Jan Van Eyck Biography
Jan van Eyck was the greatest artist of the early Netherlands school. The painter was born in Maaseik, Limbourg, neitherland and was
educated with his elder brother Hubert during the peak of gothic art
in europe. Most of his works were dated and signed during the last
ten years of life (1432-1441).The biographical data of Jan van Eyck are scarce.
Jan Van Eyck arrives maturity as a painter with the death of Duke Juan and patronage of duke Felipe. Both brothers Hubert and Jan Eyck were active during the transition between gothic to flamenco or fresco painting. He marked long phrases in their paintings. The new art, the flamenco painting introduced strong realism with emphasis to the perspective, light, and proportion of human anatomy.
Their paintings have shown extraordinary fidelity to their models. Some faces painted by Jan Eyck were reused by other artists. Another characteristic of his works is the presence of the light from the left because the views of interiors of churches became more natural in this form. The churches were facing the north and the light entered the interior of the south, from the left.
Jan van Eyck advanced the flamenco art greatly. He extended detailed information about things beyond the ordinary limits of scrutiny. He painted with great precision the details of artifacts like setting of a square cut ruby to a crown or pearls sewn to the hem of a robe, the joints in an arch, the dull luster of polished silver, the angular wooden soles of a pair of discarded footware. Using an oil medium, which allowed the building up of paint in translucent layers producing glazes, he reconstructed the religious vision to arstistic reality. |
