The ''Portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati'' is a painting by

early Netherlandish Early Netherlandish painting is the body of work by artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period, once known as the Flemish Primitives. It flourished especially in the ...

painter

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 ...

, dating to around 1431 and now in the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien ( "Vienna Museum of art history, Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, i ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Niccolò Albergati was traditionally identified as the subject of the portrait, but modern scholarship suggests that

Henry Beaufort Henry Beaufort (c. 1375 – 11 April 1447) was an English Catholic prelate and statesman who held the offices of Bishop of Lincoln (1398), Bishop of Winchester (1404) and cardinal (1426). He served three times as Lord Chancellor and played an ...

is more likely to be its subject. If the portrait is of Henry Beaufort, it would be the earliest realistic portrait of an Englishman. Other scholars maintain it does not depict a cardinal at all. The cardinal is portrayed from three-quarters, as was usual in

Flemish painting Flemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century, gradually becoming distinct from the painting of the rest of the Low Countries, especially the modern Netherlands. In the early period, up to about 1520, the painti ...

since as early as the 1430s. The dark background enhances the figure, who is lit by a bright light source. As is common in van Eyck's work, there is very close attention to detail, aided by his use of successive layers of colours diluted with oil, which allowed him deep effects of transparency and lucidity.Borchert (2008), p. 42 A preparatory

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

is now in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen of

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, Germany.Concerning a drawing at the exhibition The Road to van Eyck
. Flemish Art Collection. Retrieved 13 June 2024 Comparison with the drawing shows that van Eyck changed several details, such as the depth of the shoulders, the lower curve of the nose, the depth of the mouth and mainly the size of the ear.

References

Sources

* Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn. ''From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art''. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009. * Borchert, Till-Holger. ''Van Eyck''. London:

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt Taschen and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Tasch ...

, 2008. * Conway, Martin. "A Head of Christ by John van Eyck". ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs'', Volume 39, No. 225, December 1921 * Harbison, Craig. ''Jan van Eyck, The Play of Realism''. London: Reaktion Books, 1991. * Otto Pächt. ''Van Eyck and the Founders of Early Netherlandish Painting''. Harvey Miller, New York, 2000 * Schneider, Norbert. ''Jan van Eyck, the altar of Ghent: proposals for a reform of the church'' (in Spanish). 21st Century, 1997. {{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of Cardinal Niccolo 1430s paintings Portraits by Jan van Eyck Albergati Paintings in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Portraits of men