The Mysterious Masterpiece That No One Can Solve 

Example of a closed minded person

@@EmmaJohnsonShenanigans Closed-minded? An interpretation, basically... a guess as with many paintings.

Nothing in a painting, as in a film, is there accidentally, every detail is deliberate if often difficult to decipher.

@@theeastman9136 Yes, everything is deliberate but not everything has a deeper meaning other than ‘it looks good’ and I am not saying that’s the case in this painting but what my teacher was trying to instill in her students was a healthy skepticism of just assuming a classical interpretation of a work of art was the only interpretation. We misinterpret works of art in the modern age even when we have the artist themselves literally telling us what it’s about, there’s no reason to believe it wouldn’t be any different with art hundreds or even thousands of years old!

@@GeekFilterNet I agree with you. As a photographer and artist, it took me years to decipher the actual reasons and intuitions behind great photographs. Sometimes beautifully accidental, sometimes mysteriously deliberate.

@@QuantumLeap89 it’s easy to separate ourselves from people who lived long before us, especially famous people/people of history. We often put people like that on a pedestal which is why sometimes it’s a little jarring when they do something that reminds us that despite all the money, fame and prestige… they’re still just people. Age also has something to do with it. The sinking of the Titanic was tragic, but we aren’t devastated by it anymore. If it had occurred more recently than that would be a different story! Because it would be fresh in our minds. I hope that makes sense! Or at least that’s my opinion.

@@QuantumLeap89 Well thank you for your anecdotal life experience, I'll keep that in mind. However, we're talking about the 14th and 15th century here where artists *_weren't_* highly recognized and sought after just like theatre actors were on the lowest rung of the social ladder. A time where these talents and gifts were looked at as crafts like carpentry or pottery. The romantic arts have a history of going hand and hand with perfectionism, aka taking your work/life too seriously. Hope that answers your question.

It wasn't considered a joke at the time

It's like graffiti ...in a painting.

Alfred Hitchcock was in all his later films!

Very much the same technique usedniw in painting Warhammer miniatures!

@@rainbowstones5431 IKR??😉

Tears? A little dramatic?

😂🤣😂

@@bunnylarese2161 Ever since the internet was created people describe over-the-top emotional outbursts in response to things. Like "LOL". Does anyone really believe people are constantly laughing out loud, or rolling on the floor laughing, or laughing so hard their bodies are ejected into space or what-have-you? No. It's just that text requires a more...err...vibrant display of emotion in the hopes any emotion at all gets through.

Perspective is violated in the painting. Flemish artist did not follow the standard practice of a single vanishing point. The floor, chandelier and figures are all out of perspective and there are multiple vanishing points.

Like a fisheye lens!

Like someone else pointet out in the comments section "That it was most likely made using a very early and then secret technique of the pinhole camera"

@@speedomars3869 it's not that they deliberately didn't follow rules of perspective and the single vanishing point, those rules of perspective were not known at that time, it was later that the idea of a single vanishing point was discovered.

@@KrissFliss yes I would agree with you they discovered the technic and had lots of fun with it , knowing 500years later is will drive thought's idiots in the future mad, with endless hours and debates

Damn you just beat me to it, about the camera obscura.

@@ZER0-- :D

That's very interesting! Thank you so much!

Fantastic theory and documentary about the technology behind Renaissance art.

David Hockney has a book called, "Secret Knowledge" which go into this is detail. You should watch the Documentary, "Tims Vermeer". its so interesting.

The woman was not pregnant. And the wooden clogs were called “ pattens”. People wore them over their shoes, to keep their shoes free from the mud in the unpaved Medieval streets.

I dearly wish to see the painting 💗 must be a beautiful one

Did he have a facial deformity and is he also a rich man?

Until death do us part. He is holding his hand in a blessing pose.

What facial deformity? He looks like a normal dude to me.

@@RedDeadSakharine his philtrum and his columella are attached, possibly a minor cleft palette.

Wow!!! How beautiful! Thank you so much for your explanation. So many people in these times forget that people are not simply logical, but deeply emotional beings and we make our choices based on emotions. More then than now. Beautiful story of love ❤

Looks like a china dog/chinese guardian lion/foo dog

After some research the figure praying over a dragon up on the bed post appears to be Saint Margaret of Antioch. The figures below by the woman's hand appear to just be European grotesques/chimeras. Super vague & intriguing possible use of symbols. What an enigma of art.

We are looking through the eyes of the people in the reflection who are witnessing this event

Wish I could help you, but for all the art classes I've taken over the years, no instructor ever had a clue. Sorry.

@@landonstenersen3401 the artist? Standing with another finished work leaning on the wall behind him? If you see the reflection in the top right of a window it doesn't correspond to the full length window in main scene and, if a second window out of shot, there is no way the orientation would leave main scene with out a second point of lighting.

