Disguised Symbolism

Northern paintings are packed with disguised symbolism. In van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait (1434), Erwin Panofsky read the single lit candle in the chandelier as God's all-seeing eye — though scholars still debate its meaning. The dog reads as fidelity. The discarded shoes suggest holy ground. The convex mirror reflects the entire room — including two figures entering, possibly witnesses to a marriage.

This approach is called disguised symbolism by art historian Erwin Panofsky. Every object in a Northern painting can carry symbolic meaning while simultaneously looking like an ordinary domestic object. It's a double system: realism and theology occupying the same space.