Detail of music-making angels

The way that Van Eyck depicts materials is masterful: the shiny bronze of the chair, the matte floor, the soft ermine … The motifs on the tiles are painted so meticulously that you literally have to use a magnifying glass if you want to see all the details. Contemporary designers such as Ward Wijnant and Sophie Rowley also have this special attention for patterns.
Van Eyck tells stories with his work, all objects contain symbolism, just as in the work of Klaas Rommelaere.
The oldest purple dye stems from classical Antiquity and originates from a sea snail. Hundreds of thousands of sea snails had to be ‘milked’ or crushed to produce 100 grams. The dye was very expensive due to the cumbersome production process.