Every artist at this time-as well as before and after-used incredible amounts of symbolism in their work, bc the Art was supposed to tell viewers a story about the subject(s) portrayed....it was not produced to just look beautiful or interesting or whatever, as we saw with the dogs in the funerary figures. People who paid for the artwork demanded much more than that, combined with the status of being able to afford the works in the first place. Much of what was commonly known about the symbols portrayed when works were completed has been lost over the hundreds of years, and so art historians try to interpret the symbolism for us based on what is known about the artists and their subjects, as this woman has done.

My favourite too since childhood. Interesting video.

I like the picture of Einstein with his tongue out.

070322. christina hill , "It’s been solved! ... I read a book that convincingly proved that the ptg portrays a couple’s engagement. "

Did you actually watch the video? She's not pregnant.

@@fishyfishyy Mia Chong , "Did you actually watch the video? She's not pregnant."

@@fishyfishyy actually she IS pregnant, she died in childbirth.

It has not. This is a silly statement

Same here, though I personally was far more drawn to Caravaggio and his groundbreaking use of lighting. I see a lot of his lighting techniques in modern film and graphic novels

Same. 20 years since I studied this painting in college. The biography I read said the artist had the same birthday as me and that he was left-handed. Neither of which I can confirm with a google search. I have a shockingly bad memory so his work clearly struck a chord for me to remember so much as his nickname.

Here is the message i wrote to the person who uploaded the video. The cherry tree is not blooming it is fruiting so this would be june indeed in Italy. But they are wearing winter gowns. I don't know if you have ever been to italy but in june you do not wear fur lined wool gowns. There are other documentations of the place Giovanni lived and outside stood and Orangerie (or green house) which was the status of rich people who could afford thanks to this to have fruits much earlier than other people but also enjoy the sent of orange flowers And the oranges are a symbol of fertility and wealth but the orange are neglected and left to rot by the window showing how unimportant they are now. But the reality is that there is another explanation i will get to later. This is not the living room, this is the Bed Chamber, people didn't have beds in their living rooms they used their bedrooms to socialize, that was the norm among rich people and anybody allowed in their bed chamber was of the highest status among their acquaintances. It has been shown in further studies that the wife had a miscarriage and both her and the child died before this painting was made, which explains the dog and the pregnant pose. The shoes on the floor near the bed are also a symbol of death, hence the shoes displayed this way, while the people not wearing shoes is also a symbol of the sanctity of the painting. And finally you forget the two people in the painting who are witnesses of the union of Giovanni and his bride. In those days being pregnant out of wedlock was a disaster, so the ceremony had to be private and in the 15th century only witnesses were required, not priests and unions could be celebrated anywhere, including the bed chamber. So if this was indeed June the fur gowns are a way to hide the pregnancy while at the same time hinting at it, as a sort of secret only the people concerned could fully know. But it wasn't june, and this painting has no real seasons, just symbolisms. The witnesses are faceless because they are irrelevant. The painting just shows that the union was legal and that the woman was not a declassee and the child was not a bastard child, they could have paid any random person off the street to be a witness to the union as long as they made a cross on a document signifying they were there like the Painter did (I was there), or more likely the painter himself is the witness and remains faceless because it is all a dream and an allegory amd we do not really know if they married or not. And in the case of a union with an already pregnant woman, it was in the best interest of everyone to keep it secret. This is why the man is in mourning with a sad and grim face almost a dead decomposing face, while the wife is radiant and the dog is smiling. The man feels as good as dead and this painting is a tribute to his beloved woman and child. The one thing that is truly remarkable about this painting is that it was painted following the death of the unborn child and mother. The child is the one that is not present and yet everything is about death on this painting, from the candles to the mirror to the dog to the shoes, the hat (it was customary to wear a hat at a visitation, and in mourning), etc, .... Also the woman is actually painted lying down on her death bed if you turn the image sideways and the man's gesture is the gesture of the priest giving the last sacraments. Hence also the importance of the bed, which is where people were born, people consummated their union, gave birth and people died. This painting is a way to acknowledge the death and honour the lives of the wife and child and also to legitimise their unions post mortem, because of the religious superstitions about children dying or born out of wedlock and not christened yet who ended up in limbo and their unwed mothers in purgatory. This painting takes place in several periods in time, from when the woman was alive to the woman, pregnant, to the woman on her death bed, to the death of the child to the happiness this couple once had to the sadness the man finds himself in now. It is a Memento Mori painting and it must not be looked literally, because it is an allegory, an elegy, it is like a time machine traveling through space and time. This is actually the painting of a broken man with a broken heart who cries the death of his beloved wife and child. This is the meaning of this painting.

@@kachi2782 Your analyse is the best one

@@adeledeborah9862 Thank you i really can't get any credit. My brother is an art historian and spent 25 years on this piece alone in documentation, research and travel, and this is just a little of his 300 pages thesis and of our long conversations about this extraordinary masterpiece.

@@kachi2782 He has to be extraordinary doing his! I can see the dedication, giving that much time into studying a piece. An exciting life filled with passionate work.

@@adeledeborah9862 Thank you very much. He is quite insane, in a good way, when it comes to understanding some pieces or some painters. Now he is on the Japanese painter Ito Jakuchu who made the most extraordinary silk paintings of animals, especially roosters, trying to understand how a man could paint animals so perfectly, using ink on silk, which is maybe an even greater mystery than Jan Van Eyck.

