Van Eyck: The Complete Work

Life on canvas: The splendor of van Eyck in an XL monograph

From his first appearance on the cultural stage, Early Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck (1390–1491) elicited gasps of astonishment and awe. Under his paintbrush, oil on canvas became reality on canvas. Like never before, the material and physical world found its near-perfect painterly equivalent.

This new TASCHEN monograph allows van Eyck’s extraordinary recreation of reality to live and breathe in extra-large scale. At once impressive and intimate, the volume reveals the artist’s deftest details as much as the ambition of his compositional schemes. From pale hands to plush velvet robes, we delight in his consummate mastery of color, light, and surface, where textures are so beautifully realized in paint that we can almost feel his cool tiled floor beneath our feet or hear the rustle of feathered angel wings.

Spanning the complete van Eyck repertoire, the book includes all the most famous van Eyck masterpieces as well as lesser-known treasures, all explored in attentive details as well as optimum full-spread reproductions. Highlights include The Arnolfini Portrait, a fold-out spread of the Ghent Altarpiece, and a preparatory drawing of Cardinal Niccol&oegrave; Albergati, an outstanding example of a 15th-century Netherlandish drawing. The book’s expansive coverage also extends to the complete catalog of the van Eyck workshop, which continued its output for almost a decade after the master’s own death.