Product Information
A significant new interpretation of the emergence of Western pictorial realism When Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) completed the revolutionary Ghent Altarpiece in 1432, it was unprecedented in European visual culture. His novel visual strategies, including lifelike detail, not only helped make painting the defining medium of Western art, they also ushered in new ways of seeing the world. This highly original book explores Van Eyck's pivotal work, as well as panels by Rogier van der Weyden and their followers, to understand how viewers came to appreciate a world depicted in two dimensions. Through careful examination of primary documents, Noa Turel reveals that paintings were consistently described as au vif: made not from life but into life. Animation, not representation, drove Van Eyck and his contemporaries. Turel's interpretation reverses the commonly held belief that these artists were inspired by the era's burgeoning empiricism, proposing instead that their living pictures helped create the conditions for empiricism. Illustrated with exquisite fifteenth-century paintings, this volume asserts these works' key role in shaping, rather than simply mirroring, the early modern world.Product Identifiers
PublisherYale University Press
ISBN-139780300247572
eBay Product ID (ePID)10046573724
Product Key Features
Book TitleLiving Pictures: Jan Van Eyck and Painting's First Century
AuthorNoa Turel
FormatHardcover
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2020
Number of Pages200 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height285mm
Item Width225mm
Additional Product Features
Title_AuthorNoa Turel
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States