Mysterious Painter: Jan Van Eyck

In Vasari’s book “The Lives of the Greatest Painter, Sculptor and Architects”, Jan van Eyck is shown as the person who found the oil painting.

The Dutch counterpart of Vasari, Karel van Mander, in his 1604 painting “The Book of the Painters” in which he describes early Dutch painters and artists of the Northern Renaissance, while Jan van Eyck and his brother Hubert van Eyck are mentioned as the founders of Dutch art, Jan van Eyck He writes how he found the oil painting.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, one of the essential German philosophers of the 18th century Enlightenment Age, put an end to this myth. Lessing reveals that oil painting was known before van Eyck and points out how van Eyck perfected this style. As a matter of fact, today, experts are still investigating how van Eyck achieved the technique he used in his works.

However, his mastery of using the oil painting technique is not the only mystery in van Eyck’s life. Although Jan Van Eyck is not known as the birthplace and the year clearly, around 1390, then in the Netherlands, it is considered to be born in Maaseik in Belgium territory now. The name of this city then was Maesheyck. As a matter of the fact that the last name of the last name is “van EYCK,” this surname means “from EYCK,” it is reasonable to be born in the city. On which date of Jan Van Eyck, it is not clear that he learned to paint. Although they work with Hubert Van Eyck, the brother of Hubert Van Eyck, is thought to be made together with the Gent Altar Board, it is not certain that it has experienced such a brother. Here is Jan Van Eyck, full of these unknowns in 1425, he came to Bruges, which is the most crucial trade city of Northwest Europe, and Burgundy, the Duke of Burgundy is well as the Palace Painter next to Philip. Bruges also maintain the middle ages of the Middle Ages.

Other painters of Philip are working on the family coat of arms, flags, ornaments in various cities. Historical documents are used to be used in the “special” tasks of Van EYCK that connected to his annual salary. Although the contents are still uninhabeful, we know that they are frequently on long journeys, and the annual salary for each trip has received several times a charge. In those years and the following centuries, the most cutting way to increase the influence of a dynasty was marrying the existence of another dynasty. Before these marriages of the transactor, the parties were able to see each other; as the photo is not yet invented, it could be possible by sending their pictures against the palace. Only one of Van Eyk’s journeys is known. In this journey, the painter has participated in the Burgundy delegation to Spain and Portugal to make Isabella’s marital marching from the Portuguese Dynasty and the Portuguese Principle of two. Unfortunately, there is only a copy of these tables that are not reaching until today.

Jan van Eyck

Realist Painter of the Baroque Period: Rembrandt

References

Birincioglu, B. (2020, May 3). Jan van Eyck. Retrieved from https://www.berkbirincioglu.com/4-detaylarin-ustadi-jan-van-eyck-1390-1441/