Jan van eyck family biography books

Van Eyck was among the first artists to produce a substantial body of secular portraiture of aristocratic and middle-class patrons in Northern Europe, a genre formerly reserved for the ruling members of society. Not only was van Eyck's portraiture highly detailed, but he also innovated a posture now taken for granted, the three-quarter view.

In religious painting and images of royalty, it was common for the figure to directly face the viewer. In Italy, the humanist climate of the burgeoning Renaissance period also saw an increase in the secular portrait; it was most common for the patrons to be depicted in profile, perhaps a nod to classical antiquity. Of his extant portraits, this painting is the most prized and there is a general consensus that it represents another new genre: the self-portrait.

It is not only the position, but also the frame that lends credence to this argument. Smith continues "Jan van Eyck added his motto to only a few of his paintings, one of which is a portrait of his wife. This might suggest that this portrait is of a close relative, or even the artist himself. The genre of the self-portrait has been a calling card for artists since the time of the Renaissance, providing a means to showcase their talent and artistic style.

The complex arrangement of the red chaperon, arguably a trait through which the artist can be identified in other paintings, provides a means for the artist to flaunt his impeccable technique. The Arnolfini Portrait is, quite literally, one of the single most famous paintings in the history of European art. Unlike The Ghent Altarpiecewhich was internationally famous in its own time, this painting was not well known until over a century after it was first made.

The full-length double portrait, itself an anomaly, depicts a wealthy man and young woman in a darkened interior holding hands. The man's right hand is raised up, as if in greeting or taking an oath, as he looks slightly to his left. The woman, with her head slightly downcast, looks directly at him. The subtle interplay of light and shadow creates an atmosphere of serene intimacy.

The controlled source of light, such as that coming through the window to the viewer's left, and shadows helped to unify the composition, a characteristic of the signature naturalism of early Flemish painting. The extreme virtuosity of draftsmanship, most prominently on display in the golden chandelier and convex mirror against the back wall, confirm the nomination given to Jan van Eyck as the "father of oil painting.

However, it also serves as a point of contention among scholars and historians as to who, what and why this painting was commissioned. An identification of the male figure was made based on a written inventory of Margaret of Hungary's collection inwhich noted: "A large picture which is called Hernoult le Fin [translating to "Arnolfini"] with his wife in a bedchamber done by Johannes the painter.

Jan van eyck family biography books

Like the numerous bust portraits van Eyck painted, it serves to illustrate the growing wealth and autonomy of the middle class in Flemish society. Staging the portraits as if engaged in an activity, however, is something new. Inart historian and iconologist Erwin Panofsky set the stage for decades of debate when he put forth the theory that this painting depicted the vows of a marriage ceremony between the wealthy Arnolfini and his young wife.

According to Panofsky's theory of "disguised symbolism" every object in the scene was laden with iconographic significance. The notion of a "disguise" was not meant to infer that the meaning was hidden from its contemporary viewers. Quite the opposite, it was expected they would understand the double-entendre of the imagery, but that in place of traditional or classical symbolism, the artist employed everyday objects to illustrate meanings based on commonly held knowledge of certain metaphors.

The small dog, for example, was not a beloved pet but a symbol of fidelity, and quite fitting for what the historian believed was a marriage scene. Additional images to support the notion of a marriage include the single burning candle in the hanging candelabra symbolizing the presence of God at this sacred event, the man's cast aside clogs indicate that this event is taking place on holy ground, while the oranges on the chest under the window may refer to fertility.

Although Panofsky jan van eyck family biography books it was not required by canon law for a priest to perform a wedding, it was required for the event to have witnesses, which van Eyck provides in this portrait. Against the back wall of the room, there is a small convex mirror reflecting the back of the couple and two individuals who appear to watch the ceremony, one who appears to wear an elaborate red turban, or chaperon.

On the wall above the mirror the artist has written an inscription in elaborate script that says "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic " Jan van Eyck was here in This marks the only known example where the artist's signature was on the actual painting rather than the picture frame. The elaborate red turban in the reflection, along with the distinctive signature, leads many to believe it is van Eyck in the mirror.

