Giovanni Arnolfini was a wealthy Italian merchant based in Flanders.  His wealth provided him with the opportunity to engage Jan van Eyck to record his wedding in 1434.  The portrait that resulted from van Eyck's association with Arnolfini is one of the most famous works to come out of the Renaissance.  But, to the unlearned eye of the average individual  raised on the dramatic computer generated images of today, the painting may appear drab, lifeless, and quite ordinary.  The painting, however, is anything but ordinary because of what is there but not seen.  There are mysteries to the painting that when solved provide the reader with a deeper understanding and appreciation of van Eyck's art.  The following excerpt is quoted from

After reading the passage below click on this link.  It will take you to the Web Gallery of Art where you can take another look at the Arnolfini portrait.  See if you can locate the items mentioned in this article.

[The Arnolfini portrait] is one of the most compelling pictures in the world.  This grave, beautifully costumed couple are such convincing personalities that once we have met them they persist in our memory as real people.  We remember their air of consequence and solemnity, although it is odd that they should be pictured thus, standing in a bedroom and surrounded by trivia: a little dog, pieces of fruit scattered on the window sill and a pair of pattens discarded on the floor.  It is odd that there is only one candle in the chandelier odd too that it is burning in the daytime, and that the artist has inscribed his name so conspicuously on the back wall.  This last is additionally surprising since at the time the picture was painted, more than five hundred years ago, it was unusual for a painter to sign his work at all.

The fact is that as we stand before this picture we are witnesses at a marriage ceremony.  The air of solemnity is explained when we know that the hands are joined in the marriage oath.  The painter is not only painter but witness and has inscribed his name on the wall in legal script of the kind proper to a document.  And the picture is a document in effect--a marriage certificate.  These two fine and serious people first solemnized their own marriage in complete solitude, as was possible under canon law at that time.  Later the picture was commissioned to reaffirm and record the event, and the "trivia" are not trivia at all but symbolic of the scene before us.

The discarded pattens refer to the biblical command, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."  this same symbol is used in other pictures , notably Crucifixions, to establish the holy or sacramental nature of the spot, which in this case is the nuptial chamber.  The dog symbolizes the marital virtue of faithfulness, the fruit refers to the fruit of the Garden of Eden, and the single candle is a multiple symbol.  It combines overlapping references to the candle that was carried in wedding processions and the burning candle frequently required at the taking of an oath, which is also the candle as a symbol of the all-seeing eye of God.

The mirror on the wall symbolizes purity.  The carved figure on the chair near the bed is Saint Margaret, the patron saint of childbirth.  All of these symbols were standard ones, now half forgotten but familiar five hundred years ago, an their combination within a single picture is too consistent to be coincidental.  Their rediscovery in relationship to the subjects of this double portrait changed it from one of the most intriguing pictures ever painted into one of the most impressive pictures in the world.