The Arnolfini Shotgun Wedding

This month on E-Caricature the challenge is to caricature a famous painting. 

For my illustration I decided to do a spoof of the Arnolfini Wedding by Jan van Eyck.  This picture has always cracked me up.  Both of the subjects appear to be less than thrilled to be there, and they also look a smidge inbred.  Because of the man’s lackluster expression, and the fact that the woman is obviously pregnant, I could imagine this being some sort of antique Netherlandish shotgun wedding (Maybe “crossbow” wedding would be more time-period appropriate).  I guess that Arnolfini decided to “do the right thing”.
For my version of the painting I wanted to make it look like they hired a caricaturist rather than Jan van Eyck.  I borrowed a few of the traditional wedding caricature accessories like the love hearts, ball and chain, and adorable pet.

I also wanted to do some other parodies with the details of the painting, like the self-portrait in the mirror, and the little dog.  In the original painting the little dog was meant to symbolize fidelity.  Rather than muck about with such abstract symbolism, I thought it was easier to just draw a ball-and-chain.  Same meaning.


In the tradition of pretty much every art history book ever printed; here are the details zoomed in.