Flemish
painter, active in Brugge (Bruges), who, along with
Robert Campin (previously
known only as the Master of Flémalle) in Tournai, was the founder
of the Ars Nova ("new art") of 15th-century northern late Gothic
painting, which heralded the Renaissance in northern Europe. This period
of Netherlandish art is characterized by a naturalistic style of vivid
oil colors, meticulous detail, accurately rendered textures, and the illusion
of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface.
Jan probably came from Maaseick
in the province of Limbourg. In 1422 he was working in The Hague for John
of Bavaria, count of Holland. In 1425 Philip the Good, duke of Bourgogne,
appointed him court painter, a position he retained until his death. Jan
was on especially good terms with Philip, who entrusted him with certain
secret diplomatic missions, presented one of his children with a christening
gift, and personally interceded for him when he learned that Jan was having
trouble collecting his salary.
The uncertainty of Jan's
early training makes his artistic relationship with his brother Hubert
of great importance. The shadowy figure of Hubert has inspired endless
speculation and debate among scholars, including one theory that he never
existed. The present consensus is that he did exist and that he might
have had a hand in painting some of the more problematic "Eyckian"
pictures that seem to date from Jan's early career. Some of these works,
ascribed variously to both Jan and Hubert or to either Jan or Hubert,
are the Turin-Milan Hours (manuscript destroyed by fire in 1904), the
Three Marys at the Tomb (Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam), and
a diptych, Crucifixion and Last Judgement (Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York City). The most famous work in this category is the monumental
Ghent Altarpiece (1432, Cathedral of Saint Bavon, Ghent), a polyptych
whose outer panels open to reveal the Adoration of the Lamb, painted for
the chapel of Jodocus Vyd. A Latin quatrain copied from this altarpiece
states that Hubert began the work and Jan completed it. Art historians
assume that Jan collected the painted panels that Hubert began before
his death in 1426, added new ones of his own design, and assembled the
whole in Vyd's chapel.
Nine paintings by Jan are still
extant, carefully signed and dated, all between 1432 and 1439. Of these
pictures, four depict religious subjects-including the Madonna with Canon
van der Paele (1436, Groeninge Museum, Brugge)-and five are portraits,
such as Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife (1434, National Gallery, London).
Although numerous unsigned panels have been attributed to him, less than
a dozen of these are unquestionably by him. These works, in addition to
the Ghent Altarpiece, include the Madonna and Child with Chancellor Rolin
(1433-1434, Louvre, Paris) and Cardinal Nicolò Albergati (1435?,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).
Jan's contemporaries were
awed by his amazing technical skill and his precise renderings of carefully
observed detail. These qualities explain why he was still called the King
of Painters by his compatriots as late as the 16th century.