Jan van Eyck (c. 1385–1440) was a 15th century Netherlandish painter of great renown in his day. It is a common misconception, which dates back to the 16th-century writings of the Tuscan historiographer Giorgio Vasari, that Jan van Eyck invented oil paint, but it is true that he achieved new and remarkable effects using this technique.

Jan belonged to the Van Eyck family of painters and was a younger brother of Hubert van Eyck. Another brother, Lambert van Eyck is mentioned in Burgundian court documents, and there is a conjecture that he too was a painter, and that he continued to lead Jan's Bruges workshop for several years following his death. ^{[citation needed]}

The date of Jan's birth is not known. The first extant record of Jan is from the court of John of Bavaria at The Hague. It dates to 1422 and mentions a payment to Jan as court painter, which indicates he had to have been born no later than 1395, and indeed probably earlier.

Following the death of John of Bavaria, in 1425 Jan entered the service of the powerful and influential Valois prince, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. Jan resided in Lille for a year and then moved to Bruges, where he lived until his 1440 death. A number of documents published in the twentieth century record his activities in Philip's service. He was sent on several missions on behalf of the Duke, and worked on several projects which likely entailed more than painting. With the exception of two portraits of Isabella of Portugal, which Jan painted on Philip's behest as a member of a 1428-9 delegation to seek her hand, the precise nature of these works is obscure. None of them survives.

As a painter and "varlet de chambre" to the Duke Jan van Eyck was exceptionally well paid. His annual salary was quite high when he was first engaged, but it doubled twice in the first few years, and was often supplemented by special bonuses. Other indications that his art and person were held in extraordinarily high regard is a document from 1435 in which the Duke is scolding his treasurers for not paying Jan his salary, arguing that Jan would leave and that he would nowhere be able to find his equal in his "art and science." The Duke also served as godfather to one of Jan's children, supported his widow upon the painter's death, and years later helped one of his daughters with the funds required to enter a convent.

Jan van Eyck is known to the modern viewer through paintings he produced for private clients as a side to his career at the court. Foremost among these is the Ghent Altarpiece painted for Jodocus Vijdts and his wife Catherine Borluut. Started sometime before 1426 and completed, at least partially, by 1432, this polyptych is arguably the most impressive single work of art in Europe today, housed in its original location, the Cathedral of St. Bavo in Ghent, Belgium. It has had a turbulent history, surviving the 16th-century iconoclastic riots, the French Revolution, changing tastes which led to its dissemination, and most recently Nazi looting. When World War II ended it was recovered in a salt mine, and the story of its restoration drew considerable interest from the general public and greatly advanced the discipline of scientific study of paintings. No less turbulent was the history of the interpretation of this work. Since an inscription identifies it as a collaborative effort of Jan and his brother Hubert, the question of who painted what, or "Jan or Hubert?" has become a mythical one among art historians. Some even question the validity of the inscription, and thus Hubert's involvement as a whole.

Exceptionally for his time, Jan used to sign and date his paintings, usually on their frame, which at the time was considered an integral part of the painting (the two were often painted together). One famous exception to this rule is the celebrated Arnolfini Portrait reproduced above, when Jan inscribed on the (pictorial) back wall above the convex mirror "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic 1434" (Jan van Eyck was here, 1434). This painting too is a puzzle for scholars to this day, but a number of popular interpretations have been ruled out over the years. This is not a painted marriage certificate, or the record of a betrothal. The woman is not pregnant, as the hand-gesture of lifting the dress recurs in contemporary renditions of the (virgin) St. Catherine (including in Jan van Eyck's own work, in the so-called Dresden triptych).

Other works include two remarkable commemorative panels, The Virgin with Chancellor Rolin (Paris, Louvre), and The Virgin with Canon van der Paele (Bruges, Groeninge Museum), some other religious paintings, and a number of exceptionally haunting portraits, including that of his wife, Margaret (Bruges, Groeningemuseum), and what is believed to be his self-portrait, Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban (London, National Gallery). Many more works are disputed, or believed to be by his assistants or followers.

