EYCK, HUBERT and JAN van. — H., d. in 1436, mentioned again in 1425; J., his younger brother, d. in 1441. A late (?) inscription on the frame of the Ghent Altarpiece is the principal document attesting to H.’s existence as a painter, who is said to have begun the altarpiece, completed, after his death, by J. J.’s life is much better documented: in 1422–24 he was painter to Count Giovanni of Bavaria at The Hague; in 1425, after the count’s death, he became « variet de chambre » and court painter to Duke Filippo il Buono of Burgundy, and remained so even when he moved from 1425–28 to Lalla and, from 1430, to Bruges, where he stayed until his death and where, in 1432, he completed the Ghent Altarpiece. For the duke he made journeys to Tournai, Portugal, etc.
There are still conflicting theories concerning the Ghent Altarpiece: according to some scholars, it is entirely by Jan: the stylistic differences among the twelve panels would be explained as resulting from the artist’s development during the work. According to others, who adhere to the inscription, the altarpiece was begun by Hubert and completed by the younger Jan. In this case, the division between the two brothers remains extremely difficult and uncertain. Perhaps the lower parts, with the Adoration of the Lamb, the Companies of Knights, the Hermits, etc., are by Hubert (or partly so). The upper and exterior shutters and some repaintings and components of the lower parts would be by Jan.
In any case, the Ghent Altarpiece marks the beginning of a new era in northern painting: whether by one artist or two, it is dominated by a plastic sense, a broad and powerful naturalism, and an individualistic expression that contrasts with the preceding Gothic style and the tenderness of the so-called international style of the beginning of the century; this should also be understood as an affirmation of the wealthy bourgeoisie of the Flemish cities, in contrast with the courtly taste of earlier generations.
Depending on whether the individual parts of the Ghent Altarpiece are attributed to one brother or the other, it will be necessary to revise the attributions of the earlier works. These are the Crucifixion and the Last Judgment in the Washington Gallery (formerly in Leningrad), the Three Marys at the Tomb of Christ in the Beuningen Collection, Vierhouten (formerly Cook, Richmond), the Madonna in the church and the Crucifix between St. John and the Madonna in the Berlin Gallery, all
(courtesy of the A. P. Fruton agency)
Subsequent to the Ghent Altarpiece, and therefore works certainly by J., are several portraits: 1432: the one in London bearing the inscription Thymotheo; 1433: the Man in a Turban (self-portrait?) in Berlin; 1434: the Arnolfini with his wife (London); 1436: De Leeuw in Vienna; 1439: the Portrait of the Painter’s Wife in Bruges and Niccolò Albergati in Vienna; as well as other portraits in Berlin, etc.; several Madonnas in Melbourne (1433), Bruges, with Canon van der Paele (1436), and Antwerp (1439); undated ones in Frankfurt, Dresden, and Paris (with Chancellor Rollin), the Administration in Washington; the St. Barbara of 1437 in Antwerp; and, in two authentic replicas, a representation of the Stigmata of St. Francis (Turin, Philadelphia).
The very high fame of the E., especially as «inventors» of oil painting (which they did in fact perfect), is very ancient. They are mentioned as early as by Ciriaco d’Ancona, Bartolomeo Facio, Filarete, and Giovanni Santi, as well as by Guicciardini and Vasari.