Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing

Laura Cumming

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
150 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

In fact, it's black straw.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

And people in those days would have known that it was a very, very expensive hat.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

For us now, it's quite evident how wealthy he is because he's wearing this enormous long black fur coat.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

And indeed, he's wearing velvet underneath it.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

He has one hand raised and his other hand raised towards the woman we take to be his wife.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

Is she his wife?

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

Is she his mistress?

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

Are they yet married?

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

Who is she?

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

We'll come to that.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

What's going on?

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

And he's raising his hand.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

And I always think it looks like Jesus blessing the multitudes.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

Though many interpretations of what that gesture means, but anyone listening can picture that.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

So imagine Christ and he's giving a blessing, two fingers raised kind of thing.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

On the right hand side of the painting, in this voluminous dress, I mean, she's wearing yards and yards of fabric, is unobtrusive.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

A woman who appears to be younger and smaller, she's got the cloth raised up to just above her waist, reams of train raised up.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

And people have always thought she looked pregnant.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

And indeed, there's a whole theory about how she's actually pregnant.

The Rest Is History
The Arnolfini Portrait, with Laura Cumming

But she's not.