Jan Van Eyck: the Ince Hall Virgin and Child and the Scientific Examination of Early Netherlandish Painting

The Ince Hall Virgin and Child is a small painting that was acquired by the Felton Bequest for the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne in 1922. Since its discovery by Gustav Friedrich Waagen in 1850 it had been attributed to the leading Renaissance artist Jan van Eyck, and was regarded around the world as a gem of early Netherlandish painting. However, between 1956 and 1959 it was subject to a technical and art historical re-appraisal by European experts in the re-classification of the work as a copy after a lost original by Van Eyck, and possibly a forgery. This is the first comprehensive review of the scientific and art historical analysis to be published since the 1950s. It re-examines the autograph status of the work, to correct the inaccuracies and inconsistencies of its analysis, to emphasise the ambiguous nature of much of the evidence cited to sustain the de-attribution, and to present material that can be used to argue for the authenticity of the painting. More broadly, this book also sheds light on the methodologies of connoisseurship, the materials and techniques of early Netherlandish painting, and the iconography of Jan van Eyck.