The Ghent Altarpiece (wings closed)

The exterior panels of the Ghent Altarpiece, seen when the wings are closed, present the Annunciation scene along with portraits of the donors, Jodocus Vijd and his wife Elisabeth Borluut. These panels are visible on ordinary days when the altarpiece was closed, with the splendid interior revealed only on feast days. The Ghent Altarpiece, completed in 1432 and among the most significant works in Western art, established the parameters of Flemish painting for the following century. The polyptych altarpiece — with its complex iconographic program of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, the Annunciation, donor portraits, and prophets — demonstrated the full range of possibilities that the new oil painting technique could achieve: the luminosity of stained glass combined with the representational specificity of physical observation. Jan van Eyck's contribution to what was already in progress when his brother Hubert died in 1426 cannot be precisely determined, but the work's technical achievements belong to the tradition he established.

The grisaille figures of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist simulate stone sculptures with convincing trompe-l'oeil effect. The Annunciation scene above shows van Eyck's mastery of interior perspective and light.