The technique of oil painting transformed the character of European painting, and Jan van Eyck was its earliest and most eloquent practitioner in the Burgundian Netherlands. Whether painting portraits or religious themes, he achieved a new level of realism through his acute powers of observation and unsurpassed representational technique. His Crucifixion transposed an event of the Bible into the viewer's immediate realm of experience and elicited a new kind of emotional response. Van Eyck's legacy lived on particularly in Bruges, the favored city of the Burgundian dukes, through the works of Petrus Christus, Hans Memling, and Gerard David, artists especially well represented in the Metropolitan.
Note: This gallery is temporarily closed to the public due to a construction project. Visitors to the Museum may inquire at the Information Desk in the Great Hall for more information.
