Portrait of Cardinal Niccolo Albergati 1435-1438
Art History Museum, Vienna

This portrait shows the Cardinal Niccólo Albergati, the head of the Carthusian Order who travelled on a pontifical mission to the courts of England, France and Burgundy for peace negotiations to the end of the Ten Years War between England and France. Jan Van Eyck, court painter to the Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, made a silverpoint sketch in one portrait sitting (today in Dresden) as a preparatory work for this painting. Despite the realistic, carefully observed traces of age in the old man’s face, the portrait radiates dignified repose.