Jan van Eyck produced paintings for private clients in addition to his work at the court. Foremost among these is the
Ghent Altarpiece painted for the merchant, financier and politician
Jodocus Vijdts and his wife Elisabeth Borluut. Started sometime before 1426 and completed by 1432, the
polyptych is seen as representing "the final conquest of reality in the North", differing from the great works of the
Early Renaissance in Italy by virtue of its willingness to forgo classical idealisation in favor of the faithful observation of nature. Even though it may be assumed – given the demand and fashion – that he produced a number of triptychs, only the
Dresden altarpiece survives, although a number of extant portraits may be wings of dismantled polyptychs. Telltale signs are hinges on original frames, the sitter's orientation, and praying hands or the inclusion of iconographical elements in an otherwise seemingly secular portrait. About 20 surviving paintings are confidently attributed to him, all dated between 1432 and 1439. Ten, including the
Ghent Altarpiece, are dated and signed with a variation of his motto, ALS ICH KAN. In 1998 Holland Cotter estimated that "only two dozen or so paintings...attributed...with varying degrees of confidence, along with some drawings and a few pages from...the Turin-Milan Hours." He described the "complex relationship and tension between art historians and holding museums in assigning authorship. Of the 40 or so works considered originals in the mid 80s, around ten are now vigorously contested by leading researchers as workshop."
Turin-Milan Hours: Hand G '', Hand G, Turin. Milan Filio 93v, Inv 47. Since 1901 Jan van Eyck has often been credited as the anonymous artist known as Hand G of the
Turin-Milan Hours. If this is correct, the Turin illustrations are the only known works from his early period; according to Thomas Kren the earlier dates for Hand G precede any known panel painting in an Eyckian style, which "raise[s] provocative questions about the role that manuscript illumination may have played in the vaunted verisimilitude of Eyckian oil painting." The evidence for attributing van Eyck rests on part on the fact that although the figures are mostly of the
International Gothic type, they reappear in some of his later work. In addition, there are coats of arms connected with the Wittelsbach family with whom he had connections in the Hague, while some of the figures in the miniatures echo the horsemen in the
Ghent Altarpiece. Most of the Turin-Milan Hours were destroyed by fire in 1904 and survive only in photographs and copies; only three pages at most attributed to Hand G now survive, those with large miniatures of the
Birth of John the Baptist, the
Finding of the True Cross and the
Office of the Dead (or
Requiem Mass), with the
bas-de-page miniatures and initials of the first and last of these The
Office of the Dead is often seen as recalling Jan's 1438–1440
Madonna in the Church. Four more were lost in 1904: all the elements of the pages with the miniatures called
The Prayer on the Shore (or
Duke William of Bavaria at the Seashore, the ''Sovereign's prayer
etc.), and the night-scene of the Betrayal of Christ (which was already described by Durrieu as "worn" before the fire), the Coronation of the Virgin and its bas-de-page, and the large picture only of the seascape Voyage of St Julian & St Martha''.
Marian iconography ''. Oil on oak panel, 1437.
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden Except the 'Ghent Altarpiece,' Van Eyck's religious works feature the
Virgin Mary as the central figure. She is typically seated, wearing a jewel-studded crown, cradling a playful child Christ who gazes at her and grips the hem of her dress in a manner that recalls the 13th-century
Byzantine tradition of the
Eleusa icon (
Virgin of Tenderness). She is sometimes shown reading a
Book of Hours. She usually wears red. In the 1432
Ghent Altarpiece Mary wears a crown adorned with flowers and stars. She is dressed as a bride, and reads from a
girdle book draped with green cloth, perhaps an element borrowed from
Robert Campin's
Virgin Annunciate. The panel contains a number of motifs that later reappear in later works; she is already Queen of Heaven, wearing a crown adorned with flowers and stars. Van Eyck usually presents Mary
as an apparition before a donor kneeling in prayer to the side. The idea of a saint appearing before a
layperson was common in Northern donor portraits of the period. '', .
Musée du Louvre, Paris Mary's role in his works should be viewed in the context of the contemporary cult and veneration surrounding her. In the early 15th century Mary grew in importance as an intercessor between the divine and members of the Christian faith. The concept of
purgatory as an intermediary state that each soul had to pass through before admission to heaven was at its height. Prayer was the most obvious means of decreasing time in
limbo, while the wealthy could commission new churches, extensions to existing ones, or devotional portraits. At the same time, there was a trend towards the sponsorship of
requiem masses, often as part of the terms of a will, a practice that
Joris van der Paele actively sponsored. With this income he endowed the churches with embroidered cloths and metal accessories such as chalices, plates and candlesticks. '', .
