Painting Description Essay: The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin by van Eyck

Introduction

Jan van Eyck's birth date remains unknown. However, what is evident is that he was one of the most influential Flemish painters of his time. Among his clients, include John of Bavaria, Count of Holland and Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Jan van Eyck has been particularly active in the period of the Northern Renaissance. Under the service of Philip, the Good, Duke of Burgundy, van Eyck worked for Chancellor Rolin, Duchy of Burgundy to produce The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin that emerged to be one of his most iconic works. Nicolas Rolin was the then Chancellor of Burgundy and commissioned The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin for his family chapel.

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Jan Van Eyck’s Madonna of Chancellor Nicolas Rolin Visual Analysis

Description of Oil Painting

The painting has a descriptive scene of a virgin crowned by a hovering angel while she presents the infant to the Chancellor, Rolin. There is the presence of a formal composition with three seated figures inside a room on the first ground. Behind the foreground, three arches open up to the garden/ backside along the middle part. When you look further beyond the backyard, there is a well-featured landscape of a city divided into two by a river running along up the view into the rolling hills in the far distance. A wide range of well-detailed palaces, churches, an island, a towering bridge, hills, and fields is well portrayed in the painting. In all these, there is a distinctive bright light from the sky. On the left side, the chancellor is looking directly at Madonna and the child. Currently, his hands are held up in the form of conducting a prayer or worshiping the child. Below the well held up hands is a book immensely illuminated and resting on a piece of scarlet material and covered by rich, dark blue fabric to offer more support in return. The chancellor wears a cap that halfway covers his head, and a full-length carefully trimmed cloak decorated with metallic embroidery over a mid-brown material.

Considering the right hand of the painting, there is Madonna, a Christ child sitting on her lap. She looks down at the ground, and her head is bare without a cap revealing her hair flowing over her shoulders. Above Madonna's head behind her, there is a winged angel who holds a crown meant to be positioned on Madonna's head. She is painted just to the mid-neck in a floor-length as her flowing bright red gown decorated with metals and jewels dashes the environment. The naked child sitting on the right knee of Madonna apparently holds a polished crystal orb detailed with a richly jeweled crucifix in his left hand. The naked boy's right hand is held up most probably in blessing.

The room, in general, has an elaborate patterned tiled floor and four polished stones that are visible internally behind the adult figures.

The city and the river behind are also shown in detail in the painting: the left bank that rises carefully beyond the buildings to grassy and wooded hills. The whole art illuminates a rich texture and the effects of light on surfaces.

Elements of Art in Jan Van Eyck’s Madonna of Chancellor Rolin

Megalography, History, Genre, and Religion

Nicolas Rolin worked on the painting to decorate the chapel and, as the donor, he is portrayed very realistically. Although he is from a modern family in Autun, Rolin had first become a lawyer who was given the job of being chancellor in the year 1422 with his major improvement being the confidence given to him by two dukes of Burgundy of the house of Valois. The original origin of the art travels back to the beginning of the chancellor in the church of Notre-Dame-du-Chatel in Autun, where his predecessors got buried and where he had been baptized. (Harbison pp 107-102). The painting usually describes the Roman religion from the way the chancellor holds hands for prayers, the crucifix of the naked child’s right hand, and also the book of hours illuminating below the chancellor's hands.

Metaphor and Personification

Primary: Van Eyck portrays the chancellor kneeling in front of the Virgin and Child. The dashing figure input by the donor, dressed in gold brocade and furs like a prince, gives up his desire to be seen as a high-ranking court dignitary.

Secondary: The painting's composition involves an opening made up of three arcades. On one side is the public human figure on his knees, covered with carefully made scarlet cloth, and on the opposite side, the sacred adult figures. The Madonna is seated on a well-crafted throne wearing a full, embroidered cloak adorned with precious stones.

Tertiary: The capitals on the extra depict scenes from the Old Testament that brings forth the errors of humanity; the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the sacrifice of Cain and Abel, God receiving Abel's offering, the murder of Cain, Noah in the ark, and finally Noah covered by one of his sons. (Frere pp 26-55)

Context

Primary: This painting depicts how skilled the early adopters of oil paints had become, both in the subtle rendering of surface texture and properties and also in showing all the fine details.

Secondary: The history, social setting, symbolic and other aspects of this painting has also been explained in the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin.

Process: The process used to construct the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin painting leads all the way to the use of oil in paintings. Oil painting techniques by Jan Van Eyck were brought into perfection and have ever since kept his paintings very innovative and glowing with Jewel-like brilliance. The start of the painting was by use of wood panel cut radially and carefully assembled the front and the back parts. There is also the use of simple mortise and tenon joints. Panel surfaces are coated with glue and chalk ground in the preparation. Then came the detailed underdrawing has most probably done with brush and liquids which surfaces all his paintings and more.

Famous Paintings Comparison

Le Dejeuner Sur L'herbe is a large oil on canvas painting by Edouard Manet which was created in 1862. In both the paintings, there are naked personalities painted with great attention above them. In both the two paintings there is a person holding up one or both of their hands to either communicate or conduct blessings. The paintings are both well detailed with gardens and rivers and create a vast picture of imagination across the reader's mind.

There are also distinct differences shown between the two paintings i.e. the lack of cities and mountains in the Le Dejeuner Sur painting as it is present in the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin. There is also the presence of Angel in the Madonna which is not in the other painting and many other differences seen in detail

Conclusion

The Madonna of the chancellor was picked solely because it was an exemplary piece of art. The manner in which it was painted, the chancellor, Mary, and the naked baby Jesus in front of the arches leading all the way to the garden and balcony, beyond the cities, the river that divides across the towns and the mountains creates a warm feeling of the painting.

Works Cited

Harison C. Jan Van Eyck, the play of realism. 2nd ed, Reaction books. ISBN 978 186189 820 3. 2012, pp 107-122

Frere J-C. Early Flemish Painting, Editions TERRAIL, Vilo, Paris, ISBN 978 2 87939 339 1. 2007. Pp 26-55.