Johannes de Eyck fuit hic, 1434
Detail from The Arnolfini Wedding
The National Gallery, London
Above the mirror on the back wall of Van Eyck’s painted room in the painting known as The Arnolfini Wedding, lacy gold lettering in Latin reads “Johannes de Eyck was here, 1434.” Van Eyck was the first painter since the classical age to sign his works, but even for him, this message is a gauntlet thrown down, a teasing and forceful challenge of presence. It’s basically fancy fifteenth-century graffiti — and the presence it promises is as much a riddle as Banksy’s.
Where are you, Jan Van Eyck?
I’m working on a novel that will tease out some answers, historical, fictional, and occasionally fantastic. At the moment, I’m calling it The Door in the Mirror.