Yeah mine too Terri. An artist friend brought me a print back from a London art gallery years ago. I framed it. Still on my front room wall years later.

FAVOURITE.

Terri, this is also if not my favourite painting, then definitely one of them. I think at first glance, the vibrant red and green and the fact that they are complimentary colours, really appeals to people. I lived in London for a year and during my lunch breaks would often walk over to see it at the national gallery. My brother-in-law absolutely loves to paint. He sits down in the basement for hours and does paintings of a variety of subjects and styles. He has taken great pleasure in doing his version of the masters like Van Gogh, Renoir, Klimt, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, etc. one Christmas Eve day l arrived at my sister’s home and the family were greeting me. My mother had said that l should see what Gregg was painting now. I said l wish he would paint Arnolfini and his wife and my mother said to go take a look. Yup, he had done the painting and l was blown away by how he virtually replicated that masterpiece!!! I was even jealous because l wanted the painting. It is larger than the original and l was in awe how he captured it all, from the figures to the chandelier to the mirror to the dog… just captured it beautifully. One day I’m going to ask him to do the painting for me. Naturally l would pay him. I wish you could see his rendition of this incredibly loved painting.❤️

@@wendycrawford1792 Wow!! That sounds amazing. Your brother is lucky to be so talented. I wish I had some artistic talent, but I can't even draw a stickman. His copy of the Arnolfini portrait must have taken ages...there's so much detail in it. I wish I could see it too. I also wish I could spend my lunch breaks looking at this masterpiece. You're so lucky to have been able to see it in person...I won't lie, I'm jealous.

Is the video on RU-vid?

@@PrettyGlory it sure is. I don’t recall the title, though. Pretty sure it was by Total History. Maybe Absolute History…

geez, in summer nonetheless! How she hasn't passed out from heat exhaustion is beyond me...

@@lilmissjoodypoody mini ice age to start

@@PrettyGlory It's A Stitch in Time S01E02 (season 1, episode2) Arolfini and it's very good.

That's an interesting fact! Thank you for sharing!

I think it's compliment. Sucker might not be the right word. To say he was obsessed with details would be better.

@@YTistooannoying nice correction. Knowing word meanings helps avoid this type of mishap.

@@victrola2007 My gut feeling is that the person who put this video together isn't educated enough to be talking on the issue. She got so many things wrong and missed others. Were I grading this, she would get a 75.

No lenses were used in making this painting. It is NOT a projection. ( early lenses had significant spherical aberration and would have resulted in distortion of the image ) There is nothing in the painting that can not easily be achieved using a perspective framework and the basic perspective tools available to artists in this timeframe.

Here is the message i wrote to the person who uploaded the video. The cherry tree is not blooming it is fruiting so this would be june indeed in Italy. But they are wearing winter gowns. I don't know if you have ever been to italy but in june you do not wear fur lined wool gowns. There are other documentations of the place Giovanni lived and outside stood and Orangerie (or green house) which was the status of rich people who could afford thanks to this to have fruits much earlier than other people but also enjoy the sent of orange flowers And the oranges are a symbol of fertility and wealth but the orange are neglected and left to rot by the window showing how unimportant they are now. But the reality is that there is another explanation i will get to later. This is not the living room, this is the Bed Chamber, people didn't have beds in their living rooms they used their bedrooms to socialize, that was the norm among rich people and anybody allowed in their bed chamber was of the highest status among their acquaintances. It has been shown in further studies that the wife had a miscarriage and both her and the child died before this painting was made, which explains the dog and the pregnant pose. The shoes on the floor near the bed are also a symbol of death, hence the shoes displayed this way, while the people not wearing shoes is also a symbol of the sanctity of the painting. And finally you forget the two people in the painting who are witnesses of the union of Giovanni and his bride. In those days being pregnant out of wedlock so the ceremony had to be private and in the 15th century only witnesses were required, not priests and unions could be celebrated anywhere, including the bed chamber. So if this was indeed June the fur gowns are a way to hide the pregnancy while at the same time hinting at it, as a sort of secret only the people concerned could fully know. The witnesses are faceless because they are irrelevant. The painting just shows that the union was legal and they could have paid any random person off the street to be a witness to the union as long as they made a cross on a document signifying they were there like the Painter (I was there, or more likely the painter himself is the witness and remains faceless because it is all a dream and an allegory. And in the case of a union with an already pregnant woman, it was in the best interest of everyone to keep it secret. This is why the man is in mourning with a sad and grim face almost a dead face, while the wife is radiant and the dog is smiling. The one thing that it truly remarkable about this painting is that it was painted following the death of the unborn child. The child is the one that is not present and yet everything is about death on this painting, from the candles to the mirror to the dog to the shoes, the hat *it was customary to wear a hat at a visitation, and in mourning(, etc, .... Also the woman is actually painted lying down on her death bed if you turn the image sideways and the man's gesture is the gesture of the priest giving the last sacraments. Hence also the importance of the bed, which is where people were born, people consummated their union, gave birth and people died. This painting is a way to acknowledge the death and honour the lives of the wife and child and also to legitimise their unions because of the religious superstitions about children dying or born out of wedlock and not christened yet who ended up in limbo or purgatory. This painting takes place in several periods in time, from when the woman was alive to the woman ion her death bed to the pregnancy, the death of the child to the happiness this couple once had to the sadness the man finds himself in now. It is a Memento Mori painting and it must not be looked literally, because it is an allegory, an elegy, it is like a time machine traveling through space and time. This is actually the painting of a broken man with a broken heart who cries the death of his beloved wife and child. This is the meaning of this painting.