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin Eyck usually gives Mary three roles: Mother of Christ; the personification of the "
Ecclesia Triumphans"; or
Queen of Heaven. The idea of Mary as a metaphor for the Church itself is especially strong in his later paintings. In
Madonna in the Church she dominates the cathedral; her head is almost level with the approximately sixty feet high gallery. This distortion of scale is found in a number of other of his Madonna paintings, including
Annunciation. Her monumental stature borrows from the works of 12th- and 13th-century Italian artists such as
Cimabue and
Giotto, who in turn reflect a tradition reaching back to an
Italo-Byzantine type and emphasises her identification with the cathedral itself. Art historians in the 19th century thought the work was executed early in van Eyck's career and attributed her scale as the mistake of a relatively immature painter. The idea that her size represents her embodiment as the church was first suggested by
Erwin Panofsky in 1941.
Till-Holger Borchert says that van Eyck did not paint "the Madonna in a church", but as "the Church". Van Eyck's later works contain very precise and detailed architectural details, but are not modeled on actual historical buildings. He probably sought to create an ideal and perfect space for Mary's apparition, and was more concerned with their visual impact rather than physical possibility. The Marian paintings are characterized by complex depictions of both physical space and light sources. Many of van Eyck's religious works contain a reduced interior space that is nonetheless subtly managed and arranged to convey a sense of intimacy without feeling constricted. The
Madonna of Chancellor Rolin is lit from both the central
portico and the side windows, while the floor-tiles in comparison to other elements indicate that the figures are only about six feet from the columned
loggia screen, and that Rolin might have had to squeeze himself through the opening to get out that way. The Gothic and contemporary architectural elements of the cathedral in
Madonna in the Church are so minutely detailed that many art and architecture historians have concluded that he must have had enough architectural knowledge to make nuanced distinctions. Given this accuracy, many scholars have tried to link the painting with particular buildings. But in all the buildings in van Eyck's work, the structure is imagined and probably an idealized formation of what he viewed as a perfect architectural space. This can be seen from the many examples of features that would be unlikely in a contemporary church, including the placing of a round arched
triforium above a pointed
colonnade in the Berlin work. The Marian works are heavily lined with inscriptions. The lettering on the arched throne above Mary in the
Ghent Altarpiece is taken from a passage from the
Book of Wisdom (7:29): "She is more beautiful than the sun and the army of the stars; compared to the light she is superior. She is truly the reflection of eternal light and a spotless mirror of God".
Secular portraits '', detail showing the female subject and convex mirror Van Eyck was in high demand as a portrait artist. Growing affluence across northern Europe meant that portraiture was no longer the preserve of royalty and high aristocracy. Further raising the demand for portraits was the emergence of the merchant middle class and the growing awareness of
humanist ideas of selfhood. Campbell lists other van Eyck unshaven sitters;
Niccolò Albergati (1431),
Jodocus Vijdt (1432),
Jan van Eyck? (1433),
Joris van der Paele (c. 1434–1436),
Nicolas Rolin (1435) and
Jan de Leeuw (1436). However, by his later works, the sitter is placed at more of a distance, and the attention to detail less marked. The descriptions are less forensic, more of an overview, while the forms are broader and flatter. Even in his early works, his descriptions of the model are not faithful reproductions; parts of the sitter's face or form were altered either to improve the composition or to fit an ideal. He often altered a model's proportions in order to emphasize features of interest. In the
portrait of his wife, he altered the angle of her nose, and flattered her with a fashionably high forehead. The stone
parapet at the base of the canvas of
Léal Souvenir is painted as if to simulate marked or scarred stone and bears three layers of inscriptions, each rendered in an
illusionistic manner, giving the impression they are chiseled onto stone. van Eyck often set the inscriptions as if in the sitter's voice, so that they "appear to be speaking". Examples include the
Portrait of Jan de Leeuw which reads
... Jan de [Leeuw], who first opened his eyes on the Feast of St Ursula [21 October], 1401. Now Jan van Eyck has painted me, you can see when he began it. 1436. Hands play a special significance in van Eyck's painting. In his early portraits, the sitters are often shown holding objects emblematic of their profession. The small scroll—possibly a legal document—in the right hand of the man in
Léal Souvenir suggests that he may have practiced law. The
Arnolfini Portrait of 1432 is filled with symbolism, as is the 1435
Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, commissioned to display Rolin's power, influence and piety. ==Style==