The Life of Jan Van Eyck

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Jennifer Lopez September 2011 Arts 112 Joyce Speechley The Life of Jan van Eyck Jan (Johannes) van Eyck was born sometime before 1390 in Maaseik Burgundian, Netherlands. There is not much known about Jan’s younger years, up until the year of 1422. It is said that he had 2 siblings; Hubert and Lambert van Eyck. Some say that Jan learned to paint from his eldest brother Hubert. Jan work with his brother Hubert in a studio up until he got commissioned by John of Bavaria. He started out as an illuminator; you can see that with his great details in his paintings. Most of the illustrations are done in gold and silver. “It was a stroke of genius whose profound effects it is difficult to appreciate today. Van Eyck had the courage to reject completely not only attractions of Gothic linear decoration but also the flat drawing in gold which formed the background of the Franco- Flemish painters and miniaturists, and substituted for them the closer or more distance view or a landscape or interior”. (Abrams 13) It is said that if you wanted to become a professional Artists or sometimes even work in the Courts for wealthy Kings, you had to have years of training, possibly by a School of Master of the Arts. “During the 14th century painters in Flanders still worked in the French miniature style. This was transformed into a brilliant school of national art in the 15th century by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, who made Bruges the first centre of Flemish art. Other schools arose in Tournai, Ghent, and Louvain.” (http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0001335.html). So, you know that Jan did have some schooling; he also knew how to write in Greek. Jan was Influenced by his brother Hubert van Eyck, and Robert Campin. It was said that Robert Campin was the first to use the skills of manuscript illumination in panel painting, but Historians think that it

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