The Arnolfini Betrothal: Medieval Marriage and the Enigma of Jan van Eyck's Double Portrait (review)

Reviews 1'9 differing views about the introduction of the servitium debitum are a case in point. Though this kind of survey is presumably aimed at undergraduates* some prior knowledge is certainly assumed—of detail as well as of broader developments. The trial at Penenden Heath is mentioned in at least five different places, for example, but never explained. Another feature of the textbook approach is that the references and bibliography are largely limited to English-language works, and most documentary sources are cited from translations or bilingual editions. The only accompanying material is in the form of four simple maps showing the main towns, castles, and religious centres, and more could have been done to enliven what is a fairly traditional text. There are a few rather intrusive examples of errors in proof-reading scattered through the book: 'confinded' (p. 77), 'Credition' (p. 161), 'onamastic' (p. 183), and so on. At least two of the notes (p. 196 no. 1 and p. 197 no. 2) are incorrect, and there are occasional places where notes are needed but not given (p. 82 line 26 and p. 144 line 27, for example). Even more intrusive are the too-frequent instances of careless writing and curiosities of style, particularly the persistent use of commas instead of semicolons (and vice versa), typified by the sentence: 'Such behaviour troubled the pope, it could be overlooked by the more pragmatic king' (p. 161). The writing drifts rather too often into lengthy sentences which lack the conciseness and clarity essential for this kind of survey. Toby Burrows Scholars' Centre University of Western Australia Library Hall, Edwin, The Arnolfini Betrothal: Medieval Marriage and the Enigma of Jan van Eyck's Double Portrait (California Studies in the History of Art, Discovery Series 3), Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, University of California Press, 1994; cloth; pp. xxi, 180; 16 colour plates, 62 b/w figures; R.R.P. US$45.00. In this book Edwin Hall asks whether a twentieth-century viewer can look at a medieval painting and know what its intended meaning was? His study of the double portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife painted by Jan van Eyck in 1434 defiantly goes against the classic 'iconographical' reading of Erwin Panofsky and against more recent postmodern readings (Roskill, Seidel), and asserts that the portrait's meaning used to be accessible and that 1 go Reviews 'historical enquiry can legitimately investigate and possibly recover what that "meaning was' (p. xix). In order to assist in this recovery Hall examines in detail the marriage customs of medieval Flanders and Italy, acknowledging Gombrich's dictum that 'iconography must begin with a study of institutions rather than symbols' (p. xx). Panofsky's view that the double portrait depicted a clandestine marriage serves as a starting point for Chapter T w o 'On Marriage L a w and Ceremony'. Hall charts the development of medieval Christian marriage customs from a combination of the Roman sponsalia arrangement which emphasised mutual consent and the provision of a dowry, and the Germanic transfer of mundium (male protection over women) from the father to the husband, which emphasised sexual consummation and the provision of a morgengabe (morning gift). Hall's reading of marriage as a Christian institution suggests that Church participation in marriage only becomes significant in the early twelfth century, when it became the custom to appear before a priest at the church door to solemnise the union. The relevance of these arguments is in the building up of a strong case against Panofsky's reading of the painting. Giovanni Arnolfini was a wealthy, powerful, middle-aged Italian merchant living in Flanders, and the family of his wife Giovanna Cenami was distinguished. They were not, Hall argues, the kind of people to engage in 'an adventure in clandestine matrimony' (p. 31). For those still unconvinced Chapter T w o concludes with a detailed examination of a number of depictions of marriage including paintings and manuscript illuminations. Hall finds that the binding of hands with a stole is customary in Flemish depictions of marriage, and that as van Eyck's couple merely touch hands delicately it is extremely unlikely that the painting is of their marriage...