Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban (Self portrait?)

This penetrating bust of a man in a voluminous red chaperon - a draped hood then in fashion - is very likely Jan van Eyck's own self-portrait: the direct, slightly wary gaze meeting ours is exactly what a painter sees while studying himself in a mirror. It is among the first portraits in Western art in which the sitter looks straight out at the viewer. The original frame carries van Eyck's personal motto, Als Ich Can ('as best I can'), a sly pun on his name. With oil paint he records every reddened eyelid and stubbled jaw, making the older medium of tempera suddenly look flat.