Laura Cumming
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
In fact, it's black straw.
And people in those days would have known that it was a very, very expensive hat.
For us now, it's quite evident how wealthy he is because he's wearing this enormous long black fur coat.
And indeed, he's wearing velvet underneath it.
He has one hand raised and his other hand raised towards the woman we take to be his wife.
Is she his wife?
Is she his mistress?
Are they yet married?
Who is she?
We'll come to that.
What's going on?
And he's raising his hand.
And I always think it looks like Jesus blessing the multitudes.
Though many interpretations of what that gesture means, but anyone listening can picture that.
So imagine Christ and he's giving a blessing, two fingers raised kind of thing.
On the right hand side of the painting, in this voluminous dress, I mean, she's wearing yards and yards of fabric, is unobtrusive.
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.
And people have always thought she looked pregnant.
And indeed, there's a whole theory about how she's actually pregnant.
But she's not.