which you can see orginally including the ceiling, the floor and the view outsides the window. The artist also signs above the mirror that he witnesses here for the couple. The prayer beads which is the left handside of the mirror mean the wishes for the couple.

3. Obviously, these are tangerines , it also means both vitality of pregnancy and wealthy because tangerine is a expansive fruit.

4. There is a lovely dog wihch means faithful and love under the bride's feet. It also records the life of wealthy people in that century, they have alreadly had the interest of having pet .


References and further readings:

Arnolfini Portrait,from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Introduction to "The Complete Paintings of the Van Eycks", from Robert Hughes
陳彬彬, (2008), 從零開始圖解西洋名畫, 台灣:晨星出版有限公司