DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42068#0093
J AN VAN EYCK’S PORTRAIT OF HIS WIFE
Any inquiry into the methods and styles of early Flemish
artists must, of course, begin with Jan Van Eyck, whose
dated Works forrn the first extensive body of material in
this period. Of these dated works the Portrait of His
Wife, which will be reprodueed here in a new way, with
the permission of the authorities governing the Musee
Communal at Bruges, typifies the problem of the artist’s
style. The surface of this portrait shows few brush marks ;
it is delicately modelled, and energetically designed, with
that seemingly immobile perfection of technique which is
common to ail the artist’s pictures. It is baffling. One
feels that deeper insight is necessary in order to under-
stand it — that one must study beneath the surface.
Fortunately a new aid to study—the x-ray shadow-
graph, enables one to see deeper. But although the process
is new only in a comparative sense (1), the use of a scien-
tist’s machine in this connection is still misunderstood
and must be explained again before one looks at the
illustration. The x-rays penetrate opaque substances,
according to the intensity of the ray s, and the density
of the subtances. A ray of low intensity, passing through
the materials used in making a picture, casts shadows on
a sensitive film, which record the variations in density and
(i) Expérimenta in this field were made fully fifteen years ago, and critics
hâve known of the work for perhaps ten years.
Any inquiry into the methods and styles of early Flemish
artists must, of course, begin with Jan Van Eyck, whose
dated Works forrn the first extensive body of material in
this period. Of these dated works the Portrait of His
Wife, which will be reprodueed here in a new way, with
the permission of the authorities governing the Musee
Communal at Bruges, typifies the problem of the artist’s
style. The surface of this portrait shows few brush marks ;
it is delicately modelled, and energetically designed, with
that seemingly immobile perfection of technique which is
common to ail the artist’s pictures. It is baffling. One
feels that deeper insight is necessary in order to under-
stand it — that one must study beneath the surface.
Fortunately a new aid to study—the x-ray shadow-
graph, enables one to see deeper. But although the process
is new only in a comparative sense (1), the use of a scien-
tist’s machine in this connection is still misunderstood
and must be explained again before one looks at the
illustration. The x-rays penetrate opaque substances,
according to the intensity of the ray s, and the density
of the subtances. A ray of low intensity, passing through
the materials used in making a picture, casts shadows on
a sensitive film, which record the variations in density and
(i) Expérimenta in this field were made fully fifteen years ago, and critics
hâve known of the work for perhaps ten years.