Editing Arnolfini Portrait (section)

==Description==
[[File:Arnolfini Portrait 1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|left|Detail showing the male subject, probably [[Giovanni Arnolfini|Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini]]]]

Jan van Eyck's characteristic [[Early Netherlandish painting|Early Netherlandish]] style depicts the scene with a high level of detail.  The painting is generally in very good condition, though with small losses of original paint and damage, which have mostly been retouched. [[Infrared]] reflectograms of the painting show many small alterations, or [[pentimenti]], in the [[underdrawing]]: to both faces, to the mirror, and to other elements.<ref name = "CamDesc">Campbell 1998, 186–191 for all this section, except as otherwise indicated.</ref>  The couple is shown in an upstairs room with a chest and a bed in it during early summer as indicated by the fruits on the [[cherry tree]] outside the window. The room probably functioned as a reception room, as it was the fashion in France and [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]] where beds in reception rooms were used for seating, except, for example, when a mother with a new baby received visitors. The window has six interior wooden shutters, but only the top opening has glass, with clear bulls-eye pieces set in blue, red and green stained glass.<ref name = "CamDesc" />

The two figures are very richly dressed; despite the season both their outer garments, his [[tabard]] and her dress, are trimmed and fully lined with fur. The furs may be the especially expensive [[sable]] for him and [[Stoat|ermine]] or [[miniver]] for her. He wears a hat of [[Straw Plaiting|plaited straw]] dyed black, as often worn in the summer at the time. His tabard was more purple than it appears now (as the pigments have faded over time) and may be intended to be silk velvet (another very expensive item). Underneath he wears a doublet of patterned material, probably silk [[damask]]. Her dress has elaborate ''dagging'' (cloth folded and sewn together, then cut and frayed decoratively) on the sleeves, and a long train. Her blue underdress is also trimmed with white fur.<ref name = "CamDesc" />

Although the woman's plain gold necklace and the rings that both wear are the only jewellery visible, both outfits would have been enormously expensive, and appreciated as such by a contemporary viewer. There may be an element of restraint in their clothes (especially the man) befitting their merchant status – portraits of aristocrats tend to show gold chains and more decorated cloth,<ref name = "CamDesc" /> although "the restrained colours of the man's clothing correspond to those favoured by Duke Philip of Burgundy".<ref name="Harbison 1991 37">Harbison 1991, 37</ref>

[[File:Arnolfini Portrait 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Detail showing the female subject and convex mirror]]
The interior of the room has other signs of wealth; the brass [[chandelier]] is large and elaborate by contemporary standards, and would have been very expensive. It would probably have had a mechanism with [[pulley]] and chains above, to lower it for managing the candles (possibly omitted from the painting for lack of room). The [[convex mirror]] at the back, in a wooden frame with scenes of [[Passion (Christianity)|The Passion]] painted behind glass, is shown larger than such mirrors could actually be made at this date – another discreet departure from realism by van Eyck. There is also no sign of a fireplace (including in the mirror), nor anywhere obvious to put one. Even the [[Orange (fruit)|orange]]s casually placed to the left are a sign of wealth; they were very expensive in Burgundy and may have been one of the items dealt in by Arnolfini. Further signs of luxury are the elaborate bed-hangings and the carvings on the chair and bench against the back wall (to the right, partly hidden by the bed), also the small [[Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting|Oriental carpet]] on the floor by the bed; many owners of such expensive objects placed them on tables, as they still do in the [[Netherlands]].<ref name = "CamDesc" /><ref name="Harbison 1991 37"/> There existed a friendship between [[Giovanni Arnolfini]] and Philip the Good who sent his court painter Jan van Eyck to portray Arnolfini Double. The relation possibly began with a [[tapestry]] order including the images of [[Notre-Dame de Paris|Notre Dame Cathedral]] in return of a good payment.<ref name=":0" />

The view in the mirror shows two figures just inside the door that the couple are facing. The second figure, wearing red, is presumably the artist although, unlike [[Diego Velázquez|Velázquez]] in {{Lang|es|[[Las Meninas]]}}, he does not seem to be painting. Scholars have made this assumption based on the appearance of figures wearing red head-dresses in some other van Eyck works (e.g., the ''[[Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?)]]'' and the figure in the background of the ''[[Madonna with Chancellor Rolin]]''). The dog is an early form of the breed now known as the [[Affenpinscher]].<ref name = "CamDesc" />

The painting is signed, inscribed and dated on the wall above the mirror: "''Johannes de eyck fuit hic 1434''" ("Jan van Eyck was here 1434"). The inscription looks as if it were painted in large letters on the wall, as was done with proverbs and other phrases at this period. Other surviving van Eyck signatures are painted in ''[[trompe-l'œil]]'' on the wooden frame of his paintings, so that they appear to have been carved in the wood.<ref name = "CamDesc" /><ref name="NG"/>