Jan van Eyck

About this book

The exhibition presents three of the circa twenty extant works by Jan van Eyck, offering a glimpse of the art produced during the reign of Duke Philipp the Good, when the Burgundian Low Countries witnessed a unique flowering of courtly and urban civilisation. Jan van Eyck (c.1390-1441), the favorite court painter of Philipp the Good, duke of Burgundy (1396-1467), is celebrated for his virtuosity in the use of oil paint and his skill in combining naturalism and realism with brilliant colors. Already regarded as an epoch-making artist by his contemporaries, he was soon renowned throughout Europe as the founder of Early Netherlandish painting. Jan van Eyck was one of the first artists north of the Alps to sign and date his works. His use of a motto is remarkable. In the early fifteenth century, it was highly unusual for a painter - then still regarded as a mere craftsman - to have his own device, something reserved for the dukes of Burgundy and the nobility. Jan van Eyck chose ALS · IXH · XAN as his motto and generally inscribed it in pseudo-Greek letters; it is, however, in Dutch and means 'as I can' or 'as best I can' as in 'as best I can, not as I would', which is presumably meant to imply the artist's modest appreciation of his own work. Exhibition: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Austria (10.07. - 20.10.2019).