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The Arnolfini Portrait: The Mirror, the Signature and an Unsolved Identity
Jan van Eyck signed the wall, painted two tiny visitors into a mirror and left a question that is still open: who are the man and woman in the room?
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The Arnolfini Portrait
- Artist
- Jan van Eyck
- Date
- 1434
- Medium
- Oil on oak panel
- Dimensions
- 84.5 × 62.5 cm
- Location
- The National Gallery, London, LondonInventory no. NG186
Double portrait by Jan van Eyck, dated 1434, of a richly dressed couple in a room in Bruges. A convex mirror on the back wall reflects two more figures, and Van Eyck's Latin inscription above it reads Jan van Eyck was here.
Historical context
Dated 1434 on the wall, the painting was owned by Margaret of Austria by 1516 and entered the National Gallery in 1842.1
Interpretation
The sitters are traditionally identified with the Arnolfini family of Bruges, but the identification is not proven, and the meaning of the scene is debated.1
Symbols and meanings
- The convex mirrorEstablished fact
- Reflects the couple and two figures in the doorway.The Arnolfini Portrait (NG186), in Lorne Campbell, The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools (1998)
- The inscriptionEstablished fact
- Johannes de eyck fuit hic 1434: Jan van Eyck was here, 1434.The Arnolfini Portrait (NG186), in Lorne Campbell, The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools (1998)
- The single candleInterpretation
- One lit candle in the chandelier; its meaning is debated.The Arnolfini Portrait (NG186), in Lorne Campbell, The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools (1998)
Sources
- 1The Arnolfini Portrait (NG186), in Lorne Campbell, The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools (1998). The National Gallery, London, 1998
