by Jan van Eyck, 1435
Jan van Eyck painted The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin around 1435 for Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to the Duke of Burgundy. Rolin kneels before the Virgin and Child in a luxurious loggia with columns opening onto an extraordinarily detailed landscape. A tiny river town visible through the arches is so precisely rendered that historians have tried to identify specific buildings.
The chancellor commissioned himself depicted at the same scale as the Virgin, without any saint interceding on his behalf. This unprecedented presumption may reflect his immense political power. Van Eyck lavished attention on every surface: the gold brocade of Rolin's robe, the crown jewels of the Christ child, the distant mountains fading into atmospheric haze.
The painting originally hung in the cathedral of Autun, Rolin's birthplace. The Louvre acquired it during the Revolution. Modern magnification reveals microscopic details invisible to the naked eye.

Ancient Roman (Unknown), -100
Louvre, Paris, Paris

Gerard ter Borch
Louvre, Paris, Paris

Jacques-Louis David
Louvre, Paris, Paris

Bernardino Luini
Louvre, Paris, Paris
Other masterpieces from the Northern Renaissance movement

Albrecht Dürer, 1500
National Gallery, London

Hugo van der Goes, 1475
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence

Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Madrid

Albrecht Dürer
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence

Albrecht Dürer
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe

Albrecht Dürer
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence

Albrecht Dürer
British Museum, London
Albrecht Dürer, 1507
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Madrid
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