Jan van Eyck, the Story of His Most Stunning Painting

Hi, welcome to Stories of Art. My name is Karel Huidekoper. Today I want to tell you the story of this stunning painting by Jan van Eyck. It's called Virgin and Child with Canon van der Palen. And it is in Bruges where it was also made. It's in the Groninger Museum. And it is one of those spectacular works by Jan van Eyck. If you ask me, it's his best work. But before I get to the painting itself, let me tell you a little bit about Jan van Eyck. Born probably about 1390 and he died in 1441, he was so good with oil paint that he is often credited with the invention of it. And for a long time, actually, we thought he did, because it was mentioned by some early art historians. These days, we know that oil paint was used before he could possibly have been born. So he didn't actually invent it, but he most certainly perfected the techniques that you can actually do with them. And he taught others how well you can use oil paint. As a comparison, I have here two paintings. One by Fra Angelico made, it's an annunciation. This is where the angel tells Mary that she's going to have the Christ child. And you can see it's a fresco, which is a completely different technique. He made it in Florence and it's made for a different purpose. But bear with me, if you compare it just briefly to the same scene, an annunciation by Jan van Eyck, you can see that at least in precision and in coloring, he could do things that pretty much no one else could. But you couldn't possibly get from a fresco. Anyway, that's just a sidestep. What I want to tell you about is that he was so incredibly good with oil paints. That he could paint much more precisely than anybody else. Which prompted people to ask him to add more details to his paintings. Because his paintings are filled with all kinds of little extra bits. And I'm going to show you all of them in this. The strange thing is that we know so little about Jan van Eyck himself. We think he was born in a place called Maas Eyck. And there you can hear his name already, Eyck. Which means oak, by the way. It's quite common to have a name that says I'm from there and there. So it's from oak. It's what van Eyck means. We think these days that he worked for a while in The Hague. Which was a tiny town in what is now the Netherlands. The Low Countries at the time were a larger area that now encompasses the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Flanders was, of all of the provinces within this region, was the richest one. That's where all the big cities were. The intellectual centers like Ghent and Bruges and Antwerp was quickly becoming one of the largest ports in the world. Brussels was where court was usually held by whoever was in charge. Van Eyck probably worked in The Hague. We have some evidence that suggests, it's followed more and more, that he worked on illumination of books, miniatures in books. And he may well have worked on the Turin-Milan hours. That may be the earliest work of him that we have. At some point, he moved to Ghent. Because the first painting that we know of him, know by him, he actually made with his brother. His brother Hubert, of whom, strangely enough, we have no other work than this one, started on the Ghent altarpiece. And apparently died while working on it. And Jan took over. All of this is mentioned on the frame. There's almost a history of the work on the frame itself. Strangely, this is the first work that we know of Jan van Eyck, which is a huge altarpiece. And you would hardly imagine that someone would hire an unknown painter to do such an expensive big piece of work. It is the only work we know of by Hubert van Eyck, his brother. But the Ghent altarpiece is enormous. And has recently been restored. You have to visit at least once in your life. But it's a subject in a different video. Now, after Ghent, he moved to Bruges. And that's where he eventually settled. Painted a number of paintings. We still have about 20 paintings of him these days. And this is, I would say, his masterpiece of masterpieces. A portrait he made for a man called Joris van der Palen. Often called George van der Palen. Because Joris and George are the same names. George is the English equivalent of the Flemish name Joris. And this incredible painting is pretty large for his usual work. Most of his paintings are smaller. But it's today in the Groninger Museum in Bruges. And really, if you want to see the real thing, you really have to go there to see it up close. And bring a magnifying glass. Because it is so precise. You want to see some details up closer. And I can even get to you in even very high resolution photographs. I'm going to go through this painting bit by bit. And sometimes you'll see that there's a slight difference in color. From one moment to the next. Because I'm going to use different photographs. Some very close close-ups are from different photographs. So you'll see slight differences in color once in a while. Let me start off by who had it made. Well, Joris van der Palen, as I said. He is the man in white. He was a cannon. A cannon, not the thing you shoot with, obviously. It was a job within a Catholic church. That they still use the same job title. But it doesn't exist anymore in the same way as it was used at that time. Because a cannon usually lived in a community almost like a monk. But not quite. They had much more freedom than most monks did. And they certainly didn't have any restrictions on wealth. Because Joris van der Palen was extremely wealthy. He had worked for the Pope for a time. And became very very wealthy as one of his secretaries. And returned to Bruges, where he had been born. And there worked for the Donatius Church. Donatius is a saint. I'll get to him. Joris came to work for that church. He became a cannon there. And that meant that he had to visit all the seven masses of the day. Every day. He did sing mass seven times a day. And at some point he became ill. He had some sort of disease. We don't know which one. We know that he was excused from coming in the very early ones in the morning. And later he was excused from the ones very late at night. And eventually he was excused from coming to mass at all. Only when he felt like it. So he was getting on in years. And things probably started to hurt. And maybe had some sort of a painful disease as well. Apparently told him that he was going to die. It reminded him of his own mortality is what