Van Eyck, Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife

There has been a long-standing argument among scholars on the actual meaning of the Van Eyck, Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife. Originally painted in the time period of the Northern Renaissance in nineteen forty-three. From my observation from several interpretations, it is in my educated opinion that this portrait has more of a checkered past because the overall meanings have dramatically changed throughout the years. On the one hand, the “authoritative” perception of the meaning of the portrait, which is the National Gallery, confirms that this is a “double portrait” and not of a couple having a marriage ceremony. Others speculate that the hand gestures within the painting symbolize recognition of power to the woman, although when at this point in the commentary the man was off from explaining these details further by another commentator who seemed to push the National Galleries interpretation. The art commentators confirm that everything in the photograph is symbolic of their wealth, but they are not aristocrats but wealthy merchants. We can tell that the two individuals are more than likely merchants because they are modestly dressed the time period was the artistic method of giving the illusion of space with the use of light and shadow. The reason why this painting was so unique is that many pictures before this were more two dimensional, this painting has a three-dimensional feel due to the many layers of white applied to the skin of the subjects.