Although first widely accepted, over time an increasing onslaught of challenges to Panofsky's interpretation brought new light on the subject of this painting. Not all objections were taken with equal authority, and ranged from slight amendments, such as an announcement of their betrothal, to a legal swearing giving power of attorney to the wife during Giovanni's travels, to boastful narratives, reading the scene as a display of the merchant's wealth, and finally, to the nearly blasphemous, claiming the subject was a mockery of the notion of fidelity and marriage, an interpretation somewhat predicated on the notoriously unfaithful behavior of the original Giovanni Arnolfini believed to be the main subject.

However, all these theories were literally nullified in the early s, when historian Jacques Paviot, while researching naval history, happened across a notation describing a gift from the Duke of Burgundy on the event of Giovanni's wedding. The problem was the event took place in - thirteen years after the painting was complete, and, perhaps more to the point, six years after the artist's death.

This discovery brought attention to another member of the family, the lesser-known Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini, who also happened to have his portrait painted by the artist. Borchert explains the impact of this discovery that "made it possible to re-evaluate the painting, which is now considered to have served a memorial function. The dog, Borchert explains, remained a pivotal symbol of fidelity, but it was tied to a cultural phenomenon, "a reference to carvings on late medieval tombs, where it is a familiar motif.

Jan van Eyck produced numerous religious paintings throughout his career. This depiction of a donor seeming to greet the Madonna and Christ child was commissioned by Nicolas Rolin, a powerful figure and patron of the arts in the Netherlands. Rolin owned many vineyards in Autun and served as Chancellor to Philip the Good. This painting is an example of the "holy conversation" genre, known as sacra conversazione in Italy where the subject would become very popular.

It might also be seen as a donor portrait of Nicolas Rolin. The painting is nearly square, at 2-feetinches high by 2-feet wide, split vertically with the votive portrait on the left and the "Throne of Wisdom," jan van eyck family biography books the Byzantine representation of Mary as Theotokos, or "Mother of God," on the right. The formal frontality of the medieval tradition, however, was replaced by van Eyck's engaging realism rendered in a three-quarter, full-length portrait.

It was commissioned to hang in the chancellor's parish church, Notre-Dame-du-Chastel in Autun, where it remained until the church burned down in After a period of time in the Autun Cathedral, it was moved to the Louvre in The iconography of The Rolin Madonna is as complex as The Arnolfini Portraitand the notion of "disguised symbolism" can equally be applied here.

There are overt and personal references to both the Old and New Testaments, which create additional layers of meaning between the figures. The solemn chancellor, dressed in a gold brocade garment trimmed with mink fur, is shown kneeling to worship the Infant Jesus and Virgin Mary. The central position of Mary, mother of Christ, is emphasized by her heavily decorated velvet robe, with embroidery quoting the glories of creation, and elaborate bejeweled royal crown carried by an angel with rainbow colored wings, symbolic of the link between the earth and heaven.

Jesus blesses Rolin, with the gesture of the benediction while holding a silver orb symbolizing the world with a gold cross as a sign of his earthly and spiritual power over all Creation. A trio of Romanesque arches visually links the figures while providing an overt reference to the Holy Trinity. Carved figures on the column capitals depict scenes beginning with Genesis and continue through the fall of man and expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Therefore, the jan van eyck family biography books reads, from left to right, from the earthly sin, epitomized by Nicolas Rolin, to spiritual grace and salvation, represented by the holy figures. Yet, despite all of these details, the figures do not directly gaze at, nor interact, with one another. Brownlow discuss this small, but significant, detail.

They write: "One is bound to notice, sooner or later, that the Chancellor's lightly frowning gaze is directed not quite to the Virgin, but - it seems - towards the source of the light that illuminates her face. He cannot see them. He and they belong to, and exist in, different kinds of reality; they share the same place, but not the same modes of being.

As Erwin Panofsky noted, "In Jan van Eyck, then, all meaning has assumed the shape of reality; or, to put in the other way, all reality is saturated with meaning. While the architectural style of the distant town suggests the Netherlands, the topography, while suggestive of Burgundy or the green, hilly countryside of Meuse, is not true to any known location.

