La Virgen del canciller Rolin

Van Eyck painted this around 1435 for Nicolas Rolin, the chancellor who ran the Duchy of Burgundy and was one of the richest, most feared men of his day. Rolin knelt for it. He put himself on the left of the panel, at prayer, the same size as the Virgin, kneeling a few feet from the infant Christ inside a splendid marble loggia. That was a bold claim to make in a picture destined for his parish church, and it fed a reputation for pride that trailed him for centuries. Behind the two figures the world opens into a river city crossed by a bridge, thought to be his Burgundian home town of Autun, painted with tiny figures on the water and hills fading into haze. A recent Louvre cleaning, finished in 2024, lifted off darkened varnish and brought back the deep reds and greens, along with details that had gone almost invisible in the far landscape.