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| Madonna and the child Más |
Van Eyck was certainly the father of an art unequaled and never seen before. His paintings are closer to a photograph than to a painting. That in 1400!
Born in Belgium at 1390 he is the founder of the Flemish School of Painting which consists of an accurate and obsessively detailed observation of every aspect of the scene.
Van Eyck chose his subject very well, he wanted to portray all the magnificence, beauty and wealth of the Belgian court and aristocracy, and also the cities of Ghent, Bruges and Ypres, how they were built and how they have become beautiful through the wealth of the lords.
In 1425 Van Eyck entered the court of Philip III Duke of Burgundy. There he rebuked so many honors and nobility that his new status of aristocrat himself allowed him to travel widely to several countries. Painting mainly ladies of the nobility.
"Adoration of the Mystic Lamb"
There is a work that involves a certain controversy. Van Eyck had a brother Hubert, who was also a painter. In 1432 Van Eyck painted a breathtaking work in the Cathedral of St. Bravo in Belgium. There is, however, a debate that is about a bit of the work of which some historians of art say that it was Hubert who painted and was never recognized. The work is called "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" and nowadays, probably not to be discussed anymore, it is considered by the brothers Van Eyck, Jan and Hubert.
The image is so full of details made up of absolute perfection that hours of observation wouldn't give you a full glimpse of the concept and story told there. It's a huge painting (3.5 m x 4.6 m) and weighs like a rhinoceros.
In a quick analysis of the work we can immediately notice that Van Eyck, unlike so many other artists, didn't see any beauty in the representation of Christ crucified, bleeding and suffering. Then instead he put a lamb in the place to represent the sacrifice of Christ.
In the upper panels we see God in the center, Jesus already resurrected explaining the Bible, the Virgin Mary sitting on the left reading the Bible, corals on both sides singing hymns and on the far right is Eve (apparently pregnant), and on the far left is Adam with the hand over where God took the rib from which Eve was created.
The groups of people within the scene of the Lamb and on the side panels are apostles, guards, cavalry, authorities, the people, and all the scene that the Holy Bible describes, but without any drop of blood. They are angels that surround the Lamb and the sky shines with the dove. Music and the exhortation of beauty and redemption are everywhere in the work.
[History Alert] In 1566 Protestant militants invaded the Cathedral of St. Bravo and wanted to burn the whole thing down to ashes to express their repudiation of Catholicism and all its wealth and excesses of expenses for the sake of the beauty of the Cathedrals while neglecting the people and the needs of the community. But the Cathedral guards prevented Van Eyck's work from being destroyed and carried the painting to the Cathedral's tower where it was hidden and remained intact.
It turns out that this painting was so coveted that even Napoleon wanted it for himself and offered a huge reward to anyone who brought it to him.
Then the panels of the work were divided and sold at auctions. In World War I it was a priest's job to carry and hide the centerpiece of the work in a junkman's wagon, yes, you got it right, it was hidden in a garbage bin.
It was only after a Treaty of Versailles that the work could return safely to its original place.
But... many, many, really many attempts to steal the work have happened over and over times, to the point where some panels disappear forever, we have no idea who owns them or where they are.
The greed for the work was so fanatical that in the Second World War the Nazis wanted it for them as well. On the orders of Nazi Gen. Hermann Goering the last remaining part of the work was stolen.
Visitors to St. Bavo Cathedral today we will see just a copy of the missing panel, painted during World War II because, after all, the Nazis wanted the whole work. Hitler's obsession with this particular work was so great that he believed it contained something occult and supernatural.
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| Copy at the Ghent Altarpiece |
"The Arnolfini Wedding"
The perfection of this masterpiece revolutionized the history of art forever.
If you look at the details with me now you will understand why there is no possible comparison to nothing else.
Van Eyck is portraying the moment of the marriage of Giovanna Cemani and Giovanni Arnolfini. But he is also telling us a long and detailed story.
Giovanna came from a very wealthy and noble Italian family. Although it has long been believed that the bride was pregnant at the time of marriage (by the volume of her dress) the couple never had children, so either she had a miscarriage or it is only a good wish of Van Eyck for the couple because the green color of the dress symbolizes fertility and, by the way, the chubby woman's belly was a sign of beauty.
Giovanni was a wealthy merchant extremely successful because Philip Duke of Burgundy gave him an important position in court. We must remember that in 1400 the Netherlands was part of the kingdom of Burgundy and Giovanni Arnolfini became master of Finances of Normandy and made a real furtuna levying taxes of imported goods that arrived in the port.
Everything on the board portrays the couple's wealth; all the furniture is extremely expensive and symbolic. Note that there is a fruit in the window, this fruit was originally imported from the Mediterranean and only nobles could afford the luxury. The fabrics used, the colors of the fabrics, everything imported and expensive.
But it is a marriage rather than a demonstration of wealth. The tender gesture represented by the overlapping hands of the couple is a Christian symbol of unity. And notice how the angle of the hands is perfectly fitted into the trim of the chandelier's tip, all to add harmony to the scene.
As unusual as it may seem the shoes on the floor also declare the marriage going on. Loose shoes on the floor were a symbol of religious ceremony and this adds to the theory that the portrait was actually a marriage certificate, I will mention it again. Giovanni's wooden shoes are quickly noticed in the foreground, but Giovanna's red shoes are near the bed, so the two are barefooted, which was also an auspicious sign of fertility and humility at the time of the ceremony.
The greatest innovation of this painting is certainly the mirror that reflects the couple with the perfection of the exact same scene seen from behind and slightly curved by the lens of the glass. The presence of another two figures also appears, one is Van Eyck himself and the other could possible be a witness of the cerimony.
Around the mirror are drawn ten out of the fourteen "stations of the cross" which are the events that led Christ through his journey to death on Golgotha, one more among all the touches of spirituality embedded in the retreat.
On the left side of the mirror is a crystal rosary beaded and this was a typical gift from the groom to the bride. The crystal represents the purity of the bride and her duty to remain devoted to her husband.
The chandelier has only one lit candle and it represents the eye of God present in the union of the couple.
Then we have a signature on the wall written in an extravagant Gothic style that says "Johannes Van Eyck fuit hic 1434" = Johannes Van Eyck was here 1434. In the fifteenth century marriage was the only Christian ceremony that didn't require the presence of a priest, could be celebrated privately if there were witnesses. The two figures that appear in the mirror plus the dated signature of Van Eyck suggest that this painting is actually the marriage certificate of the Arnolfini couple.
The portrait is therefore a marriage certificate but it is not a fairy tale. As I said before, Giovanna had no children and Giovanni was a very unfaithful husband, even getting sued by one of his mistresses. Don't get sad, here it goes a dog. And that's the reason why the dog was there, a touch of joy and at the same time the symbol of love and fidelity - which in the case was just wishful thinking.
The painting is in the National Gallery, London.
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