Blog on Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck was born around 1380. He was a painter in the Netherlands and is a well known example of Northern Renaissance art. In 1425 he worked as court painter for the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the good. In 1429 he moved to Bruges where he later died in 1441. Jan van Eyck painted very realistically and tended to use oil paints.
A famous painting by him was the Arnolfini Portrait (pictured above). This painting has many symbolic features. The first is the dog by their feet. This shows fidelity, most likely implying the loyalty and faithfulness of their marriage. Another thing symbolic about the painting is the colors of their clothing. Green used to be associated with wealth and gentry. While purple was associated with people of lower status than cardinals, who the pope decreed would wear scarlet. Lastly, You can tell they are wealthy from their expensive outfits, and the oranges placed in the back which shows wealth.
I love hearing all of these theories on this one painting they show a tremendous amount of attention to detail and thought throughout the class.
ReplyDeletethanks for telling me so many information about jan van eyck, also i can understand a lot this famous wedding painting really means.
ReplyDeleteLike what I said in my blog that the interpretation could be endless, and each one of them is thought provoking. So many stuff to talk and think for a single piece. The fertility symbol in this one shown by color is very interesting to hear and see.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t pick up on the symbolism in the color of the clothing. I shall commend you for that. I like how you fleshed out the symbolism in terms of an explanation. Some people don’t put enough information (such as myself I have noticed a lot, working on that) and some people put too much information. You’ve hit that middle ground, which is good. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThe explanation of the uses of the colors was very nice to read and understand.
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