The exhibition in the Gemäldegalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin “Zoom on van Eyck” celebrates the close-up view and new findings through art-technological investigations in the oeuvre of the Flemish artist Jan van Eyck.

The exhibition in the Gemäldegalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin “Zoom on van Eyck” celebrates the close-up view and new findings through art-technological investigations in the oeuvre of the Flemish artist Jan van Eyck. The Berlin Gemäldegalerie brings together what is otherwise shown separately: An immersive exhibition installation, all the original Berlin paintings by the Dutch painter Jan van Eyck (c. 1390/1400-1441) and his immediate circle, and a detailed documentation of the restoration. The list of three themes may sound a little dry at first, but what can be seen in the Gemäldegalerie is a great combination. Because “Zoom on van Eyck” explores the Dutchman’s work in three very different ways.

The painter, who was probably born in Maaseik around 1390, is considered the most influential Flemish artist of the late Middle Ages. He was responsible for a new beginning in European painting and his oeuvre can be regarded as one of the highlights in the history of art. Only a few paintings from his oeuvre are known, to which the Gemäldegalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin is dedicated and where it can also come up with a sensation.

It begins with the originals, workshop works and early copies. Berlin owns three original paintings: the “Portrait of Baudouin de Lannoy”, the “Madonna in the Church” and the “Portrait of a Man with a Red Chaperone”, as well as two workshop works (“Crucifixion of Christ” and a portrait of a man) and four early copies after Jan van Eyck. The Picture Gallery can therefore draw on an extremely rich collection of the artist’s work. The “Zoom” is to be understood in two senses. On the one hand, the Picture Gallery is showing its van Eyck treasures detached from the usual collection context and, on the other, visitors can get closer to the paintings than usual. This is because co-curator and restorer Sandra Stelzig had the idea of providing visitors with magnifying glasses with which they can study the paintings.

The centerpiece of the exhibition, however, is undoubtedly a digital projection that can be seen in the gallery’s foyer. The projection, which was developed by the Royal Institute for Artistic Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in Brussels, offers viewers a glimpse of brushstrokes, eye wrinkles, individual hairs, pearls, jewelry details and folds in the robe. The whole thing is four meters in size and has an extremely brilliant technical design. In the Berlin exhibition, viewers have the opportunity to zoom into the detailed shots of the paintings.

The Zoom project was based on the documentation method developed for the restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece. For the 300 detailed photos, scientists and photographers from KIK-IRPA traveled to the 20 van Eyck originals and 13 workshop works over several years to photograph them using the same equipment, lighting and photography technique. The results were shown for the first time in 2020/21 at BOZAR in Brussels – albeit without the original paintings.

Explanations from the conservation department. Since 2015, all of the paintings have been examined in terms of art technology and three have been restored in preparation for the catalog raisonné on 15th century Dutch and French painting. As part of the project for the catalog, conservators and art historians worked on an interdisciplinary basis with a photographer and wood biologist. The explanation of this work and its results, which can now be seen in the Berlin exhibition, is perhaps nothing special for restorers. But for the public, it offers another fascinating opportunity to get closer to the pictures and better understand the work of the restorers. Large panels explain the methods used to examine the paintings and present the results. The before and after images make it very clear what the removal of the varnish from the “Portrait of Baudouin de Lannoy” and the “Portrait of a Man with a Red Chaperone” has achieved aesthetically. In the course of the restoration, measures were also taken to secure the layers of the painting. At the same time, overpaintings were also removed from the works.

Painting conservator Sandra Stelzig explains how decisive art technological examinations can be for the attribution or depreciation of a painting by examining the “Crucifixion of Christ”, which is considered to be a painting from Jan van Eyck’s workshop. At least so far. Because according to the Berlin findings, this is no longer certain. Neither is the claim that the painting was originally painted on wood and later transferred to canvas. This is because the X-ray image shows “traces of typical canvas cracks and creases of a rolled canvas painting”, according to the exhibition. In addition, IR reflectography made it possible to visualize underdrawings with a metal pen and various fine brushes. This is typical of van Eyck’s working method, writes Sandra Stelzig. If both findings are taken together, there is much to suggest that the attribution of the painting “Crucifixion” must be changed as a result of the art technological investigation. This would have identified the only surviving canvas painting by Jan van Eyck.

The special exhibition, curated by Stephan Kemperdick (curator of German, Dutch and French painting before 1600) and Sandra Stelzig (conservator at the Gemäldegalerie), can be visited at the Gemäldegalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin until March 3, 2024. On its website, the museum also presents the results of research into the restoration of Jan van Eyck’s portrait “Baudouin de Lannoy” and his “Portrait of a Man with a Red Chaperone”.