The scenery in the background suggests bustling activity, but upon close inspection a similar division of secular and spiritual populates each side of the river. Behind the Chancellor is a village set against lush, rolling hills, perhaps indicative of Rolin's properties, while the other side of what some scholars describe as the "river of life" is an ornate Gothic cathedral.

A common strategy of van Eyck was to use the Romanesque architectural style to denote both the Old Testament and the mundane, earthly world while the Gothic represented the New Testament and the glory of Heaven. The enchanting small enclosed garden, full of birds and flowers, each with notable symbolic content: lilies of purity, peonies to represent Paradise and wild roses to symbolize suffering of the Virgin.

Striking the viewer is van Eyck's differentiation between interior and exterior light, with sophistication on par with the later works of the English Romantics or Impressionist artists. The golden-rose light of the rising sun contrasts the cooler-toned light of the interior space. Strolling on the bridge, near a small group of peacocks, medieval symbols of immortality and the all-seeing eye of God, two figures look out at the expansive vista.

Notably, one of these figures wears a striking red chaperon, leading many to wonder if the artist has again inserted himself within the composition. Saint Barbara is a late work by Jan van Eyck, and quite unusual among his known pieces. It is not a finished painting, but a drawing in silverpoint, with light color in oil and black pigment on a chalk and animal glue ground.

Silverpoint is a traditional medium, used since the medieval period and popular during the Renaissance. It is also quite difficult to master, as no line can be erased and no true black can be achieved. As such, it was not a sketching medium but used for fine drawings and as an under drawing medium for paintings. Although it seems incomplete, as some regions are painted and others only drawn, van Eyck had already signed the work, creating yet another quandary in his oeuvre: Is this a finished or unfinished drawing In either case, it proves another first for the artist as the earliest surviving drawing not on paper or parchment, or the earliest incomplete painting on panel still extant.

Evidence does prove that the Flemish considered the work an important object by itself. It may be the work that Karel van Mander, a Flemish painter, art writer and some say the Northern equivalent of Giorgio Vasari, praised in the early seventeenth century as "more exactly and precisely done than the finished works of other masters ever could be.

The composition depicts the young Saint Barbara, a woman of Syrian descent who lived during the reign of emperor Maximian - just before Christianity was adopted by Rome under the rule of Constantine. According to legend, her beauty was so great, her father locked her away to keep her safe allowing only he and those under his discretion to visit her.

After years of isolation, followed by her refusal of all suitors, her father allowed her to leave the tower. Soon thereafter, she encounters Christianity and secretly converts to the fledgling, and then illegal, religion. Throughout being attacked, starved and later tortured by her pagan father and city officials she remains true to her new faith.

After being paraded through the town with another tortured martyr, she was beheaded by her father, who was, in turn, struck by lighting. Saint Barbara became a popular subject for artists of van Eyck's generation; another notable contemporary depiction is by fellow Flemish painter Robert Campin in his Werl Triptych The composition is filled with iconography to illustrate the story of Saint Barbara's martyrdom.

As an icon of beauty, she has the narrow shoulders typical of the female figure in a van Eyck portrait, and is dressed in a houppelandea garment similar to an academic robe with wide sleeves, over her gown, which is gathered at the waist. The opening in her bodice rises to a deep v-neck, while the trim rises to form a collar made of fur. The three women behind her and to the viewer's right are seen viewing the construction, each wearing a similar houppelande.

Since she is a maiden, she is bare headed. Saint Barbara is posed reading with a palm branch in her left hand to symbolize her triumph over death. While the figure of Saint Barbara dominates the lower half of the 2-foot-tall, vertically oriented composition, the upper regions depict a magnificent Gothic cathedral under construction. This alludes to part of the Saint's legend, where she orders workmen to alter her father's construction project to include three windows to symbolize the Holy Trinity.

