Arnolfini Portrait

A rich man, certainly. And his wife? Both wearing fur coats, adn hat like they are leaving out. It seems like a beautiful summer or a spring day- the blossoms and the light through the window suggests that. Huge comfortable red bed, a designer brass chandelier, shoes laying around and the puppy.

To think of this as a dynamic scene, I can only imagine her sitting by the windowsill, eating fruits, enjoying the weather with her puppy. The husband comes in. They are not exhilarated. Peace resides in them. No wide smiles. Eye lids like sheets and eyes like comfortable beds. But they care for each other. That is love for them. Their eyes don't lock. But he helds her hand to suggest something. She is listening. But I don't see her complying with it. But I know he will comply with anything she says.

There is something vey intimate and aery about this painting. The convex mirror reflection that does not show their faces at all. Only one candle burning and the one above her snuffed out. And the note on top of the mirror that says "Johannes de eyck fuit hic 1434", meaning "Jan van Eyck was here - 1434". Both the humans not looking into each others eyes and not us, but the puppy looking at us, like it knew something they didn't and that we should. It is believed in Flemish tradition that dogs on women's tombs guided them to afterlife. Is any of it real?

Is this an after thought of their need to have been explicit with their expression of love, but their characters holding them behind, How reassuring is it have a safe love? And how boring is to have a safe love? Did they find the middle ground? Or did they make peace with where they were? Has there ever been a couple who found the balnce between the two?