Not a Shotgun Wedding

Here are some pretty early signs/roots of Western Consumerism.  During the Early Renaissance time in Northern Europe, it was in style to be wealthy.  To show one's wealth and good style involved a lavish display of excess.  Jan van Eyck, Flemish (Northern Belgium, Dutch speaking) painter, who was the first to come up with the idea of suspending pigment in oil, and was therefore the first ever oil painter, did this work,

Arolfini Wedding Portrait, 1434.  

A pregnant bride?  Nope.  Look again.  She is wearing such a ridiculous quantity of fur lined, richly dyed green fabric, that she has to gather it up in her hands in order to walk.  What a display.  I note that Westerners STILL have not gotten over the impulse to show off by having way more stuff than could ever be used or deemed necessary.  I include myself in this accusation, though I do think I have come a long way in paring down over the years.  Still- a continuous effort at consciousness, a tug of war of material addiction, attachment and letting go.