Van Eyck again uses the Gothic style to allude to the heavenly sphere. In this case, the building might also reflect the artist's contemporary time, in many respects it resembles the Cologne Cathedral, which inand after more than years, was still under construction. Van Eyck had earlier depicted the cathedral as well as a view of Cologne in the "Adoration of the Lamb panel" scene of the famous Ghent Altarpiece.

Light floods the interior of a magnificent Gothic cathedral where a spectacular vision of the Virgin and Child holds court. Most art historians see this panel as the left wing of a dismantled, and once stolen, diptych; presumably its opposite wing was a votive portrait. In the remaining panel, the Madonna is depicted as the Queen of Heaven, wearing a regal jewel-studded crown, dressed in royal finery, a red dress symbolic of Christ's future sacrifice covered with a dark blue robe edged with golden embroidery.

She cradles the Christ child, who acts simply as a child in the arms of his mother, similar to the 13th-century Byzantine tradition of the Eleusa icon Virgin of Tenderness. At first glance, it might even appear that van Eyck has transformed a religious genre, Madonna and Child, into a nearly secular, albeit regal, image. However, closer inspection reveals much about van Eyck's process.

Discussion of Jan van Eyck's painting style invariably focus on the impressively high degree of realism he achieved, heretofore unattained in the art of painting. However, as Craig Harbison describes in his article, 'Realism and Symbolism in Early Flemish Painting,' all is not what it appears in these compositions. In fact, despite their convincing sense of structure, most of the church interiors depicted in his religious works are completely fictional.

He writes, "Van Eyck uses visible reality to suit his ends. Realistic objects are not shown independent of symbolism. His faithful description is all carefully distilled; ultimately, it is not faithfully descriptive at all. This becomes evident when one notices the unusual details of The Virgin in a Church. He is considered one of the most talented painters of 15th century Europe and is best known for his highly realistic figure painting, usually on religious subjects, and portrait art.

His hallmark three-quarter pose of face together with his mastery of oils brought a startling new realism to portraiture, and made him one of the foremost painters of the Northern Renaissance, much in demand by the newly emerging bourgeoisie and merchant class. Short Biography. Born in Maaseik, Belgium aroundlittle is known of his early life.

It is thought that the painter Hubert van Eyck was his brother. Another younger brother, Lambert van Eyck is mentioned in court documents and it is thought he may have been a painter too. Van Eyck secured a career working at court, first for John of Bavaria between and and then with Philip The Good, Duke of Burgundy between and These positions were highly prestigious, and the regular salary allowed him to pursue a certain artistic independence.

In fact Eyck developed a very close relationship with the Duke who served as godfather to one of his children, supported his widow on his death and later helped one of his daughters with funds to enter a convent. Van Eyck's family bore a coat-of-arms, which demonstrated that they belonged to gentry. And it is clear that he was literate because he signed his paintings, an unusual practice at the time.

The Ghent Altarpiece is considered his first masterpiece and one of the finest examples of Northern religious artfollowed closely by the Arnolfini Portrait. Van Eyck's ability to manipulate oil paints to produce realistic representations of the natural world is why he became so popular, and remains so to this day. He frequently aimed to deceive the eye by using mirrors to reflect actions taking place off canvas.

This can be seen in the Arnolfini Portrait, where the mirror on the rear wall reflects 2 figures entering the room, one is probably Van Eyck himself. The signature above reads 'Jan van Eyck has been here. It was almost a version of early graffiti art. This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, but is not meant as a record of their wedding.

Mrs Arnolfini is not pregnant, as is so often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress, as was the fashion at the time. Another reflected self-portrait, can be seen in the shield of Saint George in the Virgin of Canon van der Paele, Eyck was able to manipulate paint to create fleeting clouds and light reflections on different surfaces from metal to glass, dull to luminous.

These effects can also be seen in his work Virgin of Canon van der Paele, in the glinting gold thread of Saint Donatian's cape, and the glow of pearls and dazzling jewellery of the holy figures. Other important works include the The Stygmata of St. Francis, c. Jerome, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit. As was common practice at the time, Van Eyck had a workshop in Bruges with assistants who made exact copies, pastiches and variations of his completed panel paintings for the market.

