Creator

Jan Van Eyck

Creation-date

1433

Technique

Painting

Material

Oil on wood

Inventory number

Inv. NG222

Subject-1

Early Netherlandish painting

Object-Current-Location

London, National Gallery

Digital resource author

GrECI Project

Digital-resource-rights holder

University of Oslo (for GrECI project)

Image-number

026_Id_1

License

CC BY

Description

This painting is an early example of the inclusion of Greek letters into the visual art. The upper frame shows the artist's Flemish motto in Greek lettering ("Als ich can"; meaning "as I can [but not as I would like]" or "as best as I can"). Perhaps the use of Greek was intended to give the motto a proverbial quality.