Madonna and Child with Canon Joris van de Paele

The enthroned Virgin and Child receive a kneeling donor - Joris van der Paele, an aging, ailing canon of this church in Bruges - presented by his name-saint George in gleaming armor, while Saint Donatian stands at the left. Jan van Eyck records the canon with merciless honesty: the puffy, stubbled face, the trembling hands clutching spectacles and a prayer book, every vein and wrinkle of old age. Around him he conjures a Romanesque church, a Turkish carpet, and armor that mirrors the whole room in miniature. This is the votive portrait - a donor commending himself to heaven - raised by oil paint to a pitch of realism no one had reached before.