He influenced a generation of Flemish artists and after his death, his large volume of works went on to influence artists all over Europe. The Art of Jan Van Eyck One of the greatest Old Masters of early Flemish painting, Jan van Eyck's artistic interests and activities, when compared with those of his brother Hubert, seem singularly narrow.

He was chiefly a portraitist. Much of the last sixteen years of his life was spent in travel as a confidential agent for the Duke of Burgundy. For these years we have twelve pictures, mostly tiny portraits and small altarpieces, with whatever he may have painted on the Ghent Altarpiece. It is a very scanty production, even allowing for pictures now lost, and it suggests that Jan had little creative urge, but depended on occasion.

We start with four miniature religious paintings which are often ascribed to Jan - God the Father Enthroned, the Lamentation, the Agony in the Garden and the Crucifixion. The reason for the attribution is a drastic and even vulgar realism, and a handling of drapery in angular folds based on wood sculpture. Such characteristics set these miniatures apart from the nine ascribed to Hubert.

It is of course possible that he may have had an assistant, other than Jan, who did this work, but since the miniatures are of a technical excellence entirely worthy of Jan, to ascribe them to him seems the reasonable course. He was probably about twenty-five years old when they were painted. Since this mural decoration mav have been on secular themes, its destruction is much to be regretted.

We may only guess that Gothic tapestries of the moment give the general look of such work. Count John died early inand the decoration of the castle was already completed, for when in May of the same year Jan thriftily accepted a position as "varlet de chambre" to Philip the Good of Burgundy, the bargain included an allowance or moving Jan's effects from Lille to Bruges.

From now on Jan was frequently employed on secret missions for the Duke, often to distant parts. He seems to have become a confidential agent, who in Whistler's words "also painted. It seems likely that the very elaborate Annunciation, in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, may have been painted at Lille before The event takes place in a Gothic church which, while fantastic in design, recalls the high naves of French churches of about Upon this interior Jan lavished work and attention.

Everything is accounted for - stained glass, mural painting, pictured tiles, complicated stone carving. The details are marvellous, but the feeling of interior light is only feebly conveyed, the figures are badly out of scale with the architecture and in perfunctory relations to each other. The faint smirk on the archangel Gabriel's face forecasts the nervous grin of St.

George in the Van der Paele Madonna. It is a trait which suggests an artist trying to express a feeling which he does not really experience. During the nearly six years between Hubert van Eyck's death and the finishing of the Ghent altarpiece by Jan, the latter made three long trips for the Duke, including a sojourn of over a year in Spain and Portugal, where the Duke was seeking a bride.

Except for the Portrait of Cardinal Albergati, early inthere are no signed pictures of Jan for these years, and it looks as if he were too busy to make them. During these years he was also far too deep in other matters to have painted or even finished any considerable portion of the Adoration of the Lamb, and whatever he did to it was probably done in the year or so preceding the unveiling on May 6, He painted the whole of the backs of the shutters, excepting perhaps the portrait of Jodoc Vyd, which was probably done by Hubert, and of the open altarpiece surely carried to completion the Adam and the Singing Angels, and probably most of the figures on the left-hand panels.

This amount of work could hardly have been finished within a year, and we may reasonably imagine that Jan devoted much of the two years after his return from Spain at the end of to the pious task of completing his elder brother's masterpiece. The Portrait of Elizabeth Vyd in prayer is one of Jan's finer portraits, notable, as we have already remarked, for its large scale.

It gives a formidable sense of presence, and is unforgettable in its stark energy of character; for the rest, like most of Jan's portraits, it is seen like so much still life with no expenditure of sympathy on Jan's part. Now great portraiture sets one to wondering what the sitter thinks and does when not a sitter. In Jan's portraiture there is little enough of this overflow beyond and behind the frame.

His men and women are eternally frozen in the aspect he caught in his studio. It is precisely because the companion Portrait of Jodoc Vyd subtly and almost humorously blends the episodical humility of a devotee with the habitual cunning of a man of great affairs, that one imagines it was created it was created not by Jan but by Hubert - a psychological difference which is confirmed by differences of physical construction.

