Jan van Eyck: The Play of Realism

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0948462795 ISBN 13: 9780948462795

Publisher: Reaktion Books, 1997

Jan van Eyck's surviving work comprises a series of painstakingly detailed oil paintings of astonishing verisimilitude. In a fascinating recovery of the neglected human dimension that is clearly present in these works, Craig Harbison interrogates the personal histories of the worldly participants of such masterpieces as the Virgin and Child with George van der Paele, the Arnolfini Double Portrait and the Virgin and Child with Nicolas Rolin. With the aid of abundant visual evidence in color and in black and white, Harbison reveals how van Eyck presented his contemporaries with a more subtle and complex view of the value of appearances as a route to understanding the meaning of life.

"I found this an enthralling study"—The Sunday Telegraph

"A fascinating investigation into the nature of the great pioneer's clients ... some fine photo details"—Art Review

About the Author:

Craig Harbison is Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Among his publications is The Last Judgement in Sixteenth-century Northern Europe (1976).

Review:

"An enthralling study." -- Sunday Telegraph

"the facts [Craig Harbison] excavates make for a gripping read." -- Sunday Times