As many requirements a medieval court painter had to meet - in addition to making portraits, these included designing items of clothing or painting signs - there was often little room for creative artistic development according to his own ideas. Portraits of rulers always had to be advantageous, and wall paintings dealt with a narrowly defined subject area, especially religious motifs. Jan van Eyck, who worked at the court of Philip III of Burgundy from 1425, was also faced with these limitations.
Van Eyck, however, used his position at court to further develop his art and he became one of the most important representatives of Old Dutch painting. He knew how to lend his works a naturalistic, lively atmosphere, which ensured that the illustrations were more realistic than was previously known from art. To achieve this, van Eyck experimented a lot with colours and techniques. It was he who made oil painting popular. The more intense colours of his works also contributed to the fact that the viewer was able to get a closer look at the work of art and that he was sometimes called the "king of painters" by contemporaries. Van Eyck's most famous work is the winged altar in St. Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, which was completed in 1435.
As many requirements a medieval court painter had to meet - in addition to making portraits, these included designing items of clothing or painting signs - there was often little room for creative artistic development according to his own ideas. Portraits of rulers always had to be advantageous, and wall paintings dealt with a narrowly defined subject area, especially religious motifs. Jan van Eyck, who worked at the court of Philip III of Burgundy from 1425, was also faced with these limitations.
Van Eyck, however, used his position at court to further develop his art and he became one of the most important representatives of Old Dutch painting. He knew how to lend his works a naturalistic, lively atmosphere, which ensured that the illustrations were more realistic than was previously known from art. To achieve this, van Eyck experimented a lot with colours and techniques. It was he who made oil painting popular. The more intense colours of his works also contributed to the fact that the viewer was able to get a closer look at the work of art and that he was sometimes called the "king of painters" by contemporaries. Van Eyck's most famous work is the winged altar in St. Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, which was completed in 1435.
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