they usually say. And what he did is he wanted to take care of his soul. And since he was very very rich he did that in several ways. Now he created the post for sort of a priest that would say mass for him. Or would mention him in masses. And would lead prayers for him for all eternity. You could do that. It was expensive. You had to buy that. But you could do it. And he was very rich. So he did. And he also had this painting made where he sits in the company of the two main saints for Bruges. And of course the Virgin and Child. If you look up close to him this portrait is absolutely brilliant. Because you can see that it's not an idealized sort of portrait at all. You can see all the wrinkles and the folds in his skin. You can see that one of his eyes trails off just a little bit. He's not exactly cross-eyed. But his eyes are not entirely straight. And you can see these bulging veins in his temples. And you can see that he hasn't shaved properly. There's a little bit of stubble on his chin. Also he carries glasses which tell us that he couldn't see that well anymore. It also tells us that he was very rich. Because glasses were incredibly expensive to have good ones. And he carries this prayer book in his hand. You can see it's an important book to him. Because he carries it on a piece of cloth. You would hold important books or important relics for instance in a piece of cloth. So that your dirty fingers don't touch the actual object. So that is something he does out of reference to honor the object. And he doesn't actually look at anyone. He looks sort of in the middle distance. And that almost makes it look as if this is a vision. That this happens during his prayers. That there's something that appears in front of him as sort of a religious experience. Now he is presented to Mary. To the Virgin Mary and of course to Jesus. And that's done by his namesake. The man standing right behind him is Saint George. In Dutch, Flemish, that would be Saint Joris. He was named after that saint. And that's the usual thing. If a donor is a name for the man who paid for the painting. If a donor is presented to Virgin and Child. It is usually done by his namesake. And this is Joris. George, famously that saint that in Anatolia, today's Turkey. Fought off dragons that I think ate virgins. And were a general pest to everyone. And of course were the devil. And he fought them off. And he killed the devil. That Saint George is here. You can usually recognize him by all his armor. He has all this shiny armor on. And he has a lance with a flag. Which looks a lot like the flag of England. Because of course the patron saint of England is Saint George. It's the Saint George's cross. And there's only two figures on paintings like these. On religious paintings that can wear as much armor. And it would either be Saint George or the Archangel Michael. But then he would have had wings. And there's no wings here. So we're definitely sure this is George. By the way, if you zoom in very, very closely into George's armor. There is one thing that in the back. His shield that's hung flung over on his back. You can see that it mirrors the flag on top. And some say that you can see in its mirrored surface. You can see that there's a figure there with a sort of red turban. Some would have it that this is a self-portrait of Jan van Eyck. That he put himself in as a reflection. And then it would look a little bit like this presumed self-portrait of Jan van Eyck. Because he also has a red sort of turban. Called a chaperone, by the way. Not a turban. I have to say it's kind of blurry. I don't really see it. It's not painted precisely enough to actually determine that. So it could just be sort of an accidental blur, I guess. All the way on the other side of the painting, there's another saint. Called Saint Danatius. And Danatius was a bishop. A bishop of Rheims in the 4th century. And his stories are pretty varied. One of them, my favorite, is that he visited Rome at some point. And was murdered. And then his body was thrown in the Tiber. The river that runs through Rome. And when they went to search for him, they couldn't find it. Because it was dark. And someone took a wheel that apparently floated. And they put candles on that wheel. And they floated it down the river. So it would light under the water. It floated downriver. And then it suddenly stopped. And it hovered above the body of Saint Danatius. Who wasn't a saint then, but was soon to become one. That's why he's holding this wheel in his hand. With all these candles on him. It's what's called his attribute. Now, it's a saint you don't usually see anywhere. It's not a particularly popular saint anywhere. Except for in Bruges. Because he's the patron saint of the city. And that's because his relics were moved to Bruges at some point. And they built a big church around him. And that happens to be the church where our friend Joris van der Paele was canon. So it all fits in with the same story. The church has been demolished since actually in the late 18th century. I believe 1779. The painting has been used elsewhere. But eventually it came to the now the Groninger Museum. And there you can see it. Anyway, you can see he's a bishop. Because he has a mitre. And he has these robes on it. Which are fantastically painted. You can see all these hues of blue. And the gold brocade. And it's absolutely fabulously made. And you can see references to both Saint Paul and Saint Peter in there. And then let's move off slightly to the middle. Where, of course, the main figures are the Virgin and Child. Now, this version of the Virgin. That's a difficult one to say. He had painted quite often. This is Jan van Eyck's sort of favorite form of the Virgin Mary. She wears red and blue. Which had become customary for her to wear. Red robes and a blue dress underneath. There were no laws about these things. But there were customs. And this is the usual way Mary was presented. Sometimes it's the other way around. She has blue robes and a red dress underneath. And on her lap, of course, we see Jesus. Not as a baby. Never see Mary with a child. And then it's a very young baby. No, it's a child of what would be nine months to maybe 14, 15 months. Something like that. That sort of an age. Don't ask me why. Because there is no biblical story where Jesus sits on the lap of Mary. It is just a convention that appeared. From various sources, of which I'll do a different video. He is