Discovering Jan Van Eyk
Above: Van Eyck would sign his name in hidden ways. Here he does so in a very small manner stating Johannes Van Eyck was here. It is fund just under the mirror in the painting The Newlyweds shown below.
Van Eyck was the only 15th-century Netherlandish painter to sign his canvases. His motto always contained variants of the words ALS ICH KAN (or a variant) – "As I Can", or "As Best I Can", which forms a pun on his name.
Jan van Eyck (Dutch: (1390 – 1441) was a Flemish painter. He is one of the founders of Early Netherlandish painting and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. He took employment in the Hague, a city in South Holland, around 1422.
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. His religious themes became icons for the Catholic Church. Icons are sacred and holy works that allow the viewer to escape through the icon to obtain a deeper level of worship. An icon is any object or thing that you would hold as sacred or important.
Title: The Annunication by Jan Van Eyk
A Dyptich was an alter painting that had two panels. A triptych is an alter painting that contains 3 panels. This painting reflects the crucifixion and ascension of Jesus on the left and the risen Christ in heaven on the right. Notice how the artist depicts hell as if a Skelton guards hell itself. The arch angel Gabriel stands above the skeleton with a sword to keep anyone from departing hell.
Depictions of hell were painted by artists in the Middle Ages because to do so would keep Catholic members in church and paying out offerings to be sure they would not in up there in the afterlife.
Close up of The Annunication, notice that the angel Gabriel is neither male nor female. Angles do have a sexual origin, they were created and not born according to. the Bible.
Title: Portrait of a Man by Jan Van Eyk
Detail of fingers and flowers
Detail of Mirror
Title: Newlyweds
Close Up the Eye from the Painting Portrait of a Man
Van Eyck was most experienced at reproducing amazing detail in his works. He would had to use a brush that only held a couple of hairs.It is hard to imagine how he produced such detail. He had to have been a very patient human being. Observe the fish eye mirror in the painting above entitled, Newlyweds. Then look at a close up of the mirror in the detail of the mirror of the image on the right.
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.