Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck painted detail at a scale that still seems impossible: individual hairs, reflections inside a convex mirror, threads in a carpet, all in panels you can cover with both hands. Oil paint, which he did not invent but handled better than anyone before him, made the layering possible.

The Arnolfini Portrait crams a signature onto the back wall, Jan van Eyck was here, above a mirror reflecting two extra figures standing where the viewer stands. Scholars have spent a century arguing about what the picture is actually recording.

The Ghent Altarpiece, worked on with his brother Hubert, is the larger achievement and has survived theft, fire, war and one panel still missing since 1934. He worked as court painter to Philip the Good of Burgundy, including diplomatic travel, and was paid well enough to suggest his employer knew what he had.