Madonna of Chancellor Rolin — Jan Van Eyck
One of the first works painted with the oil technique.
When approaching Flemish painting in its beginnings, the name of Jan van Eyck inevitably appears as a grand shining star. His role in the development of pictorial art in the entire Flanders area during the 15th century was crucial, as he was one of the driving forces behind a technique that would revolutionize the way of creating paintings.
That technique would be an oil painting, which, although van Eyck did not discover it (there is much debate about its origin), had a diffusion throughout Europe thanks to him (and other artists).
Why was the oil painting technique so revolutionary? Before its explosion, artists used tempera to add color to their works. However, the fusion of colors through this technique was very limited, so the paintings had a limit regarding chromaticism and the vividness of the pigment.
With the appearance of oil painting, the colors acquired extraordinary brilliance and intensity. In addition, during the process, the paint took longer to dry, allowing artists to make corrections with more margin than with tempera. And if that were not enough, they did not need varnish as a final primer.
