Jan van Eyck

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Portrait of a Man in a Turban (actually a chaperon), possibly a self-portrait, painted 1433
Portrait of a Man in a Turban (actually a chaperon), possibly a self-portrait, painted 1433
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Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck (IPA: [jɑn vɑn ɛik]) (before c. 1395 – before July 9, 1441) was an Early Netherlandish 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. It is however true that he achieved, or perfected, new and remarkable effects using this technique.

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.[1] Another significant, and rather younger, painter who worked in Southern France, Barthélemy van Eyck, is presumed to be a relation.

Contents

[edit] Life

[edit] 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. It dates to 1422 and mentions a payment to Jan van Eyck as court painter, which indicates he had to have been born no later than 1395, and indeed probably earlier. His apparent age in his probable self-portrait (right) suggests to most scholars an earlier date than 1395. [1][2]

[edit] 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.

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.

[edit] Masterworks

The Arnolfini Portrait (1434).
The Arnolfini Portrait (1434).

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.[2] 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.

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).

Annunciation, National Gallery of Art.
Annunciation, National Gallery of Art.

[edit] Other works

Other works include two remarkable commemorative panels, the Madonna with Chancellor Rolin (Paris, Louvre), and the Madonna of Canon Georg 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 (Self Portrait?), often mistitled Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban, as in fact he wears a chaperon.[3]. Many more works are disputed, or believed to be by his assistants or followers.

[edit] 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).

[edit] 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, New York
  • 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
  • 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, Ghent
  • 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 the 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • The Madonna 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 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

[edit] References

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

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Jan van Eyck, Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. ^ Gombrich, E.H., The Story of Art, pages 236-9. Phaidon, 1995.
  3. ^ National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings by Lorne Cambell, 1998, ISBN 185709171

[edit] External links

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