c. 1380-1441. Flemish painter of the early
northern Renaissance, one of the first to
work in oils. His paintings are technically
brilliant and sumptuously rich in detail and
colour. Little is known of his brother Hubert
van Eyck (died 1426), who is supposed to have
begun the massive and complex altarpiece in
St Bavo's cathedral, Ghent, The Adoration of
the Mystical Lamb, completed by Jan 1432. Jan
van Eyck is known to have worked in The Hague
1422-24 for John of Bavaria, Count of
Holland. He served as court painter to Philip
the Good, Duke of Burgundy, from 1425, and
worked in Bruges from 1430. Philip the Good
valued him not only as a painter but also as
a diplomatic representative, sending him to
Spain and Portugal in 1427 and 1428, and he
remained in the duke's employ after he
settled in Bruges. Oil painting allowed for
subtler effects of tone and colour and
greater command of detail than the
egg-tempera technique then in common use, and
van Eyck took full advantage of this. In his
Arnolfini Wedding 1434 (National Gallery,
London) the bride and groom appear in a
domestic interior crammed with disguised
symbols, as a kind of pictorial marriage
certificate.