4Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434

One of the most significant works produced during the Northern Renaissance, this composition is believed to be one of the first paintings executed in oils.

A full-length double portrait, it reputedly portrays an Italian merchant and a woman who may or may not be his bride. In 1934, the celebrated art historian Erwin Panofsky proposed that the painting is actually a wedding contract. What can be reliably said is that the piece is one of the first depictions of an interior using orthogonal perspective to create a sense of space that seems contiguous with the viewer’s own; it feels like a painting you could step into.

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