Arnolfini Portrait

Question 1

Dates etc

Answer 1

1434, Jan Van Eyck

Question 2

Issues of Interpretation, ambiguities

Answer 2

• a ‘wedding chamber’?

- thought to be Giovanni di Amigo Arnolfini but he did not marry Giovanna Cenami until 1447

Question 3

Style

Answer 3

As HoA developing, realism becoming more popular, art historians becoming interested in context of works. The social climate the works were created in etc. Oil painting becoming very realist, suggesting the presence of perfection/divinity in art, as close to the world god created as possible. Bringing together every day and the divine for the first time, seeing the blessed in every day happenings. New studies of furniture, symbolism, dress etc. More niche research.

Question 4

Margaret Koster - A Simple Solution

Answer 4

• mistaken as marriage, rather a posthumous representation and remembrance of Costanza Trenta with Giovanni Di Nicolao
• creates an imaginary space, the scaling and proportions all off, symbolic/ethereal feel?
• treatment of light, woman “bathed in a kind of ethereal whiteness”
• dog seen as symbol of fidelity (Panifsky) or sexual liberation/consummation (Harbison) but Koster argues a symbol of comradeship, to accompany the dead in eternity, seen on many tomb stones
• colours of dress symbolic, green and blue of Costanza linked to love, green for being in love and blue for faithfulness
• tradition of ‘Ricordanze’ to remember ancestors, women often forgotten and maiden names written out, barely any evidence of membrance of women so may be why there’s ambiguities about the painting
• contrast between physical peak of marriage and deterioration at death accentuates themes of remembrance
• lit candle on side of the living etc.
• mirror with 10 images depicting passion of Christ, scenes with Christ living on female side, echoing suggestion of life and death
• “memento Mori”
• signature adds to the theme of absence and presence
• no underdrawings or the dog and changed mirror, hand different suggesting Costanza dies in the process or Van Eyck was attempting to emphasise the meaning behind the painting
• under drawings of hands with better grip, changed so hands were loosely holding, perhaps pointing to how Costanza slipped through Arnolfinis fingers

Question 5

Panofsky

Answer 5

‘disguised symbolism’, deeply coded image.
-clandestine marriage between Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami.
-Set in the bridal chamber, Van Eyck and other person the only witnesses of their unity.
-Fruit for fertility and fruitfulness, perhaps the fall? not strictly apples, different fruit representing different aspects of the fall
-candle left burning, eye of god? nuptial flame, no evidence to say they lit candles like this
dog - fidelity, marriage faith
-supposedly marriage bed, red curtains suggesting act of love, more about status than sleeping
-‘thalamus virginis’, marriage room
-mirror, ten scenes of the passion of christ, again the holy spirit witnessing the marriage, they whole room engulfed in one mirror, clear reflection like the purity of the virgin
-realist, showing God not the only creator of true beauty

Question 6

Harbison

Answer 6

Most readings stuck with a conservative, polite reading, within a small pool of possibilities created by Panofsky
-Weddings, public relations and sexual relations were very much a source of entertainment at the time, especially in courts the sexual morals were pretty loose.
-The gargoyles with a mocking expression above the hands being united suggest a sort of ironic, sartirical tone.
-Marriage bed, perhaps a secret love affair, the fruit suggesting sexual connotations.
-Removal of the slippers,
“Sex was never treaded solemnly at court”
-One time the frame had quotes from Ovid, highly charged with sexual imagery and themes, a very acceptable way to deal with ironic themes, to aleviate the people from the tragedies of the day such as the plague.
-the way the woman is looking at the man may suggest her sexual intrigue, usually an other-worldly, innocent sort of expression for the women, something to be admired, ignorant to sexual attraction
-evvidence that Cenami was subject to some sexual intrigue at court, extra-marital affairs.
Saint Margaret on the bed-stead, tamed the devil, a sign of the power of women. Cenami taming Arnolfini, his gesture perhaps allows the sexual, tempting Eve to become the Eve of incarnation and power.
-Private and Public, the bed symbolsiing this, place for private intimacy at the same time as being one’s most public possession
-sexuality and piety meet
-silly to argue for one exact meaning, or symbols that we can definitely understand, multi-faceted

Question 7

Margaret L. Koster

Answer 7

Believes the portrait is actually Giovanni di Nicolai Arnolfini and Costanza Trenta, but recorded that Costanza died in 1433.
Portrait is to commemorate the deceased Costanza.
Wedding images usually the bride wears her hair long like the virgin.
Unrealistic space, no fireplace, encompassing of the room in the mirror, Van Eyck often created imaginary rooms.
Colours symbolic, greens and blues for love, male perhaps wearing the dark rich colours because he was mourning Costanza
Bed the death bed?
‘Ricordanze’ records of ancestral history, not many records of women since not deemed as important. therefore not much evidence of how they were depicted. WOmen not permanent, maiden names disappear and do not need to be recorded
Popular to have double portraits representing two extremes, or choices to live a virtuous life, the contrast between being at the peak of physical health at marriage and deteriorating on death bed add to this message.
Many epitaphs use theme of apparition juxtaposed with a living body, what the person wishes they could see but it is an illusion.
“bathed in a kind of ethereal whiteness”
Small dog, may signify faith but often depicted on female tomb effigy, to accompany in eternity?
Monster above hands showing they were going to be split apart, slipping through his finger.
Playing around with presence and absence with the signature