Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait Author(S): Erwin Panofsky Reviewed Work(S): Source: the Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol

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Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait Author(s): Erwin Panofsky Reviewed work(s): Source: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 64, No. 372 (Mar., 1934), pp. 117- 119+122-127 Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/865802 . Accessed: 12/09/2012 10:56

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http://www.jstor.org JAN VAN EYCK'S ARNOLFINI PORTRAIT BY ERWIN PANOFSKY OR about three quarters of a cen- in the inventories (a man and a woman stand- tury Jan van Eyck's full-length ing in a room and joining hands) is absolutely portrait of a newly married couple unique in northern fifteenth-century panel- (or, to speak more exactly, a man painting, jits identity with the London portrait and a woman represented in the seems to be fairly well established; moreover, act of contracting matrimony)1 has been almost considering that the picture formerly belong- unanimously acknowledged to be the portrait ing to the Hapsburg princesses disappeared of Giovanni Arnolfini, a native of Lucca, who after 1789, and the London portrait appeared in settled at Bruges before 1421 and later attained 1815, lit seems safe to assume that the latter is the rank of a " Conseiller du Duc de identical with the former and was carried off Bourgogne " and " G6n6ral des Finances en during the Napoleonic wars. In addition, the Normandie," and his wife Jeanne de Cename London portrait corresponds to the descriptions (or, in Italian, Cenami) whose father, Guillaume in several respects, particularly the date (1434) de Cename, also came from Lucca, but lived and the mirror reflecting the couple from in Paris from the beginning of the fifteenth behind.5 century until his death.2 But owing to certain There are only two circumstances which circumstances which require some investigation, periodically give rise to discussion and recently this identification has been disputed from time led Monsieur Louis Dimier 6 to the conclusion to time. that the picture in the National Gallery cannot The " orthodox theory " is based on the be identical with the picture mentioned in the assumption that the London portrait [PLATE I] inventories: firstly, the enigmatical inscription is identical with a picture acquired by Don Diego on the London portrait: " Johannes de Eyck de Guevara, a Spanish grandee, and presented by fuit hic "; secondly, the fact that, in Carel him to Margaret of Austria, Governor of the Vermander's biography of Jan van Eyck (pub- Netherlands, by whom it was bequeathed to lished in 1604), the " Hapsburg picture " is her successor, Queen Mary of Hungary. This described in the following manner: ". . in picture is mentioned in two inventories of Lady een Tafereelken twee Conterfeytsels van Oly- Margaret's Collection (one made in 1516, the Verwe, van een Man en een Vrouwe, die mal- other in 1523), which give the name of the cander de rechter handt gaven als in Houwelijck " " vergaderende, en worden ghetrouwt van Fides, gentleman" portrayed as Hernoul le fin and Arnoult fin " respectively, as well as in the die se t'samengaf." Translated into English, the inventory of Queen Mary's property made after passage reads: " On a small panel two her death in 1558." From this we must con- portraits in oils, of a man and woman taking clude that she brought it with her to Spain each other by the right hand, [note that, in reality, the man the woman's when she left the Netherlands in i555, and in grasps right hand 1789 it is still mentioned the works of with his left :] as if they were contracting a among and art adorning the palace of Charles at marriage; they were married by Fides who III, joined them to each other." Madrid.' As for the London portrait, we only From this Monsieur Dimier infers that the know that it was discovered at Brussels in 1815 by an English Major-General called and "Hapsburg picture " not only showed a Hay bridal pair as in the London subsequently taken to England where it was panel, but also purchased by the National in a Personification of Faith who fulfilled the Gallery 1842. same office as, for the in As the subject-matter of the picture described instance, priest the 1 " 5 The fact that the picture is called a large one in the W. H. James Weale: Hubert and van John Eyck," inventories (while, in reality, it is not larger than 0.845 19o8 (" Weale: I "), p. 69 et W. H. and by seq.; James Weale, o.624 cm.) is no obstacle. Mr. Weale is obviously right in M. W. Brockwell: " The van Eycks and their Art,"" Weale: II 1912 pointing out that " large " and " small " are relative terms, (" "), p. 14 et seq. Both with bibliography. and that the panel is set down " 2 For the Cename as " large in comparison family and the personality of Giovanni with those preceding it in the of In addition Arnolfini L. " Etudes inventory 1516. a cf. Mirot, Lucquoises," Bibl. de l'Ecole picture which was " small " for a late