Vera Icon (or Head of Christ) is a lost oil-on panel portrait by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck, which probably formed half of a since dismantled diptych. The original is known through three contemporary copies from his workshop. They were completed in 1438, 1439 and 1440; with the first and last in Bruges, and the 1439 version in Munich.
From these reproductions, we can deduce its small scale, and that the panel evidenced the master's usual unflinching approach to physiognomy. Of its origin or commission we know nothing. Unusually he presents an idealised and straightforward iconographic image of Christ.[2] Although emotive, the panel follows a very traditional presentation of Christ in the hieratical manner, facing directly out of the space. The usual title, Vera Icon, refers to the Eastern tradition of icons in the "Without Hands" convention.[3] Each of the canonical extant copies has a form of signature by van Eyck. The Berlin inscription reads "Johes de eyck me fecit et applevit anno 1438 3I Januarij". The version in Bruges reads: "Johes de eyck . . anno 1420 30 January".[4]
And yet it differs in two manners from representation of the late 14th and early 15th centuries; in its physiological exactness, and illusionistic frames. Like many of his surviving works, the panel contains a heavily inscribed fictive frame painted around the portrait.[3] In each contemporary copy, the background is composed from dark greens, and Christ is dressed in crimson robes, and has long, dark hair.[4] The lettering on the neckline of his gown reads "REX REGNUM", a phrase that appears on the garment worn by God in the Ghent Altarpiece.
Head of Christ, Petrus Christus, c. 1444 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The model for the depiction comes from text rather than painting. It is thought that van Eyck drew from Ludolph of Saxony's 14th-century "Life of Christ", and that description of a Christ as having a "reverend countenance which they that look upon may love an fear; having the hair of the hue of an unripe hazelnut...parting at the middle of the head according to the fashion of the Nazareans...; having a full beard of the colour of his hair, not long, but a little forked at the chin."[5]
Petrus Christus' 1444-45 Head of Christ, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, derives from van Eyck's panel, but is less traditional and more emotive; evidenced by the crown of thorns, and drips of blood running from the forehead to chest.[3] The specific van Eyckian direct but plaintive expression and deep colour schemes were adopted by the Bruges Master of the Legend of St. Ursula for a number of his Veil of Veronica portraits.
The New York painting is in relatively good condition given its age. There are marks of retouching around the hair, but otherwise the paint is intact.[4]
↑ A.M. Koldeweij & P.M.L. van Vlijmen (ed.) (1985): Schatkamers uit het Zuiden, pp. 156-158. Rijksmuseum Het Catharijneconvent, Utrecht. ISBN9071240029.
Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn. From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009. ISBN0-8709-9870-6
Jan van Eyck was a painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. According to Vasari and other art historians including Ernst Gombrich, he invented oil painting, though most now regard that claim as an oversimplification.
Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especially in the cities of Bruges, Ghent, Mechelen, Leuven, Tournai and Brussels, all in present-day Belgium. The period begins approximately with Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck in the 1420s and lasts at least until the death of Gerard David in 1523, although many scholars extend it to the start of the Dutch Revolt in 1566 or 1568–Max J. Friedländer's acclaimed surveys run through Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Early Netherlandish painting coincides with the Early and High Italian Renaissance, but the early period is seen as an independent artistic evolution, separate from the Renaissance humanism that characterised developments in Italy. Beginning in the 1490s, as increasing numbers of Netherlandish and other Northern painters traveled to Italy, Renaissance ideals and painting styles were incorporated into northern painting. As a result, Early Netherlandish painters are often categorised as belonging to both the Northern Renaissance and the Late or International Gothic.
Petrus Christus was an Early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges from 1444, where, along with Hans Memling, he became the leading painter after the death of Jan van Eyck. He was influenced by van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden and is noted for his innovations with linear perspective and a meticulous technique which seems derived from miniatures and manuscript illumination. Today, some 30 works are confidently attributed to him. The best known include the Portrait of a Carthusian (1446) and Portrait of a Young Girl ; both are highly innovative in the presentation of the figure against detailed, rather than flat, backgrounds.
Portrait of a Young Girl is a small oil-on-oak panel painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus. It was completed towards the end of his life, between 1465 and 1470, and is held in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. It marks a major stylistic advance in contemporary portraiture; the girl is set in an airy, three-dimensional, realistic setting, and stares out at the viewer with a complicated expression that is reserved, yet intelligent and alert.
Portrait of a Carthusian is a painting in oils on oak panel by the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus in 1446. The work is part of the Jules Bache Collection housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Virgin and Child with Four Angels is a small oil-on-panel painting by the Early Netherlandish artist Gerard David. Likely completed between 1510 and 1515, it shows the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus, while she is crowned Queen of Heaven by two angels above her, accompanied by music provided by another two angels placed at either side of her. In its fine detail and lush use of colour the work is typical of both David and late period Flemish art.
The Madonna at the Fountain is a 1439 oil on panel painting by the early Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck. It belongs to van Eyck's late work, and is his last signed and dated painting. It retains its original frame, which bears the inscription; "ALS IXH CAN", "JOHES DE EYCK ME FECIT + [COM]PLEVIT ANNO 1439
Lamentation (Pietà) is an oil painting on panel of the common subject of the Lamentation of Christ that is now regarded as by an artist in the "circle" of the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus, rather than by Christus himself. It was painted in c. 1444, and is now in the Louvre in Paris.
