Eyck, Hubert van and Jan van 249Rotterdam. But these works were both later retouched
and do not allow us clearly to distinguish his style
beyond a general international GOTHIC.
Of Jan’s work before he completed the Mystic Lamb,
we know little beyond a small number of illuminations
illustrating a BOOK OF HOURSthat belonged to John of
Bavaria. His early work was surprisingly innovative in its
representations of space and a geometric and atmo-
spheric perspective, which produce a strong evocation of
the everyday world. From 1432, a series of signed and
dated pictures illustrate his work: the Portrait of Tymoth-
eosin 1432 and the Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and His
Wifein 1434, both in the National Gallery in London;
the Madonna with Canon van der Paelefrom 1436 in
Bruges; Saint Barbara in Antwerp and the Dresden
Museum triptych of 1437; Margeretha van Eyck (his
wife) in Bruges and the Virgin at the Fountainin Antwerp
from 1439.
His meticulous realism was at the service of a reli-
gious thought that aspired to elicit a divine presence in
everything. He often charged simple objects with allegori-
cal meanings; as a result, his art has been described in
terms of “hidden symbolism.” Jan was once believed to
have invented oil painting. In fact the technique was
known long before. He did find a subtler way of using it,
by adding glazes and a first coat in tempera.
Further reading:Edwin Hall, The Arnolfini Betrothal:
Medieval Marriage and the Enigma of Van Eyck’s Double
Portrait(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994);
Otto Pächt, Van Eyck and the Founders of Early Netherlan-
dish Painting, trans. David Britt (London: H. Miller,
1994); Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting: Its
Origins and Character,2 vols. (New York: Harper & Row,
1971); Linda Seidel, Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).Jan van Eyck, 17th-century, engraving(Courtesy Library of
Congress)