des Chartes, XCI, et sixteenthrcentury writer 1930, p. Ioo, seq., especially p. I14 like Vermander, was " large " when judged by the standards 3 These inventories are reprinted in Weale: I. and Weale p. 70o of about 140oo. As for the inventory of 1555/58 it is obviously II, p. i4. In Weale: II a third inventory of Lady based on an earlier one. Margaret's Collection, made in is also " 1524 quoted. This is 6 Revue de l'Art," XXXVI, 1932, p. 187, et and said to contain a similar of the seq. description picture. As for also November, 1932. Monsieur Dimier's statements were Queen Mary's inventory, cf. R. Beer: " Jahrb. d. d. Allerh. Kunstslgn. already contradicted, though not properly disproved, by Mr. Kaiserh.," XII, 189I, p. CLVIII, Nr. 85. M. Jirmounsky, " Gazette des K. " Zeitschrift Beaux-Arts," LXXIV, 1932, 4 Justi: filr bildende Kunst," XXII, 1887: p. 423, and also December, 1932. Otra vara de alto 7 " pintura y tres quartos de ancho; Hombre y Carel Vermander: " Het Leven de las manos. der doorluchtighe Neder- muger agarrados Juan de Encina, Imbentor de landtsche en Hooghduytsche Schilders, ed. H. Floerke ": la pintura al oleo." I9o6, I, p. 44-

'I7 Jan Van Eyck'sArnolfini Portrait versions of the Sposalizio, and he confirms Vermander and Sandrart obtained their infor- this conclusion by quoting Joachim von Sand- mation, and his description of the " Hapsburg rart who, in 1675, qualifies Vermander's des- picture " reads as follows: " een cleen cription by adding the statement that " Fides " tafereelkin . . . waerin gheschildert was/een appeared as an actual female (" Frau Fides " trauwinghe van eenen man ende vrauwe/die as the German version puts it): " Par quod- van Fides ghetraut worden," " that is in dam novorum coniugum, quos muliebri habitu English: " a small panel on which was depicted adstans desponsare videbatur Fides."8 the wedding of a man and a woman who were Now, Monsieur Dimier is perfectly right in married by Fides." pointing out that Vermander's " Fides " cannot It is self-evident that Vermander's description possibly be identified (as was conjectured by nothing but an amplification of this text, and some scholars)' with the little griffin terrier or ,iswe can see that he amplified it rather Bolognese dog seen in the foreground of the at haphazard..easily Since he was familiar with the London picture. For although a dog occurs usual form of a wedding ceremony, he ventured fairly often as an attribute or symbol of Faith,10 the statement that the two people took each the Flemish word " tesamengeven " is a other by the right hand (whereas, in the technical term equivalent to what " despon- London portrait, the man proffers his left); sare " or " copulare " means in Latin-a term and since, in his opinion, Vaernewyck's denoting the action of the person entitled to sentence " die van Fides ghetraut worden " hand over the bride to the bridegroom. Thus (who were married by Fides) was lacking in it is beyond doubt that not only Sandrart, but precision he arbitrarily added the adjectival also Vermander actually meant to say that the clause " die se t'samengaf " (who joined them couple portrayed in the " Hapsburg picture " to each other). So this adjectival clause, so were united by a human figure embodying much emphasized by Monsieur Dimier, turns Faith. The only question is whether or not out to be a mere invention of Vermander's. Vermander is reliable. And this question must But what did Vaernewyck mean by his be answered in the negative. mysterious sentence ? In my opinion he meant Apart from the fact that a description as nothing at all, but simply repeated (or rather thorough as that in Queen Mary's inventory translated) information which in all probability where even the mirror is mentioned would puzzled him as much as his translation puzzles hardly omit a full-size figure, we must inquire his readers. We should not forget that from whom Vermander gleaned his information Vaernewyck had not seen the picture either, about a picture which, as mentioned above, for it had been brought to Spain by Queen he had never seen. Now it is a well-known Mary, and it is a significant fact that, in his fact (although entirely disregarded by Monsieur earlier writings, he does not mention it at all."1 Dimier) that Vermander's statements as to the Thus his description must be based on informa- van Eycks are mostly derived from Marcus van tion gleaned from an unknown source, most Vaernewyck's " Spieghel der Nederlantscher probably a letter from Spain; and when we Audtheyt " published in 1569, and (as retranslate his sentence into Latin (using the " Historie van Belgis ") in 1574. This was passage of Sandrart as a model) we can easily also the case with Vermander's description of understand how the confusion arose. This the " Hapsburg picture," which is proved by hypothetical text might have read; " Tabella, the fact that he repeats Vaernewyck's absurd in qua depicta erant sponsalia viri cuiusdam tale that Queen Mary had acquired the picture et feminae qui desponsari videbantur per from a barber whom she had remunerated with fidem," and a sentence