In contrast to his mystical work, Jan van Eyck painted a predominantly secular, but still symbolic, work in this wedding portrait of Arnolfini and his bride.  Nearly every object -- the lighted candle, the shoes, the fruit, the dog -- refers to a religious wedding custom or belief.  Yet, the details, such as the fine clothing, the ornate candelabra, and the mirror which reflects the couple's back, the artist, and another witness, create a worldly setting.

        This is no imaginary scene, but a recording of an actual event.  Giovanni Arnolfini was an Italian businessman who lived in Bruges; thus the commerce and wealth of Burgundy and the Italian cities are symbolically united.  Likewise, the secular is united with the sacred.  This work is a perfect expression of the symbolic realism that dominated northern European painting in the Late Middle Ages.

        In its masterful depiction of light reflecting from a wide variety of surfaces (cloth, fur, metal, wood, glass, skin) it also reflects the return to the idea of individual artistic virtuosity.  Van Eyck was among the first to experiment with the new medium of oil paints, whose plasticity and slow drying allowed for a blending of pigments and the careful build-up of rich layers of colors.