In the foreground is a small dog, and to the left, on the floor, a pair of pattens. In the centre of the room, slightly behind and above the heads of the figures, hangs a brass chandelier of pierced work. Of its six arms only one holds a candle, and this is burning, the {56} single flame being probably a symbol of conjugal affection or unity, as there is no other reason for its presence in a chamber well lit by two large windows on the left--one behind the figures and one in advance, which is not shown, but the light from which falls straight upon the faces. On the wall behind the two figures a circular convex mirror reflects a portion of the room, with two additional figures. Beside it hangs an amber rosary. The flesh painting is admirably soft, delicate, and transparent; the light and shade powerful, yet so well arranged that only the closest examination will reveal what an important factor it is in the success of the picture. The whole thing is touching in the simple straightforwardness of statement, and all the details are wrought with inimitable but unobtrusive minute precision. In the management of tone-values and of indoors atmosphere Jan proves himself in this picture far ahead of his time. The signature of this Arnolfini picture is written in ornamental Gothic characters immediately above the mirror, and takes the extraordinary form "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic" (Jan van Eyck was here), with the date 1434. Owing to this ambiguous wording, which may {57} be, and has been, interpreted as "this was Jan van Eyck," the picture was formerly held to represent the artist himself and his wife, a theory which still has its defenders. A full pedigree of the picture is given in the National Gallery catalogue. It belonged in 1516 to Margaret of Austria, to whom it was given by Don Diego de Guevara, whose arms were painted on the shutters which were originally attached to it. Afterwards it passed into the hands of a barber-surgeon at Bruges, who presented it to the then Regent of the Netherlands, Mary, the sister of Charles V., and Queen Dowager of Hungary. This Princess valued the picture so highly that she granted the barber-surgeon in return a pension, or office, worth 100 florins per annum. The picture is included in the list of valuables which she carried with her to Spain in 1556, from which date it disappeared until 1815, when it was discovered by Major-General Hay in the apartments to which he was taken, in Brussels, to recover from wounds received at Waterloo. He subsequently purchased the picture, and disposed of it to the British Government in 1842, since which date it has been at the National Gallery. Henri Bouchot was of opinion that the picture is not {58} the one of Arnolfini the traces of which are lost in 1556, but a portrait of van Eyck and his wife, painted as a pendant to the lost Arnolfini group. To support his view he pointed out the resemblance of the woman in this picture with the portrait of