(Edited from Wikipedia)

SUMMARY

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. Commonly used drying oils include linseed oil, poppy seed oil, walnut oil, and safflower oil. The choice of oil imparts a range of properties to the , such as the amount of yellowing or drying time. Certain differences, depending on the oil, are also visible in the sheen of the paints. An artist might use several different oils in the same painting depending on specific pigments and effects desired. The paints themselves also develop a particular consistency depending on the medium. The oil may be boiled with a resin, such as pine resin or frankincense, to create a varnish prized for its body and gloss.

Although oil paint was first used for Buddhist paintings by Indian and Chinese painters in western Afghanistan sometime between the fifth and tenth centuries, it did not gain popularity until the 15th century. Its practice may have migrated westward during the Middle Ages. Oil paint eventually became the principal medium used for creating artwork as its advantages became widely known. The transition began with Early Netherlandish painting in Northern Europe, and by the height of the oil painting techniques had almost completely replaced the use of tempera paints in the majority of Europe.

In recent years, water miscible oil paint has come to prominence and, to some extent, replaced traditional oil paint. Water-soluble paints contain an emulsifier that allows them to be thinned with water rather than paint thinner, and allows very fast drying times (1–3 days) when compared with traditional oils (1–3 weeks).

HISTORY

Although the history of tempera (pigment mixed with either egg whites or egg yolks, then painted on a plastered section) and related media in Europe indicates that oil painting was discovered there independently, there is evidence that oil painting was used earlier in Afghanistan. Outdoor surfaces and surfaces like shields—both those used in tournaments and those hung as decorations—were more durable when painted in oil- based media than when painted in the traditional tempera paints.

1 Most Renaissance sources, in particular Vasari, credited northern European painters of the 15th century, and in particular, with the "invention" of painting with oil media on wood panel supports ("support" is the technical term for the underlying backing of a painting). However, Theophilus (Roger of Helmarshausen?) clearly gives instructions for oil-based painting in his treatise, On Various Arts, written in 1125.

At this period, it was probably used for painting , carvings and wood fittings, perhaps especially for outdoor use. However, early Netherlandish painting in the 15th century was the first to make oil the usual painting medium, and explore the use of layers and glazes, followed by the rest of Northern Europe, and only then .

Early works were still panel paintings on wood, but around the end of the 15th century canvas became more popular as the support, as it was cheaper, easier to transport, allowed larger works, and did not require complicated preliminary layers of gesso (a fine type of plaster). (This style was known as a painting: applying gesso, then painting over with tempera paint)

Venice, where sail-canvas was easily available, was a leader in the move to canvas. Small cabinet paintings were also made on metal, especially copper plates. These supports were more expensive but very firm, allowing intricately fine detail. Often printing plates from printmaking were reused for this purpose. The popularity of oil spread through Italy from the North, starting in Venice in the late 15th century. By 1540, the previous method for painting on panel (tempera) had become all but extinct, although Italians continued to use fresco for wall paintings, which was less successful and durable in damper northern climates.

INGREDIENTS AND TECHNIQUE

The linseed oil itself comes from the flax seed, a common fiber crop. Linen, a "support" for oil painting, also comes from the flax plant. Safflower oil or the walnut or poppyseed oil are sometimes used in formulating lighter colors like white because they "yellow" less on drying than linseed oil, but they have the slight drawback of drying more slowly and may not provide the strongest paint film. Linseed oil tends to dry yellow and can change the hue of the color.

Recent advances in chemistry have produced modern water miscible oil paints that can be used and cleaned up with water. Small alterations in the molecular structure of the oil creates this water miscible property.

An even newer type of paint, heat-set "oils" (which are actually thermoplastic) remain liquid until heated to 265–280 °F (130–138 °C) for about 15 minutes. Since the paint

2 otherwise never dries, cleanup is not needed (except when one wants to use a different color with the same brush). Although not technically true oils (the medium is an unidentified "non-drying synthetic oily liquid, embedded with a heat sensitive curing agent"), the paintings made with this paint resemble oil paintings and are usually shown as such.