In the most substantial early source on him, a 1454 biography by the Genoese humanist Bartholomeo Facio (De viris illustribus), Jan van Eyck was named "the leading painter" of his day. This text also sheds light on aspects of his production now lost, citing a bathing scene as well as a world map which Jan painted for Philip the Good. Facio also argued that Jan was a learned man, and that he had read in the classics, particularly the writings of Pliny the Elder about painting. This is somewhat supported by records of an inscription from Ovid's Ars Amore which used to be on the now-lost original frame of the Arnolfini Double Portrait, and by the many Latin inscriptions on his paintings, using the Roman alphabet, then reserved for educated men. Jan also had to have some knowledge of Latin for his many missions abroad for the Duke.

He died in Bruges in 1440 and was buried there in the Saint Donation church (destroyed during the French Revolution).

General:

• Ainsworth, Maryan W. and Keith Christiansen, eds. From Van Eyck to Bruegel Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.
• Campbell, Lorne. The Fifteenth-Century Netherlandish Schools. London, National Gallery of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. (Good article on the Arnolfini Double Portrait)
• Foister, Susan, Sue Jones and Delphine Cool, eds. Investigating Jan van Eyck. Turnhout: Brepols, 2000.
• Friedländer, Max J. Early Netherlandish Painting. Translated by Heinz Norden. Leiden: Praeger, 1967-76
• Pächt, Otto. Van Eyck and the Founders of Early Netherlandish Painting. New York: Harvey Miller, 2000
• Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting. London: Harper Collins, 1971

Source Documents:

• Baxandall, Michael. “Bartholomaeus Facius on Painting: A Fifteenth-Century Manuscipt of De Viris Illustribus.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 27 (1964) 90-107
• Laborde, Léon, marquis de. Les ducs de Bourgogne, études sur les lettres, les arts et l'industrie pendant le XVe siècle et plus particulièrement dans les Pays-Bas et le duché de Bourgogne. 3 vols. Paris: Plon frères, 1849-52
• Paviot, Jacques. “La Vie de Jan van Eyck selon les Documents écrits,” Revue des archéologues et historiens d'art de Louvain XXIII (1990) 83-93
• Weale, James, W. H. Hubert and John van Eyck: Their Life and Work. London: John Lane, 1908

Ghent Altarpiece:

• Dhanens, Elisabeth. Van Eyck: The Ghent Altarpiece. New York: Viking Press, 1973

Technical Analysis:

• Asperen de Boer, J. R. J. van. “A Scientific Re-examination of the Ghent Altarpiece” Oud Holland 93 (1979) 141-214

The Undocumented Early Years:

• Buren, Anne H. van, ed. Heures de Turin-Milan: Inv. no 47, Museo Civico d'Arte Antica, Torino. Lucerne: Faksimile Verlag, 1996.
• Sterling, Charles. “Jan van Eyck avant 1432” Revue de l’art 33 (1976) 7-82

Relation to Contemporary European Art:

• Belozerskaya, Marina. Rethinking the Renaissance: Burgundian Arts Across Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002
• Borchert, Till-Holger ed. Age of Van Eyck: The Mediterranean World and Early Netherlandish Painting, 1430-1530. Exh. cat. Groeningemuseum, Stedelijke Musea Brugge. Bruges: Luidon, 2002
• Nuttall, Paula. From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting 1400-1500. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004
• Weiss, Roberto. “Jan van Eyck and the Italians” Italian Studies XI (1956) 1-15

General Information about the 15th-Century Burgundian Court:

• Huizinga, Johan. The Autumn of the Middle Ages. Translated by Rodney J. Payton and Ulrich Mammitzsch. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996
• Vaughan, Philip R. Philip the Good: The Apogee of Burgundy 1419-1467. UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2002

• Ghent Altarpiece
• The Arnolfini Portrait
• Early Renaissance painting
• List of Belgian painters

• Jan van Eyck at Olga's Gallery
• The SpeuRRsite - Lam Gods - Ghent Altarpiece - Just Judges