In March 2023, information spread that the management of a famous museum was going to remove a Van Eyck painting from the halls for a rather curious reason. We checked how true this news is.

On March 30, Russian-language resources reported that the London National Gallery would remove the famous painting “Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple” by Jan van Eyck due to the similarity of the character depicted on it to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some sources clarified that the parallel was allegedly drawn by one of the Ukrainian workers, after which the museum received threats to desecrate the painting. Many of the posts were accompanied by a 52-second video featuring the logo of the Belgian news site 7sur7, which reported the case in French.

Information was disseminated by such resources as RIA FAN, "Mriya", "Ukraine.ru", Rodina.news, Fishki.net and a number of other sites. It was widely distributed on Telegram - on the channels "Russia now"(316,000 views at the time of writing) "Putin on Telegram"(298,000), "Scott Ritter on Telegram" (183,000) and "Evil proof"(138,000). The news also caused a great stir in English - in particular, in Twitter.

“Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple” (1434) is one of the most famous paintings by the Dutch artist Jan van Eyck, a representative of the Northern Renaissance. Today it is considered the first known paired portrait in European painting. At the same time, debates about who exactly is depicted on it are still ongoing, and the symbolism of small details gives rise to many interpretations of the author’s intention. Traditionally counts, that the canvas depicts the merchant Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife in their home in Bruges. Since 1843, the painting can be seen in London's National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.

Moreover, over the past two decades, perhaps the most famous fact about the painting among the general public has been the resemblance of the man depicted in it to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Vladimir Putin and a fragment of “Portrait of the Arnolfini couple.”
Collage: https://ilovekefir.livejournal.com/

Ordinary people drew attention to the similarity of the facial features of the two people almost immediately after Putin entered the arena of Russian big politics. In January 2000, when the current head of the Russian Federation was still at the rank of acting. O. President, published in Novaya Gazeta article under the headline “Did van Eyck predict the outcome of the Russian elections”, which spoke of ongoing speculation on this topic. In 2005, a National Gallery guide told a correspondent "Komsomolskaya Pravda”, that visitors ask her this question 20 times a day. Didn't get around memes and another author’s portrait, which is also believed to depict Giovanni Arnolfini. Last exhibited at the Berlin Art Gallery. Since then, the popularity of the Putin-Arnolfini theme, although it has decreased, has alternately received new surges.

Dynamics of popularity of the query Putin Arnolfini Portrait in Google Trends

Therefore, a reasonable question arises: is it possible in our time to surprise (or even annoy) a large group of people with the resemblance of a man from Van Eyck’s painting to the President of Russia? And even if so, will the management of a large museum follow the lead of the masses in such a strange situation? “Verified” turned to the press service of the London National Gallery for answers. Its representative Esme Wright informed us that “Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife” (1434) by Jan van Eyck is currently on display in room 28 and there are no plans to remove this painting from the exhibition. Wright also noted that the museum had not received any complaints regarding her.

It remains to find out the origin of the incorrect information. The first suspect was the already mentioned resource 7sur7, a link to which is present in the distributed screenshot and whose logo can be seen in the video. This Belgian site was founded in 2005 by a Flemish media group, and employs Francophone journalists. It is the Flemish part of Belgium that is van Eyck’s birthplace, so news related to a local native could be given special attention here. However, in section There is no such video on the site with videos. It is also striking that in the original video materials of the site its logo is translucent, while in the video that went viral it is completely white. In response to a “Verified” request, a 7sur7 representative confirmed that the popular video is a fake that has nothing to do with their site: “The author of this video took our logo and parodied the style of our videos. The images and texts in the video were not taken from us.”

Finally, another logo present in the distributed screenshot belongs to an Irish resource Irish Examiner, which, judging by the design, was supposed to post a video on his Instagram with a link to 7sur7. However, we did not find traces of such a video in any of the existing social networks of this media, as well as on its official website, in list topics related to van Eyck. Here, too, the design of the cover of the video, which is uncharacteristic of the Irish Examiner, is striking, and in general the publication of a French-language video on an English-language resource looks strange. It should also be noted that the spread of this news in both languages began after it had already spread in Russian. We recorded the earliest mention of the “scandal” (and immediately - along with a screenshot and video) on the channel “Before everyone else. Well almost. Special operation» March 30 at 11:04 Moscow time. This channel has previously been repeatedly noted to be the first to begin disseminating false information on the Internet. In particular, “Verified” talked about cases with fake graffiti And magazine covers with the image of Ukrainian President Zelensky, as well as about a fake video Madonna spitting out the Ukrainian flag. All these cases are united by the theme “Ukraine through the eyes of the West” and work with computer graphics. Perhaps this coincidence is not accidental.

Thus, the management of the London National Gallery is not going to remove Jan van Eyck’s painting “Portrait of the Arnolfini Couple” from the exhibition, and the first news about this, accompanied by fake video and photographic material, appeared in Russian.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons