Jan van Eyck: 1390-1441
Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife: 1434

Jan van Eyck was a Flemish painter. Van Eyck’s exact dates of birth and death are not known. Van Eyck is the founding father of Dutch painting. Jan van Eyck was one of the first to test the potentials of oil painting: for example, he did not allow one layer dry before applying another coat of paint. It sounds elementary today, but no one had done this before: van Eyck was one of the first.

Born in Maaseik about 1390, van Eyck worked for John, the Duke of Bavaria and Philip the Good, for whom he arranged his own marriage to Isabella of Portugal. Van Eyck settled and lived in Bruges. He died there in 1441.Van Eyck signed and dated his paintings directly on their frames. However, in the Arnolfini Portrait Van Eyck inscribed, "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic 1434” translated: “Jan van Eyck was here, 1434”.

“Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride” has many titles: “The Arnolfini Portrait”, “The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait”, and “The Arnolfini Double Portrait”, is the most common. "The Arnolfini Marriage" is the most common title that has been given to this portrait, which is now housed in the National Gallery, in London England.

The couple in the painting, Giovanni Arnolfini, a Lucchese cloth merchant, and Giovanna Cenami, the daughter of another cloth merchant, who was also from Lucca. Their marriage was a powerful political union of two influential Italian families living in Northern Europe.

The couple is side by side in the bridal chamber, facing the viewer. Giovanni is holding his wife's hand. The light of the room partially lit by the windows and the room is filled with daylight from the side. The cherry trees in the garden are heavy with ripe fruit. Fruit was a traditional panacea for morning sickness. However, the couple is wearing heavy layered clothing that is lined with fur, and their heads are covered which indicate that it is winter time. The fundamental focus in the painting is fertility and childbearing. This theme is clear in the veiled symbols and the allusion to the Christian Annunciation scene.

The Annunciation is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the Gabriel to Mary, that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus. Giovanna is pregnant, but the gesture of lifting the dress recurs in current portraits of virgin saints. 15th century Italy had standards for married women, especially for recently married brides, to conceive, preferably on the first night of the marriage. Women often surrounded themselves with fertility tokens to promote fertility. Giovanna Cenami stands on the right hand side of an ornate bed, which not only underlines her high status in the home but also her wifely duty of bearing children. Obeying traditional customs regarding childbearing, Cenami stands barefoot beside the bed, her red slippers rest under a bench. Giovanna died before 1434; she was deceased before or during the painting’s completion.