The Virgin Mary (The Ghent Altarpiece), 1432 Jan van Eyck (b.1395-1441)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Jan van Eyck also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting The Virgin Mary (The Ghent Altarpiece) is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

We offer free shipping as well as paid express transportation services.

After adding your artwork to the shopping cart, you will be able to check the delivery price using the Estimate Shipping and Tax tool.

The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

In this remarkable panel from the Ghent Altarpiece, Van Eyck presents the Virgin Mary not as a distant icon but as an intensely present being, absorbed in quiet contemplation of her sacred text. The deep ultramarine of her robe, made from precious lapis lazuli, creates a profound sense of stillness and authority. This is a Virgin who reads, thinks, and emanates intellectual as well as spiritual power.

The technical virtuosity is breathtaking in its precision. Notice how Van Eyck renders each element with microscopic attention – from the delicate gold embroidery adorning the robe's hem to the play of light across the pages of the open book. The artist's revolutionary oil technique allowed him to build up translucent layers of paint, creating an almost jewel-like surface that seems to trap and reflect light itself. The radiant gold leaf nimbus behind Mary's head, inscribed with Latin text, demonstrates both technical mastery and theological purpose.

The composition draws us into an intimate moment while maintaining appropriate sacred distance. Mary's downward gaze and slight tilt of the head create a psychological space that feels both immediate and eternal. Her crown, studded with pearls and precious stones, hovers between being a physical object and a manifestation of divine light. This duality – between the material and the spiritual – runs throughout the work.

Let us appreciate how the artist handles space and perspective. The tiled floor beneath Mary's robes, though partially visible, establishes a convincing sense of depth while the golden background flattens and elevates the scene into the realm of the divine. This sophisticated manipulation of pictorial space was revolutionary for its time, helping to establish the Northern Renaissance's distinctive approach to religious imagery. Here was an art that could unite the tangible and the transcendent, the observed and the mystical, in a single coherent vision.