Looking at the
Renaissance
Artistic
identities
Jan van
Eyck
Van Eyck advertised himself by signing not only the famous Arnolfini Portrait,
but several other paintings. This in itself might be considered evidence of a
degree of self awareness on his part that was more than would be expected of a
run-of-the-mill artisan. His most celebrated work, the so-called Ghent
altarpiece, originally painted by both Jan and his brother Hubert for a side
chapel in the church of St John, Ghent (now the cathedral of St Bavo) was
elaborately signed with a Latin quatrain. Like Brunelleschi's dome, this huge
painting attracted considerable fame in the years after Van Eyck's death.
Dürer went to see it in 1521 during a trip to the Netherlands, and
commented favourably on it in his diary. By the mid-16th century, it was the
subject of attention from artist and poet Lucas de Heere, who wrote an ode
about it in 1559. In 1604, the artist and writer Karel van Mander published his
Netherlandish equivalent of Vasari, Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish
and German painters, in which Van Eyck was hailed as a founding father of
early Netherlandish painting.
Like Brunelleschi, Van
Eyck's social standing may have contributed to his reputation. Employed by
Philip the Good Duke of Burgundy, he was evidently held in great esteem for he
was granted a pension for life in 1435. He may have been well born (there is
some evidence that he had a coat of arms) and he was certainly literate, as the
tiny writing on one of his surviving drawings shows. Like Brunelleschi, Van
Eyck was an artist of some stature in his own day.
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