Who Is Jan Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece?

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Northern and Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance Jan van Eyck “Ghent Altarpiece” (open and closed) 1432 (Kleiner, p. 402-403). A world famous Netherlandish painter, and the author of one of the largest retables of the 15th century. “Ghent Altarpiece” revealed political and social connections that prevailed in that period. The top-center exterior panels depict a husband and a wife – two donors, piously gazing at Ghent’s patron saints. In the left and right top panel van Eyck depicted Zachariah and Micah – Old Testament prophets. On the upper register there are the Annunciation scene and a representation of a Flemish town outside the painted window. Van Eyck also depicted Greco-Roman mythological prophetesses. Jan van Eyck uses a technique of illusionism to give an appearance of space by the use of perspective. The opened altarpiece demonstrates human redemption through Christ and salvation. The panels of the lower register depict sacrifice, the Fountain of Life, the 12 apostles, a group of martyrs, the holy confessors, prophets, kings, pilgrims and other figures, extending the symbolism of the upper register panels. Every…show more content…
515). Another famous Netherlandish painter. “Garden of Earthly Delights” has been considered as the most controversial and enigmatic work (Kleiner). Unlike Jan van Eyck, Masaccio and Leonardo, Bosch, probably, was not purely oriented at pro-religious thematic. Jan van Eyck, for example, depicted humble couples, while Bosch portrayed a world of fantasy, where intrigue was the key element. “Garden of Earthly Delights” portrays three topics: Heaven, Human world and Hell. The work possesses mysterious elements that are not typical in religious combination of divine and terrestrial. Like Leonardo Bosch used two-linear perspective to create illusionism of in his work. Like many representatives of Northern and Italian Renaissance, Bosch used oil paints for his
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