Saint Barbara. Saint Barbara is a small 1437 drawing on oak panel, signed and dated 1437 by the Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck.
It is unknown if the work is a chalk ground study in pencil for a planned oil painting, an unfinished underdrawing or a completed work in of itself, although the latter is deemed more likely. The panel shows Saint Barbara imprisoned in a tower by her pagan father, to preserve her from the outside world, especially from suitors he did not approve of. While there, she converted to Christianity, enraging her father and leading to her murder and martyrdom.
The nature of the work has been widely debated by art historians. Found on a chalk ground, the panel was completed with brush stroke, a stylus, silverpoint, ink, oil and black pigment.
The blue and ultramarine paint may be later additions. Some areas and passages are more detailed than others, and it has long been debated if it is an autonomous drawing or the underdrawing for an unfinished painting.
If it was intended as extant, it would be the earliest surviving drawing of any artist, although not prepared on paper or parchment. Evidence includes that the work was highly regarded at the time by Flemish aesthetics as an object in itself. Saint Barbara was a Christian martyr believed to have lived in the 3rd century, and a popular saint in the late Middle Ages. According to hagiography, her wealthy and pagan father,
It is unknown if the work is a chalk ground study in pencil for a planned oil painting, an unfinished underdrawing or a completed work in of itself, although the latter is deemed more likely. The panel shows Saint Barbara imprisoned in a tower by her pagan father, to preserve her from the outside world, especially from suitors he did not approve of. While there, she converted to Christianity, enraging her father and leading to her murder and martyrdom.
The nature of the work has been widely debated by art historians. Found on a chalk ground, the panel was completed with brush stroke, a stylus, silverpoint, ink, oil and black pigment.
The blue and ultramarine paint may be later additions. Some areas and passages are more detailed than others, and it has long been debated if it is an autonomous drawing or the underdrawing for an unfinished painting.
If it was intended as extant, it would be the earliest surviving drawing of any artist, although not prepared on paper or parchment. Evidence includes that the work was highly regarded at the time by Flemish aesthetics as an object in itself. Saint Barbara was a Christian martyr believed to have lived in the 3rd century, and a popular saint in the late Middle Ages. According to hagiography, her wealthy and pagan father,
Wikipedia ...