Jan van Eyck paintings list and name, Arnolfini Portrait, biography

Jan van Eyck

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Jan van Eyck Biography

Eyck, Jan van (b. before 1395, Maaseik, Bishopric of Liège, Holy Roman Empire [now in Belgium]--d. before July 9, 1441, Bruges), Flemish painter who perfected the newly developed technique of oil painting. His naturalistic panel paintings, mostly portraits and religious subjects, made extensive use of disguised religious symbols. His masterpiece is the altarpiece in the cathedral at Ghent, the Adoration of the Lamb (1432). Hubert van Eyck is thought by some to have been Jan's brother.

Jan van Eyck, the most famous and innovative Flemish painter of the 15th century, is thought to have come from the village of Maaseyck in Limbourg.
No record of his birthdate survives, but it is believed to have been about 1390; his career, however, is well documented. Jan van Eyck was employed (1422-24) at the court of John of Bavaria, count of Holland, at The Hague, and in 1425 was made court painter and valet de chambre to Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. Jan de Eyck became a close member of the duke's court and undertook several secret missions for him, including a trip (1428-29) to Spain and Portugal in connection with negotiations that resulted in the marriage (1430) of Philip of Burgundy and Isabella of Portugal. Documents show that in 1432-33 he bought a house in Bruges. He signed and dated a number of Jan van Eyck paintings between 1432 and 1439, all of which are painted in oil and varnished. According to documents, he was buried on July 9, 1441.
Van Eyck has been credited traditionally with the invention of painting in oils, and, although this is incorrect, there is no doubt that he perfected the technique. Johannes de Eyck used the oil medium to represent a variety of subjects with striking realism in microscopic detail; for example, Jan van Eyck infused painted jewels and precious metals with a glowing inner light by means of subtle glazes over the highlights. Like Robert Campin, he carefully selected and arranged his subject matter so that it would contribute deeper symbolic meaning to Jan van Eyck painting, a style that Erwin Panofsky has called disguised symbolism. The meticulous attention to detail in Jan van Eyck paintings of architectural interiors and landscapes is also evident in his portraits, painted with unrelenting, dispassionate accuracy.
The most famous and most controversial Jan van Eyck painting is one of his first, the Ghent altarpiece (1432), a polyptych consisting of twenty panels in the Church of St. Bavo, Ghent. On the frame is an incomplete inscription in Latin that identifies the artists of the painting as Hubert and Johannes de Eyck. The usual interpretation is that Hubert van Eyck (d. Sept. 18, 1426) was the brother of Jan and that Jan van Eyck was the painter who began the altarpiece, which Jan then completed. Equally famous is the wedding portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife (1434; National Gallery, London), which the artist signed "Jan van Eyck fruit hic 1434" (Jan van Eyck was here), testimony that he witnessed the ceremony. Other important Jan van Eyck paintings are the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin (1433-34 Louvre, Paris) and the Madonna of Canon van der Paele (1436; Groeninge Museum, Bruges).

List of Famous Jan van Eyck Paintings