Dufay, de Arnolfinis and Jan van Eyck

15th-century trade between Bruges and northern Italy brought wealth to Bruges and its merchants, and where there is wealth, there is art. The Arnolfinis, an influential merchant family from the Tuscan city Lucca, for instance, played a central role in the creation of two indisputable masterpieces of Western art: Jan van Eyck’s portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife and Guillaume Dufay’s composition L'homme armé. Art historian Kathleen Joris and polyphony specialist Hendrik Vanden Abeele tell us all about these exceptional works of art, their creators and the man who connects the two.

This course is taught in Dutch.