over a famous painting. The disputation was over the identification of the two people portrayed

in the painting. The painting was a portrait thought to be Giovanni Arnofili and his wife, and the

artist was Jan van Eyck. Panofsky wrote this essay to prove that this painting found in 1815,

which he refers to as the "London portrait", is identical to a picture which was once acquired by

Queen Mary of Hungary, among others. The "Hapsburg painting", referring to the one owned by

the Queen, was lost in 1789. In my essay, I will show the proof given by Panofsky that the two

By tracing the provenance of the paintings, Panofsky validates his theory that the two may

very well be just one. The theory that the two paintings are but one has been named the

"Orthodox Theory". Since the Hapsburg painting was lost in 1789 and the London portrait

wasn't discovered until 1815, it is more than possible that the two paintings are the same. The

gap in time between the loss of one and discovery of the other painting is thought by Panofsky

The description of the Hapsburg painting given by Vermander was almost exact to that of

Panofsky's essay holds much evidence to support the Orthodox Theory. For instance, the

third person in the London painting. Panofsky, being a commendable art historian, questioned

joining hands with a mirror reflecting them from behind. That description is identical to the

adding his own words of a painting he'd never seen. This should make it clear that it is extremely

himself had never even seen the painting, nor ever spoke of it before in any of his other writings.

the hands, and both lack a priest. Panofsky compared these paintings to show that this

Another reason disagreement took place over the painting was because of a man who

confirmed that a painting was in fact just one painting when for a long time it was doubted and

up entire new meanings for paintings that use iconography.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Italy Panofsky, Orthodox Theory, Queen Mary's, Van Eyck's, Eyck Johannes, Council Trent, Vermander Vermander, Willibald Pirckheimer, Theory Hapsburg, David Michal, van eyck, johannes van, johannes van eyck, hapsburg painting, orthodox theory, van eyck's, london painting, art historian, read johannes, marriage van eyck's, third person, painting painting, inscription read johannes, read johannes van,
Approximate Word count = 1397
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)