The Arnolfini Portrait - a portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami

The Arnolfini Portrait (full title: Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife) is a 1434 painting by Jan van Eyck.

This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife Giovanna Cenami, but is not intended as a record of their wedding. His wife is not pregnant, as is often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress in the contemporary fashion.

The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway. One may be the painter himself.

The medium is oil on oak, and its dimensions are 82.2 x 60 cm. It is signed, inscribed and dated: "Johannes de eyck fuit hic". It is currently part of the collection of the National Gallery in London, which acquired it in 1842.

External links

• The Arnolfini Portrait on the National Gallery website (http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG186)
• Mystery of the Marriage (http://www.open2.net/renaissance/prog1/script/scriptp1.htm)
• The Arnolfini Portrait (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/eyck/arnolfini/arnolfini.jpg)