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Van Eyck
Delphi Complete Works of Jan van Eyck
- GenresArtNonfiction
556 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 5, 2020
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January 17, 2022
Van Eyck's paintings are indeed recognizable by his subject's faces and his work is wonderfully colorful and beautifully detailed.
"A painter from the County of Loon in present day Belgium, Jan van Eyck remains an enigmatic figure of Early Netherlandish painting. Very little is known of his early life, with neither the date nor place of his birth being documented with certainty. The first record comes from the court of John of Bavaria at The Hague where, between 1422 and 1424, payments were made to a Meyster Jan den malre (Master Jan the painter), then serving as a court painter with the rank of valet de chambre, aided by one and later two assistants. This would indicate a date of birth of 1395 at the latest. However, the probable self portrait (located in London’s National Gallery), dated to 1433, would suggest a date closer to 1380. In the late sixteenth century, van Eyck was recorded as having been born in Maaseik, a borough of the prince-bishopric of Liège, though this is now questioned by some. His daughter Lievine was recorded as being placed in a nunnery in Maaseik after her father’s death, suggesting the artist’s connection to the town. Also, several notes on his preparatory drawing for Portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati are written in the Maasland dialect."
"In 1934 two panels, The Just Judges and Saint John the Baptist, were stolen, with the latter being soon returned, though The Just Judges panel has never been recovered. During World War I, the remaining panels were taken from the cathedral by Germany forces. As part of mandated compensation in the Versailles Treaty after the war, Germany returned the panels along with the original panels that had been legitimately bought by Solly, to help compensate for other German “acts of destruction” during the conflict. However, the German authorities bitterly resented the loss of the panels and at the start of the Second World War, a decision was made in Belgium to send the panels to the Vatican, where they could be kept safe. As they were on their way to the Vatican, but still in France, Italy declared war as an Axis power alongside Germany. Therefore, a new plan was formed and they were stored in a museum in Pau — a city in south-western France, set along the Pyrenees mountains’ northern edge. For the duration of the war, French, Belgian and German military representatives signed an agreement that required the consent of all three before the panels could be moved. In 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered the artwork to be seized and brought to Germany to be stored in a Bavarian castle. After Allied air raids made the castle too dangerous for the painting, it was relocated to a salt mine. Belgian and French authorities protested the seizing of the panels and the head of the German army’s Art Protection Unit was dismissed after he disagreed with the seizure. The altarpiece was finally returned in 1945, having spending most of the war hidden in the salt mine, which had caused considerable damage to the paint and varnish."
"Hubert (Huybrecht) van Eyck (? 1366–1426) was the oldest and most remarkable of this race of artists. The date of his birth and the records of his progress are lost amidst the ruins of the earlier civilization of the valley of the Meuse. He was born about 1366, at Maeseyck, under the shelter or protection of a Benedictine convent, in which art and letters had been cultivated from the beginning of the 8th century. But after a long series of wars — when the country became insecure, and the schools which had flourished in the towns decayed — he wandered to Flanders, and there for the first time gained a name. As court painter to the hereditary prince of Burgundy, and as client to one of the richest of the Ghent patricians, Hubert is celebrated. Here, in middle age, between 1410 and 1420, he signalized himself as the inventor of a new method of painting."
J"ohn (Jan) van Eyck (? 1385–1440). The date of his birth is not more accurately known than that of his elder brother, but he was born much later than Hubert, who took charge of him and made him his “disciple.” Under this tuition John learnt to draw and paint, and mastered the properties of colours from Pliny. Later on, Hubert admitted him into partnership, and both were made court painters to Philip of Charolais. After the breaking up of the prince’s household in 1421, John became his own master, left the workshop of Hubert, and took an engagement as painter to John of Bavaria, at that time resident at the Hague as count of Holland. From the Hague he returned in 1424 to take service with Philip, now duke of Burgundy, at a salary of 100 livres per annum, and from that time till his death John van Eyck remained the faithful servant of his prince, who never treated him otherwise than graciously."
"A painter from the County of Loon in present day Belgium, Jan van Eyck remains an enigmatic figure of Early Netherlandish painting. Very little is known of his early life, with neither the date nor place of his birth being documented with certainty. The first record comes from the court of John of Bavaria at The Hague where, between 1422 and 1424, payments were made to a Meyster Jan den malre (Master Jan the painter), then serving as a court painter with the rank of valet de chambre, aided by one and later two assistants. This would indicate a date of birth of 1395 at the latest. However, the probable self portrait (located in London’s National Gallery), dated to 1433, would suggest a date closer to 1380. In the late sixteenth century, van Eyck was recorded as having been born in Maaseik, a borough of the prince-bishopric of Liège, though this is now questioned by some. His daughter Lievine was recorded as being placed in a nunnery in Maaseik after her father’s death, suggesting the artist’s connection to the town. Also, several notes on his preparatory drawing for Portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati are written in the Maasland dialect."
"In 1934 two panels, The Just Judges and Saint John the Baptist, were stolen, with the latter being soon returned, though The Just Judges panel has never been recovered. During World War I, the remaining panels were taken from the cathedral by Germany forces. As part of mandated compensation in the Versailles Treaty after the war, Germany returned the panels along with the original panels that had been legitimately bought by Solly, to help compensate for other German “acts of destruction” during the conflict. However, the German authorities bitterly resented the loss of the panels and at the start of the Second World War, a decision was made in Belgium to send the panels to the Vatican, where they could be kept safe. As they were on their way to the Vatican, but still in France, Italy declared war as an Axis power alongside Germany. Therefore, a new plan was formed and they were stored in a museum in Pau — a city in south-western France, set along the Pyrenees mountains’ northern edge. For the duration of the war, French, Belgian and German military representatives signed an agreement that required the consent of all three before the panels could be moved. In 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered the artwork to be seized and brought to Germany to be stored in a Bavarian castle. After Allied air raids made the castle too dangerous for the painting, it was relocated to a salt mine. Belgian and French authorities protested the seizing of the panels and the head of the German army’s Art Protection Unit was dismissed after he disagreed with the seizure. The altarpiece was finally returned in 1945, having spending most of the war hidden in the salt mine, which had caused considerable damage to the paint and varnish."
"Hubert (Huybrecht) van Eyck (? 1366–1426) was the oldest and most remarkable of this race of artists. The date of his birth and the records of his progress are lost amidst the ruins of the earlier civilization of the valley of the Meuse. He was born about 1366, at Maeseyck, under the shelter or protection of a Benedictine convent, in which art and letters had been cultivated from the beginning of the 8th century. But after a long series of wars — when the country became insecure, and the schools which had flourished in the towns decayed — he wandered to Flanders, and there for the first time gained a name. As court painter to the hereditary prince of Burgundy, and as client to one of the richest of the Ghent patricians, Hubert is celebrated. Here, in middle age, between 1410 and 1420, he signalized himself as the inventor of a new method of painting."
J"ohn (Jan) van Eyck (? 1385–1440). The date of his birth is not more accurately known than that of his elder brother, but he was born much later than Hubert, who took charge of him and made him his “disciple.” Under this tuition John learnt to draw and paint, and mastered the properties of colours from Pliny. Later on, Hubert admitted him into partnership, and both were made court painters to Philip of Charolais. After the breaking up of the prince’s household in 1421, John became his own master, left the workshop of Hubert, and took an engagement as painter to John of Bavaria, at that time resident at the Hague as count of Holland. From the Hague he returned in 1424 to take service with Philip, now duke of Burgundy, at a salary of 100 livres per annum, and from that time till his death John van Eyck remained the faithful servant of his prince, who never treated him otherwise than graciously."
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