The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele is a large oil-on-oak panel painting completed around 1434–1436 by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It shows the painting's donor, Joris van der Paele, within an apparition of saints. The Virgin Mary is enthroned at the centre of the semicircular space, which most likely represents a church interior, with the Christ Child on her lap. St. Donatian stands to her right, Saint George—the donor's name saint—to her left. The panel was commissioned by van der Paele as an altarpiece. He was then a wealthy clergyman from Bruges, but elderly and gravely ill, and intended the work as his memorial.
Madonna in the Church is a small oil panel by the early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. Probably executed between c. 1438–1440, it depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus in a Gothic cathedral. Mary is presented as Queen of Heaven wearing a jewel-studded crown, cradling a playful child Christ who gazes at her and grips the neckline of her red dress in a manner that recalls the 13th-century Byzantine tradition of the Eleusa icon. Tracery in the arch at the rear of the nave contains wooden carvings depicting episodes from Mary's life, while a faux bois sculpture in a niche shows her holding the child in a similar pose. Erwin Panofsky sees the painting composed as if the main figures in the panel are intended to be the sculptures come to life. In a doorway to the right, two angels sing psalms from a hymn book. Like other Byzantine depictions of the Madonna, van Eyck depicts a monumental Mary, unrealistically large compared to her surroundings. The panel contains closely observed beams of light flooding through the cathedral's windows. It illuminates the interior before culminating in two pools on the floor. The light has symbolic significance, alluding simultaneously to Mary's virginal purity and God's ethereal presence.
The Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych consists of two small painted panels attributed to the Early Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck, with areas finished by unidentified followers or members of his workshop. This diptych is one of the early Northern Renaissance oil on panel masterpieces, renowned for its unusually complex and highly detailed iconography, and for the technical skill evident in its completion. It was executed in a miniature format; the panels are just 56.5 cm (22.2 in) high by 19.7 cm (7.8 in) wide. The diptych was probably commissioned for private devotion.
Saint Barbara is a small 1437 drawing on oak panel, signed and dated 1437 by the Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck. It is unknown if the work is a chalk ground study in pencil for a planned oil painting, an unfinished underdrawing or a completed work in of itself, although the latter is deemed more likely. The panel shows Saint Barbara imprisoned in a tower by her pagan father, to preserve her from the outside world, especially from suitors he did not approve of. While there, she converted to Christianity, enraging her father and leading to her murder and martyrdom.
Madonna of the Dry Tree or Our Lady of the Barren Tree is a small oil-on-oak panel painting dated c. 1462–1465, attributed to the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus. Itt shows the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child standing on a disembodied dead tree trunk. The painting's imagery is unusually dark and dramatic and shows a encircled woman within folds of black and withered branches that may represent a crown of thorns.
The Nativity is a devotional mid-1450s oil-on-wood panel painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus. It shows a nativity scene with grisaille archways and trompe-l'œil sculptured reliefs. Christus was influenced by the first generation of Netherlandish artists, especially Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, and the panel is characteristic of the simplicity and naturalism of art of that period. Placing archways as a framing device is a typical van der Weyden device, and here likely borrowed from that artist's Altar of Saint John and Miraflores Altarpiece. Yet Christus adapts these painterly motifs to a uniquely mid-15th century sensibility, and the unusually large panel – perhaps painted as a central altarpiece panel for a triptych – is nuanced and visually complex. It shows his usual harmonious composition and employment of one-point-perspective, especially evident in the geometric forms of the shed's roof, and his bold use of color. It is one of Christus's most important works. Max Friedländer definitely attributed the panel to Christus in 1930, concluding that "in scope and importance, [it] is superior to all other known creations of this master."
A Goldsmith in His Shop is a 1449 painting by Petrus Christus, a leading painter in Bruges. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is an oil painting on an oak panel that measures 100.1 x 85.8 cm overall and the painted surface is 98 x 85.2 cm. An inscription at the bottom of the painting states "m petr[vs] xpi me· ·fecit·ao 1449· ". In addition, the inscription has an emblem of a clock with a mechanical linkage to a heart, Christus's emblem.
Portrait of Baudouin de Lannoy is a small oil-on panel portrait by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck, completed c. 1435. It shows Baldwin of Lannoy, a contemporary Flemish statesman and ambassador for Philip the Good at the court of Henry V of England. From surviving documents it is known that the work was commissioned to mark his entry into the order Baudouin de Lanno. He is in a formal pose, holding a wooden stick in his right hand, and a gold ring on his little finger. Van Eyck's surviving early portraits typically show the sitter holding an emblem of his profession and class.
Study for Cardinal Niccolò Albergati is a silverpoint drawing attributed to the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck, made in preparation for his Portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati of 1431. Niccolò Albergati was a diplomat working under Pope Martin V. He met van Eyck during a peace congress in Antwerp, when the artist portrayed him. It is held in the collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden.
The Madonna of Jan Vos is a small oil panel painting begun by the Early Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck c. 1441 and finished by his workshop after his death in 1442. As he died during the period of its completion, it is generally considered to be his last work.
Exeter Madonna or Virgin and Child with Saint Barbara and Jan Vos are names given to a small oil-on-wood panel painting completed c. 1450 by the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus. It shows Saint Barbara presenting a Carthusian monk identified as Jan Vos, to the Virgin Mary who holds the Christ Child in her arms. Its diminutive size suggests it was meant as a personal devotional piece.
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