like this would have an appointment worth a hundred florins a year been an absolutely correct description of the -a tale which Sandrart took over from Ver- London picture. Only, it could easily give rise mander as credulously as the latter had taken to a misinterpretation because, to an uninitiated it over from Vaernewyck. Thus Vaernewyck mind, the expression "per fidem " might is the ultimate source from which both easily suggest a personification-while, in 8 von Joachim Sandrart: Acad. Germ., 1683, p. 203. In reality, it was a law-term. the German edition (Teutsche Akademie, 1675, ed. R. Peltzer: to Catholic is 1926, P. 55) the passage reads as follows: " Ein Mann und According dogma, marriage a Weibsbild, so sich durch Darreichung der rechten Hand sacrament which is immediately accomplished verheurathen und von der darbey stehenden Frau Fides the vermi~hlet werden." by mutual consent of the persons to be 9 See, for instance, Weale: " Notes sur les van Eyck," 1861, married when this consent is expressed by p. 26, et seq., and Floerke, p. 4o8. words and actions: " Actus exteriores et verba Cf. 10 Barbier de Montault: "Trait6 d'Iconographie exprimentia consensum directe faciunt nexum Chr6tienne," x89o, p. 196 or Cesare Ripa: " Iconologia," s.v. " Fedelth." In the " Repertorium Morale," by Petrus quendam qui est sacramentum matrimonili, as Berchorius (middle of the fourteenth century, printed Niirn- 11 Weale : I p. LXXXV. In the " Historie van Belgis " of berg, 1489) the dog is interpreted as " vir fidelis " (s.v. 1574 the passage is to be found on fol. I19 verso. " canis "). 12 Cf. Weale: I, p. LXXVI, et seq.

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GIOVANNI ARNOLFINI AND HIS BRIDE, BY JAN VAN EYCK. PANEL, 83 iiv 62 cm. (THE NATIONAL GAiLLERY)

PLATE I. JAN VAN EYCK'S ARNOLFINI PORTRAIT r wvrrt. /4/ t v'st ej '41 Al",

A-A ROMAN MARRIAGE CEREMONY. ROMAN SARCOPHAGUS (MATZ-DUHN II, 3098). B-JOHANN VON HOLTZHAUSEN (ow. 1393) AND HIS WI'IFE, PALAZZO GUISTINIANI, ROME. FROM P. S. BARTOLI, " ADMIRANDA ROMAN. GUDELA (on. 1371) (TILE CATHEDRAL, FRANKFORT-ON-MAIN) ANTI(gUITATUM . .. VESTIGIA," ROME, 1693.

PLATE II. JAN VAN EYCK'S ARNOLFINI PORTRAIT Jan VanEyck's Arnolfini Portrait

Thomas Aquinas puts it.'" Even after the sions emphasizing their relation to Faith. The Council of Trent had prescribed the presence forearm raised in confirmation of the matri- of two or three witnesses and the co-operation monial oath was called " Fides levata "; ' of a priest, the latter is not held to dispense the wedding-ring is called " la fede " in Italy the " sacramental grace " as 'is the case in up to our own times; and the " dextrarum the baptism of a child or the ordination of a iunctio " was called" fides manualis " or even priest, but is regarded as a mere " testis " fides " without further connotation,'" because qualificatus " whose co-operation has a mere was held to be the essential feature of the formal value : " ...... sacerdotis benedictio ,itritual. Also in heraldry a pair of joined hands non requiritur in matrimonio quasi de materia is simply called " une Foi." 16 sacramenti." Thus, even now, the sacerdotal Thus in medieval Latin the word " fides " benediction and the presence of witnesses does could be used as a synonym of " Marital oath," not affect the sacramental validity of marriage, more particularly " dextrarum iunctio." Conse- but lis only required for its formal legaliza- quently Jan van Eyck's London portrait could tion. Before the Council of Trent, however, not be described more briefly or more appro- even this principle was not yet acknowledged. priately than by calling it the representation of Although the Church did its very best to a couple " qui desponsari videbantur per caution the Faithful against marrying secretly, fidem," that is to say: " who were contracting there was no proper " impedimentum clandes- their marriage by a marital oath, more particu- tinitatis " until 1563; that is to say, two people larly by joining hands." could contract a perfectly valid and legitimate It is both amusing and instructive to observe marriage whenever and wherever they liked, how, in the writings of sixteenth and seven- without any witness and independently of any teenth-century biographers, th~is abstract law ecclesiastical rite, provided that the essential term gradually developed into a living, though condition of a " mutual consent expressed by allegorical, female figure. Vaernewyck opened words and actions " had been fulfilled. Conse- the way to the misinterpretation by inserting quently in those days the formal procedure of the Latin word " fides " into his Flemish text a wedding scarcely differed from that of a and writing it with a capital F, but shrank betrothal and both these ceremonies could be from any further explanation. Vermander called by the same name " sponsalia," with emphasized the personality of this rather the only difference that a marriage was called enigmatical " Fides " by adding the adjectival " sponsalia de proesenti " while a betrothal clause " who joined them to each other," and was called " sponsalia de futuro." finally Sandrart explicitly asserted that she was Now, what were those " words and actions " present as an actual woman, " habitu muliebri required for a legitimate marriage? Firstly: adstans." It is not difficult to understand the an appropriate formula solemnly pronounced mental processes of those humanistic authors. by the bride as well as by the bridegroom, To the contemporaries of Cesare Ripa, per- which the latter confirmed by raising his hand. sonifications and allegories were more familiar Secondly: the tradition of a pledge (" arrha "), than to others, and they had in their minds generally a ring placed on the finger of the all those Roman sarcophagi where the people to bride. Thirdly, which was most important: be married are united by a " Juno pronuba " the " joining of hands " which had always [PLATE II, A]. But the case should be a lesson formed an integral part of Jewish marriage- to us not to attempt to use literary sources for ceremonies as well as those of Greece and the interpretation of pictures, before we have Rome (" dextrarum iunctio ") [PLATE II, A]. interpreted the literary sources themselves. Since all these " words and actions " (com- To the modern mind it seems almost incon- prehensively depicted in the London portrait) ceivable that, up to the Council of Trent, the fundamentallysolemne meant nothing but a Catholic Church could acknowledge a marriage promise of Faith, not only the whole procedure contracted in the absence of any priest or was called by a term derived from " Treue " witness. Still this seeming laxity logically in the Germanic languages (" Trauung " in follows from the orthodox conception of German, " Trouwinghe " in Dutch and matrimony-a conception according to which Flemish, whereby originally "Trouwinghe" the binding force of a sacrament fulfilled by a could mean both " sponsalia de praesenti " and spiritual " coniunctio animarum " did not " sponsalia de futuro "), but also the various depend upon any accessory circumstances. On " parts of the ceremony were called by expres- 14 Du Cange: Glossarium medike et infimae latinitatis," 3a As for the theory of matrimony in Catholic theology, see s.v. " Fides." Wetzer und Welte: " Kirchenlexikon," s.v. " Ehe," " Ehever- J5 Cabrol-Leclercq: "Dict. d'Archdol. Chrdt.," l.c., col. 1895. " 16bnis," Ehehindernis." Also F. Cabrol and H. Du Cange, l.c. Leclercq: 16 " " Dictionnaire d'Archbologie Chr6tienne et de Liturgie," s.v. Didron: Annales Archbologiques," XX, x86o, p. 245. "; same authors: " Dictionnaire de Cf. also Andrea Alciati's famous " Emblemata," No. IX " Marriage " Thiologie Catholique," s.v. Marriage " (very thorough). (" Fidei symbolum ").

H 123 Jan VanEyck's Arnolfini Portrait the other hand, it is obvious that the lack of with the bridal pair represented in the London any legal or ecclesiastical evidence was bound picture. Furthermore, the phrase " Jan van to lead to the most serious inconveniences and Eyck was here " makes perfectly good sense could cause actual tragedies. Medieval when we consider the legal situation as literature and papers dealing with law-sujits described in the preceding paragraphs. Since are full of cases, partly tragic, partly rather the two people portrayed were married merely burlesque, in which the validity of a marriage " per fidem " the portrait meant no less than could be neither proved nor disproved for want a " pictorial marriage certificate " in which the of reliable witnesses,"7 so that people who statement that "Jan van Eyck had been there" honestly believed themselves to be married had the same importance and implied the same found out that they were not, and vice versa. legal consequences as an " affidavit " deposed The most preposterous things could happen when by a witness at a modern registrar's office. the depositions of the people concerned con- Thus there is no reason whatever to doubt tradicted each other as they often did; for the identity of the London portrait with the in the case of a who was mentioned in the inventories: we can example, young lady panel " to become the mother of no less illustrious a safely adopt the " orthodox theory accord- person than Willibald Pirckheimer. This ing to which the two people portrayed are young lady was originally on fairly fintimate Giovanni Arnolfini and Jeanne de Cename,21 terms with a young patrician of Niirnberg, all the more so because the circumstances of called Sigmund Stromer, but wanted to get their marriage are peculiarly consistent with rid of him when she had made the acquaintance the unusual conception of the " artistic of Dr. Hans Pirckheimer. Now the unfortun- marriage certificate." Both of them had ate lover asserted that she was his legitimate absolutely no relatives at Bruges (Arnolfini be- wife, owing to the fact that they had secretly ing an only child whose property finally went performed the ceremony of " joining hands "; to a nephew of his wife, and Jeanne de but this was exactly what she denied. So the Cename's family living in Paris),22 so that bishop of Bamberg, to whom the case was we can understand the original