Traditional oil painting techniques often begin with the artist sketching the subject onto the canvas with charcoal or thinned paint. Oil paint is usually mixed with linseed oil, artist grade mineral spirits, or other solvents to make the paint thinner, faster or slower- drying. (Because these solvents thin the oil in the paint, they can also be used to clean paint brushes.) A basic rule of oil paint application is 'fat over lean'. This means that each additional layer of paint should contain more oil than the layer below to allow proper drying.

If each additional layer contains less oil, the final painting will crack and peel. This rule does not ensure permanence; it is the quality and type of oil that leads to a strong and stable paint film. There are many other media that can be used with the oil, including cold wax, resins, and varnishes. These additional media can aid the painter in adjusting the translucency of the paint, the sheen of the paint, the density or 'body' of the paint, and the ability of the paint to hold or conceal the brushstroke. These aspects of the paint are closely related to the expressive capacity of oil paint.

Traditionally, paint was transferred to the painting surface using paintbrushes, but there are other methods, including using palette knives and rags. Oil paint remains wet longer than many other types of artists' materials, enabling the artist to change the color, texture or form of the figure. At times, the painter might even remove an entire layer of paint and begin anew. This can be done with a rag and some turpentine for a time while the paint is wet, but after a while the hardened layer must be scraped.

Oil paint dries by oxidation, not evaporation, and is usually dry to the touch within a span of two weeks (some colors dry within days). It is generally dry enough to be varnished in six months to a year. Art conservators do not consider an oil painting completely dry until it is 60 to 80 years old.

JAN VAN EYCK

Jan van Eyck (before c. 1390 – 9 July 1441) was an Early Netherlandish painter active in and one of the most significant Northern Renaissance artists of the 15th century. Little is known of his early life. The few surviving records indicate that he was born c. 1380–90, most likely in Maaseik. He took employment as painter and Valet de

3 chambre with John of Bavaria-Straubing, ruler of Holland, in around 1422, when he was already a master painter with workshop assistants. After John's death in 1425 he was employed as court painter to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in Lille, where he remained until 1429 after which he moved to Bruges, working for Philip until his death there in 1441. It is known that he was highly regarded by Philip, and undertook a number of diplomatic visits abroad on his behalf, including to Lisbon in 1428 to arrange the Duke's marriage contract with Isabella of Portugal.

Apart from the Altarpiece and the illuminated miniatures of the Turin-Milan Hours, about 20 surviving paintings are confidently attributed to him, all dated between 1432 and 1439.

Van Eyck painted both secular and religious subject matter, including commissioned portraits, donor portraits (with the donor kneeling before a seated Virgin Mary) and both large and portable altarpieces. He was well paid by Philip, who sought that the painter was secure financially and thus had artistic freedom and could paint "whenever he pleased".

His work comes from the style, but he soon eclipsed it, in part through a greater emphasis on naturalism and . Van Eyck utilized a new level of virtuosity, mainly through the use of oil as a medium; the fact that oil dries so slowly allowed him more time and more scope for blending and mixing layers of different pigments. He was highly influential and his techniques and style were quickly adopted and refined by and and later generations of Early Netherlandish painters.

Early Life

Little is known of Jan van Eyck's early life and neither the date nor place of his birth is documented. The first extant record of his life comes from the court of John of Bavaria at The Hague where, between 1422 and 1424, payments were made to Meyster Jan den malre (Master Jan the painter) who was then a court painter with the rank of valet de chambre, with at first one and then two assistants.

This suggests a date of birth of 1395 at the latest. However, his apparent age in the London probable self-portrait of 1433 suggests to most scholars a date closer to 1380. His daughter Lievine was in a nunnery in Maaseik after her father's death.

He had a sister Margareta, and at least two brothers, Hubert (died 1426) and Lambert (active between 1431 and 1442), both of whom were also painters. Yet the order of their births is not known.

4 Van Eyck first served John of Bavaria-Straubing, then ruler of Holland, Hainault and Zeeland. By this time van Eyck had assembled a small workshop and was involved in redecorating the Binnenhof palace in The Hague.

