''Saint Barbara'' is a small 1437 drawing on oak

panel Panel may refer to: Arts and media Visual arts *Panel painting, in art, a painting on a wood panel (as opposed to canvas, a wall etc) *Panel (comics), a single image in a comic book, comic strip or cartoon; also, a comic strip containing one ...

, signed and dated 1437 by the

Netherlandish The Low Countries comprise the coastal Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta region in Western Europe, whose definition usually includes the modern countries of Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and parts of Northern France. Both Belgium and the ...

artist

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( ; ; – 9 July 1441) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Nort ...

. It is unknown if the work is a chalk ground study in pencil for a planned oil painting, an unfinished underdrawing or a completed work in of itself, although the latter is deemed more likely. The panel shows

Saint Barbara Saint Barbara (; ; ; ), known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an Early Christianity, early Christian Greek saint and martyr. There is no reference to her in the authentic early Christian writings nor in the origin ...

imprisoned in a tower by her pagan father to preserve her from the outside world, especially from suitors he did not approve of. While there, she converted to Christianity, enraging her father and leading to her murder and martyrdom. Art historians debate whether the work is an unfinished painting or a complete drawing or study.Saint Barbara
.

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. Retrieved 21 July 2018 The panel was completed with brush strokes, a stylus,

silverpoint Silverpoint (one of several types of metalpoint) is a traditional drawing technique and tool first used by medieval scribes on manuscripts. History A silverpoint drawing is made by dragging a silver rod or wire across a surface, often prepared ...

, ink, oil and black pigment on a chalk ground. The blue and

ultramarine Ultramarine is a deep blue pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. Its lengthy grinding and washing process makes the natural pigment quite valuable—roughly ten times more expensive than the stone it comes fr ...

paint may be later additions. Some areas of the panel are more detailed than others, and it has long been debated if it is an autonomous drawing or the underdrawing for a lost painting. If intended as a finished work, it would be the earliest surviving drawing of any artist, although not prepared on paper or parchment. Evidence includes that the work was highly regarded at the time by Flemish aesthetics as an object in itself.Borchert (2011), 145

St. Barbara

Saint Barbara was a 3rd-century Christian

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

who became a popular saint in the late

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. According to

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

, her wealthy and

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

father, Dioscorus, sought to preserve her from unwelcome suitors by imprisoning her in a tower. While captive, Barbara let in a priest who baptised her, an act for which she was hunted and eventually beheaded by her father. She became a popular subject for artists of van Eyck's generation; another notable contemporary depiction is

Robert Campin Robert Campin (Valenciennes (France) c. 1375 - Tournai (Belgium) 26 April 1444) now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle (earlier the Master of the Merode Triptych, before the discovery of three other similar panels), was a master pai ...

's 1438 '' Werl Triptych''.Stephan, Kemerdick; Sanders, Jochen. ''The Master of Flémalle and Rogier van der Weyden''.

Städel The Städel, officially the ''Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie'', is an art museum in Frankfurt, with one of the most important collections in Germany. The museum is located at the Museumsufer on the Sachsenhausen bank of t ...

Museum, Frankfurt, 2009.

Panel

The areas of the surface containing pigment, including portions of the sky and the window traceries, may have been later additions, with the early 17th-century Flemish painter

Karel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander IKarel van Mander
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History ...

sometimes attributed.

Description

Barbara is shown seated, reading a book in front of a large

Gothic cathedral Gothic cathedrals and churches are religious buildings constructed in Europe in Gothic style between the mid-12th century and the beginning of the 16th century. The cathedrals are notable particularly for their great height and their extensive us ...

still in the process of being built, with many workmen visible on the ground carrying stone and on various parts of the tower. She has the typical narrow shoulders of a female van Eyck portrait. She is dressed in

houppelande A houppelande or houpelande is an outer garment, with a long, full body and flaring sleeves, that was worn by both men and women in Europe in the late Middle Ages. Sometimes the houppelande was lined with fur. The garment was later worn by professi ...

with wide sleeves and a gown gathered at the waist. The opening in her

bodice A bodice () is an article of clothing traditionally for women and girls, covering the torso from the neck to the waist. The term typically refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the ...

rises to a deep v-neck, while the

trim Trim or TRIM may refer to: Cutting * Cutting or trimming small pieces off something to remove them ** Book trimming, a stage of the publishing process ** Pruning, trimming as a form of pruning often used on trees Decoration * Trim (sewing), or ...

rises to form a collar made of fur. Below the v-neck is a dark partlet, a rectangular piece of cloth with an open, standing collar, which is perhaps made of

taffeta Taffeta (archaically spelled taffety or taffata) is a crisp, smooth, plain woven fabric made from silk, nylon, cuprammonium rayons, acetate, or polyester. The word came into Middle English via Old French and Old Italian, which borrowed the Pers ...

