Jan van Eyck (1395-1441) - The Portraits 2K Ultra HD Silent Slideshow

A collection of the portraits painted by Jan van Eyck.

Jan van Eyck produced paintings for private clients in addition to his work at the court.

Foremost among these is the Ghent Altarpiece painted for the merchant, financier and politician Jodocus Vijdts and his wife Elisabeth Borluut. Started sometime before 1426 and completed by 1432, the polyptych is seen as representing "the final conquest of reality in the North", differing from the great works of the Early Renaissance in Italy by virtue of its willingness to forgo classical idealisation in favor of the faithful observation of nature.

Even though it may be assumed – given the demand and fashion – that he produced a number of triptychs, only the Dresden altarpiece survives, although a number of extant portraits may be wings of dismantled polyptychs.

Tell-tale signs are hinges on original frames, the sitter's orientation, and praying hands or the inclusion of iconographical elements in an otherwise seemingly secular portrait.

About 20 surviving paintings are confidently attributed to him, all dated between 1432 and 1439. Ten, including the Ghent Altarpiece, are dated and signed with a variation of his motto, ALS IK KAN.

In 1998 Holland Cotter estimated that "only two dozen or so paintings...attributed...with varying degrees of confidence, along with some drawings and a few pages from...the Turin-Milan Hours". He wrote that "There is a complex relationship and tension between art historians and holding museums in assigning authorship. Of the 40 or so works considered originals in the mid-80s, around ten are now vigorously contested by leading researchers as workshop"