After John's death in 1425 he moved to Bruges and came to the attention of Philip the Good c. 1425. His emergence as a collectable painter generally follows his appointment to Philip's court, and from this point his activity in the court is comparatively well documented. He served as both court artist and diplomat and became a senior member of the painters' guild. On 18 October 1427, the Feast of St. Luke, he travelled to Tournai to attend a banquet in his honour, also attended by Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden.

Because of the regular salary he received from the court he was not dependent on commissions, and thus had relative artistic freedom. Over the following decade van Eyck's reputation and technical ability grew, mostly from his innovative approaches towards the handling and manipulating of oil paint. Unlike most of his peers his reputation never diminished and he remained well regarded over the following centuries. His revolutionary approach to oil was such that a myth, perpetuated by Giorgio Vasari, arose that he had invented oil painting.

It is known that van Eyck was considered revolutionary within his lifetime; his designs and methods were heavily copied and reproduced. Records from 1437 on suggest that he was held in high esteem by the upper ranks of Burgundian nobility while also accepting many foreign commissions. He died young in July 1441, leaving behind many unfinished works to be completed by workshop journeymen; works that are nevertheless today considered major examples of Early Flemish painting. His local and international reputation was aided by his ties to the then political and cultural influence of the Burgundian court.

Painting Themes

Except for the , all of van Eyck's religious works feature the Virgin Mary as the central figure. She is typically seated, wearing a jewel-studded crown, cradling a playful child Christ who gazes at her and grips the hem of her dress in a manner that recalls the 13th-century Byzantine tradition of the Eleusa icon (Virgin of Tenderness). She is sometimes shown reading a Book of Hours. She usually wears red.

Mary's role in van Eyck's donor portraits reflects the beliefs of the period, and should be viewed in the context of the cult and worship surrounding her at the time, especially in terms of the often densely layered . In the early 15th century Mary grew in importance as an intercessor between the divine and members of the Christian faith.

5 The concept of purgatory as an intermediary state that each soul had to pass through before admission to heaven was at its height. Prayer was the most obvious means of decreasing time in limbo, while the wealthy could commission new churches, extensions to existing ones, or devotional portraits.

Van Eyck was highly sought after as a portrait artist. Growing affluence across northern Europe meant that portraiture was no longer the preserve of royalty or the high aristocracy. An emerging merchant middle class, coupled with a growing awareness of humanist ideas of individual identity, led to a demand both for secular and donor portraits.

Van Eyck's portraits are characterized by his manipulation of oil paint and a meticulous attention to detail; his keen powers of observation and his tendency to apply layers of thin translucent glazes to create intensity of color and tone. He pioneered portraiture during the 1430s and was admired as far away as Italy for the naturalness of his depictions. Today, eight three-quarters view portraits (excluding the London possible self-portrait) are attributed. His style was widely adopted.

Style

Van Eyck's work is characterized by the use of and biblical references. Van Eyck incorporated a wide variety of iconographic elements, often conveying what he saw as a co-existence of the spiritual and material worlds. The iconography was embedded in the work unobtrusively; typically, the references comprised small but key background details. Van Eyck pioneered, and his innovations were taken up and developed by others. Each employed rich and complex iconographical elements to create a heightened sense of contemporary beliefs and spiritual ideals.

Craig Harbison describes the blending of realism and symbolism as perhaps "the most important aspect of early Flemish art". The embedded symbols were meant to meld into the scenes and "was a deliberate strategy to create an experience of spiritual revelation." Van Eyck's religious paintings in particular "always present the spectator with a transfigured view of visible reality".

To him the day-to-day is harmoniously steeped in symbolism, such that, according to Harbison, "descriptive data were rearranged ... so that they illustrated not earthly existence but what he considered supernatural truth." This blend of the earthly and heavenly evidences van Eyck's belief that the "essential truth of Christian doctrine" can be found in "the marriage of secular and sacred worlds, of reality and symbol". He depicts overly large Madonnas, whose unrealistic size shows the separation between the

6 heavenly from earthly, but placed them in everyday settings such as churches, domestic chambers or seated with court officials.

Yet the earthly churches are heavily decorated with heavenly symbols. A heavenly throne is clearly represented in some domestic chambers (for example in the Lucca Madonna). More difficult to discern are the settings for paintings such as Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, where the location is a fusion of the earthly and celestial.

