More updates to come on the WGA negotiations, but let’s take a break from that arduous endeavor to look at something fun. I wanted to share a recent discovery, a wonderful site called Closer to Van Eyck. As in, famous medieval / early renaissance painter Jan Van Eyck.
To give credit where credit is due (and to shoehorn in another recommendation), I learned about the site on The Rest is History podcast which is truly fantastic. They did an episode on Van Eyck and spoke about how he took some of the newly evolving painterly skills and styles of his time and brought them to the next level, achieving true apotheosis. He mastered total realism and combined it with religious imagery and fantastical scenes to make some of the most indelible paintings in history.
But on top of all that, THE DETAILS. And that’s where Closer to Van Eyck comes in. As his paintings have been recently restored, this website has uploaded them for public consumption. But what’s really fun is that you can zoom in to the microscopic level, to the level of the remaining cracks on the canvas. And what you’ll find there are astonishing details that evoke Eyck’s crafty, mischievous, and brilliant nature. A realistically detailed swan on a river that feels miles away, a mere speck at first glance. Or a self-portrait of Van Eyck, squirreled away amidst the crowds before God - a veritable Where’s Waldo of the Second Coming. Or the individual wrinkles by the eye of a wealthy merchant. You can spend all day scouring the backdrops. And I suggest you do! It’s more fun than scouring Twitter, I promise.