actually sitting on a sort of a handkerchief. He's sitting on this white piece of linen. And he's holding, strangely enough, a parrot. And Mary holds a flower up to that parrot. We're not entirely sure why. It's the only time I know of that Jesus holds a parrot. Could be some sort of reference to paradise. That it's sort of a paradise bird or something. Because that's what you would expect. The more usual thing that Jesus would have in his hand would be a piece of fruit. An apple or a pomegranate or something. Grapes sometimes. Because they refer nicely to the Eucharist. If grapes would refer nicely to the Eucharist. An apple would refer nicely to original sin. Because that's what very often is referred to in this scene of Mary and child. Virgin and child. And in this case as well. Because around Mary, around the virgin and the child. We see a number of sculptures in their throne. First of all, in the lower bit of their armrests. You can see a naked man and a naked woman. They're Adam and Eve. And what would they be doing there? Well, of course, the story of man sort of starts with Adam and Eve. Well, of course, the Bible literally starts with Adam and Eve. And that's also when sin started. And this is what is usually referred to as the cycle of sin. Where they, of course, ate some fruit of a tree that they weren't supposed to. The tree of knowledge. And that was the first, the original sin. And since then, man was condemned to work the fields in the sweat of his brow. Women were supposed to suffer pains in child labor. And we all die and are sent to, well, hell, heaven. With the coming of Jesus, that sin was, of course, taken away if you follow Jesus. So in a nutshell, that's the cycle of sin. And the start of forgiveness. Right next to each other. But there's also some other references right above them on the armrests. There is a little sort of painted sculpture. Where, in this case, someone is beating someone else to death. And that's Cain killing Abel. Basically, that's where mankind started to really misbehave. On the other side, we see someone harming a lion. You could say that's mankind misbehaving a bit more. That's not what they intended here. It's Samson. Samson that is going to break open the jaws of a lion. Basically, to show how very, very strong he is. And of course, his strength comes from his faith. It's given to him by God. That's the main idea. And that is what makes him so powerful. Of course, it also has something to do with his hair. But that's not what they want to emphasize here. So it's basically parts of the Old Testament set against the New Testament, which is all around them. Oh, by the way, did I mention that George is the other patron saint of Bruges? Actually, his forearm was kept in Bruges, in the same cathedral, or in the same church. So there's pretty good reasons for them showing George here. Not just because he's the name saint. The really detailed part comes when you start zooming in and start looking at the back. And there's these columns. The whole setting, by the way, if you notice that it's a church, they're sitting sort of in the absence of a church, where you would probably expect the altar to be. That's where Virgin and Child are. But in a church, you would expect there would be columns and columns of capitals. And these capitals are very finely carved. And you can see when you zoom in, you can see all these curly sort of patterns in them. And there's animals in them. Many camels, strangely enough. Not sure why you would have camels. Maybe because it's a Middle Eastern story. And there's some pilasters in the back with capitals as well. And those actually tell a story as well. And for that, I have to really zoom in. And here you can see them. The one on the left shows us a man kneeling in front of another man. And it's Melchizedek. It's a prophet who met Abraham at some point. And he brought, as a sacrifice to God, he brought bread and wine. Which, of course, fits in nicely with the story of the Eucharist, where they eat bread because it becomes the Lord. And they drink wine because it becomes his blood. Right next to it, you may be able to see there's a man who has his arm up. And there's a little boy kneeling in front of him. That's Abraham, who's trying to sacrifice his son Isaac. And that has everything to do with sacrifice. He had been told by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. And he does, for some reason. Then he went up a mountain and prepared to actually kill him when an angel came and stopped him. You can actually see the angel sort of in the middle of this capital. Can you see it? And it sort of flies in from the center of the capital towards the right. And that angel says, oddly enough, it says, here I am. And then he stops sacrificing his son. And he's told that he doesn't have to. And they find a ram. And instead, they sacrifice the ram. And that is sort of a reference to the sacrificial lamb. On the other side of the Virgin and Child, there's another capital that contains a story. And here we see someone riding a horse over people. And he's swinging a sword. That is from Revelations. That's where Christ heads the armies of the good and fights all evil of the earth. And that's what he's doing there. But these are tiny, tiny details that you really have to go and see the thing for yourself in order to really appreciate them. And once you're there, you can also see how fantastically well this sort of carpet is painted. There's so many details and there's so much to enjoy. Basically, you need to pull up a chair and sit in front of it for an hour or so with your magnifying glass and just pick out all the little details and find all pretty bits in it. So I would say off to Bruges you go. It's not, it may sound like a strange thing for me to tell you to do, but it's not. You have to go there once in your life anyway, because it's a lovely city. Belgian cuisine is fantastic. They are famous for both their beer and their chocolate. So what's not to like? And in the meantime, you can go and see this painting. You of course should, before you do that, hit that little subscribe button below this video so you can subscribe to my channel. That would be great. And if you like it, give me a like. And if there are other subjects that you would like me to talk about, then why don't you tell me in the comments? In any case, I would like to thank you very much for listening and hopefully see you in the next video. Bye.