Oil painting (van Eyck)
Pintura al óleo perfeccionada
- Date
- c. 1420 · confidence medium
- Place
- Bruges, Flanders
- Credited to
- Jan van Eyck (building on Theophilus's 12th-century recipes)
- People
- 👤 Jan van Eyck1390–1441
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Pigments bound with drying linseed or walnut oil, applied in translucent glazes rather than egg tempera. It allowed unprecedented realism, light and detail.
Vasari attributed the invention to Van Eyck, but Theophilus (c. 1120) had already described oil painting; Van Eyck perfected the technique.
What it led to
- Flemish painting and the Italian Renaissance (Antonello da Messina)
- the trade in pigments and drying oils
- Gutenberg's oil-based printing ink
Built on
- tempera
- Theophilus's recipes (De diversis artibus)
- drying oils
Made possible
- Oil-based printing inkc. 1450
- Oil-based printing ink
- easel painting on canvas