Her hairline is very far back, such as Queen Elizabeth had, and the women in her court were made to have. The man looks much poorer then the woman who looks extremely rich. The two figures in the mirror also have clothing made from bight cloths such as only the rich could afford and may be her attendants. No painter could afford those colours. The mans shoes are wooden outside shoes with heals to keep his feet out of the mud, and since he still has his outside hat on, it looks like he may have just arrived. I believe she is pregnant... I have fitted clothing on customers for about 16 years and there is no way that cloth would stick out that far, unless pregnant. As her shoes are off, and she is in her bedroom, it looks as if she may have got out of bed. Perhaps the man is a priest who gave her a blessing for her baby? I think it's very likely, especially as there are religious paintings around the mirror. The little dog is probably just her pet. There is no way the two are married. Like chalk and cheese. Also.. the painter did not make much effort painting the mans face at all; all the detail is for the important rich woman with the plucked or receding hairline.

Here is the message i wrote to the person who uploaded the video. The cherry tree is not blooming it is fruiting so this would be june indeed in Italy. But they are wearing winter gowns. I don't know if you have ever been to italy but in june you do not wear fur lined wool gowns. There are other documentations of the place Giovanni lived and outside stood and Orangerie (or green house) which was the status of rich people who could afford thanks to this to have fruits much earlier than other people but also enjoy the sent of orange flowers And the oranges are a symbol of fertility and wealth but the orange are neglected and left to rot by the window showing how unimportant they are now. But the reality is that there is another explanation i will get to later. This is not the living room, this is the Bed Chamber, people didn't have beds in their living rooms they used their bedrooms to socialize, that was the norm among rich people and anybody allowed in their bed chamber was of the highest status among their acquaintances. It has been shown in further studies that the wife had a miscarriage and both her and the child died before this painting was made, which explains the dog and the pregnant pose. The shoes on the floor near the bed are also a symbol of death, hence the shoes displayed this way, while the people not wearing shoes is also a symbol of the sanctity of the painting. And finally you forget the two people in the painting who are witnesses of the union of Giovanni and his bride. In those days being pregnant out of wedlock was a disaster, so the ceremony had to be private and in the 15th century only witnesses were required, not priests and unions could be celebrated anywhere, including the bed chamber. So if this was indeed June the fur gowns are a way to hide the pregnancy while at the same time hinting at it, as a sort of secret only the people concerned could fully know. But it wasn't june, and this painting has no real seasons, just symbolisms. The witnesses are faceless because they are irrelevant. The painting just shows that the union was legal and that the woman was not a declassee and the child was not a bastard child, they could have paid any random person off the street to be a witness to the union as long as they made a cross on a document signifying they were there like the Painter did (I was there), or more likely the painter himself is the witness and remains faceless because it is all a dream and an allegory amd we do not really know if they married or not. And in the case of a union with an already pregnant woman, it was in the best interest of everyone to keep it secret. This is why the man is in mourning with a sad and grim face almost a dead decomposing face, while the wife is radiant and the dog is smiling. The man feels as good as dead and this painting is a tribute to his beloved woman and child. The one thing that is truly remarkable about this painting is that it was painted following the death of the unborn child and mother. The child is the one that is not present and yet everything is about death on this painting, from the candles to the mirror to the dog to the shoes, the hat (it was customary to wear a hat at a visitation, and in mourning), etc, .... Also the woman is actually painted lying down on her death bed if you turn the image sideways and the man's gesture is the gesture of the priest giving the last sacraments. Hence also the importance of the bed, which is where people were born, people consummated their union, gave birth and people died. This painting is a way to acknowledge the death and honour the lives of the wife and child and also to legitimise their unions post mortem, because of the religious superstitions about children dying or born out of wedlock and not christened yet who ended up in limbo and their unwed mothers in purgatory. This painting takes place in several periods in time, from when the woman was alive to the woman, pregnant, to the woman on her death bed, to the death of the child to the happiness this couple once had to the sadness the man finds himself in now. It is a Memento Mori painting and it must not be looked literally, because it is an allegory, an elegy, it is like a time machine traveling through space and time. This is actually the painting of a broken man with a broken heart who cries the death of his beloved wife and child. This is the meaning of this painting.

@@kachi2782 Thank you. What you are saying seems quite logical and perhaps more in keeping with someone who has studied this type of symbolism - have you?

