Arnolfini Portrait

... yeah, it's a super classic and there is a deep dive.

So the art that I sent Sienna that's Flemish is The Arnolfini Portrait by, uh, uh, Jan van, uh, uh-

Oh, van Eyck

...

and this is where one of the most famous mirrors in art becomes especially interesting.

Jan van Eyck's The Arnolfini Portrait Look closely at the mirror on the wall behind the figures.

It isn't a simple decoration.

It's a small, convex mirror that reflects the room behind the couple.

An extinguished candle can suggest death, loss, mortality, the end of life.

And this is where context becomes so important.

Return for a moment to the Arnolfini portrait.

Look at the chandelier.

We're going to start off with a question we ask all our guests, which is whether you always want a career in the art market or it's something that's prepped up for you.

um I would say the art market no but the art world yes so I feel like I was lucky as a teenager that I always had a bit of a sense of what at least I wanted to do at university and then you know at that stage had an idea of what I wanted to do after university which of course now is completely different to what I've ended up doing um but I remember When I was at school, we had a presentation from one of our art teachers about the Arnolfini portrait.

And she went through it and, you know, sort of analysed all of the specific elements of it.

So the figures, what they were wearing, the objects around them, the weather outside of the window.