Behind the Name of Jan Van Eyck
In the second week of Visual Culture class, one name has been mentioned a lot during the lecture. Curios and admire him at the same time. His name is Jan Van Eyck, one of famous artist back then. I am curious on how is his work done so detailed, smooth and full of meaning. In that case, in this 2nd essay I will do more research about him and his background history. To know more about someone you have to do more research right? Well I will uncover more about him now.
Jan Van Eyck born in the town of Maaseik in the province of Limburg, located in the Belgium. He was born on 1390. He has sibling, his brother also an artist, named Hubert Van Eyck. Van Eyck began his debut in art as court artist. He is appointed by one of the counts, named John of Bavaria. Well after met with him, he began his career as an artist, and immediately become court artist on behalf of his counts.
There are some parts of him that I admire after read his biography history. One of them is his influence of world art history. He is one of the famous artists during his day. He got his first hob as court artist which in charge of Valois Prince. That time, Valois Prince is powerful and influential person in history. Van Eyck was in charge of all art material and sometimes being send by his duke on a mission. More than just painting, Van Eyck also responsible on presenting present for any royal guest that visit Valois Prince. Because of that, his salary was quite high in that time, by the end of his first year, his salary doubled, making him as the most talented and rich artist that time. One of his, best painting is portrait of Isabella of Portugal, he painted it on behalf his master.
One his best artwork according to my point of view is The Portrait of a Man. Very classical, remind me of Davinci Potrait of Monalisa. The way of his look represent nothingness, so do in the Monalisa. But the only different is Davinci painted other person, but Van Eyck painted himself. One thing still bugging myself is how he could draw himself? Does photography have been invented back then? Or did he use some special technique to draw himself? Well actually according to some resources I have read, the most logic reason is he used mirror to reflect his shadow and then paint it reversely. Well the technique is quite hard for expert painter, but he is experts among the experts. Well, this portrait is not his portrait though, but perhaps this is his portrait. one thing is funny, why he used red turban not other color? still a mystery though. According some evidence, first the title of the portrait is ‘’Als Ich Can’’ which mean ‘’As I/Eyck Can’’ well those mean that this drawing is supposed to be the drawing of himself. The second evidence is beneath the painting, there is a carved like words, but the words actually not carved, it is painted in carving style the words is ‘’Jan Van Eyck made me on 21 October 1933.’’ From this statement, the evidence will more refer into his portrait.
Despite of being the first one who invented the oil painting, he is also well known of his artwork, his masterpiece of the detailed. Other of his painting that still covers some mystery is the painting of The Arnolfini Portrait’’. At the first glance this painting describe of happiness. The couple holding hand each other, but strangely, they use their left hand, not the right hand to hold each other hands. This is perhaps what people said left handed habits. The painting represents a happy couple who just married and the dog also look happy at the first sight. One thing which is quite strange is the mirror. It reflects those two shadows but also it reflects someone shadow. According to my sight, that third person is perhaps Van Eyck, because in other portrait, he always shown up evens just a small part. Well, besides of that, the painting really detailed and it has many meanings; happiness, glad, happy new couple, and one part of creepy though.
At the end, Jan Van Eyck made lots of masterpiece in his lifetime. Most of his painting becomes a valuable item until now. His artwork is displayed all over the world museum. Some of them was bought by his old friends before he died. But no, his friend died, and the rest of his painting ended up displayed in some national museum all over the world. By viewing all his artwork, I could conclude, Van Eyck was the best of the best artist in his era. No one could beat him in details, although his artwork quite mystery though. Well those all about the history of Jan Van Eyck artwork, quite short and brief, but at least, I have known more about him and his artwork. He is truly the masterpiece.
Bibliography :
“Jan Van Eyck and the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait.” Art History. February 15, 2010. Accessed September 17, 2014. http://artchronicler.wordpress.com/category/jan-van-eyck/
“Jan Van Eyck Biography.” Jan Van Eyck, The Complete Works. January 1, 2002. Accessed September 17, 2014. http://www.jan-van-eyck.org/biography.html.
Putu Deny Pratama Saputra 
