Abstract
<jats:p>Jan van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait (1434) has intrigued art historians and theorists for six centuries, so that various narrative alternatives to this painting have been offered in order to shed light on its technique and the secret meanings of the motifs. Among the narratives which alternate with The Arnolfini Portrait, the most common are detective narratives, sexist narratives, family narrative, chthonic narratives, etc., and they should be accompanied by mise en abyme, the methodological concept of cognitive narratologists, whose framework is significantly expanded by considering the portrait of Arnolfini. In the narrative alternatives mentioned, finding the confirmation of the actuality and value of Van Eyck’s painting, with an interdisciplinary and methodologically plural approach focusing on the interpretation of postclassical narratological theories, we examine the source of permanent perceptual play of this artistic painting, with the observer gaps in the narrative. In the conclusion, we point to the contribution of the technique and the narrative of this painting to modern methodological angles to the interpretation of works of art, such as theories of reading and cognitive narratology.</jats:p>