idea of a submitted, could not but decide that the picture which was a memorial portrait and a marriage was not proved, and she was allowed document at the same time, and in which a to become the mother of Willibald Pirckheimer well-known gentleman-painter signed his name while poor Stromer remained a bachelor all both as artist and as witness. his life."s Dr. Max J. Friedlander (who, by the way, Now, this state of affairs perfectly explains already divined the meaning of the inscription the curious inscription on the London portrait: without investigating the matter)23 rightly " Johannes de Eyck fuit hic. 1434." In points out that the Arnolfini portrait is almost Monsieur Dimier's opinion, this sentence which, a miracle of composition: " In it a problem according to the rules of Latin grammar, cannot has been solved which no fifteenth-century but mean " Jan van Eyck has been here," painter was destined to take up again: two would make no sense if it was not translated persons standing side by side, and portrayed by " this was Jan van Eyck," thereby prov- full length within a richly furnished room that the were the artist a document of the ing persons portrayed . . ... glorious sovereign and his wife. Setting aside the grammatical power of genius." In fact, to find an problem, Monsieur Dimier's interpretation analogous composition in northern painting, (which, by the way, was suggested by several we must go forward to Holbein's Ambassadors. other scholars, but was emphatically opposed However, taking into consideration the fact by Mr. Salomon Reinach some fourteen years that the London picture is both a portrait of ago)1' is contradicted by the simple fact that two individual persons and a representation of a child of Jan van Eyck had been baptized a sacramental rite, we can explain its com- before the 3oth of June, I434. Thus, dis- positional scheme by comparing it not only carding suspicions which must be regarded with specimens of portrait-painting, but also as groundless by the fact that this child was 21 As for the apparent family likeness between Jeanne de held over the font Pierre de Beffremont Cename and the wife of Jan van Eyck as portrayed by her by husband in the famous picture of 1439 (a family likeness from in the name of the Duke of Burgundy,20 we which Monsieur Dimier concludes that the two portraits repre- must assume that Jan van Eyck and his wife sent the same person, while Mr. Weale rather believes Jeanne de Cename to be the sister of Margaret van Eyck), we must were married in the autumn of I433 at the bear in mind that in Jan van Eyck's pictures the women are very latest, so that they cannot be identical much less " individualized " than the men, adapted as they are 17 Plenty of Literature in Cabrol-Leclercq," Dict. de Th6ol. to a typical ideal of loveliness. As far as we can learn from Cath.," l.c., col. documents, Jeanne de Cename had only one sister named "2223. 18 E. Reicke: Willibald Acarde " and stemnmap. x68). " Pirckheimer," 1930, p. io, et seq. " (Mirot: l.c., p. Io7 19 Sal. Bulletin 22 Mirot: l.c., p. Reinach: archdologique du Comit4 des " I14. travaux historiques et scientifiques," p. 85. 23 Die Altniederliindische Malerei," I, 1924, p. 18. 20 1918, 24 " Weale: I, p. XL; Weale: II, p. XXXVI. Van Eyck bis Breughel," second edition, 1921, p. i8.

124 Jan Van Eyck's ArnolJiniPortrait

with representations of marriage ceremonies ceremony. He endeavoured to avoid the over- to be found, for example, in the Bibles lapping of the right arm as well as the contra- Moralisees 2 or, even more a propos, in a posto movement automatically caused by the French Psalter of about 1323 (Munich, cod. " dextrarum iunctio " in the true sense of the gall. I6, fol. 35).26 In it, the marriage of term (see PLATE II, A). Thus he contrived to David and Michal, the daughter of Saul, build up the group symmetrically and to sub- is represented in a very similar way as that due the actual movement in such a way that of Giovanni Arnolfini and Jeanne de Cename, the " fides levata " gesture of the bridegroom only the bride does not act of her own accord, seems to be invested with the confident humility but is given away by her father who is accom- of a pious prayer. In fact the position of panied by a courtier and carries a glove as a Arnolfini's right arm would make a perfect symbol of his tutelary authority. attitude of prayer if the other arm moved with a corresponding gesture. There is something statuesque about these two figures, and I WV:j cannot help feeling that the whole arrangement is, to some extent, reminiscent of those slab-tombs which show the full-length figures of a man and a woman in simiilar attitudes, im ? ...... ? a:: ::::i~ii"..;;"::i~~ii~:: and where the woman is usually made to stand ::: :::?;+:.::j?1....,..... upon a dog, here indubitably used as a symbol of marital faith [PLATE II, B].27 It would be an attractive idea to explain the peculiarly hieratic character of the Eyckian composition an influence of those devout Af,: by quiet portrayals X of the such as be seen on :.w...1.