ARHI 203 Lecture 9: Lecture 9 Week 6
23 Feb 2016
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Document Summary
Tensions between the symbolic and realistic interpretations of the image. A sense of what court life was like. Exquisite attention to and focus on detail gives it a photographic nature, and many people think that the image is documenting an event. Hairs on the dog, fur that arnolfini is wearing. It is not how it seems - a lot of hidden symbolisms and ideas. Image discussed as being a documentation of a wedding of the 2 central figures. The national gallery owns this piece and has declared that it is not a wedding scene. Arnolfini was a merchant from tuscany who lived in bruges. A death certificate unearthed proving that his wife would have been dead by th time this image was painted. Detail: chandelier burning candle over the man, but an extinguished one above the woman extinguished candle is classic iconography of death. Van eyck has included a mirror surrounded by scenes of the.
