Early Flemish Portraits 1425-1525: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ...

16. Jan van Eyck's painting, dated
1436, shows the donor Joris
(George) van der Paele presented
to the Virgin and Child by his
patron saint, George, in the company
of Saint Donatian. Van der
Paele was a canon at the Cathedral
of Saint Donatian, in Bruges,
to which this work was given, and
his glance is directed toward that
saint in van Eyck's picture. The
degree to which Jan here achieved
an illusion of reality thatfulfilled
the donor's aspirations is unsurpassed
by any other artist of the
century. Groeningemuseum, Bruges
in the chapel that the Vijds financed at great
expense. A deed registered before the Ghent
magistrates and the church administrators in
1435 stipulates that a Mass at the chapel's altar
be celebrated each day in perpetuity in honor
of God, the Virgin Mary, and all the saints, for
the donors' own salvation and that of their
ancestors (they had no children). The degree
to which their likenesses seem to be living,
breathing presences is heightened by the illusionistic
sculptural representations of Saints
John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, to
whom, as intercessors, the donors' prayers are
addressed. An inscription across the lower
edges of the panels' frames prominently records
Vijd's commission and indicates that he
engaged "the best painters that could be
found." The donor's zeal was to the greater
glory of God, but by association he and his
wife share in the glory. The interior of the
altarpiece displays the Universal Communion
of All Souls in Christ-an eternal Mass in
which the donors, through their foundation,
hope to participate, as is indicated by their
presence in prayerful attitudes on the exterior.
There is a sense of drama in the relationship
between the exterior and interior: the donors
anticipate Judgment Day, when they will be
received among the blessed.