% iij: deceased, may innumerable monuments of that period; all the more so because the connexion ,inherent between the incunabula of early Flemish painting and sculpture is proved by many an instance. In the London picture, however, these statuesque figures are placed in an interior suffused with a dim though coloured light, The Marriage of David and Michal, from a French Psalter of which shows up the peculiar tactual values of about 1323. such materials as brass, velvet, wood and fur, Apart from this difference, the two scenes so that they appear interwoven with each other resemble each other in that the ceremony takes within a homogeneous chiaroscuro atmosphere. place absence of a priest and is accomplished 27 This type of medieval slab-tomb is the result of nij interesting process which can be observed in a many by raising,in the forearm and joining hands, good " instances. The Bible is full of what we may call, " involuntary fide levata " and " per fidem manualem." descriptions " of ancient oriental images, such as, for instance, Thus the of a the scape-goat tied to the Holy Tree as recently discovered in precocious apparition full-length the Royal tombs of Ur which was the model of Abraham's ram double portrait can be explained by Jan van caught in the bush, or the Babylonian astral divinity resuscitated Eyck's adopting a compositional scheme not as the " apocalyptic woman." Now the thirteenth verse of uncommon in the of the 9oth Psalm says " super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis iconography marriage et conculcabis leonem et draconem," thus describing the pictures. But this adoption of a traditional Babylonian type of a god or hero triumphing over an animal scheme means anything but a lack of or a couple of animals (a type which also gave rise to the When the Arnolfini representations of St. Michael fighting the Dragon, the Virtues " originality." portrait conquering Evil and so forth). We can observe how this motive is compared with the fourteenth-century minia- which originally was used exclusively for the representations of Christ was to ture, we are struck by the amount of tender gradually transferred the Virgin, the Saints and finally to the slab-tombs, such as the monument of Bishop personal feeling with which the artist has Siegfried von Epstein in Mainz Cathedral or that of invested the conventional gesture and, on the Heinrich von Sayn in the Germanisches Museum, Nuremberg. other the solemn of the From this we must conclude that the animals forming the hand, by rigidity " foot-rest " of the knights and princes portrayed on great figures, particularly that of the bridegroom. medieval slab-tombs were originally no attributes denoting the Van took the of the praiseworthy qualities of the deceased, but symbols of Evil Eyck liberty joining right the immortal soul. Later hand of the bride with the of the bride- conquered by on, however, the Lion left which originally was meant to be the " leo conculcatus" groom, contrary to ritual and contrary, also to described in the 9oth Psalm was interpreted as a symbol of all the other of a Fortitude, and when the statues of a married couple were to representations marriage be on the same monument that the " " placed (so women, too, had 25 Laborde: Les Bibles Moralis6es, 86 and to be with an " 191I, pl. 154. provided animal) she was usually made to stand 26 Published by Hans Fehr: Das Recht im Bilde," 1923, upon a Dog, conceived as a symbol of Marital Faith (cf. note fig. 191. IO). 125 Jan Van Eyck'sArnolfini Portrait Small wonder then that the Arnolfini portrait expectation of a child 31; thus the small sculp- has always been praised as a masterpiece of ture is connected with the bride the same " realistic " interior, or even genre, painting. way as the burning candle is connected,in with But the question arises whether the patient the bridegroom. enthusiasm bestowed upon this marvellous Now the significance of these motives is an interior the modern of rather " anticipates principle attributive, than a symbolical one, l'art pour l'art," so to speak, or is still rooted inasmuch as they actually " belong " to a to some extent in the medieval tendency of Nuptial Chamber and to a marriage ceremony investing visible objects with an allegorical or in the same way that a club belongs to Hercules symbolical meaning. or a knife to St. Bartholomew. Still, the very First of all we must bear in mind that what fact that these significant attributes are not Mr. Weale simply calls " a Flemish interior " emphasized as what they actually are, but are is by no means an ordinary living room, but a disguised, so to speak, as ordinary pieces of " Nuptial Chamber " in the strict sense of the furniture (while, on the other hand, the general term, that is to say, a room hallowed by sacra- arrangement of the various objects has some- mental associations and which even used to be thing solemn about it, placed as they are accord- consecrated by a special "Benedictio thalami."28 ing to the rules of symmetry and in correct This is proved by the fact that in the beautiful relationship with the statuesque figures) chandelier hanging