Jan Van Eyck

In recent decades, the historical significance of the panel paintings by Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, and the Flémalle group has been subject to debate. This essay analyses the shifts in gilding practices that accompanied the introduction of the fifteenth-century ars nova, arguing that the new panel painting marked a self-conscious departure from the luxury arts by asserting its value through representation alone, rather than through material worth. From the 1420s-30s onwards, Netherlandish panel paintings rejected gold-leaf backgrounds, and they also increasingly either relegated gilding to small details such as halos and heavenly rays, or incorporated it into pictorial representation. In addition, these paintings display a particularly intensive visual dialogue with contemporary sculpture and brocaded textiles, as a means of exploring painting’s superior capacity to depict persuasive surfaces in spatial depth.

In establishing its independence from other contemporary art forms, and in promoting the intrinsic value of representation, early Netherlandish panel painting presaged the high status of painting in the ensuing centuries of the western canon, even though, in other respects, these works remained firmly rooted in earlier tradition. The rise of early Netherlandish painting thus sheds important light on the role of periodization within art-historical interpretation. Where a number of recent studies have perceived temporal instability within the content of medieval and Renaissance images, this essay proposes that historiographical assessment should take into account the specific material and conceptual qualities of different artistic media, and weigh the relative importance of their perceived references forwards and back in time.

The research for this project developed over many years and eventually coalesced into a size and shape in between a typical book and a typical journal article. Digital publication on the University of York’s History of Art Research Portal enables this essay to be presented at its full length, incorporating far more material—especially a greater number of detailed illustrations—than is possible in traditional printed journals. Publication at full length also enables it to combine typically disparate methodologies and sub-fields: historiography, methodological reflection, technical analysis, and close looking at artworks in different media, from luxury objects and sculpture to panel painting. Most critically, the visual apparatus of digital publication supports this essay’s emphasis on the importance of contingent looking within particular lighting circumstances, a feature rarely considered in art-historical studies.

This paper helps to clarify the meaning and chronology of The Fountain of Grace through the study of the controversies surrounding the Eucharist, the Hussite heresy and the conversion of the Jews addressed in the councils of Basel and Ferrara-Florence.
Additionally, data are provided to outline the circumstances of the commission of the painting from the workshop of Jan van Eyck, to its reception in Castile, until arrival at its final destination in the monastery of Santa María del Parral in Segovia. The author upholds that the key personality that united all these factors was Alonso de Cartagena and his  network in politics, intellectuality, patronage and international trade during the second third of the 15th century.

Jan van Eyck nos acompaña en un apasionante viaje de Flandes a Granada en un momento crucial para la política y el arte europeos, que alimentó el sueño del Toisón de Oro y que cambió el curso de la historia. A partir del redescubrimiento del documento original que contiene el relato de la embajada de Felipe el Bueno, duque de Borgoña, a João I de Portugal en 1428-29 y en la que participó el célebre artista flamenco, este libro presenta un nuevo panorama del caleidoscópico mundo cultural del siglo XV europeo. El informe de la embajada –por primera vez transcrito íntegramente y traducido al español y al inglés– se pone en contexto con los personajes, los lugares, los acontecimientos políticos y los fenómenos artísticos clave del periodo, analizando el recorrido de la comitiva, sus precedentes, interrelaciones, razón de ser, objetivos y resultados. A lo largo del viaje, comprenderemos hasta qué punto la Península Ibérica influyó en la pintura de Jan van Eyck, a quien descubrimos fascinado por la Alhambra y el reino nazarí de Granada. Un diálogo lleno de sorpresas que situó a Borgoña y a los reinos peninsulares en la vanguardia del arte de Occidente.