This Is Me

  Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife (The Arnolfini Portrait), 1434 National Gallery in London Jan van Eyck When I first saw this oil painting, I immediately thought the woman was pregnant. Come to find out later that she was not. There are so many other things in this that I had missed at first glance. I did not notice their reflection in the mirror behind them. I also believed the man was a priest. It is not the brightest of paintings that caught my eye, but I feel the message perceived was catching. This in fact is a portrait of husband and wife.  My impression of him is that he is in charge. His wife looks at him admirably and adoring. I think the holding of hands represents that they stand side by side one another. Her holding her stomach had me thinking she was with child; however, I discovered she is really holding up material and during the Renaissance era this gesture of her keeping her hand close to her in public was viewed as polite. This painting allowed m...

The Birth of Venus   Sandro Botticelli mid-1480s. The painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.   The Two Cherubs, Sistine Madonna . Raphael The Two Cherubs is part of a larger painting called The Sistine Madonna , painted in 1513. It features the Madonna holding the Christ Child Lady Lilith  Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti First wife of Adam. Painted in  1866–1868   Powerful evil temptress   Metropolitan Museum of Art . Bibliography “Italian Renaissance Painting.” Wikipedia , Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Dec. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Renaissance_painting. Botham, Christopher James. “The Two Cherubs.” On Verticality , On Verticality, 9 Feb. 2021,  www.onverticality.com/blog/the-two-cherubs. “Lady Lilith.” Wikipedia , Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Dec. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Lilith.