Van Eyck and Northern Oil Painting

While Florence studied ancient Rome, painters in the wealthy trading cities of Flanders, such as Bruges and Ghent, led another revolution: oil painting on oak panels, used with a precision no one had seen. The leader was Jan van Eyck (about 1390 to 1441), court painter to the Duke of Burgundy.

Oil paint dries slowly and can be laid on in very thin, transparent layers called glazes. Light passes through the glazes and reflects off the white ground beneath, so colors glow like stained glass. Painting with tiny brushes, these artists could show the texture of fur, the shine of brass, the reflection in a mirror and the fall of light through a window.

Looking closely: The Arnolfini Portrait. A merchant, usually identified as Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini, and a woman stand in a room in Bruges. Van Eyck shows things no Italian of 1434 was painting: the curve of a mirror that bends the whole room into a circle, light glinting on each brass arm of the chandelier, the separate hairs of a little dog. Above the mirror he wrote, "Jan van Eyck was here, 1434," as if he were a witness. What exactly the scene records (a marriage, a betrothal or a memorial) is debated.

Looking closely: Rogier's Lady. A young woman, her eyes lowered, wears a sheer white headdress pinned into a wide frame. The thin cloth is painted so we see her forehead through it. Against the dark background her pale face, the red belt and her clasped hands form a simple design. Rogier van der Weyden of Brussels was the other great Netherlandish master; who the sitter was is unknown.

Looking closely: The Ambassadors. Two Frenchmen in London, the diplomat Jean de Dinteville and the bishop Georges de Selve, stand beside a shelf of instruments: a celestial globe, sundials, a terrestrial globe, a lute, a hymnbook. Across the floor slants a strange gray shape. Viewed from close to the right edge, it snaps into a skull, a technique called anamorphosis. Holbein seems to say: all this learning and wealth, and death is waiting.