Van Eyck in Valencia

Abstract

In this article, the author argues that Jan van Eyck visited Valencia as part of the ducal embassy to Aragon in the autumn/winter of 1426, which was the first of two embassies sent by Philip the Good to negotiate his marriage to Eleanor of Aragon, sister of Alfonso V of Aragon. This visit probably enabled a number of Valencian painters to contact the Burgundian court painter and gain direct access to his technical and pictorial innovations. Within a small network of Valencian artists, some even acquired a painting and a drawing attributed to him. Exceptionally, tracings after Eyckian works were imported and liter-ally taken over, as is evidenced by the study of Dalmau’s Virgin of the Consellers. Dalmau made his tracings after the Ghent Altarpiece in Van Eyck’s workshop, before the work was installed in the Vijd Chapel. The duration of Dalmau’s stay in Van Eyck’s workshop should therefore be taken into account when studying the genesis of the Ghent Altarpiece.