Free Essays,College Free Essays,Free College Essays at Anti Essays

Jan Van Eyck


I would have to say that one of my favorite, but definitely the most interesting to me would be Jan Van Eyck. Jan Van Eyck was Dutch. He was born in the province of Limberg, in the region between the Netherlands an area we now known as Belgium. Nobody actually knows when Jan Van was born. Jan had an older brother Hubert Van Eyck, who was also an artist. They often worked together, sometimes Hubert would start a painting and Jan would finish it.
Jan Van Eyck only completed fifteen paintings in sixty-one years. His most famous painting was of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride, which he painted in 1434. His brother Hubert Van Eyck started the Ghent Altarpiece in 1425 a few years before he died. Jan later finished it seven years later. The Last Judgement was another painting the brothers worked on together. For this particular painting they really had to use their imagination, because to them they believed that this painting was of the end of time when the deas would rise and be judged. Another one of Jan’s best works was “Man In Red Turban” painted in 1433. The sitter possibly may have been Jan himself because of the slight squint in the eye, which may suggest that he was looking at himself in the mirror. Jan Van Eyck perfected the newly discovered technique of oil painting. Jan also discovered that there was no limit to what he could create visually with it. Jan was capable of expressing any emotion in his art, above all that had been seen before. Jan Van Eyck was one of the first painters to use one layer of tempra and then a layer of oil.