Jan van Eyck

Jan Van Eyck

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Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck (before c. 1395 – before July 9, 1441) was an Early Netherlandish painter

Early Netherlandish painting

Early Netherlandish painting is the work of those painting who were active in the Netherlands during the 15th and early 16th century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing cities of Bruges and Ghent....
active in Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
and considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century.

There is a common misconception, which dates back to the sixteenth-century Vite
Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, or Le Vite delle pi? eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori as it was originally known in Italian, is a series of artist biographies written by 16th century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, which is considered "perhaps the most famous, and even to...
of the Tuscan

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of and a population of about 3.6 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence.Tuscany is known for its landscapes and its artistic legacy....
artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari was an Italy Painting and architect, who is today famous for his biography of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art history writing....
, that Jan van Eyck invented oil painting

Oil painting

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Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck (before c. 1395 – before July 9, 1441) was an Early Netherlandish painter

Early Netherlandish painting

Bruges

Tuscany

Giorgio Vasari

Oil painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil ? especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil....
. It is however true that he achieved, or perfected, new and remarkable effects using this technique. Thus, due to his early mastery of the technique, he has often been referred to as the "father of oil painting."

Jan van Eyck has often been linked as brother to painter and peer Hubert van Eyck

Hubert van Eyck

Hubert van Eyck was a Flemings Painting and older brother of Jan van Eyck.The date of his birth and the records of his progress are lost amidst the ruins of the earlier civilization of the valley of the Meuse River....
, because both have been thought to originate from the same town, Maaseik

Maaseik

Maaseik is a Municipalities in Belgium located in the Belgium Provinces of Belgium of Limburg . The city is located on the river Meuse River , bordering the Netherlands....
in Limburg (Belgium)

Limburg (Belgium)

Limburg is the easternmost province of Flanders , and is located west of the Maas River river. It borders on the Netherlands and the Belgian provinces of Li?ge , Flemish Brabant and Antwerp ....
. Another brother, Lambert van Eyck is mentioned in Burgundian

Burgundian Netherlands

In the history of the Low Countries, the Burgundian Netherlands refers to the period when the Duke of Burgundy ruled the area, as well as Luxembourg and parts of northern France, from 1384 to 1530....
court documents, and there is a conjecture that he too was a painter, and that he may have overseen the closing of Jan van Eyck's Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
workshop. Another significant, and rather younger, painter who worked in Southern France, Barthélemy van Eyck, is presumed to be a relation.

Life

Youth

The date of van Eyck's birth is not known. The first extant record of van Eyck is from the court of John of Bavaria

John III, Duke of Bavaria-Straubing

John III the Pitiless, Duke of Bavaria-Straubing of the House of Wittelsbach was first bishop of Li?ge 1389-1418 and then duke of Bavaria-Straubing and count of Holland and County of Hainaut 1418-1425....
at The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 475,904 and an area of approximately 100 km?....
, where payments were made to Jan van Eyck between 1422 and 1424 as court painter, with the court rank of valet de chambre

Valet de chambre

Valet de chambre, or varlet de chambre, was a noble court appointment introduced in the late Middle Ages, common from the 14th century onwards....
, and first one and then two assistants. This suggests a date of birth of at the latest 1395 and indeed probably earlier. His apparent age in his probable self-portrait (right) suggests to most scholars an earlier date than 1395. Miniatures in the Turin-Milan Hours

Turin-Milan Hours

The Turin-Milan Hours is an incomplete illuminated manuscript, despite its name not strictly a book of hours, of exceptional quality and importance, with a very complicated history both during and after its production....
, if indeed they are by van Eyck, are likely to be the only surviving works from this period, and most of these were destroyed by fire in 1904, though photographs exist.