@@AuntLizzie Thank you. My brother is an art historian and spent 25 years on this piece alone in documentation, research and travels, and this is just a little of his 300 pages thesis on this painting and of our long conversations about this extraordinary masterpiece. I am just a wild life vet but i have always liked this painting, because of all the questions it raises. I am usually not a big fan of this painter, but this painting is truly magnificent and fascinating.

@@kachi2782 What is the name of your brother's dissertation? Is it accessible to read? It certainly sounds interesting.

I saw that show it was fascinating to watch the try to recreate the dress.

I have seen it, it’s quite small, but exquisite

Here is the message i wrote to the person who uploaded the video. The cherry tree is not blooming it is fruiting so this would be june indeed in Italy. But they are wearing winter gowns. I don't know if you have ever been to italy but in june you do not wear fur lined wool gowns. There are other documentations of the place Giovanni lived and outside stood and Orangerie (or green house) which was the status of rich people who could afford thanks to this to have fruits much earlier than other people but also enjoy the sent of orange flowers And the oranges are a symbol of fertility and wealth but the orange are neglected and left to rot by the window showing how unimportant they are now. But the reality is that there is another explanation i will get to later. This is not the living room, this is the Bed Chamber, people didn't have beds in their living rooms they used their bedrooms to socialize, that was the norm among rich people and anybody allowed in their bed chamber was of the highest status among their acquaintances. It has been shown in further studies that the wife had a miscarriage and both her and the child died before this painting was made, which explains the dog and the pregnant pose. The shoes on the floor near the bed are also a symbol of death, hence the shoes displayed this way, while the people not wearing shoes is also a symbol of the sanctity of the painting. And finally you forget the two people in the painting who are witnesses of the union of Giovanni and his bride. In those days being pregnant out of wedlock so the ceremony had to be private and in the 15th century only witnesses were required, not priests and unions could be celebrated anywhere, including the bed chamber. So if this was indeed June the fur gowns are a way to hide the pregnancy while at the same time hinting at it, as a sort of secret only the people concerned could fully know. The witnesses are faceless because they are irrelevant. The painting just shows that the union was legal and they could have paid any random person off the street to be a witness to the union as long as they made a cross on a document signifying they were there like the Painter (I was there, or more likely the painter himself is the witness and remains faceless because it is all a dream and an allegory. And in the case of a union with an already pregnant woman, it was in the best interest of everyone to keep it secret. This is why the man is in mourning with a sad and grim face almost a dead face, while the wife is radiant and the dog is smiling. The one thing that it truly remarkable about this painting is that it was painted following the death of the unborn child. The child is the one that is not present and yet everything is about death on this painting, from the candles to the mirror to the dog to the shoes, the hat *it was customary to wear a hat at a visitation, and in mourning(, etc, .... Also the woman is actually painted lying down on her death bed if you turn the image sideways and the man's gesture is the gesture of the priest giving the last sacraments. Hence also the importance of the bed, which is where people were born, people consummated their union, gave birth and people died. This painting is a way to acknowledge the death and honour the lives of the wife and child and also to legitimise their unions because of the religious superstitions about children dying or born out of wedlock and not christened yet who ended up in limbo or purgatory. This painting takes place in several periods in time, from when the woman was alive to the woman ion her death bed to the pregnancy, the death of the child to the happiness this couple once had to the sadness the man finds himself in now. It is a Memento Mori painting and it must not be looked literally, because it is an allegory, an elegy, it is like a time machine traveling through space and time. This is actually the painting of a broken man with a broken heart who cries the death of his beloved wife and child. This is the meaning of this painting.

@@kachi2782 That was a very good read, thank you!

@@valeriemcdonald440 Thank you, and you're welcome, my brother is an art historian, he spent 25 years on this painting. That's all i remember about what he told me regarding this piece, but his thesis on it is about 300 pages. It is filled with symbols and riddles. He owns a very accurate copy of this painting in his house and when you stand in front of it, you feel like you are sucked into it. If you ever get to the met, go see it. To me it should be just as famous if not more than the monalisa.

@Kirsten Rohla Thank you Kirsten, i will have to ask my brother. I do otherwise have a copy of it, and if he allows me i will scan it and put it online.

@@kachi2782 Mainly in agreement with you. The man's hat is that of an abbé and too big for him. He is posed in giving a blessing and one of the 'witnesses' could have been the actual abbé. The woman's pose is indeed horizontal in how the muscles look. The fact that the rich man stands without shoes is part of the humility aspect of the scene and you are right that there is an air of heartbreak.

Maybe because she is dead after all

Spirit dog. Maybe a reference to the lady already being dead? Like “I’ve been commissioned to paint this woman so I can’t remove her in my details so let’s remove the dog”

also they aren't holding hands

It is not a reflection but 2 different (although connected) scenes

Yep! A lot of the symbolism in this painting elude to fertility, life and death.