Van Eyck's iconography is often so densely and intricately layered that a work has to be viewed multiple times before even the most obvious meaning of an element is apparent. The symbols were often subtly woven into the paintings so that they only became apparent after close and repeated viewing, while much of the iconography reflects the idea that, according to John Ward, there is a "promised passage from sin and death to salvation and rebirth".

ALTARPIECE OF GHENT

The Ghent Altarpiece (also called the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb or The ) is a very large and complex early 15th-century Early Flemish . Commissioned and designed as an altarpiece, it comprises 12 panels, eight of which are hinged shutters painted on each side, giving two distinct views depending on whether they are open or closed. Except for Sundays and festive holidays, the outer wings were closed and covered with cloth.

It was begun by who was most likely responsible for the overall design, but died in 1426. Probably, the individual panels were executed by his younger and better known brother Jan van Eyck between 1430 and 1432. Although there have been extensive attempts to isolate passages attributable to either brother, no separation has been convincingly established. Most art historians accept that it was probably designed and constructed by Hubert and the panels were painted by Jan.

The altarpiece was commissioned by the merchant, financier and politician, Jodocus Vijd, the city mayor of Ghent . It was designed for the chapel he and his wife acted as benefactors for, today's Saint Bavo Cathedral, then the parochial church of John the Baptist, protectorate to the city. It was officially installed on 6 May 1432 to coincide with an official ceremony for Philip the Good. It was later moved for security reasons to the principal cathedral chapel, where it remains.

While indebted to the International Gothic as well as both Byzantine and Romanic traditions, the altarpiece represented a "new conception of art", in which the idealization

7 of the medieval tradition gave way to an exacting observation of nature and unidealized human representation.

The outer panels contain two vertically stacked registers (rows). The upper rows show scenes from the Annunciation of Mary. The four lower-register panels are divided into two pairs; sculptural paintings of St John the Baptist and St , and on the two outer panels, donor portraits. The upper register of the opened view shows a Deësis of Christ the King, Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. They are flanked by images of angels singing and playing music, and, on the outermost panels, Adam and Eve. The lower register of the central panel shows the adoration of the Lamb of God, with several groups in attendance or streaming in to worship, overseen by the dove of the Holy Spirit.

The altarpiece is considered one a masterpiece of European art's and one of the world's treasures. Over the centuries the panels have come close to destruction during outbreaks of , or damage by fire. Some were sold, others looted during wars. The panels that had been taken away by the German occupying forces were returned to St. Bavo's Cathedral after World War I. In 1934 two panels, The Just Judges and Saint John the Baptist, were stolen. The panel of Saint John the Baptist was returned by the thief soon after, but the 'The Just Judges' panel is still missing. In 1945, the altarpiece was returned from after spending much of World War II hidden in a salt mine, which greatly damaged the paint and varnish. The Belgian art restorer Jef Van der Veken produced a copy of the stolen panel 'The Just Judges', as part of an overall restoration effort.

Although Jan was skilled as a miniaturist, and there is much evidence of that ability in the details of the Ghent Altarpiece, the panel differs in a number of significant aspects to the other paintings generally attributed to him, not least in its scale. In addition, it is the only work thought to be of his hand that was intended for public, rather than private, worship and display. Van Eyck pays as much attention to the beauty of earthly things as to the religious themes. The clothes and jewels, the fountain, nature surrounding the scene, the churches and landscape in the background – are all painted with remarkable detail. The landscape is rich with vegetation, which is observed with an almost scientific accuracy, and much of it non-European.

Lighting plays a central role and is one of the major innovations of the polyptych. The panels are infused with complex light effects and subtle plays of shadow, the rendering of which was achieved through a new technique of handling oil paint as well as the use of transparent glazes. The figures are mostly cast with short, diagonal shadows which serve to, in the words of art historian Till-Holger Borchert, "not only heighten their spatial presence, but also tell us that the primary light source is located beyond the

8 picture itself." In the Annunciation scene of the outer panels, shadows are depicted in a manner that implies that they emanate from the daylight within the chapel in which they are housed.

