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Jan Van Eyck

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Artist

The Resume

    (circa 1385-July 9, 1441)
    Born in Maaseik, Belgium
    Court painter for Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy
    Notable works include ‘Ghent Altarpiece,’ ‘Portrait of a Man in a Turban,’ ‘Lucca Madonna,’ ‘Madonna of Chancellor Rolin’ and ‘Arnolfini Portrait’

Why he might be annoying:

    Guesses for his year of birth range from 1380 to 1395.
    Artist/author Giorgio Vasari erroneously credited him with inventing oil painting.
    He signed paintings with the phrase ‘Als Ik Kan,’ a low-grade pun in Greek, translating as both ‘As I Can’ and ‘As Eyck can.’
    For some reason, most of the men in his portraits sport a couple days’ worth of beard stubble.
    Critics and art historians have a field day debating the symbolism in his paintings.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He knew Latin, Greek and Hebrew, indicating that he had a classical education, a rarity among painters of the day.
    In addition to being a court painter, Philip sent him on several diplomatic missions.
    While he did not invent oil painting, he was considered the first painter to master the new technique.
    Italian humanist Cyriacus d’Ancona wrote that his paintings seemed to be produced ‘not by the artifice of hands but by all-bearing nature herself.’
    His ‘Ghent Altarpiece’ was important enough that a clause in the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I demanded that Germany return the work to Belgium.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 21 Votes: 33.33% Annoying