Arnolfini Portrait: Wedding or Funeral? When delving into the details of the painting “The Arnolfini Portrait,” long thought to depict a wedding, we actually encounter a tragedy. The painting, belonging to the Belgian artist Jan van Eyck, features the artist’s friends Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and Costanza Trenta, who tragically passed away giving birth a year before the painting’s date in 1433. This detail about Costanza adds a tragic context to the painting. Let’s explore the details further to trace the traces of this tragedy. The position of the couple holding hands: Arnolfini holding the open hand of his bride is interpreted as a gesture of him holding onto her while life slips away from her. When we take a closer look at the hands of the couple, what catches our eye is the ‘gargoyle,’ a symbol representing death. Let’s lift our gaze to the chandelier, we observe that Arnolfini’s candle is still burning, but Costanza’s candle has melted. Now, let’s focus on the dog looki...