The Arnolfini Portrait

In 1434, the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck captured a wealthy merchant and his companion in a warmly furnished room, and the result still puzzles people today. The man is thought to be Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini, an Italian merchant who made his home in Bruges, and he clasps the woman's hand with quiet tenderness. Her flowing green gown once fooled viewers into thinking she was expecting a child, but scholars now believe she is simply gathering up the heavy fabric, a fashion many women followed at the time. Nearly every item in the scene carries meaning, from the little dog standing for faithfulness to the single burning candle overhead and the pair of shoes slipped off near the wall.

Van Eyck's mastery of oil paint, a technique he helped bring to prominence in Northern Europe, lets him pack the picture with dazzling detail. The convex mirror on the far wall deserves a close inspection, since it reflects the whole room and even two small figures standing in the doorway, one possibly the artist himself. Just above it he added a flourish of Latin reading "Jan van Eyck was here 1434," signed as if he were a witness to some private event. Nobody agrees whether the painting marks a wedding, a betrothal, or just a proud portrait of a rich couple, and that lingering mystery is a big reason it has held our attention for close to six hundred years.