Smarthistory with Flemish Master Jan van Eyck

Together with Smarthistory, an American not-for-profit organization for the study of art history, and the Center for Netherlandish Art at Museum of Fine Arts Boston, we are bringing a series of video conversations with curators on important Flemish paintings by artists such as Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling, Peter Paul Rubens, and James Ensor.

In this video Dr. Anna Koopstra, Curator of Early Netherlandish Painting at Musea Brugge and Dr. Beth Harris discuss the artwork ‘The Virgin and Child with Canon Joris van der Paele’, 1436, by Flemish Master Jan van Eyck (1390-1441).

Van Eyck was a leading light amongst the Flemish Primitives, a term formerly used to refer to the painters active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. He won international renown even in his own lifetime. Van Eyck’s paintings featured an unprecedented degree of realism. Using sophisticated oil painting techniques, he created accurate representations of reality.