Jan and hubert van eyck biography samples

Only four years his junior, Jan van Eyck is thought to have studied under his brother Hubert (). In fact, one of Jan&#;s earliest and most famous works was begun by his brother.

Jan is perhaps the more well-known of the two but it might not entirely be due to his painting skills alone.

The Eyck brothers and many of the other 15th century artists specialized in frescoes and portraits. There were no art supply stores where they could pick up a few tubes of paint.

They or their assistants would grind a variety of pigments and add a wetting agent &#; most commonly diluted egg &#; to make their own paints. The egg-pigment paint was known as tempura. Tempura was a thin and tough medium which suited medieval tastes which called for flat color surfaces.

The problems with tempura were that it dried extremely quickly and required a preservative of a finish varnish or chemical preparation to preserve the colors. Blending colors was virtually impossible, the darks were quite mu