@john roberts Amazing relatation 😅😅🤣

"what kind of potatoes were they?" 🤣

Funny 😄👍

Potatoes came only after the discovery of the New World, so no potatoes unfortunately

Also, why is the couple not holding hands in the reflection?

This is now my favorite piece! I read about the underdrawing and should have included that in the video! From the sketch, it seems like van Eyck altered Giovanni Arnolfini's facial features quite a bit. Thank you for all of those great facts!

It was stolen like most pieces at the MET or the British Museum or the Louvres, etc, ... either by colonialists or by so called allies who saved europe from the nazi to make it theirs, etc, ...

It does have a bad vibe.

Thank you so much! It took a while but it was lot of fun to make.

I guess you know about the mahl (or maul) stick painter's use for supporting the hand to keep from touching down on the painting.

Since art is the expression of the soul of a culture, I’d say that the rubbish we are now putting out in the name of Art shows that we’ve abandoned something much more precious than the art itself.

@@avicennitegh1377 Yes I do and in fact I actually made one. Thank you for reminding me, as I often get so involved in my painting I forget to use it.

@@CSUnger Oh yes, I feel that so strongly, especially recently reading that in America a major art competition was won by an AI drawing machine. The same goes with films is that the emphasis is now all on the technology i.e. special effects and the impact it will give the viewer. Last night I watched the first two episodes of 'The Rings of Power' and they had the audacity to call it a Tolkien series. I accept on my 64" Smart TV some scenes did look good but the story line was boring as hell. No way did if have any soul, because at the heart of LOTR is the 'soul' of a great HUMAN writer, which to me is the same for an artist who in their paintings is going to reach out to us differently. For me, it is 'Nighthawks' by Edward Hopper because for some reason it triggers a very strong human response as it reminds me so much of when I was young hitch-hiking around the UK and Europe and many times being dropped off late at night outside road side cafés we had back in the early 1970s. Van Eyck is the master of that because not just in his unbelievable and some would say 'non-human' perspective, detail and artistic draughtsman skills but the mood and atmosphere of both the man and the woman whose expressions and how they stand just convey so much to the viewer. I began painting far too late (i.e. sadly ever achieving the skills I am only just learning to appreciate) but occasionally when I 'bore' people (LOL) who come to my house and view my work, their reaction and comments really (more so than all my other achievements in my life) absolutely delight me, as in the tiniest way they are giving me what you so rightly say is by so many so-called artists are abandoning.

@@wakeupuk3860 totally understandable :)

She died

Thank you so much!

Arnolfini and Van Eyck lived in Brugge (Bruges) in the then Burgundic Netherlands, not in Italy. Belgian cherries fruit end of June and July. Summers can be chilly at times over here. Especially in those times as it was in the little ice-age form 1300 to the 1800's. So I would not over-analyze their clothing. Not impossible they wore these in that season. At the same time it was also a medium to show of their wealth, even if it was in a understated way. Finally, your statement that it was a memento mori is absolutely right, and I don’t think many scholars would state otherwise. It remains a wonderful peace of art. I never saw it in real, but I had the privilege of seeing the Ghent altarpiece (Lam Gods) often when I studied there and I was almost able to touch the Virgin of the chancellor Rolin in the Louvre. Every time it is an out of time experience to be in the presence of the works of the founder of modern European painting.

@@taiqidong9841 According to other research it is also presumed that the portrait might have been painted in the Arnolfini residence in Lucca Italy., or painted as if Giovanni and his bride were in their residence in Lucca which Eyck visited. Arnolfini who came from the Republic of Genoa didn't live in Burges all year round, he moved back and forth between his homeland of Genoa and Bruges, which was just a place of business as the first stock exchange and also one of the most important maritime route at that time, due to its very strategic location. But Giovanni was filthy rich, and i mean insanely rich, he was THE jetsetter of his time, even if his jet were ships, in today's money he would have a fortune of hundreds of billions and needless to say he travelled intensively. Bruges was his headquarter and office, but he had residences everywhere and was friend to all the leaders of that time. Van Eyck and Giovanni were pretty close and had much more than a painter/subject relationship and Van Eyck visited Italy many times, like every artists of that time, due to Italy progressively becoming the heart of the renaissance. And the Arnolfini residence in Lucca had a magnificent Orangerie and many cherry trees. So it could be that the Painter might have been to the Arnolfini residence in Lucca, and this might also explain the Jan Van Eyck, I was there , message. Maybe he actually painted this on the wall of the Lucca residence. It is all open to suppositions. The more you try to understand this painting the more it gets complicated ! And also, it is a misconception that the region of Bruges was part of the Burgundian "Netherlands". It was actually part of the Duchy or Burgundy (in Flanders), ruled by, if i am not mistaken, Philip the good, or Philip the bold, or John the Fearless. They had such cool names ! Thanks for the comment.

