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How Could This Be Painted 600 Years Ago?

Under The Pigment

1,923,092 views

🔎 The video was only the beginning. Continue the Van Eyck investigation—then uncover the hidden stories inside 11 more masterpieces:
https://underthepigment.com

Jan van Eyck painted a face just millimetres wide, 600 years ago. The closer you look, the stranger it gets.

How did Jan van Eyck paint microscopic detail centuries before modern tools? Inside the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, tiny figures, hidden symbols, distant buildings, and whole mountain ranges appear across a small oak panel. A major Louvre restoration finally revealed just how precise his work really was.

We break down his glowing oil-glaze technique, squirrel-hair brushes, possible magnifying lenses, and the controversial theory that he used an optical device. Then there is the man in the red hat, who may be Van Eyck himself. Even a 3.5-billion-pixel image has not solved the mystery.

👉 Subscribe for more astonishing stories hiding inside great works of art.

#ArtHistory #JanVanEyck #LookCloser

Chapters
00:00 - Impossible Face
02:11 - Hidden Symbols
04:30 - Painting Method
07:27 - Actual Man
10:33 - Optical Theory
14:28 - Final Verdict

20 Comments

@underthepigment Creator 1 month ago (edited) Pinned

🔎 The video was only the beginning. Continue the Van Eyck investigation—then uncover the hidden stories inside 11 more masterpieces:
https://underthepigment.com

Which painting should we investigate next?

@Galileo_Was_Right 1 month ago

Doesn’t matter if he used an “optical or tracing” device, he was a master at his craft. Even with a traced line it takes enormous skill to end up with a finished painting such as this.

@booker0110 1 month ago

How can a man paint so many incredibly detailed pictures in one life time, it’s humbling.

@WilliamEvans-m1k 1 month ago

Whatever the technique he used, van Eyck produced works that continue to fascinate some 600 years after their production.

@leeberge6928 1 month ago

I've seen a girl with Asperger's do miniature drawings with a pencil. She didn't wear glasses or use a magnifying glass. The details are insane when viewing with a magnifying glass.

@annbrookens945 1 month ago

However he accomplished this painting, it derived from his hand, his vision, his skill. The cleaning and restoration has merely made it clear how extraordinarily talented he was!

@petepal55 1 month ago

My grandfather was Malthe Hasselriis, a well-known miniatures artist in NYC during his lifetime. I have the magnifying headset he used for some of his work. I'm also quite myopic, so I don't need a headset. He said he envied me my near-blindness, as using 2-camel hair brushes came easy to me.

@steve-oh4342 1 month ago

When you only have to worry about doing one thing really well for your entire life and not be distracted by things like a 9-5 job, tv, social media etc. it's amazing what a truly talented, trained individual can do.

@JKDarson 1 month ago (edited)

Even now in present time , no one can equal or copy likewise this level of skill , van Eyck is one in a trillion ❤

@bruceshaw2402 1 month ago

I think the man at the parapit wall in the red head gear is Van Eyke and wether he had mechanical help or not his skill was beyond question .

@YtUser-c1c 1 month ago

I am much more amazed bij the detail in fabrics and faces. It is a magnificent piece of art.

@Franmc4 1 month ago

So the two little figures are like a medieval selfie? The skill is mind blowing

@annemaria5126 1 month ago

The effort, patience, consumed time, stable hands, the eyes of the master......

@fredceely 1 month ago

He did it with tools available to him, in ways that only he could understand. They knew how to keep inovations private in those days. We should worry less about "how", and simply appreciate the genius that is spread before us.

@UltimateBeyond10 1 month ago

Whatever secret was behind van Eyck's technique, the fact that his paintings still look extraordinary after 600 years is incredible.

@ArtRevealedUSA 1 month ago

“It’s amazing how a painting this old can still feel so alive and meaningful today.”

@ajeetpcherian 1 month ago

He indeed had an optical device and he was a master of his craft at the same time.

@bernaclischurchill4463 1 month ago

Put it simply, the man was a genius, and its obvious that no one today is or will ever be on the level of this or any artist of that time period, and the resentment and jealous is palpable. I've seen Van Eyck's paintings, and they are truly Mind Blowing, to say the least.

@cccile2 1 month ago

His paintings were so detailed that as a child, I thought the Arnolfini portrait was a photograph

@silverhausen 1 month ago

People loved their miniature portraits in those days, perhaps the tech was devised for that. A man could travel and look upon the faces of his loved ones in the mini portraits that could fit in a pocket...