in the next 10 minutes we will look at what is believed to be january self-portrait we'll revel in its extraordinary details and supremely clever conceit and we will find out what it reveals of the artist himself his self-confidence and his status something that has been recently illuminated by a new discovery jan van impe was one of the most renowned painters of his day his reputation extended well beyond his native netherlands and as far as italy despite his fame most of his biography remains shrouded in mystery we do not know when or where he was born exactly nor with whom he trained what we do know is that he was sought after by the most brilliant patrons of his days including the duke of burgundy philip the good who ruled over much of modern day belgium and northern france a region which was at the time the most prosperous in europe making the duke a very powerful player indeed philip seems to have held his painter in exceptionally high regards he paid him handsomely and even went as far as to intervene when his accountant failed to deliver vana's salary on time he never employed vanek in the more mundane tasks that usually occupied court painters such as the painting of banners or the making of decorations for festivities instead he sent him on secret voyages to distant lands and requested him to perform a pilgrimage on his behalf testifying to an altogether different relationship between the two men so we don't have much evidence about vanek's life but the little we have concurs ensuring that he attained during his lifetime a position very rarely achieved by painters before him in 1431 vanek settled in the thriving and cosmopolitan city of bruges in the following year he completed the phenomenal ghent altarpiece which had been left unfinished by his brother hubert before his death in the decade that followed vanagh produced a slew of commissions both religious pictures and portraits for the city's elite only 20 pictures by vanakk survived today spreading collections across the world and the national gallery is fortunate to have three of them including the iconic arnolfini portraits so if you're keen on one egg do come and visit us and it only takes looking at these pictures to understand why vanayk attained such reputation during his lifetime indeed they all seem to proclaim his seamless ability to convey a convincing illusion of reality through the medium of oil paint so much so that he was long wrongly credited for having invented the medium itself rather vanag seems to have perfected it through his extraordinary command of the medium and technical prowess but also through his prodigious powers of observation the way he scrutinized the world to understand for instance the way light reflects on different materials the way texture can be conveyed as well as details and all of these qualities are evident in the panel behind me emerging from a dark background the sitter gazes out instantly at us he's wearing a dark fur lined robe but it is his eye-catching red headgear that steals the show although it resembles a turban it is actually a typical 15th century piece of headwear a chaperone which consisted of a circular structure the bourge from which hung a hood and a decorative tail the carnet here the sitter has wrapped the cornet in and around the bourge in a fabulously complex and exuberant fashion creating a symphony of deep-fried folds and a powerful sculptural effect there is a kind of sprezzatura or studded carelessness in this impressive arrangement crowned by this flamboyant headpiece or attention is focused on the city's face boldly illuminated from the left again one is struck by how carefully muddled the face is highlighting his cheekbones and the veins that protrude from his temple his double is masterfully rendered with an alternation of darker and lighter dots suggesting the light catching individual hair most impressive perhaps is the rendition of the sitter's piercing blue eyes slightly bloodshot they are animated by lively catch lights and highlighted by a finite network of radiating wrinkles which focus our attention on them however minute and masterful these features are painted with great speed and economy often with single individual strokes or dabs of paints another remarkable feature of this portrait is that it has kept its original frame then i conceived very carefully of his frames using their shape surface treatment and inscriptions to convey meaning while most of his surviving original frames were painted in imitation of marble this portrait stands out as the only instance in vanek's work of a gilded frame and it is this frame which gives us a clue as to the sitter's identity on the bottom edge of the frame van ike has signed and dated the work in latin with the phrase jan van ike made me on 21st of october on the top edge of the frame vanag has appended his motto als egg khan which uh translates from the dutch as as i can and was probably a pun on vanek's surname playing on the consonants between the dutch words for i ek and van eke what the motto seems to imply is as only i yan vanayk khan i am the only one able to produce a likeness that is so faithful and true to life so immediate once again a statement on the artist's amazing self-confidence and awareness while vanek inscribed his motto on several other works here it is far larger and more prominent than anywhere else in addition he positioned it on the upper part of the frame which in other portraits that have survived by him was usually the place where he inscribed his sitter's name so here it seems like the motto could stand for the city's identity and suggesting therefore that we are standing in front of a self-portrait and this is confirmed by the city's direct gaze which meets the viewers what vanek seems to emphasize here is this ultimate attribute of the artist his inquisitive eye so vanish seems to have set his incredible abilities and skills in this portrait and this very much chimes with what we know and what we've already discussed of the social position wealth and status that he achieved during his lifetime something that no mere craftsman or painter had really achieved before him and this particular status he attained has been recently confirmed by a new document uncovered in the vatican archives by the historian hendrik calavere a request that vanek made to the pope in order to obtain a confessional letter that is a permit that allowed him to choose his own confessor then rather than relying on the local parish priest what's significant here is that these requests to the post were not only very expensive they were also the preserve of the highest social classes the nobility the financial and political elites the letters themselves once obtained were kind of status symbols into themselves so what vanaike was doing in requesting that privilege was aligning himself with his most prominent clients his abilities his skills his talent and his network allowing him somehow to share and partake into their lavish lifestyles this discovery is hugely exciting first of all because it shows how a live research is in this field clearly there are more things to be found out about van nuyk and this is hugely exciting it's also invaluable to us here as this new insight into vanag's status deepens our understanding of the extraordinary self-confident way he decided to portray himself in the national gallery self-portrait if you're interested to learn more about art history click here or here thank you very much for watching and we'll see you again soon