The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin

The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin is one of Jan van Eyck’s supreme achievements of Northern Renaissance painting. The Burgundian chancellor Nicolas Rolin kneels in prayer before the Virgin and Child, framed by a loggia that opens onto a meticulously rendered river landscape. Van Eyck’s revolutionary use of oil glaze creates effects of light and texture — from gilded capitals to distant towns — that had never been seen before.