Editing Jan van Eyck (section)

===Court painter===
[[File:Lamgods open.jpg|thumb|[[Hubert van Eyck|Hubert]] and Jan van Eyck, ''[[Ghent Altarpiece]]'', completed 1432. [[Saint Bavo Cathedral]], Ghent]]
Van Eyck served as official to [[John of Bavaria-Straubing]], ruler of [[Holland]], [[County of Hainaut|Hainault]] and [[Zeeland]]. By this time he had assembled a small workshop and was involved in redecorating the [[Binnenhof]] palace in [[The Hague]]. After John's death in 1425 he moved to Bruges and came to the attention of [[Philip the Good]] {{Circa|1425}}.<ref name="wh75">Wolff, Hand (1987), 75</ref><!-- who then sent him to Liege --> His emergence as a collectable painter generally follows his appointment to Philip's court, and from this point his activity in the court is comparatively well documented. He served as court artist and diplomat, and was a senior member of the Tournai [[Guild of Saint Luke|painters' guild]]. On 18 October 1427, the Feast of St. Luke, he travelled to Tournai to attend a banquet in his honour, also attended by [[Robert Campin]] and [[Rogier van der Weyden]].<ref name="b9">Borchert (2008), 9</ref>

A court salary freed him from commissioned work, and allowed a large degree of artistic freedom.<ref>Jones (2011), 23</ref><!-- immune from painter's guild as ducal employee --> Over the following decade van Eyck's reputation and technical ability grew, mostly from his innovative approaches towards the handling and manipulating of oil paint. Unlike most of his peers, his reputation never diminished and he remained well regarded over the following centuries. His revolutionary approach to oil was such that a myth, perpetuated by [[Giorgio Vasari]], arose that he had invented [[oil painting]].{{efn-ua|The myth was propagated by [[Karel van Mander]]. In fact oil painting as a technique for painting wood statues and other objects is much older and [[Theophilus Presbyter|Theophilus]] ([[Roger of Helmarshausen]]?) clearly gives instructions in his 1125 treatise, ''On Divers Arts''. It is accepted that the van Eyck brothers were among the earliest Early Netherlandish painters to employ it for detailed [[panel painting]]s and that they achieved new and unforeseen effects through the use of glazes, [[wet-on-wet]] and other techniques. See Gombrich, E. H., ''The Story of Art'', 236–39. Phaidon, 1995. {{ISBN|0-7148-3355-X}}}}<ref>Borchert (2008), 92–94</ref>

His brother [[Hubert van Eyck]] collaborated on Jan's most famous works, the ''Ghent Altarpiece'', generally art historians believe it was begun {{Circa|1420}} by Hubert and completed by Jan in 1432. Another brother, Lambert, is mentioned in [[Burgundian Netherlands|Burgundian]] court documents, and may have overseen his brother's workshop after Jan's death.<ref>[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/eyck/hd_eyck.htm Jan van Eyck (ca. 1380/1390–1441)]". [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]. Retrieved 17 March 2012.</ref><!-- 60 pages about this in Pacht. -->