Marriage in Two Paintings

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the concept of marriage in two paintings: Jan Van Eyck's "The Arnolfini Marriage" and William Hogarth's "Marriage A La Mode: The Tete a Tete". The paper shows how the artists' concept of marriage in the 15th century greatly contrasted each other. The paper first analyzes the style, depiction and symbolism in "The Arnolfini Marriage" and how they show that marriage is an important, sacred union. In contrast, the paper analyzes the style of "Marriage A La Mode: The Tete a Tete" and how this painting mocks the concept of holy marriage.

From the Paper:

"The style is the most fundamental element within the painting. For Eyck's portrait he uses his own patented style of detail oriented oil painting. The key to his portraiture is the use of technique and brush strokes. While traditional oil painting styles revolves around using broad religious imagery and very low detail, Eyck completely changes this trend by using extremely delicate brush strokes to create both really vivid color and very complex detail. This is evidenced in the stylistic element of Eyck's character depiction. Both Giovanni and his bride are drawn with exquisite detail (Hagon, 12). This is evidenced in several ways."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hagen, R.-M. (2002). What Great Paintings Say. Volume II. Boston: Taschen.
• Walther, I. F. (2002). Masterpieces of Western Art. Boston: Taschen.
• Schneider,, N. (2002). The Portrait. Boston: Taschen.
• Harbison, C. (1997). Jan Van Eyck: The Play of Realism. New York: Reaktion Books.

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