NATIONAL GALLERY, Arnolfini Portrait Van Eyck

With the room dedicated to 15th-century Flemish painting, you are now fully immersed in Art with a capital A. Choosing from among the many masterpieces by Jan Van Eyck, I'd like to tell you about the wedding portrait known as The Arnolfini Portrait, which is one of the most famous and replicated works of art in the world. No less important is the fascination it raises for the mystery related to its figures.

For many years it was believed that the portrait depicted the wealthy merchant John Arnolfini with his wife, portrayed in the intimacy of their comfortable home in Bruges, but the identity of the two main figures has been questioned recently, and consequently also the two minor figures that are reflected in the mirror; in fact, as you can see, the card for the painting now includes a prudent question mark. On the other hand, the author, date, and history of the painting are certain: it's even signed and dated! The signature can be seen on the back wall above the convex mirror: the strange thing is that it's in Latin, while in other panels that you can see in this same room, van Eyck preferred to use the ancient Dutch language or even French....