@@kachi2782 Yes, ok, well, it's complicated innit. The name Burgurdian Netherlands is a normal way, here, in Belgium, to try to describe under witch master we served at that time (later on we had the Spanish Netherlands, the Austrian Netherlands, the French Netherlands, the DUTCH Netherlands (really) and than we stopped as we got independent and later on we skipped naming the era after the Fritz (twice !!!), but you get it, right?). Now, Van Eyck traveled a lot, in secret, that is, and so did Arnolfini (not in secret), but, you know,... the style of the furniture, the style of the windows... it is so very ... Brugge Anyway, You should come, It's a treat when you're into this. Remarkably well preserved. Awfully filled with tourists everywhere, but if it gets to you, you also have Gent (Ghent), Ieper, Antwerpen, like ten cities worth going to, really. And i'm not even talking about Brussels and the Walloon region... Anyway, doesn't matter. It was a great era, when Brugge and later Antwerpen (Antwerp) and after the Spaniards bastards won: Amsterdam, where the Manhattans of their time with all the vanitas you can expect. Nowadays, we probably should try Beijing to feel the same thrill, it's science fiction over there as I heard...

@@taiqidong9841 Your english is so good i had no idea i was talking to a Belgian. Then you certainly know better about the history of this area and era than i ever will. I am not a historian at all. On peut egalement parler en francais si vous le voulez. Je suis Islandais mais je vis en Suisse depuis quelques annees et j'ai fait une partie de mes etudes de medecine veterinaire en france (unfortunately, i really loathe this country) . J'ai visite la Belgique deux fois, c'est absolument magnifique, l'architecture est phenomenale. les Belges sont tres agreables et tout est a proximite . La region de Burgundy (Je ne sais pas si c'est Bourgogne en Francais car la Bourgogne me semble etre autre chose) etait vraiment le centre financier de l'europe occidentale pendant tres longtemps et ce n'est peut etre pas une coincidence que le centre financier et le quartier le plus riche de New York s'appelle Manhattan (un nom Hollandais). Pour ce qui est de Pekin, J'ai vecu assez longtemps en Asie, surtout au Japon (pres de 20 ans) et j'ai visite la chine plusieurs fois, et Pekin, Shanghai et Hongkong sont tres certainement des centres financiers tres important mais avec ces deux milliard d'habitants, la Chine ne pourra jamais etre un pays prospere, et la grande majorite des chinois vivent encore de la meme facon que leur parents et grand parents avant eux et ne ressentent absolument pas le progres economique de leur pays. Je pense que Bruges etait reellement le Manhattan de son epoque ou le Tokyo des annees 80 pendant la periode bulle, Etes vous d'origine asiatique ou votre screen name est en rapport avec une passion pour la Chine ? Si vous avez l'occasion de visiter la Chine, faites le, c'est vraiment un pays phenomenal avec une culture a laquelle pres de la moitie de la planet doit enormement, a commencer par le Japon, mais aussi le Moyen Orient, la Grece antique, la Rome antique. La chine, la Perse (Sumeria et Mesopotamie) , l'Egypte, l'Inde et les civilization sud americaines pre colombiennes (Incas, Azteques, Mayas) sont vraiment les 5 civilizations qui comptent le plus au monde a mon avis, les autres civilization n'auraient jamais existees sans elles et nous n'auriont probablement pas eu la Grece et Rome antique, et plus tard la Renaissance Italienne et Europeenne. Meme en tant que descendant de Vikings je dois m'incliner devant ces civilisations.

Here is the message i wrote to the person who uploaded the video. The cherry tree is not blooming it is fruiting so this would be june indeed in Italy. But they are wearing winter gowns. I don't know if you have ever been to italy but in june you do not wear fur lined wool gowns. There are other documentations of the place Giovanni lived and outside stood and Orangerie (or green house) which was the status of rich people who could afford thanks to this to have fruits much earlier than other people but also enjoy the sent of orange flowers And the oranges are a symbol of fertility and wealth but the orange are neglected and left to rot by the window showing how unimportant they are now. But the reality is that there is another explanation i will get to later. This is not the living room, this is the Bed Chamber, people didn't have beds in their living rooms they used their bedrooms to socialize, that was the norm among rich people and anybody allowed in their bed chamber was of the highest status among their acquaintances. It has been shown in further studies that the wife had a miscarriage and both her and the child died before this painting was made, which explains the dog and the pregnant pose. The shoes on the floor near the bed are also a symbol of death, hence the shoes displayed this way, while the people not wearing shoes is also a symbol of the sanctity of the painting. And finally you forget the two people in the painting who are witnesses of the union of Giovanni and his bride. In those days being pregnant out of wedlock so the ceremony had to be private and in the 15th century only witnesses were required, not priests and unions could be celebrated anywhere, including the bed chamber. So if this was indeed June the fur gowns are a way to hide the pregnancy while at the same time hinting at it, as a sort of secret only the people concerned could fully know. The witnesses are faceless because they are irrelevant. The painting just shows that the union was legal and they could have paid any random person off the street to be a witness to the union as long as they made a cross on a document signifying they were there like the Painter (I was there, or more likely the painter himself is the witness and remains faceless because it is all a dream and an allegory. And in the case of a union with an already pregnant woman, it was in the best interest of everyone to keep it secret. This is why the man is in mourning with a sad and grim face almost a dead face, while the wife is radiant and the dog is smiling. The one thing that it truly remarkable about this painting is that it was painted following the death of the unborn child. The child is the one that is not present and yet everything is about death on this painting, from the candles to the mirror to the dog to the shoes, the hat *it was customary to wear a hat at a visitation, and in mourning(, etc, .... Also the woman is actually painted lying down on her death bed if you turn the image sideways and the man's gesture is the gesture of the priest giving the last sacraments. Hence also the importance of the bed, which is where people were born, people consummated their union, gave birth and people died. This painting is a way to acknowledge the death and honour the lives of the wife and child and also to legitimise their unions because of the religious superstitions about children dying or born out of wedlock and not christened yet who ended up in limbo or purgatory. This painting takes place in several periods in time, from when the woman was alive to the woman ion her death bed to the pregnancy, the death of the child to the happiness this couple once had to the sadness the man finds himself in now. It is a Memento Mori painting and it must not be looked literally, because it is an allegory, an elegy, it is like a time machine traveling through space and time. This is actually the painting of a broken man with a broken heart who cries the death of his beloved wife and child. This is the meaning of this painting.

