Jan van Eycks surviving work comprises a series of painstakingly detailed oil paintings. Most explanations of the meanings behind these paintings have been grounded in religious symbolism. But in Jan van Eyck: The Play of Realism, such approaches to the art of this Netherlandish master are set aside. In a fascinating recovery of the neglected human dimension that is clearly present in these works, Craig Harbison interrogates the personal histories of the worldly participants of such masterpieces as the Virgin and Child with George van der Paele, the Arnolfini Double Portrait and the Virgin and Child with Nicolas Rolin.
