careful shading of light and texture. He
was also a master of the technical aspects
of painting, and was one of the first artists
to work with oil paints. He produced
large-scale religious works as well as inti-
mate personal portraits. His largest and
most famous single work is theGhent Al-
tarpiece, also known asThe Adoration of
the Lamb, an elaborate polyptych, or multi
paneled painting, that he completed with
the help of his brother Hubert van Eyck.
This work was carried out for the Cathe-
dral of Saint Bavon in Ghent. He is also
known for a later work, theMarriage of
the Arnolfini, a wedding portrait rich in
detail and bright coloration. Van Eyck also
paintedMadonna with Chancellor Rolin
and a famousAnnunciation,aswellasa
self-portrait,Portrait of a Man in a Tur-
ban. These and other works were known
to artists throughout Europe, and van
Eyck’s attention to naturalistic detail, rich
texture, and intense coloration influenced
generations of artists in northern Europe.SEEALSO: paintingvan Hemessen, Catherine ................
(ca. 1527−1587)
Flemish painter, the first documented fe-
male painter of the Low Countries and a
noted portrait painter. Born in Antwerp,
the daughter of Jan Sanders van Hemes-
sen, a minor artist, she studied with her
father and eventually joined the painters
guild of Antwerp. During the 1540s, she
was taken on as a court painter by Maria
of Austria, then serving as regent for Em-
peror Charles V in the Low Countries. She
painted portraits, mostly of women set
against a plain dark background that strik-
ingly focused the observer’s eye on the fea-
tures and character of the subject. Her own
self-portrait of 1548 is known as the first
to depict the painter working at an easel.
When Maria returned to Spain in 1556,
van Hemessen followed her patron and
was rewarded with a pension for her work
after Maria’s death in 1558. She then re-
turned to Antwerp. Only ten of her works
have survived to modern times, and there
are no works at all from this later period
in her life. Historians believe she may have
given up painting altogether after her mar-
riage.Vasa, House of .................................
A royal dynasty with branches in Sweden
and Poland, which reigned in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. The dynastyThe central panel of Jan van Eyck’s “Ghent
Altarpiece.” It depicts God the Father en-
throned as a Pope with St. John the Baptist
and the Virgin Mary on either side. Below
them is the Adoration of the Lamb. AR-
CHIVOICONOGRAFICO, S.A./CORBIS.REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION.
Vasa, House of