Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini Wedding, 1434 (National Gallery, London). By 1500, the optimism and humanism of Italy were spreading all over the Continent. In northern Europe, the Renaissance's effect was more an improvement on medieval art than a return to classical forms. This early Northern Renaissance masterpiece shows the characteristic medieval attention to detail and the down-to-earth personal style typical of Belgian and Dutch art. Even though this painting is sometimes called "The Shotgun Wedding," she may not be pregnant. The fashion of the day was to wear a pillow to look pregnant in hopes you'd soon get that way. At least, that's what they told their parents.