Perspectives on the Painting Technique of Jan van Eyck

James Black
Published on February 18, 2014

Perspectives on the Painting Technique of Jan van Eyck Noëlle Streeton ISBN: 9781904982708 UK Price: £55.00 US Price: $120.00 One aim of this study was to consider deviations from what might be called the paradigm of the Ghent Altarpiece, by examining the observable differences between the Ghent panels and other paintings in the van Eyck corpus ‒ especially those works that were thought to have been produced in the painter’s Bruges workshop after 1432. By focusing on demonstrable physical differences, it has been possible to weave a narrative for van Eyck, which brings greater clarity to ideas that surround van Eyck’s workshop practices and choices of materials over time. Part of the challenge of a study of this kind is the weight of pre-existing literature and while this project has moved closer to identifying, for example, how assistants potentially contributed to works assigned to van Eyck alone, perhaps the most significant step forward here has been in proposing a broader context for van Eyck’s painting practices outside of the workshop.