Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck
Portrait of a Man in a Turban (actually a chaperon), possibly a self-portrait, 1433.
Birth name	Jan van Eyck/Johannes van Eyck
Born	c. 1395 probably Maaseik, Burgundian Netherlands
Died	before 9 July 1441 (aged 45–46) Bruges, Burgundian Netherlands
Nationality	Flemish
Field	Painting
Movement	Renaissance
Works	About 25 paintings have been attributed
Patrons	John III, Duke of Bavaria, Philip the Good
Influenced by	Hubert van Eyck

Jan van Eyck (or Johannes de Eyck) (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjɑn vɑn ˈɛjk]) (before c. 1395 – before 9 July 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 and propogated by Karel van Mander, 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.^[1] 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 (Belgium). 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.^[2] 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 existing 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.^[3] This suggests a date of birth of 1395 at the latest. His apparent age in his probable self-portrait (right) suggests to most scholars an earlier date than 1395.^[4] 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

The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, 1434, one of the most well known and renowned examples of Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting.

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 at 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 [1] ).

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.

Selected works

Annunciation, 1434-1436, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

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.^[5] 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^{[citation needed]}. 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.

The Arnolfini Portrait (1434)

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. Although the woman looks to be pregnant, 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); however, the body type, and the fashions accentuating that body type, may emphasize the child-bearing potential of women. Recently-discovered records indicating that Giovanni Arnolfini's wife died before 1434, together with details in the picture, suggest that the portrayed woman was deceased (perhaps in childbirth) before or during the picture's making ^[6].

Other works

van Eyck painted two remarkable commemorative panels, the Madonna with Chancellor Rolin (Paris, Louvre), and the Madonna with canon Joris van der Paele (Bruges, Groeninge Museum). Notable among other religious paintings are the Annunciation (Washington, National Gallery of Art). A number of haunting portraits survive, including that of his wife, Margareta (Bruges, Groeningemuseum), and what is believed to be his self-portrait, Portrait of a Man. This is often mis-titled Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban, as in fact the subject wears a chaperon.^[7] Many more works are disputed, or believed to be by his assistants or followers.

Reputation

The Ghent Altarpiece: The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (interior view), painted in 1432.

Ghent Altarpiece, closed view, back panels.

In the earliest significant source on van Eyck, a 1454 biography in Genoese humanist Bartolomeo Facio's De viris illustribus, Jan van Eyck is 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 sheds light on aspects of Jan van Eyck's production now lost, citing a bathing scene owned by a prominent Italian, but mistakenly attributing to van Eyck a world map painted by another.^[8] Facio also records that van Eyck was a learned man, and that he was versed in the classics, particularly Pliny the Elder's work on 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 in van Eyck 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 in the Church of St Donatian (destroyed during the French Revolution).

Major 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, New York
• 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
• The Stygmata of St. Francis (c. 1428-1430) - Oil on panel, 28 x 33, Galleria Sabauda, Turin
• Portrait of a Goldsmith (Man with Ring; c. 1430) - Wood, 16.6 x 13.2 cm, National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest
• Ghent Altarpiece (1432) - Oil on panel, Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent
• Portrait of Niccolò Albergati (c. 1431) - Oil on panel, 34 x 27.5 cm, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna
• 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 (a possible self-portrait) (1433) - Oil on panel, 25.5 x 19 cm, National Gallery, London
• 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 a Man with Carnation (c. 1435) - Oil on wood, 40 x 31 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
• 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
• Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele (1436) - Oil on wood, 122 x 157 cm, Groeningemuseum, Bruges
• 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 Margaret 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
• Portrait of Christ (1440) - Oak panel, 33.4 x 26.8 cm, Groeningemuseum, Bruges
• St. Jerome in His Study (dated 1442) - Oil on linen paper on oak panel, 20 x 12.5 cm, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit

Footnotes

Bibliography

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 Manuscript 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 Contemporary 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, Richard. Philip the Good: The Apogee of Burgundy. UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2002

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jan van Eyck

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jan van Eyck

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Eyck, van.

• A Closer Look at Jan van Eyck's Virgin and Child with Chancellor Rolin (Louvre museum)
• Centre for the Study of Fifteenth-Century Painting in the Southern Netherlands and the Principality of Liège List of works
• Jan van Eyck Gallery at MuseumSyndicate
• Flemish Art Collection: Madonna with Canon Joris van der Paele, a masterpiece by van Eyck

v d e Jan van Eyck Annunciation (c. 1434-1436) · Ghent Altarpiece (with Hubert van Eyck) (1432) · Portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati (1432) · Portrait of a Man (1433) · Arnolfini Portrait (1434) · Madonna of Chancellor Rolin (1435) · Lucca Madonna (1436) · Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele (1436) · Madonna in the Church (1438) · Portrait of Margaret van Eyck (1439) · Madonna at the Fountain (1439) · Saint Jerome in His Study (1442) ·