Worldly success

Following the death of John of Bavaria, in 1425 van Eyck entered the service of the powerful and influential Valois prince, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. Van Eyck resided in Lille

Lille

Lille is a city in northern France. It is the principal city of the Urban Community of Lille M?tropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille....
for a year and then moved to Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
, where he lived until his death in 1441. A number of documents published in the twentieth century record his activities in Philip's service. He was sent on several missions on behalf of the Duke, and worked on several projects which likely entailed more than painting. With the exception of two portraits of Isabella of Portugal, which van Eyck painted on Philip's behest as a member of a 1428-9 delegation to seek her hand, the precise nature of these works is obscure.

As a painter and "valet de chambre

Valet de chambre

Valet de chambre, or varlet de chambre, was a noble court appointment introduced in the late Middle Ages, common from the 14th century onwards....
" to the Duke, Jan van Eyck was exceptionally well paid. His annual salary was quite high when he was first engaged, but it doubled twice in the first few years, and was often supplemented by special bonuses. His salary alone makes Jan van Eyck an exceptional figure among early Netherlandish painters, since most of them depended on individual commissions for their livelihoods. An indication that Van Eyck's art and person were held in extraordinarily high regard is a document from 1435 in which the Duke scolded his treasurers for not paying the painter his salary, arguing that Van Eyck would leave and that he would nowhere be able to find his equal in his "art and science." The Duke also served as godfather to one of Van Eyck's children, supported his widow upon the painter's death, and years later helped one of his daughters with the funds required to enter a convent.

Masterpieces

Jan van Eyck produced paintings for private clients in addition to his work at the court. Foremost among these is the Ghent Altarpiece
Ghent Altarpiece

The Ghent Altarpiece or Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is a very large and complex Early Netherlandish painting polyptych panel painting which was once in the Joost Vijdt chapel at Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, but was later moved for security reasons to the chapel of the cathedral....
painted for Jodocus Vijdts and his wife Elisabeth Borluut. Started sometime before 1426 and completed, at least partially, by 1432, this polyptych

Polyptych

A polyptych generally refers to a painting which is divided into four or more sections, or panels. Polyptych may also be used to refer collectively to all multi-panel paintings....
has been seen to represent "the final conquest of reality in the North", differing from the great works of the Early Renaissance

Early renaissance

The early Renaissance era signaled a new generation of art. It started early 14th century and soared all the way to the 17th century where the world of art was reborn and reshaped....
in Italy by virtue of its willingness to forgo classical idealization in favor of the faithful observation of nature. It is housed in its original location, the Cathedral of St. Bavo in Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region, Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys River and became in the Middle Ages one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe....
, Belgium. It has had a turbulent history, surviving the 16th-century iconoclastic riots, the French Revolution, changing tastes which led to its dissemination, and most recently Nazi looting. When World War II ended it was recovered in a salt mine, and the story of its restoration drew considerable interest from the general public and greatly advanced the discipline of the scientific study of paintings. No less turbulent was the history of the interpretation of this work. Since an inscription states that Hubert van Eyck maior quo nemo repertus (greater than anyone) started the altarpiece, but that Jan van Eyck - calling himself arte secundus (second best in the art) - finished it identifies it as a collaborative effort of Jan van Eyck and his brother Hubert. The question of who painted what, or "Jan or Hubert?" has become a mythical one among art historians. Some even question the validity of the inscription, and thus Hubert van Eyck's involvement. In the 1930s, Emil Renders even argued that "Hubert van Eyck" was a complete fiction invented by Ghent humanists in the 16th century. More recently, Lotte Brand Philip (1971) has proposed that the Ghent Altarpiece's inscription has been misread, and that Hubert was (in Latin) the "fictor", not the "pictor", of the work. She interprets this as meaning that Jan van Eyck painted the entire altarpiece, while his brother Hubert created its sculptural framework.

