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Eyck, Jan van
(1390?-1441), Flemish painter, active in Brugge (Bruges), who, along with
Robert Campin (previously known only as the Master of Flémalle) in
Tournai, was the founder of the Ars Nova (“new art”) of 15th-century
northern late Gothic painting, which heralded the Renaissance in northern
Europe. This period of Netherlandish art is characterized by a naturalistic
style of vivid oil colors, meticulous detail, accurately rendered textures, and
the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface.
Jan probably came from Maaseick in the province of
Limbourg. In 1422 he was working in The Hague for John of Bavaria, count of
Holland. In 1425Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, appointed him
court painter, a position he retained until his death. Jan was on especially
good terms with Philip, who entrusted him with certain secret diplomatic
missions, presented one of his children with a christening gift, and personally
interceded for him when he learned that Jan was having trouble collecting his
salary.
The uncertainty of Jan's early training makes his artistic
relationship with his brother Hubert of great importance. The shadowy figure of
Hubert has inspired endless speculation and debate among scholars, including one
theory that he never existed. The present consensus is that he did exist and
that he might have had a hand in painting some of the more problematic “Eyckian”
pictures that seem to date from Jan's early career. Some of these works,
ascribed variously to both Jan and Hubert or to either Jan or Hubert, are the
Turin-Milan Hours (manuscript destroyed by fire in 1904), the Three
Marys at the Tomb (Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam), and a diptych,
Crucifixion and Last Judgment (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York City). The most famous work in this category is the monumental Ghent
Altarpiece (1432, Cathedral of Saint Bavon, Ghent), a polyptych whose outer
panels open to reveal the Adoration of the Lamb, painted for the chapel
of Jodocus Vyd. A Latin quatrain copied from this altarpiece states that Hubert
began the work and Jan completed it. Art historians assume that Jan collected
the painted panels that Hubert began before his death in 1426, added new ones of
his own design, and assembled the whole in Vyd's chapel.
Nine paintings by Jan are still extant, carefully signed
and dated, all between 1432 and 1439. Of these pictures, four depict religious
subjects—including the Madonna with Canon van der Paele (1436, Groeninge
Museum, Brugge)—and five are portraits, such as The Arnolfini Marriage
(1434, National Gallery, London). Although numerous unsigned panels have been
attributed to him, less than a dozen of these are unquestionably by him. These
works, in addition to the Ghent Altarpiece, include the Madonna and
Child with Chancellor Rolin (1433-1434, Louvre, Paris) and Cardinal
Nicolò Albergati (1435?, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).
Jan's contemporaries were awed by his amazing technical
skill and his precise renderings of carefully observed detail. These qualities
explain why he was still called the King of Painters by his compatriots as late
as the 16th century. |