A further innovation can be found in the detailing of surface textures, especially reflections and refractions. This is best seen in details such as the effect of the fall of light on the armor in the Knights of Christ panel, and the ripple of the water in the Fountain of life in the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.

Yet although the work contains many individual innovations, it did not emerge spontaneously, but is rather part of a long tradition of oil painting and altarpiece design of the southern . A great number of these works were destroyed during the iconoclasm of the mid-16th century, a period in which the Ghent Altarpiece was twice nearly destroyed; on 19 August 1566, and again in 1576 when a special guard was put on the work to protect it from rioters.

The scale of destruction in these waves was such that the Ghent historian Marcus Van Vaenewijk (1516–69) recorded that in the summer of 1566 the burning pyres on which the works were thrown could be seen from 10 miles away. Because of this, art historian Susie Nash points out that the Ghent work seems so unusual in part because it was one of the few major examples to survive wholly intact.

ROMANESQUE AND

Romanesque art is the from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 13th century, or later, depending on region. The preceding period is known as the Pre-Romanesque period. The term was invented by 19th-century art historians, especially for , which retained many basic features of Roman architectural style – most notably round-headed arches, but also barrel vaults, apses, and -leaf decoration – but had also developed many very different characteristics.

In Southern , and Italy there was an architectural continuity with the Late Antique, but the Romanesque style was the first style to spread across the whole of Catholic Europe, from Sicily to Scandinavia. Romanesque art was also greatly influenced by , especially in painting, and by the anti-classical energy of the decoration of the of the British Isles. From these elements was forged a highly innovative and coherent style.

9 Outside Romanesque architecture, the art of the period was characterized by a very vigorous style in both and painting. The latter continued to follow essentially Byzantine iconographic models for the most common subjects in churches, which remained , the Last Judgement, and scenes from the Life of Christ.

In illuminated manuscripts, for which the most lavishly decorated manuscripts of the period were mostly bibles or , more originality is seen, as new scenes needed to be depicted. The same applied to the capitals of columns, never more exciting than in this period, when they were often carved with complete scenes with several figures. The large wooden was a German innovation at the very start of the period, as were free-standing statues of the enthroned Madonna, but the high was above all the sculptural mode of the period.

Colors tended to be very striking, and mostly primary. became widely used, although survivals are sadly few. In an invention of the period, the tympanums of important church portals were carved with monumental schemes, often again Christ in Majesty or the Last Judgement, but treated with more freedom than painted versions, as there were no equivalent Byzantine models.

Compositions usually had little depth, and needed to be flexible to be squeezed into the shapes of church architecture; the tension between a tightly enclosing frame, from which the composition sometimes escapes, is a recurrent theme in Romanesque art. Figures still often varied in size in relation to their importance, and landscape backgrounds, if attempted at all, were closer to abstract decorations than realism - as in the trees in the "Morgan Leaf". Portraiture hardly existed.

Gothic art was a style of that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of . It spread to all of Western Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century.

In many areas, especially Germany, Late Gothic art continued well into the 16th century, before being subsumed into . Primary media in the Gothic period included sculpture, panel painting, stained glass, fresco and illuminated manuscripts. The easily recognizable shifts in architecture from Romanesque to Gothic, and Gothic to Renaissance styles, are typically used to define the periods in art in all media, although in many ways figurative art developed at a different pace.

The earliest Gothic art was , on the walls of Cathedrals and abbeys. Christian art was often typological in nature, showing the stories of the New

10 Testament and the side by side. Saints' lives were often depicted. Images of the Virgin Mary changed from the Byzantine iconic form to a more human and affectionate mother, cuddling her infant, swaying from her hip, and showing the refined manners of a well-born aristocratic courtly lady.

Secular art came into its own during this period with the rise of cities, foundation of universities, increase in trade, the establishment of a money-based economy, and the creation of a bourgeois class who could afford to patronize the arts and commission works resulting in a proliferation of paintings and illuminated manuscripts.

Increased literacy and a growing body of secular vernacular literature encouraged the representation of secular themes in art. With the growth of cities, trade guilds were formed and artists were often required to be members of a painters' guild—as a result, because of better record keeping, more artists are known to us by name in this period than any previous; some artists were even so bold as to sign their names.

11