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Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?)

 

 
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Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?)
 
 
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The Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) , also often known as Portrait of a Man in a Turban, or in a red turban, etc, is an oil painting
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....
 by the Early Netherlandish
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....
 master Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck was an Early Netherlandish painting active in Bruges and considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century....
, from 1433. It has been in the 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....
 since 1851, having been in England since Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel
Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel

Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surrey and 1st Earl of Norfolk was a prominent England courtier during the reigns of James I of England and Charles I of England, but he made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician....
 acquired it, probably during his exile in Antwerp
Antwerp

||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions....
 from 1642-44.

The original frame survives (the vertical sides are in fact a single piece of wood with the central panel), and has the painted inscription JOHES DE EYCK ME FECIT ANO MCCCC.33.






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The Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) , also often known as Portrait of a Man in a Turban, or in a red turban, etc, is an oil painting
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....
 by the Early Netherlandish
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....
 master Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck was an Early Netherlandish painting active in Bruges and considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century....
, from 1433. It has been in the 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....
 since 1851, having been in England since Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel
Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel

Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surrey and 1st Earl of Norfolk was a prominent England courtier during the reigns of James I of England and Charles I of England, but he made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician....
 acquired it, probably during his exile in Antwerp
Antwerp

||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions....
 from 1642-44.

The original frame survives (the vertical sides are in fact a single piece of wood with the central panel), and has the painted inscription JOHES DE EYCK ME FECIT ANO MCCCC.33. 21. OCTOBRIS ("Jan Van Eyck Made Me on October 21 1433") at the bottom and at the top the motto AlC IXH XAN ("I Do as I Can"), which appears on other van Eyck paintings, always written in Greek letters, and includes a pun on his name. As on other van Eyck frames, the letters are painted to appear carved.

Like all Van Eyck's portraits, it shows a sharp and detailed analysis of the physical lines. It is however without any treatment of the subject's thoughts and moods. The subject is often thought to be van Eyck himself, though there is no direct evidence for this. The costume is appropriate for a man of van Eyck's social position, and the motto is his personal one, otherwise only appearing on two surviving religious paintings, two more known only from copies, and the portrait of his wife. In none is it as prominent as here.

He is not in fact wearing a turban
Turban

The turban is a headgear consisting of a long scarf-like single piece of cloth wound around either the head itself or an inner hat. The word "turban" is a common umbrella term, loosely used in English to refer to several sorts of head wrap....
, but 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...
 with the ends that normally hang down tied up over the top, which would be a sensible precaution if it was worn whilst painting. A similar chaperon is worn by a figure in the background of van Eyck's Rolin Madonna, and it has also been suggested that this is a self-portrait.

Typically for van Eyck, the head is a little large in relation to the torso. The technique shows the "skill, economy and speed" of van Eyck's best work. Campbell describes the painting of the left eye as follows: "The white of the eye is laid in white mixed with minute quantities of red and blue. A very thin scumble of red is brought over the underlayer, which is, however, left exposed in four places to create the secondary highlights. The veins are painted in vermilion into the wet scumble. The iris is ultra-marine, fairly pure at its circumference but mixed with white and black towards the pupil. There are black flecks near the circumference and the pupil is painted in black over the blue of the iris. The principal catchlights are four spots of lead white applied as final touches, one on the iris and three on the white, where they register with the four secondary lights to create the glistening effect."

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