Jan Van Eyck is one of the greatest painters the Low Countries have ever known, but we actually know very little with certainty about the life of the man behind the Ghent Altarpiece. A new find in the Vatican archives changes that.
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Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441) is one of the greatest names in Flemish art history, but knowledge about his private life is all in all quite limited. Research by historian Hendrik Callewier of the State Archives and KU Leuven now shows that the painter wrote a letter to Pope Eugenius IV on 26 March 1441. “I found an application in the Vatican administration for a document from Jan Van Eyck and his wife Margareta,” Callewier told VRT NWS. In it he requests a letter that allows him to go to confession with a view to the forgiveness of his sins. An exceptional find, according to Callewier. “It is the first time that we see Van Eyck mentioned together with his wife Margareta in a document during his lifetime.”
The find may also help determine Van Eyck’s birthplace. “There is no document from his time that says where he comes from,” Callewier said. “Ten different places have been named in the past hundred years, with Maaseik as the most likely contender. Our discovery shows that he comes from the diocese of Liège, so we can now exclude a number of places.” In this way, the search is traced back to Maaseik, Bergeijk, Maastricht and Arendonk.
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