Jan Van Eyck Was Here

Posted by on May 28, 2014

Johannes de Eyck fuit hic, 1434

Detail from The Arnolfini Wedding
The National Gallery, London

 

Above the mirror on the back wall of Van Eyck’s painted room, lacy gold lettering in Latin reads “Johannes de Eyck was here, 1434.” Van Eyck was the first painter since the classical age to sign his works, but even for him, this message is a gauntlet thrown down, a teasing and forceful challenge of presence.

Where are you, Jan Van Eyck?

 
 

 

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