Belgium / Flanders: Notable Artists and their Art

1350 - 1409 - Melchior Broederlam (All Facts)

• Early Netherlandish (Flemish) Painter

1390s - Melchior Broederlam: Dijon Altarpiece (All Facts)

• Exemplified the International Gothic Style, which introduced a new realism into the painting of lanscape, costume, and animals

1380 - 1441 - Jan Van Eyck (All Facts)

• Flemish Painter

  • He revolutionized Flemish painting, having perfect not only the oil painting technique using brilliant color and subtle light effects but also brought an everyday realism to his works

• He is considered to be the first oil-painter

  • He took painting forward with an enormous stride when he experimented with oil as the medium for his colors

    • Up until that point, painters had mixed paint with water for frescoes or egg-yolk for tempera

  • He and his older brother Hubert, however, painted with oil on wooden panels, which were prepared with plaster and glue

  • The technique gave off a glowing effect not achieved before in painting

• He was known for his secular portrait paintings he made while was settled in Bruges

  • He was also known for his realism in portraiture, in which all the wrinkles and warts of his sitters were rendered so faithfully that his subjects seemed ready to speak

1432 - Jan Van Eyck and Hubert van Eyck: Ghent Altarpiece (All Facts)

• Consists of a landscape and 16 portrait panels, covering over 1,000 square feet, the first oil painting on such a scale

• He completed the work after the latter namesake’s death

• Includes “The Adoration of the Lamb”

1434 - Jan Van Eyck: The Arnolfini Wedding (All Facts)

• 7/Double Portrait

• Shows the namesake artist’s delight in his ability to render domestic interiors in gleaming detail

• Shows the couple in their best robes holding hands

• The lady’s little terrier stands at her feet and there are oranges scattered by the windowsill

• The scene is reflected in miniature in a convex mirror behind the couple

• The namesake *painter signed himself as the namesake “was here”

1436 - Jan Van Eyck: Portrait of a Man with a Carnation (All Facts)

1400 - 1464 - Rogier van Der Weyden (All Facts)

• Flemish Painter

• He produced a more emotional style compared to his artistic predecessor

1435 - Rogier van Der Weyden: Deposition / Descent from the Cross (All Facts)