Jan van Eyck

Known for: the Ghent Altarpiece (1432); oil painting technique

Jan van Eyck is credited with perfecting the technique of oil painting — building translucent glazes of linseed oil and pigment in layers of extraordinary subtlety — that defined Flemish painting and influenced Italian Renaissance technique. The Arnolfini Portrait (1434) and the Ghent Altarpiece (1432, completed with his brother Hubert) are among the most technically ambitious paintings of the fifteenth century. Almost nothing is known of his life before 1422, when he entered the service of the Duke of Holland.