Jan van Eyck
Early Netherlandish painter and innovator of oil painting techniques.
Jan van Eyck · via Wikipedia: Jan van Eyck · Public domain
Jan van Eyck was an early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges and a key figure of the Early Northern Renaissance.[1] He died on 9 July 1441 in Bruges.[2] Altarpieces, painted panels (including diptychs, triptychs, and polyptychs), and portraits made on commission are among the items he created that still exist.[2]
Quick Facts
- Born
- Sometime around 1380 or 1390
- Birthplace
- Maaseik, Liège
- Died
- 9 July 1441
- Place of death
- Bruges, Flanders
- Training
- Robert Campin (disputed)
- Movement
- Early Netherlandish painting, Northern Renaissance
- Patrons
- John III
- Duke of Bavaria
- later Philip the Good
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Van Eyck's birth is not documented, but surviving records date it around 1380 or 1390 in Maaseik.[3][4] He was employed as a master painter in The Hague around 1422 for John III the Pitiless.[3] He moved to Bruges in 1429 and lived there until his death.[3] Philip dispatched van Eyck on diplomatic visits, including one to Lisbon in 1428 to discuss a marriage contract.[3]
He bought a house in Bruges at about the same time.[5] His most famous work, the Ghent Altarpiece, was begun by his brother Hubert around 1420 and completed by Jan in 1432.[6] Van Eyck's developments in oil paint achieved a new level of virtuosity.[7] Margaret, who was 15 years his junior, became van Eyck's wife around 1432.[5]
Van Eyck passed away on 9 July 1441 and was interred in the cemetery at St Donatian's Church.[2]
What the cited sources add
His motto ALS ICH KAN first appeared in 1433 on Portrait of a Man in a Turban.[8] Ten of these, including the Ghent Altarpiece, are dated and signed with his motto.[9] Vasari and Ernst Gombrich, among others, have labeled van Eyck "the inventor of oil-painting," but this assertion is currently viewed as too simplistic.[10] Confident attribution exists for roughly 20 surviving paintings by van Eyck, with creation dates spanning from 1432 to 1439.[9]
The International Gothic style influenced van Eyck's initial output, but he soon surpassed it by focusing more heavily on naturalism and realism.[2] The Early Netherlandish school's evolution was significantly impacted by van Eyck's methods and stylistic choices.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Jan van Eyck" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jan van Eyck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Campbell (1998), 174 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jan van Eyck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: See M. Parada Lopez de Corselas, El viaje de Jan van Eyck de Flandes a Granada (1428–1429), Madrid: La Ergastula, 2016 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jan van Eyck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Châtelet, Albert, Early Dutch Painting, Painting in the northern Netherlands in the fifteenth century, pp. 27–28, 1980, Montreux, Lausanne, (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jan van Eyck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Borchert (2011), 149 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jan van Eyck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Acres (2023), 32.; Jan van Eyck (ca. 1380/1390–1441)". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 17 March 2012. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jan van Eyck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Toman (2011), 322 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jan van Eyck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nash (2008), 152 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jan van Eyck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cotter, Holland. "Mysteries in the Crystalline World of a Flemish Master". New York Times, 24 April 1998. Retrieved 28 April 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jan van Eyck" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gombrich, Ernst, The Story of Art, 240. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jan van Eyck (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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