Magnum Opus: Het leven van Johannes, Hubert, Lambert & Margaretha Van Eyck. Een biografische roman
Raymond Corremans
Uitgeverij C. de Vries-Brouwers, 2020
€34,50
Out of stock
For the first time, the life of Jan Van Eyck and family is recorded in a biographical novel. The historical data are scarce, but were all included and form part of the story. In spite of a maze of theories launched by eminent scholars, the most important being Dr. Elisabeth Dhanens, but also Erwin Panofsky, Lorne Campbell, Volker Herzner, Pierre-Michel Bertrand and dozens of others, a balanced course of life was compiled.
Hubert wants to become an artist against the will of his father, but the success is not forthcoming until he receives a major assignment in Ghent. His sister Margaret has a golden singing voice but struggles with her love life; she comforts herself by assisting her brothers. The next one, Lambert, is the only one historically mentioned alongside the youngest, John. Most of the biographical details of Johannes are known. We follow him from birth to death, with all the known events in his life woven into a story that also gives a picture of the time in which he lived.
New is the fact that Jan Van Eyck has portrayed his brother on the mysterious Tymotheus portrait in the National Gallery in London. The portrait dates from October 10, 1432, after the Ghent Altarpiece had been installed in Ghent since May 6 of the same year. Undoubtedly, Johannes wanted to worship his brother Hubert, who had died nearly six years earlier, in a faithful memory, “Leal Souvenir,” as stated at work.
Designed as a sort of diary, the work can be read as an episodic novel. The genre is a rarely applied form of the biographical novel, namely fact-fiction for the connoisseurs. And people who like to travel will find out how this involved much more in the 15th century than today. IN DUTCH!
ISBN: 9789059275843