from the ceiling, only one impresses the beholder with a kind of mystery candle is burning. For since this candle cannot and makes him linclined to suspect a hidden possibly serve for practical purposes (in view significance in all and every object, even when of the fact that the room is flooded with day- they are not immediately connected with the light), it must needs bear upon the marriage sacramental performance. And this applied in a ceremony. In fact a burning candle-symbol much higher degree to the medieval spectator of the all seeing wisdom of God-not only was who was wont to conceive the whole of the and often is, required for the ceremony of tak- visible world as a symbol. To him, the little ing an oath in general,"9but also had a special griffin terrier as well as the candle were familiar reference to weddings. The "marriage candle" as typical symbols of Faith,32 and even the -a substitute for the classical " teeda " which pattens of white wood so conspicuously placed had been so essential a feature of Greek and iin the foreground of the picture would probably Roman marriage ceremonies that the word impress him with a feeling of sacredness: became synonymous with " wedding "-was " Solve calceamentum de pedibus tuis, locus either carried to church before the bridal pro- enim in quo stas terra sancta est." cession, or solemnly given to the bride by the Now, I would not dare to assert that the bridegroom, or lit in the home of the newly observer iis expected to realize such notions married couple; we even know of a custom consciously. On the contrary, the supreme according to which the friends of the couple charm of the picture-and this applies to the called on them in the evening " et petierunt creations of Jan van Eyck in general-is Candelam per sponsum et . . based on the fact that the sponsam .sibi essentially spectator dari." o0 Thus we learn from the one burn- is not irritated by a mass of complicated ing candle that the " Flemish interior " is to hieroglyphs, but is allowed to abandon him- be interpreted as a " thalamus," to speak in self to the quiet fascination of what I might medieval terms, and we comprehend at once call a transfigured reality. Jan van Eyck's its unusual features. It is not by chance that landscapes and 'interiors are built up in such the scene takes place in a bedroom instead of a way that what is possibly meant to be a mere a sitting-room (this applies also to a considerable realistic motive can, at the same time, be con- number of fifteenth and sixteenth century ceived as a symbol, or, to put it another way, Annunciations in which the interior is charac- his attributes and symbols are chosen and placed terized as the " Thalamus Virginis," as a in such a way that what is possibly meant to 31 liturgical text puts it), nor is it by accident that Weale: I, p. 20 and Weale: II, p. 17. This belief the back of the armchair the bed is has even led some scholars to suppose that St. Margaret is to standing by be crowned a carved wooden regarded as a substitute for the classical Lucina (F. Soleil : by figure of St. La vierge Margu6rite substitu6e A la Lucine antique," 1885). Margaret triumphing over the Dragon, for this 32 With regard to the dog, cf. notes zo and 27; with regard Saint was especially invoked by women in to the candle, see Didron: 1.c., p. 2o6, et seq., and plate facing p. 237. Also E. MAle: " L'Art de la fin du 28 Cf. " religieux moyen- Ildefons Herweghen : Germanische Rechtssymbolik Age en France," second edition, 1922, p. 334, and Ripa: 1.c., in der r6mischen " Liturgie (Deutschrechtliche Beitriige VIII, s.v. " Fede Cattolica," where the motive is explained by a et 4), 1913, p. 312, seq. passage of St. Augustin which says " Cmecitasest infidelitas et 29 ," Jurare super Candelam," " Testimonium in Cereo." illuminatio fides." Needless to that " Fides " could " " say always Cf. Wetzer-Welte, l.c., s.v. Eid and Jac. Grimm: mean both " True Belief " and " Faithfulness," especially of "Deutsche Rechtsaltertiimer," fourth edition, 1899, II, wife and husband. Fides conceived as a virtue Du " p. 546. theological S0 Cange: l.c., s.v. Candela." Cf. Wetzer-Welte: explicitly prescribes " serva fidem coniugum " (Didron: I.c., 1.c., s.v. " Hochzeit " and " Brautkerze." p. 244). I26 Jan VanEyck's Arnolfini Portrait express an allegorical meaning, at the same life-like accessories in our picture are invested time perfectly " fits " into a landscape or an with a symbolical meaning turns out to be no interior apparently taken from life. In thiis true alternative. In it, as in the other works by respect the Arnolfini portrait is entirely Jan van Eyck, medieval symbolism and modern analogous to Jan van Eyck's religious paintings, realism are so perfectly reconciled that the such as the marvellous Virgin of Lucca where former has become inherent in the latter. The many a symbol of virginity (the " aquae symbolical significance is neither abolished nor vtiventes," the candlestick, the glass carafe and does it contradict the naturalistic tendencies; it " even the " throne of Solomon ,")33 is dis- is so completely