Exceptionally for his time, van Eyck often signed and dated his paintings on their frames, then considered an integral part of the work (the two were often painted together). However, in the celebrated Arnolfini Portrait
Arnolfini portrait

The Arnolfini Portrait is a painting in oil paint on oak panel executed by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck in 1434. Among other titles, it is also known as "The Arnolfini Wedding", "The Arnolfini Marriage", "The Arnolfini Double Portrait" or the "Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife"....
(London, National Gallery

National Gallery, London

The National Gallery in London, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 in its home on Trafalgar Square....
) reproduced at left, van Eyck inscribed on the (pictorial) back wall above the convex mirror "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic 1434" (Jan van Eyck was here, 1434). The painting is one of the most frequently analyzed by art historians, but in recent years a number of popular interpretations have been questioned. This is probably not a painted marriage certificate, or the record of a betrothal, as originally suggested by Erwin Panofsky. The woman is probably also not pregnant, as the hand-gesture of lifting the dress recurs in contemporary renditions of virgin saints (including Jan van Eyck's own Dresden Triptych and a workshop piece, the Frick Madonna).

Other works

Other works include two remarkable commemorative panels, the Madonna with Chancellor Rolin (Paris, Louvre

Louvre

The Louvre Museum , located in Paris, is a historic monument, and a national museum of France. It is a central landmark, located on the Rive Droite of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement of Paris ....
), and the Madonna of Canon Georg van der Paele (Bruges, ), some other religious paintings, notably the Annunciation (Washington, National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art is a national art museum, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museum was established in 1938 by the United States Congress, with funds for construction and a substantial art collection donated by Andrew W....
), and a number of exceptionally haunting portraits, including that of his wife, Margareta (Bruges, Groeningemuseum), and what is believed to be his self-portrait, Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?)

Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?)

The Portrait of a Man , also often known as Portrait of a Man in a Turban, or in a red turban, etc, is an oil painting by the Early Netherlandish painting master Jan van Eyck, from 1433....
, often mistitled Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban, as in fact he wears a chaperon

Chaperon (headgear)

Chaperon was a form of hood or, later, highly versatile hat worn in all parts of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Initially a utilitarian garment, it first grew a long partly decorative tail behind, and then developed into a complex, versatile and expensive headgear after what was originally the vertical opening for the face began to be u...
.. Many more works are disputed, or believed to be by his assistants or followers.

Reputation

In the most substantial early source on him, a 1454 biography by the Genoese

Genoa

Genoa is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. The city has a population of about 610,000 and the urban area has a population of about 900,000....
humanist Bartolomeo Facio

Bartolomeo Facio

Bartolomeo Facio was an Italian historian, writer and humanist.Facio was born into a wealthy family of La Spezia, Liguria. He studied in Verona, Florence and Genoa and was a notary in Lucca and Genoa....
(De viris illustribus), Jan van Eyck was named "the leading painter" of his day. Facio places him among the best artists of the early 15th century, along with Rogier van der Weyden, Gentile da Fabriano

Gentile da Fabriano

Gentile da Fabriano was an Italy painter known for his participation in the International Gothic style.Gentile was born in or near Fabriano, in the Marche....
, and Pisanello

Pisanello

Pisanello , known professionally as Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento....
. It is particularly interesting that Facio shows as much enthusiasm for Netherlandish painters as he does for Italian painters. This text also sheds light on aspects of Jan van Eyck's production now lost, citing a bathing scene as well as a world map which van Eyck painted for Philip the Good. Facio also recorded that van Eyck was a learned man, and that he was versed in the classics, particularly the writings of Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
about painting. This is supported by records of an inscription from Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
's Ars Amatoria

Ars Amatoria

file:Ovid Ars Amatoria 1644.jpgThe Ars amatoria is a poem in three books by the Roman poet Ovid. It claims to provide teaching in three areas of general preoccupation: how and where to find women in Rome, how to seduce them, and how to prevent others from stealing them....
, which was on the now-lost original frame of the Arnolfini Double Portrait, and by the many Latin inscriptions on his paintings, using the Roman alphabet, then reserved for educated men. Jan van Eyck likely had some knowledge of Latin for his many missions abroad on behalf of the Duke.

Jan van Eyck died in Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
in 1441 and was buried there in the Church of St Donatian (destroyed during the French Revolution).

