''Saint Barbara'' is a small 1437 drawing (41.2 × 27.5 cm) on oak panel, 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 and the Netherlands. Both Belgium and the Netherlands derived their ...

artist Jan van Eyck. 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 ( grc, Ἁγία Βαρβάρα; cop, Ϯⲁⲅⲓⲁ Ⲃⲁⲣⲃⲁⲣⲁ; ; ), known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian Lebanese and Greek saint and martyr. Accounts place her in t ...

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. The nature of the work has been widely debated by art historians.Saint Barbara
.

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. Retrieved 21 July 2018 Found on a chalk ground, the panel was completed with brush stroke, a stylus, silverpoint, ink, oil and black pigment. The blue and

ultramarine Ultramarine is a deep blue color pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. The name comes from the Latin ''ultramarinus'', literally 'beyond the sea', because the pigment was imported into Europe from mines in Afg ...

paint may be later additions. Some areas and passages are more detailed than others, and it has long been debated if it is an autonomous drawing or the underdrawing for an unfinished painting. If it was intended as extant, 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 Christian

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', 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 externa ...

believed to have lived in the 3rd century, and a popular saint in the late

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

. According to hagiography, her wealthy and pagan 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 (c. 1375 – 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 the first great master of Early Netherlandish paint ...

's 1438 '' Werl Triptych''.Stephan, Kemerdick; Sanders, Jochen. ''The Master of Flémalle and Rogier van der Weyden''. Städel 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 I (May 1548 – 2 September 1606) was a Flemish painter, poet, art historian and art theoretician, who established himself in the Dutch Republic in the latter part of his life. He is mainly remembere ...

sometimes attributed.

Description

Saint Barbara of Nicodemia - Jan van Eyck - 1437 (detail)

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

Gothic cathedral Gothic cathedrals and churches are religious buildings created in Europe between the mid-12th century and the beginning of the 16th century. The cathedrals are notable particularly for their great height and their extensive use of stained glass t ...

still in the process of being built, with many workmen visible on the ground carry 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 with wide sleeves, and a gown which is 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 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, cuprammonium rayons, acetate, and polyester. The word is Persian (تافته) in origin and means "twisted woven". As clothing, it is used i ...

. 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 center 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 Middle Ages. It eventually became a one-piece garment worn by women from the late Middle Ages into the Baroque period. The kirtle was typically worn ...

. They are each wearing headdress, probably burlets with ruffled golets draped from the head. Saint Barbara - Jan van Eyck (detail)

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 highly described, and contain many complex architectural details. In a number of respects it resembles the Cologne cathedral,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 ''Adoration of the Mystic Lamb'', also called the ''Ghent Altarpiece'' ( nl, De aanbidding van het Lam Gods), is a large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun around the mid-1420 ...

''. 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 workmen carrying stone, foremen and architects. According to art historian Simone Ferrari, "with its detailed and complex of small scenes, the work seems to foreshadow the paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder". The panel's granularity of detail recedes as the viewers'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 the line between the preparatory drawing and the under-painting cross-over.

Frame

The lower borders of the illusionistically painted solid red marble frame which contains lettering painted in such a manner so as to appear as if chiseled. 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 question to the exact role of van Eyck's signature. If it is assumed that the work is unfinished, then the completion may refers 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

Notes

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, 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.