Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface and Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Van Eyck's Realism
• 3 The Artist's Place at the Burgundian Court
• 4 An Italian Courtier's Story
• 5 The Ecclesiastical Compact of a Secular Canon
• 6 Private Devotion in a Schismatic Church
• 7 The Function of Religious Belief for van Eyck
• 8 The Doctrine of Mary
• 9 The Sacrament of the Altar
• 10 The Patrons of Domestic Religious Imagery
• 11 The Confession of Chancellor Nicolas Rolin
• 12 Patronage by Burgundian Court Functionaries
• 13 Literary Sources for van Eyck's Art
• 14 Physical Format and Verbal Inscription
• 15 A Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
• 16 Architectural Style and Sculptural Symbolism
• 17 Van Eyck's Modern Icon
• 18 The Image and Experience of Pilgrimage
• 19 Pretence and Scepticism in the Fifteenth Century
• 20 A Different Perspective in the Ghent Altarpiece
• 21 The Interpretation of Early Netherlandish Painting
• Bibliographic Commentary
• Bibliography
• List of Illustrations
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Harbison's book consists of an introduction and 20 relatively short chapters, most of which focus on the major paintings of Jan Van Eyck and on issues of style and symbolism that they raise. Although the author is thoroughly informed about early Netherlandish art and its scholarly literature, to which he has significantly contributed, he writes in the present work in a casual, even conversational manner, meaning to engage the reader's interest and stimulate further discussion rather than to argue a single-minded thesis. The footnotes at the end document his learning, along with the extensive bibliography. The book reflects an increasingly generalized skepticism about Erwin Panofsky's theory of " in the paintings of Van Eyck and his contemporaries, as well as a disbelief of the view that they communicate comprehensive and well-articulated theological programs. Harbison favors instead a more contingent understanding of these paintings, with an emphasis on " habits and attitudes of their creators and of the society for which they were made. In line with this position, the artist's portraits and private devotional paintings receive a good deal of attention, while the complexities of the Ghent Altarpiece, seen as an exception in Van Eyck's oeuvre, are dealt with much more summarily. Although Harbison moves along in an eclectic fashion and the direction of his argument is not always apparent, some useful and suggestive observations are made along the way, and his book can be read as a stimulating general account of Van Eyck's art. W. Cahn Yale University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

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).