Main works

*Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych (1420-1425) - Oil on wood transferred to canvas, 56.5 x 19.5 cm (each painting), Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile, New York City in New York City, USA....
, New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....

Madonna in the Church (c. 1425) - Oil on wood, 32 x 14 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
The Stygmata of St. Francis (c. 1428-1430) - Oil on panel, 28 x 33, Galleria Sabauda, Turin
Turín

Tur?n is a municipality in the Ahuachap?n Department Departments of El Salvador of El Salvador....
Portrait of a Goldsmith (Man with Ring; c. 1430) - Wood, 16.6 x 13.2 cm, Romanian National Museum, Bucharest
St. John the Evangelist (1432) - Oil on panel, 149.1 x 55.1 cm, Saint Bavo Cathedral
Saint Bavo Cathedral

The Saint Bavo Cathedral is the seat of the diocese of Ghent. It is named for Saint Bavo of Ghent.The building is based upon the Chapel of St....
, Ghent
Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region, Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys River and became in the Middle Ages one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe....
Ghent Altarpiece
Ghent Altarpiece

The Ghent Altarpiece or Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is a very large and complex Early Netherlandish painting polyptych panel painting which was once in the Joost Vijdt chapel at Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, but was later moved for security reasons to the chapel of the cathedral....
(1432) - Oil on panel, Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent
Portrait of a Young Man (Tymotheos; 1432) - Oil on wood, 34.5 x 19 cm, National Gallery, London
Madonna with Child Reading
Madonna with Child Reading

The Virgin and Child Reading is an oil painting attributed to the Early Netherlandish painting master Jan van Eyck, from 1433. It is on display in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne....
(1433) - Oil on wood, 26.5 x 19.5 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Portrait of a Man in a Turban (1433) - Oil on panel, 25.5 x 19 cm, National Gallery, London
National Gallery, London

The National Gallery in London, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 in its home on Trafalgar Square....
Arnolfini Portrait
Arnolfini portrait

The Arnolfini Portrait is a painting in oil paint on oak panel executed by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck in 1434. Among other titles, it is also known as "The Arnolfini Wedding", "The Arnolfini Marriage", "The Arnolfini Double Portrait" or the "Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife"....
(1434) - Oil on panel, 82 x 59.5 cm, National Gallery, London
The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin (1435) - Wood, 66 x 62 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Portrait of Niccolò Albergati (c. 1435) - Oil on panel, 34 x 27.5 cm, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna
Vienna

Vienna is the Capital of Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million...
Portrait of a Man with Carnation (c. 1435) - Oil on wood, 40 x 31 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
Portrait of Baudouin de Lannoy (c. 1435) - Oil on wood, 26 x 20 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini (c. 1435) - Oil on wood, 29 x 20 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
Madonna and Child (Lucca Madonna or Suckling Madonna, 1436) - Oil on panel, 65.5 x 49.5 cm, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt
Frankfurt

is the largest city in the German States of Germany of Hesse and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000....
The Madonna with Canon van der Paele (1436) - Oil on wood, 122 x 157 cm, Groeningemuseum
Groeningemuseum

The Groeningemuseum is a municipal museum of Bruges, Belgium.It houses a comprehensive survey of six centuries of Flemish and Belgian painting, from Jan van Eyck to Marcel Broodthaers....
, Bruges
Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
Portrait of Jan de Leeuw (1436) - Oil on wood, 24.5 x 19 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
St. Barbara (1437) - Grisaille on wood, 31 x 18.5, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Head of Christ (1438), copy - Staatliche Museen, Berlin, and Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Portrait of Margareta van Eyck (1439) - Oil on wood, 32.6 x 25.8 cm, Groeningemuseum, Bruges
Madonna and Child at the Fountain (1439) - Oil on wood, 19 x 12 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Portrait of Christ (1440) - Oak panel, 33.4 x 26.8 cm, Groeningemuseum, Bruges
St. Jerome (1440) - Oil on parchment on oak panel, 20 x 12.5 cm, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit

Footnotes

External links

List of works