What's really innovative about this portrait is the unusual decision to set it in a domestic interior - it's one of the earliest images of a couple welcoming us into their gracious home.
It might look plain to us now, but this room would instantly have signalled prosperity to 15th-century Flemish viewers.
The narrow view through the window tells us that this is a substantial brick building of several storeys: we can see the top of the cherry tree.
The upper windows are glazed, and the floorboards are fashionably bare, all the better to show off the rare oriental carpet.
The fixtures and fittings are all of the highest quality, and the room has been 'dressed' with casually strewn oranges, rare and costly at the time.
