Van Eyck – Oil painting in Flanders

Van Eyck – Cross section

Jan van Eyck, Ritratto di Margherita van Eyck, 1439

Jan van Eyck Portrait of Margherita van Eyck

Jan van Eyck, (Maastricht 1390 ca. – Bruges 1441), Portrait of Margherita van Eyck, 1439 – Oil on wood 32,5 x 26 cm – Groeninge Museum, Bruges

Van Eyck oil painting technique

Dipinto esemplificativo delle procedure tecniche utilizzate da Van Eyck

Example of Van Eyck’s oil painting technique

At one time the technique of painting with oils was considered an invention by the Van Eyck brothers. In reality, it was already known by the ancient Romans who had experimented with oil binders for painting shields and weapons. The Schedula by the monk Theophilus (11th century) and the work by Cennino Cennini (end of the 14th century) both relate this technique. However, during the middle of the 1400’s, it is the Flemish painters who begin to systematically experiment with oleo-resin impastos, and who perfect a new working method.
Flemish painting of the 15th century is characterised by a fresh and enamel-like use of the materials. The effects were obtained by the laying on of successive layers of thin impasto. The oil binder makes the painting material fluid, and therefore easier to apply the glazes. In addition, the slow drying process of the colours allows for very soft blending and a chromatic range that could therefore be increased thanks to the play of the transparencies obtained by laying different colours over one another.

Underdrawing

Van Eyck is certainly the most representative of the Flemish painters from the early 15th century. His technique was quite rigorous and based on principles of a tradition that made great use of glazes on opaque chiaroscuro -modelled grounds. The technical innovation consists in using the light reflected from the light ground preparation. The preparation was made by applying two or three thin layers of white chalk and animal glue that were smoothed down with great care. The drawing, which was usually done in bone black in a water base distemper, is made on the preparation creating the forms and the contours. Often the drawing is linear and stark; in essence, a sketch that usually does not have any modelling. At times however, the drawing is scrupulously worked out and approaches the final painted effect. In this case, all the details are dealt with at the same level of definition and the modelling is achieved by light, progressive hatching or tratteggio building from dark to light.

Dried oil layer

This drawing is then covered by a layer of drying oil so that the ground preparation does not absorb the binder in the successive layer of colour, thereby remaining fresh and intact. In addition to acting as an isolating layer, this thin layer of priming also functions optically in that it is slightly tinted rather than being translucent and without colour. This technique creates a middle tone on which the painting and the modelling can be developed. The slight tint makes it possible for the white of the ground to be sfumato and it gives an idea of the effect that the successive colours will take on. Sometimes in this phase there are different tints laid on that prepare the distribution of the different tonalities in various planes of the composition.

Differentiated intonations

The painter constructs the modelled areas of the flesh tones and the figures using the colours in the purest state possible and by laying them on in thin layers. White lead is used in very scarce quantities.
By means of successive layers that are composed of relatively opaque first layers and with the overlying layers being fairly crystalline, the final structure – before the glazings – of the painting is reached.

First glazes

A varying number of layers can often be better defined with a thin chiaroscuro. The colours that are ground in oil and fossil resin then diluted with essential oils, allow for a very minute and fine application. In addition, they permit working very slowly, blending in the “sfumato”. The light colours are generally obtained by using the luminous ground of the wood panel. Nevertheless, highlights are often thickly applied. In other words, beginning with a washed in rough sketch, a more consistent paint layer is laid on only in the light areas. This procedure will be eventually overshadowed by the canons of Italian painting requiring a rough sketch with well-bodied colours that is then finished by glazes.

glazes and light touches “a corpo”

The base layer that gives solidity to the form, is then enriched by numerous translucent layers. These layers are really glazes that create the effect of volume by modelling the underlying forms.
In order to take maximum advantage of the luminosity of the white ground, transparent pigments such as rose madder are distributed in successive glazes until they create almost a relief in the darkest areas. The shadows that are thus created are very soft, deep and transparent.

Additional overlapping glazes

The binder that is used varies according to the colours. Three different types of binding medium have been found: 1. water-based binders used in the first phases of drawing and for the application of pure natural ultramarine blue;
2. drying oil and egg emulsions in varying proportions found in the denser, middle layers of paint;
3. richer oil and/or natural resin binders found in some of the glazes and used to obtain more transparent whites.

Final glazing and “luci a corpo”

One supposes that Van Eyck already used essential oils that he himself distilled, as demonstrated by the refined execution of the details that is obtained only with a fluid film.

Finally, the highlights are placed using thick, white lead paint, that was even at times pure. The result is transparent and luminous , especially in the flesh tones. There is a sense of uniformity and encompassing light as well as refined details. These elements give a sense of spaciousness, and at the same time are perfectly fused with the environment.

Van Eyck - Ritratto di Margaretha van Eyck (1439)

Van Eyck – Portrait of Margaret van Eyck (1439)

In other terms, we see a perfect interdependence between technique and style. The analytical representation of reality in its most minor detail is considered a hallmark of Flemish painting at this time. However, it is possible only because of precise technical aspects based on the use of oil mediums and a pictorial working method that creates forms by the overlaying of thin, liquid layers.

Manfredi Faldi – Claudio Paolini
Dipinto realizzato da Francesca Berni

Estratto da: Artis (Art and Restoration Techniques Interactive Studio), Direzione scientifica: Manfredi Faldi, Claudio Paolini. Cd Rom realizzato da un gruppo di istituti di restauro europei, coordinati dall?Istituto per l?Arte e il Restauro Palazzo Spinelli, con il determinante contributo della Commissione Europea nell’ambito del programma d’azione INFO2000.