Jan Van Eyck: The Play of RealismJan van Eyck's surviving work comprises a series of painstakingly detailed oil paintings of astonishing verisimilitude. In a fascinating recovery of the neglected human dimension that is clearly present in these works, Craig Harbison interrogates the personal histories of the worldly participants of such masterpieces as the Virgin and Child with George van der Paele, the Arnolfini Double Portrait and the Virgin and Child with Nicolas Rolin. With the aid of abundant visual evidence in color and in black and white, Harbison reveals how van Eyck presented his contemporaries with a more subtle and complex view of the value of appearances as a route to understanding the meaning of life. "I found this an enthralling study" The Sunday Telegraph "A fascinating investigation into the nature of the great pioneer's clients ... some fine photo details" Art Review" |
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements | 7 |
Introduction | 9 |
Van Eycks Realism | 13 |
The Artists Place at the Burgundian Court | 19 |
An Italian Courtiers Story | 33 |
The Ecclesiastical Compact of a Secular Canon | 48 |
Private Devotion in a Schismatic Church | 65 |
The Function of Religious Belief for van Eyck | 74 |
Physical Format and Verbal Inscription | 129 |
A Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus | 143 |
Architectural Style and Sculptural Symbolism | 151 |
Van Eycks Modern Icon | 158 |
The Image and Experience of Pilgrimage | 169 |
Pretence and Scepticism in the Fifteenth Century | 188 |
A Different Perspective in the Ghent Altarpiece | 193 |
The Interpretation of Early Netherlandish Painting | 198 |
The Doctrine of Mary | 78 |
The Sacrament of the Altar | 86 |
The Patrons of Domestic Religious Imagery | 93 |
The Confession of Chancellor Nicolas Rolin | 100 |
Patronage by Burgundian Court Functionaries | 119 |
Literary Sources for van Eycks Art | 124 |
Bibliographic Commentary | 204 |
| 215 | |
List of Illustrations | 224 |
| 227 | |
Other editions - View all
Jan van Eyck: The Play of Realism, Second Updated and Expanded Edition Craig Harbison No preview available - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
Adoration Annunciation Anonymous Antwerp architectural Arnolfini Double Portrait banderoles Berlin panel body of Christ Book of Hours Bruges Burgundian Burgundian Court Burgundy Cathedral certainly Child with George Child with Nicolas Christ Child Christian Church clerical commissioned complex confession contemporary courtly cult statues detail Dhanens discussed divine doctrine donor Dresden Triptych ducal Duke Philip early Netherlandish art early Netherlandish painting ecclesiastical especially Eucharist Eyck Eyck's image Eyck's painting fifteenth century Flemish Ghent Altarpiece Gothic Groeningemuseum Holy human icon ideal illus imagery inscription interior Jan van Eyck Jean Lucca Lucca Madonna Mass meaning medieval Nicolas Rolin notion Paele's painter panel paintings Panofsky perhaps piety pilgrimage Pope prayer Purtle realism relation religious René Robert Campin Roger Rolin painting sacrament Sacred Heart scene seems sense specific St Catherine St Donatian's suggested symbolic theological Tongeren Tournai traditional van der Paele Virgin and Child vision visual Weyden wings