(piano playing) Dr. Zucker: We're in the
National Gallery in London and we're looking at a Jan van Eyck, Portrait of a Man with a red turbine. Dr. Harris: This is thought
by many art historians to be a self portrait of the
great Northern Renaissance artist. Dr. Zucker: He's looking directly at us, but I think for me probably
the most convincing evidence is not so much in the face,
but actually in the frame. Dr. Harris: The frame has a
very interesting inscription, and in fact, van Eyck
often put inscriptions in the paintings and in the
frames in different ways that art historians are
still theorizing about, but this painting has an
inscription at the top that has van Eyck's personal motto, "As I can," written in Greek letters. Dr. Zucker: It's wildly complicated, so, As I can, is coming from a motto that scribes often put at
the end of a manuscript that they had just copied
which would have been a little bit longer. It would have said, "As
I can, not as I would." Which means this is the best I can do, I wish I could do better. Dr. Harris: Right, a sort
of humble thing to say, but van Eyck hasn't taken the,
I wish I could do better part. he just said, "As I can." Dr. Zucker: Which seems
anything but humble especially as the I in
the middle of the phrase can be a kind of play on van Eyck's name. Dr. Harris: As Eyck can, as I can. It does seem as though van Eyck is
showing off here what he can do. Dr. Zucker: One art
historian has suggested that this was kind of a portfolio piece, that this was a show piece. That the artist would
actually use this as a way of selling his abilities
to potential patrons; you can compare this
painting to my own face. Dr. Harris: Right, here
I am standing before you, here is the painting and
this is how real I can paint. We do have this interest in
artists making their paintings look so believable in the Northern
Renaissance in the 15th Century. Dr. Zucker: There is a wonderful
kind of self consciousness here, not only in the inscription, but in a way that the figure
looks directly out at us. Dr. Harris: I don't feel
him so much look out at us, it does seem like a self portrait to me, I feel him look at himself in a mirror. I can almost feel his right hand lifted as he's painting this panel. Dr. Zucker: Look at the unsparing way that he's represented himself. If you look very closely
you can just see his beard that has begun to grow,
so you see a stubble. If you look at his eye,
the red veins are there, perhaps from close looking himself. We have to look as closely and there
really is this wonderful intimacy. Dr. Harris: The wrinkles, the saggy skin, the beginning of the way the cheeks are
dropping on either side of his face. Dr. Zucker: He's not
idealizing himself in any way, but there's age of the human body, and then there's also
a sense of the history. He's taken his hat and he's wrapped it up so that it becomes a kind of a turbine. This is referenced back to the
ancient world, certainly to the east. Dr. Harris: You have that
in the lettering, too. Dr. Zucker: Right where
you have Greek letters. And you have a mix of Greek and
Arabic in the date down below. Dr. Harris: This was a
very unusual thing to do, van Eyck signed his name along the bottom, Jan van Eyck me fecit in Latin, made me. Then it has a very specific date, in 1433 on the 21st of October. This very specific dating is
unusual in the 15th Century and it suggests, I think,
that van Eyck was aware of time in a particular way and of his place in history
in a particular way. Dr. Zucker: One scholar has pointed out that the typeface that he's used, not the language, but the typeface is actually an archaic
typeface that would have been recognized as old fashioned. I think you're right, I
think there's a real sense that the artist was using
history in a very conscienc way that prompts the viewer
to think historically. Dr. Harris: To think
about the passage of time. It's amazing to me, too, that
those letters on the frame are not actually inscribed. He's painted them illusionistically to appear as though they
were carved into the frame, but that's just paint. There's a real showing off of the
illusions that the artist could create. Dr. Zucker: This is a
painting where I get the sense that the artist is looking
at us through history and he knew he would be doing that when he painted this
more than 500 years ago. Dr. Harris: Yeah, I get the same feeling. (piano playing)