London: Arnoldfini Portrait:

Last week we went to London and some of us had to do a video diary, some others a photo diary and the Art's history student had to present a picture at the National Galery. At 1st I had to present the Ambassador's portrait. I had it ready but Kaotar told me that shi didn't want to present the Arnoldfini portrait, and it is a very important piece of Van Eyk. So, I had to prepare that portrait 5 minutes before of present it and obviously I did it kinda wrong, I was nervous and I wasn't ready at all but I had to do it for my friend, so I did it.
Here's what I explained: This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, but is not intended as a record of their wedding. His wife is not pregnant, as is often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress in the contemporary fashion. Arnolfini was a member of a merchant family from Lucca living in Bruges. The couple are shown in a well-appointed interior. 

The ornate Latin signature translates as 'Jan van Eyck was here 1434'. The similarity to modern graffiti is not accidental. Van Eyck often inscribed his pictures in a witty way. The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway. One may be the painter himself. Arnolfini raises his right hand as he faces them, perhaps as a greeting.
Van Eyck was intensely interested in the effects of light: oil paint allowed him to depict it with great subtlety in this picture, notably on the gleaming brass chandelier.