Jan van Eyck was a Flemish painter🎨 active in Bruges. He is one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art.
The surviving records of his early life indicate that he was born around 1380-1390, most likely in Maaseik (then Maaseyck, hence his name), in present-day Belgium.
He took employment in the Hague around 1422, when he was already a master painter with workshop assistants, and employed as painter and valet de chambre with John III the Pitiless, ruler of Holland and Hainaut.
He was then employed in Lille as court painter to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy after John's death in 1425, until he moved to Bruges in 1429 where he lived until his death.
He was highly regarded by Philip and undertook a number of diplomatic visits abroad, including to Lisbon in 1428 to explore the possibility of a marriage contract between the duke and Isabella of Portugal.
About 20 surviving paintings are confidently attributed to him, as well as the Ghent Altarpiece and the illuminated miniatures of the Turin-Milan Hours, all dated between 1432 and 1439.
Ten are dated and signed with a variation of his motto ALS IK KAN (As I (Eyck) can), a pun on his name, which he typically painted in Greek characters.
Van Eyck painted both secular and religious subject matter, including altarpieces, single-panel religious figures and commissioned portraits.
His work includes single panels, diptychs, triptychs and polyptych panels.
He was well paid by Philip, who sought that the painter was secure financially and had artistic freedom so that he could paint "whenever he pleased".
Van Eyck's work comes from the International Gothic style, but he soon eclipsed it, in part through a greater emphasis on naturalism and realism.
He achieved a new level of virtuosity through his developments in the use of oil paint.
He was highly influential, and his techniques and style were adopted and refined by the Early Netherlandish painters. | © Wikipedia
Hubert and Jan van Eyck | Ghent Altarpiece, 1432 | Open view
Hubert and Jan van Eyck | Ghent Altarpiece, 1432 | Closed view
Jan van Eyck (Maaseik, 1395 circa - Bruges, giugno 1441) è stato un pittore Fiammingo🎨.
Fu un artista di fama internazionale e il suo stile, incentrato su una resa analitica della realtà, ebbe un larghissimo influsso.
Fu anche il perfezionatore della tecnica della pittura ad olio, che gradualmente sostituì in Europa l'uso del colore a tempera.
Tra le caratteristiche più evidenti dello stile di Jan van Eyck ci sono l'altissima qualità pittorica, sicuramente la più alta tra i pittori fiamminghi del secolo XV, la verosimiglianza, la perfezione formale, l'attenzione al dettaglio minuto ed alla resa delle superfici, lo studio della luce, lo spazio dove si collocano con sicurezza le figure, lo ieratismo e l'immobilità dei personaggi, i raffinati giochi intellettuali dati dai vari livelli di lettura delle opere. Con Van Eyck si aprì una nuova era anche dal punto di vista della tecnica pittorica.
Egli utilizzò i colori ad olio (già conosciuti e utilizzati sin dall'antichità), accanto a tradizionali tempere e a colori di colla animale.
Caratteristica fondamentale della sua tecnica, tuttora non interamente conosciuta, è il ricorso ad una serie di strati sottili di colore - velature - stesi uno sopra l'altro su una base chiara e luminosa al fine di raggiungere progressivamente il risultato d'assieme finale (tecnica sottrattiva); le innovazioni da lui introdotte potrebbero riferirsi all'utilizzo di oli cotti misti a resine nonché di oli schiariti e pre-polimerizzati.
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