absorbed by reality, that reality guised " in a similar way; or the image of itself gives rise to a flow of preternatural St. Barbara whose tower (characterized by the associations, the direction of which is secretly three windows alluding to the Holy Trinity) determined by the vital forces of medieval has been transformed into what seems to be a iconography.3" realistic Gothic church in course of erection 34; 35 Thus, it is not surprising that a little dog, very similar to but, thanks to the formal symmetry of the that in the Arnolfini portrait, occurred also in the famous composition, this building impresses us as picture of a naked woman taking her bath described by even more " if Bartholomaeus Facius and apparently analogous to a painting " symbolical than the tower which was formerly in the collection of Cornelius van der had been attached to the figure in the usual Geest (Weale: I, p. 175, et seq., Weale: II, p. 196 et seq.), form of an attribute. where the motive has obviously nothing to do with marital Faith. Iconographical symbols, especially in medieval art, are Thus our question whether or not the still almost always " ambivalent " (the snake can mean Evil as well 33 As for the " aquae viventes " cf. W. Molsdorf : " Fiihrer as Prudence, and golden sandals can be an attribute of Luxury durch den symbol. und typol. Bilderkreis," 192o, nr. 795. The as well as Magnanimity, cf. Panofsky, Miinchner Jahrbuch der comparison of the Virgin with a " candelabrum " is to be Bild. Kunst, N. F., IX, 1932, p. 285, et seq. Thus, the equation found in the " Speculum Humanae Salvationis " (quoted by Dog-Faith does not preclude the equation Dog-Animality, as E. Beitz: " Gruinewalds Isenheimer Menschwerdungsbild und shown on the reverse of the well-known Constantine-medal, seine Quellen," 1924, p. 25); in Berchorius' " Repertorium where a little dog characterizes the personification of Nature in morale " the " candelabrum " is adduced as a symbol of Virtue contradistinction to Grace. Consequently the griffin terrier and, quite logically, as " basis fidei," because the candle itself " fits " into the bathroom picture as well as into the Arnolfini stands for Faith as mentioned in the preceding note). As for portrait, whether we regard it as a " symbol " or as a mere the carafe, which also occurs in Griinewald's Isenheim altar, " genre-motif." When this article was in print, K. von Tolnai cf. Beitz : l.c., p. 47. published a paper (Miinchner Jahrbuch l.c., p. 320 et seq.) in 34 This is the reason why the picture was sometimes which, I am glad to say, the problem of symbolism in Early described as St. Agnes (Weale: I, p. 89; Weale: II, p. 129). Flemish art is approached in a similar way. THE YOUNG TIEPOLO-II BY ANTONIO MORASSI THE FRESCOES IN THE CHAPEL OF THE HOLY this document refers, it is stated that the SACRAMENT IN UDINE CATHEDRAL. Fraternity wished to embellish this chapel- " Coll' ornamento di Nobili Pitture da essere and the IEPOLO'S biographers effigiate nel prospetto inferiore della Cupola historians of Udinese art 1 are in mano del Batta Pittore on the of the per Sig. Tiepolo agreement subject Celebre e Chiaro." There was no subsequent attribution of these frescoes- document this of the hitherto Giam- annulling proposal unpublished-to Fraternity. We may be certain, therefore, battista. No doubt is possible as, according that the frescoes were lindeed entrusted to to a document to the " Fabbrica del relating Giambattista Tiepolo, probably the same year Duomo nuova " in the civic archives of the or afterwards. must be town of Udine FX. on shortly They dated, (MS. c. 53), Tuesday, then, about 1726-1727. Their style does not June 4, 1726, the deputies of the city of conflict with these there are Udine-- dates, although certain details which, at first sight, appear osservata la supplica presentata dai Signori rather curious. Governatoridella Ven. Confraternitadel Sant. We will only deal here with the figures in mo Sacramento..... hannoconcordemente con the of tutti voti medesimi cupola representing groups angels, permessaa' di poter abbellire which have retained all their fresh- con pitture sacre di mano del celebre Pittor original ness, and we will over the frescoes in Tiepolo interiormentela Cappella eretta dalla pass citth al Santo Sacramentonella nuova fabbrica chiaroscuro on the walls of the same chapel della d. Chiesa del Duomo, ecc. representing the mystery of the Most Holy In the petition of the governors to which Sacrament, which have been damaged by 'ignorant restorers.2 1 P. " Molmenti: G. B. Tiepolo," Milan, 1909, pp. 82 and a P. Molmenti : Op. cit., in which it where p. 117, appears from an 17, the text of this document is given; Edward Sack: article by Raffaello Sbuelz, published in " Patria del Frinli " "Giambattista Tiepolo," Hamburg, ix9o; Fabio Maniago: (Udine, 18 June, that these " Storie were restored a Guida di S. Renaldis: " 19o8) " by Udine," Vito, 1839, p. 30; Della certain Giacomo Lorio, who fortunately spared the angels on Pittura Friulana," Udine, 1796. the cupola.

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