Jan van Eyck (c.1390-1441) was a Flemish painter of the early northern Renaissance, one of the first to work in oil.
His paintings are technically brilliant and sumptuously rich in detail and colour. Little is known of his brother Hubert van Eyck (died in 1426), who is supposed to have begun the huge and complex altarpiece in St. Bavo's cathedral, Ghent, The Adoration of the Mystical Lamb, completed by January 1432.
Jan van Eyck is known to have worked in The Hague 1422-1424 for John of Bavaria, Count of Holland. He served as court painter to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, from 1425, and worked in Bruges from 1430.
Oil painting allowed for much subtler effects of tone and colour and greater command of detail than the egg-tempera technique then in common use, and van Eyck took full advantage of this.
In his Arnolfini Wedding in 1434 (National Gallery, London) the bride and groom appear in a domestic interior crammed with disguised symbols, as a kind of pictorial marriage certificate. Another notable work is the Madonna with Chancellor Rolin probably 1435/1437 (Louvre, Paris).
Why is Jan van Eyck famous?
Jan van Eyck is considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century.
Jan van Eyck Lists