Jan van Eyck
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Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck(c. 1385 – July 9, 1441) was a 15th century Flemish painter and is considered one of the great painters of the late Middle Ages. It is a common misconception, which dates back to the sixteenth-century writings of the Tuscan historiographer Giorgio Vasari, that Jan van Eyck created oil painting, but it is true that he achieved, or perfected, new and remarkable effects using this technique.
Jan has often been linked as brother to painter and peer Hubert van Eyck, because both have been thought to originate from the same town, Maaseyck in Limbourg. 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 continued to lead Jan's Bruges workshop for several years following his death. [citation needed]
The date of Jan's birth is not known. The first extant record of Jan is from the court of John of Bavaria at The Hague. It dates to 1422 and mentions a payment to Jan as court painter, which indicates he had to have been born no later than 1395, and indeed probably earlier.
Following the death of John of Bavaria, in 1425 Jan entered the service of the powerful and influential Valois prince, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. Jan resided in Lille for a year and then moved to Bruges, where he lived until his 1440 death. 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 Jan 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. None of them survive.
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. An indication that his art and person were held in extraordinarily high regard is a document from 1435 in which the Duke scolded his treasurers for not paying Jan his salary, arguing that Jan 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 Jan'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.
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 Catherine Borluut. Started sometime before 1426 and completed, at least partially, by 1432, this polyptych is arguably the most impressive single work of art in Europe today, 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 scientific study of paintings. No less turbulent was the history of the interpretation of this work. Since an inscription identifies it as a collaborative effort of Jan 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's involvement.
Exceptionally for his time, Jan 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 above, Jan 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 analysed by art historians, but in recent years a number of popular interpretations have been ruled out. This is not a painted marriage certificate, or the record of a betrothal, as suggested by Erwin Panovsky. The woman is not pregnant, as the hand-gesture of lifting the dress recurs in contemporary renditions of the (virgin) St. Catherine (including in Jan van Eyck's own work, in the so-called Dresden triptych).
Other works include two remarkable commemorative panels, The Virgin with Chancellor Rolin (Paris, Louvre), and The Virgin with Canon van der Paele (Bruges, Groeninge Museum), some other religious paintings, and a number of exceptionally haunting portraits, including that of his wife, Margaret (Bruges, Groeningemuseum), and what is believed to be his self-portrait, Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban (London, National Gallery). Many more works are disputed, or believed to be by his assistants or followers.
In the most substantial early source on him, a 1454 biography by the Genoese humanist Bartholomeo Facio (De viris illustribus), Jan van Eyck was named "the leading painter" of his day. This text also sheds light on aspects of his production now lost, citing a bathing scene as well as a world map which Jan painted for Philip the Good. Facio also recorded that Jan 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 Amore, 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 likely had some knowledge of Latin for his many missions abroad on behalf of the the Duke.
He died in Bruges in 1441 and was buried there in the Saint Donation church (destroyed during the French Revolution).
References
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.
- 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, 1967-76
- 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 27 (1964) 90-107
- 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, 1849-52
- Paviot, Jacques. “La Vie de Jan van Eyck selon les Documents écrits,” Revue des archéologues et historiens d'art de Louvain XXIII (1990) 83-93
- 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 93 (1979) 141-214
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 33 (1976) 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, 1430-1530. Exh. cat. Groeningemuseum, Stedelijke Musea Brugge. Bruges: Luidon, 2002
- Nuttall, Paula. From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting 1400-1500. 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
- Vaughan, Philip R. Philip the Good: The Apogee of Burgundy 1419-1467. UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2002
See also
References
- Craig Harbison, Jan van Eyck: The Play of Realism. Sources of van Eyck's realist tradition in fifteenth century Netherlandish art.
- Elizabeth M. Rees, The Wedding: An Encounter With Jan Van Eyck (in series "Art Encounters") A novel for young adults centering on the Arnolfini Marriage.
- L.J. Bol, Jan Van Eyck reprint: Barnes & Noble Art Series
- Otto Pacht, Maria Schmidt Dengler, and David Britt , Van Eyck and the Founders of Early Netherlandish Painting
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