classical conversations essays - challenge 2

★ ∼ Van Eyck (slay!)

"i do as i can." — jan van eyck

jan van eyck was born at the latest in 1395, although more accurate estimates place it at 1380. he lived his life in flanders, or what's know today as belgium. during his lifetime, van eyck was quickly venerated by his peers and leaders for his artistic abilities, and from then to now, considered revolutionary to the world of art in the early renaissance era. during this period, flanders was a strong mercantile society, and due to the importance of its exports, rapidly grew in wealth, especially for the merchants, forming a class with a large amount of disposable income. one of van eyck's most widely known works is the arnolfini portrait, made in 1434 on an oak panel using oil paint, and is currently located at the national gallery in london.

northern renaissance is characterised by symbolism, a heavy move towards realism, better depictions of lighting, and much better colouration, and van eyck's the arnolfini portrait represents the work of the early northern renaissance with its attention to detail, its symbolism and its realistic details, perspective and lighting.

the scene depicted in the arnolfini portrait consists of two still figures, a man and a woman on opposite sides of the canvas, standing still and holding hands, with a mirror at their heads at the center of them, shaped like a cog. in the mirror, you can see two figures entering the room. above the mirror hangs a gold chandelier, with a single candle. there's a bed to the right of the lady, and a window and oranges to the left of the man. there's two pairs of shoes in the room, one pair red and one white, and a cute, fluffy brown dog at the feet of the two people. the lady is dressed in a bright, long, green gown, lined with fur, and is wearing a white veil. the man is in dark clothing, a purple robe, also lined with fur, and an enormous black hat.

you can see red all throughout the scene, in the bed, the bench, the shoes, and even the sliver of the cherry tree outside the window. there's also a prominent presence of green, due to a large part of the canvas being taken up by the brightly dressed and brightly lit woman. the fact that the composition can even get those bright colours is due to the medium, as it was painted with oil paints, preserving the pigments in the piece. our artist also demonstrated his technical excellence through the textures in the piece, for example, the gold chandelier. in earlier paintings (take the wilton diptych) the golden items are only seen as such due to the object in the painting, like crowns or sceptres, usually being gold, whereas in the arnolfini portrait, you can tell the chandelier is gold due to the excellent detail and uses of light, not just because the object is typically made with gold. you can see jan van eyck's outstanding skill all throughout the piece, in the fur linings and the silky veil.

of course, when you've been honing your craft since your youth, you're bound to be better than others who have not. and we know van eyck had been painting a long time. the first records we have of his existence anywhere shows that he worked for philip the good, the duke of burgundy who had control of the county of flanders, and was the paramount patron of the arts at the time. we also know that there was a strong presence of religious themes in a lot of his works, as is the same with the arnolfini portrait, the minute scenes of the crucifix being in the teeth of the cog.

this religiosity was manifesting in different ways than times before. there's was movement away from focusing on making their art style religious, for the sake of worship, and towards having a better grasp of anatomy, general science, and mathematics, to make their art more realistic. this is a movement both boosted and apart of by the renaissance, or in english, the rebirth. of course, this move to realism also competed with the idealisation of the human figure. you can see this through van eyck even deciding to make a portrait, which would not have happened in earlier times.

however, what the overall scene the painting depicts we do not know. while in the past, historians thought the piece to depict a hasty wedding, where the bride got pregnant outside of wedlock, so there was a rush to wed fast and this painting made to commemorate the event. however, we now know that giovanni di nicolao arnolfini (the husband) had two wives, and this painting was made between the two marriages. this revelation has obfuscated the some of the previous interpretations of this art, and currently the leading theory is that the painting depicts the wife after she died from childbirth. of course, some symbolism is still clear, like the presence of oranges and the bed in the living room to demonstrate the wealth of giovanni arnolfini, and the dogs encapsulation of loyalty between the two spouses.

as we understand our standard for a representative piece of the time needs to be focused on humans, be detailed and symbolic, have great lighting, perspective, and colouration, and needs to be a realistic oil painting, we find that van eyck's the arnolfini portrait fits these criteria perfectly. while the art at the time and this portrait had yet to master the science behind the art, the application of what they knew and the symbolism elevates the art of this period from the works we've seen before. 

the essay is 942 words in total! :D