Overview

Jan van Eyck was one of the most inventive and influential artists in the entire European tradition. The phenomenal realism of his paintings, now six centuries old, still astounds observers in a world accustomed to high-resolution images. But other dimensions of his work are just as original and absorbing. Unlike any earlier artist, Van Eyck infused his paintings with himself. In addition to portraying, reflecting and implying his own presence in a variety of works, he also introduced his voice, hand and mind in an array of inscriptions, signatures and even a personal motto. Incorporating a wealth of new research and recent discoveries within a fresh exploration of the paintings themselves, this book reveals how profoundly Jan van Eyck transformed the very idea of what an artist could be.

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9781789147612

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Reviews

'By way of clever observations and pictorial analysis, this eloquently written monograph is highly commendable. It offers a concise introduction to the work of one of the most influential Renaissance artists of his time and addresses in eight chapters the career and clusters of Van Eyck's paintings. Alfred Acres presents impressively erudite perspectives and refreshingly balanced views on even some of the most persistent problems in art history like the authorship of the Ghent Altarpiece. It will be welcomed by the general reader and will inspire specialists to think anew.' – Till-Holger Borchert, Director of Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen; 'A wonderful new contribution to the literature on this most extraordinary and engaging of artists. Throughout the pages of this beautifully written book we are offered an excellent synthesis of the long historiography on Van Eyck and a detailed and up-to-date engagement with the most recent research and publications on his work. Alfred Acres invites us to see what this supremely inventive artist was seeking to do with his arresting depictions, and aims to give meaning to the many astounding and delightful details of Van Eyck’s work. This is a study not only of Van Eyck as an individual, but of Van Eyck’s interests, talents, inventiveness and commitment to communication and signification, by looking not just at, but within the art of Van Eyck.' – Beth Williamson, Professor of Medieval Culture and Chair in the History of Art, University of Bristol

'By way of clever observations and pictorial analysis, this eloquently written monograph is highly commendable. It offers a concise introduction to the work of one of the most influential Renaissance artists of his time and addresses in eight chapters the career and clusters of Van Eyck's paintings. Alfred Acres presents impressively erudite perspectives and refreshingly balanced views on even some of the most persistent problems in art history like the authorship of the Ghent Altarpiece. It will be welcomed by the general reader and will inspire specialists to think anew.' - Till-Holger Borchert, Director of Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen; 'A wonderful new contribution to the literature on this most extraordinary and engaging of artists. Throughout the pages of this beautifully written book we are offered an excellent synthesis of the long historiography on Van Eyck and a detailed and up-to-date engagement with the most recent research and publications on his work. Alfred Acres invites us to see what this supremely inventive artist was seeking to do with his arresting depictions, and aims to give meaning to the many astounding and delightful details of Van Eyck's work. This is a study not only of Van Eyck as an individual, but of Van Eyck's interests, talents, inventiveness and commitment to communication and signification, by looking not just at, but within the art of Van Eyck.' - Beth Williamson, Professor of Medieval Culture and Chair in the History of Art, University of Bristol

Author Information

Alfred Acres is the Wright Family Associate Professor of Art History at Georgetown University and is the author of Renaissance Invention and the Haunted Infancy.

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