Tag Archives: van eyck

Jun 10 2016
Art

keep rolin

rolin.jpg

Let me get this straight: Nicholas Rolin, pictured above in this Jan van Eyck work, was said to be part of a triple marriage between his mother, her two sons, and the daughters of the bridegroom.

I’m not afraid to say that I just had to look up the definition of bridegroom (the Google search yielded a bunch of images about a VERY SAD movie…something about love being cut short from a “misstep of the side of a roof.” *700 WIDE-EYED EMOJIS HERE*

This means that the stepsiblings by marriage of Rolin’s mom and this guy were going to be…husbands and wives? Am I right? Here’s actually a time I wouldn’t mind being wrong because…yikes.

That makes Brady Bunch look totally, totally normal.

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Jul 28 2014
Art

madonna of chancellor rolin

chancellor rolin big

Jan van Eyck painted this panel of the Madonna and Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to Phillip the Good, in 1435. The whole thing, with such exquisite detail, is barely more than 2 feet high. You can see it at the Louvre.

chan rollin 1

Lots of mind-blowing things are happening in this panel. First, Jan van Eyck inserts himself in the background of the work; in doing so, his selfie creates a liminal, in-between space. Next, the columns in the work are actually squashing bunnies. Rabbits were known as symbols of sexuality and fertility. Well, now they’re all dead. See ya, temptation!

chan crown

Lastly, while I’m all about the iconography of the work, that crown though…

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