Out of the Blue
A close look at Maria at the Fountain by Jan van Eyck
Artist and conservator Charlotte Caspers looks right through the paint surface and layers of the breathtaking Maria at the Fountain by the Flemish Master Jan van Eyck. The colours and materials tell their own story, of another time and a different world.
Zoom in on the virgin’s robe until it is reduced to a patch of monochrome colour and what you see is not a single blue, but an entire landscape of different hues: blue with a touch of white, warm blue, greenish blue, thick blue, shiny blue, thin blue, broken blue – there are no words to describe all the different shades.
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