90. Melchior Broederlam,
The Dijon Altarpiece: Presentation in the Temple
and Flight into Egypt (right panel), 1393-1399.

Tempera on panel, 167 x 125 cm.

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon (France).

 

 

Magnificent use of colour is the primary reason for the Van Eycks’ fame. Artists from as far as Italy would come to study their works and learn how to create colours of such luminosity. Jan is actually considered the inventor of oil painting. Up until his time, artists painted with tempera (a mixture of water, egg, and colour pigments). Earlier attempts to use colours with oil had failed because the varnish blackened the colours. Admixing white varnish, a kind of turpentine, to oil and colour leads to a quicker drying of the paint, and thus retains the luminosity and avoids cracking. Apparently, the recipe’s secret was not kept well enough because Antonello da Messina, who worked in Bruges, discovered and distributed it. The birth of oil painting introduced the enormous, subsequent development of painterly art. This is why Jan and Hubert are considered the founders of Dutch painting. Just as “the sudden flowering of the Aloe after centuries of sunny sleep”, the art of oil painting now experienced a grandiose flourishing. Its development was mostly furthered in Italy, even though it originated in Flanders.

 

Hugo Van der Goes, who was active in the second half of the fifteenth century, can be added to the list of master painters who exclusively painted religious topics. His surname allows the speculation that he came from Goes on the island of Seeland. Other historians maintain that he came from Ghent. The place where he died is also uncertain: sources suggest Oudergem and the Rooderdale Monastery close to Brussels. What is certain is that he was one of the most important Dutch painters in the second half of the fifteenth century. He created the Portinari Triptych (1476-1478); the Portrait of a Man (around 1480); and the portrait of a donor, Sir Edward Boncle Admires the Trinity (around 1480).

 

As of 1436, Rogier Van der Weyden lived as the official painter of the city of Brussels. His influence was felt throughout Europe. One of his benefactors was Philip the Good, who was an avid art collector. Van der Weyden’s tempera masterpiece Pietà (before 1443) is housed today in Madrid ‘s Museo del Prado. It precedes the completion of his polyptych Last Judgement (1448-1451). He was the only Flemish painter to continue the artistic conception of the Van Eycks and perhaps even surpassed it. Rogier Van der Weyden’s influence spread beyond the borders of Flanders, mainly to Germany. His most famous pupil was Hans Memling. Van der Weyden was the last follower of Giotto’s tradition and the last painter whose work was exclusively religious.