Jan van Eyck
Subtitle: "Als Ich Can"
By: herausgegeben von Sabine Haag, Sabine Pénot und Katja Schmitz-von Lederbur
Contributors: Schmitz-von Ledebur, Katja, editor; Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
Publisher: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
Published: 2019
Place of publication: Wien
Language: ger; eng
Number of pages: 99
ISBN-13: 9783990201947; 9783990201954
Copyright date: 2019
Subjects: Exhibitions
Other titles: Als Ich Can; Jan van Eyck.; Jan van Eyck. English.
Description: The exhibition presents three of the circa twenty extant works by Jan van Eyck, offering a glimpse of the art produced during the reign of Duke Philipp the Good, when the Burgundian Low Countries witnessed a unique flowering of courtly and urban civilisation. Jan van Eyck (c.1390-1441), the favorite court painter of Philipp the Good, duke of Burgundy (1396-1467), is celebrated for his virtuosity in the use of oil paint and his skill in combining naturalism and realism with brilliant colors. Already regarded as an epoch-making artist by his contemporaries, he was soon renowned throughout Europe as the founder of Early Netherlandish painting. Jan van Eyck was one of the first artists north of the Alps to sign and date his works. His use of a motto is remarkable. In the early fifteenth century, it was highly unusual for a painter - then still regarded as a mere craftsman - to have his own device, something reserved for the dukes of Burgundy and the nobility. Jan van Eyck chose ALS · IXH · XAN as his motto and generally inscribed it in pseudo-Greek letters; it is, however, in Dutch and means 'as I can' or 'as best I can' as in 'as best I can, not as I would', which is presumably meant to imply the artist's modest appreciation of his own work. Exhibition: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Austria (10.07. - 20.10.2019).
Notes: Catalog of an exhibition held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, July 10-October 20, 2019.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 96-97).

Parallel texts in German and English.