The Master Painter

Fifteenth-century painter Jan Van Eyck becomes a pawn in the hands of nefarious plotters in the court of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, but nonetheless manages to create a great masterwork, the Ghent altarpiece

The prose is stiff, and the minutely detailed descriptions (worthy of a Jan van Eyck painting) threaten to overwhelm the narrative. These caveats notwithstanding, British medievalist, journalist, art critic and novelist Mullins's account of the stormy life and times of a 15th century Flemish painter offers arresting glimpses of a medieval world fraught with clamor and color. We see Jan van Eyck as a man of restless ambition beneath his quiet demeanor, an artist reaching out to embrace all of God's material creation. Though Van Eyck's idealistic faith in his employer, Philip, Duke of Burgundy, seems too naive, and his on-again, off-again romance with timid Margarethe is patly drawn, Mullins indelibly portrays others in the large cast of characters: Philip, ever on the run to his wars and mistresses; his benumbed wife Isabella, who feels "prematurely widowed"; and viper-tongued duchess Jacqueline of Hainault, betrayed by two husbands, deprived of her rightful lands. Just as believable are Joan of Arc, defiant in captivity, and Italian merchant Giovanni Arnolfini (immortalized in Van Eyck's tender marriage portrait), seen here as a sallow cynic "with reptilian smile," planning his nuptials as he would a business deal.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It is Jan van Eyck's talent for reading and capturing the psychological state of his subjects as much as his consummate skill as an artist that has won him the position of First Painter to the court of Philip, Duke of Burgundy. Recognizing Jan's talent for eliciting confidences from his sitters, Duke Philip employs him as ambassador and observer at the island castle of his beautiful enemy, the duchess Jacqueline, and counts on his portrayal of the captive Joan of Arc to establish the truth of her religious claims. As van Eyck moves from the seats of power to artisans' taverns striving to capture the psychological in his portraits and the spiritual in the Ghent altarpiece, the reader is treated to a brilliant portrayal of the mighty and the humble in a colorful age. A first novel, this is highly recommended.
- Cynthia Johnson Whealler, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, Mass.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.