@@kachi2782 Wow. Incredible. Thank you for taking the time to write that!

@@Incus_Audio My pleasure. There are plenty more things to say about this painting. For instance the dog is not reflected in the mirror because it doesn7t exist, it only represents death.

@@kachi2782 Ayo! I NEVER even considered that! Wow that crazy how much thought went into this! Wow!

@@kachi2782 thanks for the explanation, I think you are right.

They are called cornettes and they were a fashionable hairstyle at the time! I see what you're getting at because there's no reason an artist who enjoys symbolism couldn't put that into his personal work but remember despite the mystery, this is a painting someone paid for, I'm not sure a commissioner in this time period would appreciate the artist painting him holding hands with something inhuman or demonic.

Thanks!

I was going to say the same thing!

And also they don't look like they are in bloom, all I see is cherries on that tree, they are well past bloom. I'm confused.

@@emilymann1175 my thought exactly. Not in bloom, fruiting! Also, if fruiting, why not a pregnancy?

What? A misused word?? This entire channel should shut down and the painting thrown out.

@@kentbehrens2814 fruit without the bloom. hmmm maybe she died in pregnancy but the child lived?

Oops... Thank you for this! I try my best with pronunciations, but don't always get them right. So sorry about that!

this has to be one of the weirdest things I've ever read.

@@axemaster8331 -> what implicates your reaction - stranger things exist or this is completely made up by a woman, who desperately seek therapy? *Ultima Thule, The Perfect Story* shall be the title of my autobiography and it will explain how difficult it was to be respected for the person I am. I don't have to make myself so vulnerable, but it makes a difference when more people can see the signs that this is a weird moment in time - the time when everything falls into the right place again and I got some extra tools to do a good job. It doesn't cost you anything to give it a try, but debunking the whole idea makes you superior to me, isn't it - this is a once, but never again offer and when the final curtain falls, there won't be a second chance to react appropriate. Take it or leave it, you are not the one that makes the difference and RU-vid is not the place where wonders will happen anyway. I'm DONE with this poisoned mentality and one shall have to find a solution anyway because HUMANITY is immortal, although people are not. This is the end of the World as we know it and the beginning of our personal engagement - help when you can make a difference and otherwise, stay out of sight!!!

I think it relates to artistic movements, standards of attractiveness / beauty trends, and status symbols. Through history, these things have changed and the stylization of portraits reflects those shifting values. After all, it was expensive to commission art, so the style in which people were painted was part of that overall statement about their tastes and socioeconomic standing. You can observe the shifting tastes throughout time, like the frolicking, puckered-lip ‘porcelain doll’ look you see in portraits of the Rococo era.

People in today's world have amazing cameras on their phone and yet, so many people facetune and Photoshop their face or body to look poreless, younger, slimmer, taller, bigger ass, bigger lips, muscles, tanned or pale. People want to fit the beauty standards of today, the way the people in the past wanted to fit the beauty standards of the time. I paint in oils and EVERY TIME I do somebody's portrait they say the same thing _"Make me look pretty/ handsome, and don't accentuate XYZ"._ 🙄🙄 Besides, there's also trends in art too, that's why many paintings have a combo of beauty standards and art style trends that can be seen of the time.

@@ophilianecr I take your point about people wanting to look good but, who wants to look ugly?

When everything else is highly skilled except a few details, it means it's a stylistic choice.

@@PanglossDr omg. Beauty standards change dude. Who wants to look like they have sausage lips due to an allergic reaction??? Yet plenty of people get their face pumped full of filler! You only *think* they're ugly because you're brainwashed to believe in different beauty standards 🙄

Thank god you're not an art analyst or an archaeologist or historian or theologian.

@@kachi2782 LOL exactly

There is no reflection of the dog in the mirror, look closely. Also, the artist was known tobe deeply obsessed over symbolisms in little detail. So, thinking that this painting depicts the casual life of casual people is very lazy thing.