Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Wedding Essay

Interpretations of Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding Portrait

The “Arnolfini Wedding Portrait” by Jan Van Eyck is a painting believed to be a portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife in a room, presumably in their home in the Flemish city of Bruges. It is considered one of the most original and complex paintings in Western Art History. There has been much debate on this painting. Two scholars’ in particular have two very different interpretations of the “Arnolfini Wedding Portrait.” Erwin Panofsky wrote an article in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs titled, “Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait.” He argues that the elaborate signature on the back wall, and other factors, showed that it was painted as a legal document recording a marriage. Panofsky states that the description "a small panel on which was depicted the wedding of a man and a woman who were married by Fides" must be read in the sense of "married by law", or "lawfully married". Panofsky then goes on to investigate what constituted a
He draws attention to the fact that Van Eyck, being an exceptional artist, did not follow tradition: "Van Eyck took the liberty of joining the right hand of the bride with the left of the bridegroom, contrary to ritual and
The painting supplements the claims of a public ceremony. It tells us what marriage, love, painting, and even witnessing can mean. And it holds out that meaning for someone far from the source, like Arnolfini or Panofsky so far from home. They see above all the social functioning of a marriage. Seidel shows how images work to authenticate a woman's virtue, her dowry, and her acceptance of a husband's wishes. She finds, for example, other paintings with eager witnesses to a pregnant woman—religious scenes of the Virgin. As a mother, Giovanna will have a tough act to