One feels that the attitude of Jodoc is prayerful, while Elizabeth is merely in an attitude of prayer. Most, not all, of Jan's portraits have this detached, still-life character. Before considering them it may be well to survey his few religious pictures other than his early Annunciation, The charming little Madonnais entirely disarming in a richness which paradoxically expresses a homely domesticity.

To make the Divine Mother simply a rich and youthful Flemish matron, to enthrone her richly and conventionally under a brocade canopy in her own home, while leaving her equally indifferent to its well-furnished cleanliness and to the infant playing with her prayer book on her knee - this was surely a very novel and picturesque invention.

There is something comfortable and even delightful about the assurance with which Jan insists that no better symbol of the Blessed Virgin can be found than a prosperous Flemish housewife who, without fuss or undue concern, keeps both her home and her babe in order. Incidentally, it is a bachelor's vision. While it is probable that Robert Campin may earlier have made Madonnas of this bourgeois type, none is finer than this little picture of Jan's.

It is really a miniature, about nine by six inches, and the fastidiously elaborate rendering of the accessories is entirely proper to the scale. A little later Jan enlarged and changed the composition in the Madonna at Frankfurt-am-Main, and though a sumptuous picture, it is also a rather stiff and empty one. The altarpiece of Our Lady and Child with St.

Donatian, St. George and Canon van der Paele, at Bruges, is generally regarded as Jan's masterpiece, and perhaps justly so. Of the larger panels of the moment no other is so profusely enriched. Stuffs, embroidered and jewelled borders, polished and curiously carved stone-work, elaborately fashioned metal, translucent glass, are juxtaposed, with hardly a gap to rest the eye or release the imagination.

As painting, in a harsh and metallic way, it is magnificent. The Van der Paele Madonna was signed inshortly after Jan's marriage. He was in his mids and at the height of his powers. The little unfinished St. Barbarais the only creation of Jan's that is gracious and charming. Had he finished it, doubtless he would have painted out much of the charm.

The exceptional attractiveness of this little picture depended on a very simple decision - to give St. Barbara an actual tower in process of building instead of the usual tiny emblematic tower. She sits meditatively over her book of hours, oblivious of the work going on in her honour behind her. The elaborately lovely Gothic structure rises lightly.

Workmen are busy on ledges, on scaffolds and about the base. Jan either had great talent for architectural design, or, as is more likely, thriftily and tastefully used the sketch of an architect friend. Beyond the tower there are receding, gently drooping and rising lines of hills, punctuated by single trees and coppices. There is much about this picture that makes one wish Jan had been an engraver; the point rather than the brush seems the tool really congenial to him.

Tempura was a thin and tough medium which suited medieval tastes which called for flat color surfaces. The problems with tempura were that it dried extremely quickly and required a preservative of a finish varnish or chemical preparation to preserve the colors. Blending colors was virtually impossible, the darks were quite muddy in appearance and it was extremely difficult to create three-dimensional effects.

Jan van Eyck was most likely not the first painter to experiment with other mediums. In fact, Theophilus and Cennino wrote of using oil and pigments in the Middle Ages. Prior to Eyck, oil painting was reserved for wooden statues, stone surfaces or metal. But his knowledge of chemistry and a great deal of trial and error, he led a revolution in the process of painting — the introduction of oil painting on panels in Eyck discovered that colors prepared with linseed or walnut oil retained their beauty and luster, without the aid of varnish.

While many still question if van Eyck should be credited with inventing oil paint, most agree his techniques wer revolutionary. Prior to his use of oils, paints were applied in a similar fashion to a paint by number kit. The tempura dried so very quickly that each color dried before the next could be applied. Colors were strongly delineated and almost separated.

With oil-based paints, van Eyck mixed the colors together on both his palette and the picture itself to create paintings which more closely represented the truth of nature. This innovation, in some opinions, marked the beginning of the end of wall painting as art. Master artists turned to easel painting and wall painting was delegated to 'mere craftsmen'.