The Incomparable Reporter
Art during the Renaissance took unprecedented leaps and bounds in technique and quality. While Italian artists such as Brunelleschi developed linear perspective and other methods of painting, a different artistic movement grew in the north. In the 15th century, the Low Countries produced art to rival the Italian art at the time. The Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck, born in 1390, hailed from the Low Countries, specifically Flanders.1 With a vastly different approach to his paintings than other artists, Jan Van Eyck’s absolute focus on how to copy what he saw onto canvas separated him from the rest of the artists during the Renaissance. This remarkable trait also elevated his own social position.
Van Eyck’s stellar artwork delighted viewers. In addition of using oil paints to add a superior feeling of depth and brightness to his work, Jan Van Eyck painted in almost microscopic detail.2 In his portrait of Canon Van Der Paele, the viewer can see his attentiveness and skill working together. Van Eyck shows his overwhelming interest in the wrinkled texture of the Canon’s skin.3 While other artists might exaggerate or downplay certain elements in their work, Van Eyck felt no such desires, he actually displayed the opposite interest. “He is far more interested in the literal facts of what is before his eyes than the strange and moving implications... Jan does not seek to go beyond them. But he pushed the power of rendering these facts accurately and clearly to an unparalleled height.”4 Van Eyck’s portrait of his own wife is the paradigm of his obsession with accurate representation, especially of the face and hand characteristics. In an expression of his hard work, he signed the portrait of his wife “Als ick kan.” meaning “as well as I can.”5 Van Eyck showed pride in his abilities as an artist.
Jan Van Eyck’s talent attracted Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy. And on May 19th, 1425 Van Eyck found himself in the Duke’s employment.6 This union proved to be critical to Van Eyck’s career. In 1428, while in the Duke’s service, Jan accompanied the Duke on a “wife-hunting” trip to Portugal. Jan Van Eyck then painted a portrait of the King’s daughter, Princess Isabella, for the Duke. 7 When Philip and Isabella married a year later, Jan Van Eyck found great favor with his patron.8 Van Eyck himself also married a woman named Margaret. Her family name was lost.9 Jan Van Eyck now found himself an employed, successful, and married man. At the time of his death in 1441, Van Eyck left a legacy filled with phenomenal works of art that showed his extreme desire to portray reality.10
Jan Van Eyck embodied the idea of the perfectionist. He also felt confident enough in his own works to sign them, often writing his name on the artwork he produced.11 Other artists of the time benefitted from the oil used in Van Eyck’s works. The oil paint spread quickly to Venice and other Italian cities due to its advantages over other paints.12 Van Eyck used this paint to maximum effect. His skill was such that “his pictures resemble modern color photographs.”13 Van Eyck’s unique approach to painting and the skill he possessed in order to create his art allowed him to achieve a station in life that he might not have enjoyed otherwise.
Peter Hahn
1 History 100 Packet, Dr. Jones, Spring 2013.
2 Ibid.
3 Roger Fry, Flemish Art (London, England: Chatto and Windus, 1927), 20.
4 Ibid., 15.
5 Ibid., 16.
6 Martin Conway, The Van Eycks and Their Followers (New York, NY: E.P. Dutton and Company, 1921), 66.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid., 72.
11 History 100 Packet, Dr. Jones, Spring 2013.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