. As a maiden, she is bare-headed.van Buren (2011), 160 Three women behind and to Barbara's left are seen visiting the construction, each wearing similar houppelandes. The woman in the centre raises her skirt to show her

kirtle A kirtle (sometimes called cotte, cotehardie) is a garment that was worn by men and women in the European Middle Ages. It eventually became a one-piece garment worn by women from the late Middle Ages into the Baroque period. The kirtle was typi ...

. They are each wearing a headdress, probably burlets with ruffled golets draped from the head. The drawing is set against a blue wash skyNash (2008), 143 sweeping landscape rendered in browns, whites and blues, with parts only sketchily detailed.Borchert (2008), 64 The elements of the tower are minutely described and contain many complex architectural details. In a number of respects it resembles the

Cologne cathedral Cologne Cathedral (, , officially , English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia belonging to the Catholic Church. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archd ...

,Ferrari (2013), 110 which in 1437 was still under construction. Van Eyck had earlier depicted the cathedral as well as a view of Cologne in the ''Adoration of the Lamb'' panel of the ''

Ghent Altarpiece The ''Ghent Altarpiece'', also called the ''Adoration of the Mystic Lamb'' (), is a very large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun around the mid-1420s and completed by 1432, and it ...

''. The tower, like the drawing itself, is still under construction, and the panel in parts resembles a building site, being filled with figures engaged in the building project. They include architects, foremen, and numerous workmen carrying stone. According to the art historian Simone Ferrari, "with its detailed and complex of small scenes, the work seems to foreshadow the paintings of

Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; – 9 September 1569) was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaking, printmaker, known for his landscape art, landscape ...

". The panel's granularity of detail recedes as the viewer's eye moves towards the background. The craftsmen on the tower top are far less detailed than those on the ground at Barbara's level, while elements of the landscape are bare sketches. In some areas, there is cross-over between the line of the preparatory drawing and the under-painting.

Frame

The lower borders of the illusionistically painted solid red marble frame contain lettering painted in such a manner as to appear as if chiselled. The words are set in Roman capitals, with punctuation at the beginning and end of the sentence.Nash (2008), 145 The lettering reads ('Jan van Eyck made me, 1437'). This fact has brought a lot of questions to the exact role of van Eyck's signature. If it is assumed that the work is unfinished, then the completion may refer only to the design of the picture, left to be finished by members of his workshop.Borchert (2008), 66 However, it has been pointed out that inscriptions or signatures were sometimes the first element of a painting to be completed.

References

Sources

* Borchert, Till-Holger. ''Van Eyck''. London: Taschen, 2008. * Crawford Luber, Katherine. "Recognizing Van Eyck: Magical Realism in Landscape Painting". ''Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin'', Vol. 91, No. 386/387, 1998 * van Buren, Anne H. ''Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands, 1325-1515''. New York:

Morgan Library & Museum The Morgan Library & Museum (originally known as the Pierpont Morgan Library and colloquially known the Morgan) is a museum and research library in New York City, New York, U.S. Completed in 1906 as the private library of the banker J. P. Morg ...

, 2011. * Borchert, Till-Holger. ''Van Eyck to Durer: The Influence of Early Netherlandish painting on European Art, 1430–1530''. London: Thames & Hudson, 2011. * Ferrari, Simone. ''Van Eyck''. Munich: Prestel, 2013. * Friedländer, Max Jakob. ''Early Netherlandish Paintings, Volume 1: The van Eycks, Petrus Christus''. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967 * Harbison, Craig. ''Jan van Eyck: the play of realism''. London: Reaktion Books, 1997. * Jones, Susan Frances. ''Van Eyck to Gossaert''. National Gallery, 2011. 104. * Nash, Susie. ''Northern Renaissance art''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.