Portraiture as we know it begins with van Eyck. His vision and skill launched painting into a new era of unrivalled realism.

All of Jan van Eyck's nine surviving portraits will be shown in the exhibition, a remarkable and exciting opportunity as 15th century paintings on panel are so fragile and not easily moved away from their usual setting. For example, for the first time in its long history, Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum is allowing both of its paintings by Van Eyck to be loaned at the same time.

Jan van Eyck's Portrait of His Wife Margaret from the Bruges Groeninge museum will hang next to Van Eyck's newly conserved possible Self-Portrait and the National Gallery's own Arnolfini Double Portrait will be joined by a probable single Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini from Berlin.

The Study Day will explain the groundbreaking beginnings of portraiture by Flemish painters of whom Jan van Eyck was the defining and innovative artist of this new subject. The nine portraits will then be put into context of his life and career both as a painter and a diplomat on behalf of the Burgundian Court of which he was a part. The portrait as a subject became a key contribution by Flemish painters of the Northern Renaissance who followed him and were so influenced by him.

Lecture 1: The Beginnings of Portraiture in Northern Europe from Sluter and the Limbourg Brothers to Robert Campin

Lecture 2: Jan van Eyck's Portraits and the National Gallery Exhibition

Lecture 3: The Impact and Influence of Jan van Eyck's Portraiture upon his Northern European Contemporaries and Successors.

Description supplied by the event organiser.