Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper Step One: Examine several theories concerning Jan van Eyck’s painting variously entitled The Arnolfini Wedding/Marriage, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife, The Arnolfini Betrothal, and The Arnolfini Double Portrait.
Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper
Students may find an exposition of the several theories in Possible Interpretations of Double Portrait.pdfPreview (will upload) the document or at http://flux-boston.com/unsolved-mysteries-the-arnolfini-double-portrait/. Post your own theory, as expressed in at least 250 words, as to what is occurring in Jan van Eyck’s Double Portriat. Defend you opinion.
Possible Interpretations of Jan van Eyck’s Double Portrait (1434)
I. Marriage or Betrothal?
A. Marriage – Panofsky argues that the couple depicted are Giovanni di Arrigo Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami who in the process of getting married or promising to get married in the future.
Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper
The double portrait is a “pictorial marriage certificate” in which symbolism related to couple’s fidelity and expectations abound (Erwin Panofsky, “Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait,” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 64. No. 372 (March, 1934), pp. 117-119, 122-127).
B. Betrothal – Hall argues that the double portrait records a “solemn sponsalia or betrothal,” a formal vow that the two will marry in the future. They are not getting married, but they are promising to marry down the road (Edwin Hall, The Arnolfini Betrothal: Medieval Marriage and the Enigma of Van Eyck’s Double Portrait, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1997, p. 83).
Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper
C. Problems with Marriage and Betrothal
1. Lorne Campbell has discovered that Giovanni di Arrigo Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami did not marry until 1447, thirteen years after the date on the painting and six years after Jan van Eyck’s death (L. Campbell, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools, London, 1998, p. 193). So, the painting certainly could not record Giovanni de Arigio Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami in the processing being married.
2. If Hall is correct, that the two are pledging to get married in the future, then there is a thirteen-year period of engagement, which does not seem likely either.
Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper
II. Marriage and Betrothal Revived — The painting depicts an unknown wife of either Giovanni di Arrigo Arnolfini or Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini, both of whom were merchants living in Bruges and both of whom were from Lucca. In this case, the couple may be getting married, or they may be participating in a betrothal ceremony. The later, a betrothal ceremony, appears more likely than the former, a marriage ceremony.
Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper
As Hall argues, such a clandestine domestic marriage was considered mortally sinful, was strictly forbidden by the church, would warrant the excommunication of those involved, and is not the kind of thing in which such prominent members of society as the bride, groom and painter would have been associated. Further, the couple are not joined by right hands but are merely touching. There is no bridal crown. There is no official present. There is no indication of a ring ceremony.
Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper
III. Conferring the Ability to Conduct Business? — As Margaret Carroll argues, the man may be conferring upon the woman the ability to conduct business transactions in his absence. Carroll assumes the man and woman are Giovanni de Arrigo Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami, and in this she appears incorrect. Again, they were not married until fourteen years after the painting.
Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper
Carroll’s theory, however, could apply to an unknown wife of either Arrigo Arnolfini or Nicolao Arnolfini. Carroll finds in Arnolfini’s raised right hand a “gesture of oath-taking known as fidem levare” and in his conjoined left hand, “a gesture of consent known as fides manualis,” both gestures confirming in good faith Arnolfini’s willingness to abide by his wife’s decisions (Margaret D. Carroll, “In the Name of God and Profit”: Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait,” Representations, No. 44 [Autumn, 1993], p. 105). Carroll’s interpretation, of course depends upon the couple being married, but she argues that the woman in the portrait “wears the appropriate headdress of a married woman” (p. 101). An unwed woman would wear her hair long, flowing, unbound.
Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper
IV. Tribute to a Deceased Wife? — The couple represented are Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his former wife, Constanza Trenta, who died in 1433, just a year before the painting. The painting is a memorial painting commissioned by Giovanni for the purpose of honoring his deceased wife and demonstrating his undying love for her. She may be dead, but his love for her is not. Margaret Koster adheres to an inventory description of the painting dating to 1516 which describes “’alarge picture which is called Hernoul le Fin [Arnolfini] with his wife in a chamber.’” Koster believes the wording to reflect a title given to the painting by Jan van Eyck himself and inscribed upon a long lost frame.
If it is a painting of Arnolfini with his wife (not the woman he is marrying or his wife to be), then Nicolao Arnolfini and his deceased wife, Constanza Trenta, are viable candidates. Koster points to one lit candle, burning during daytime, behind Arnolfini and to the remains of a burnt-out candle behind Constanza. The lit candle was meant to indicate that Arnolfini is still alive, and the burnt-out candle behind Constanza indicates her demise. Further, Koster suggests that the scenes in the roundels of the mirror point to a memorial portrait.
Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper
“Beginning at the bottom and moving clockwise, we have the Agony in the Garden, the Arrest of Christ, Christ before Pilate, the Flagellation, Christ Carrying the Cross, the Crucifixion [at the top], the Descent from the Cross, the Entombment, the Harrowing of Hell and the Resurrection.” Note that the scenes relating to Christ’s life are on the left side of the mirror behind Giovanni while the scenes relating to Christ’s death and resurrection are on the right side of the mirror behind Constanza (Koster, Margaret L., “The Arnolfini Double Portrait: A Simple Solution,” Apollo, September 1, 2003).
One of my favorite paintings in the world is the small and somber Arnolfini Portrait painted by Jan van Eyck in 1432.
Jan van Eycks Double Portrait Paper
Rich with detail, it is a wonderful early example of the Northern Renaissance artists’ mastery of oil painting and their obsession with the behavior of domesticated fabric. But while it may look like a straightforward double portrait, the Arnolfini is one of western art history’s greatest riddles.
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