| Description : Jan van Eyck (∼1390‐1441) was a Flemish painter of
the late Middle Ages and is regarded as the founder and most famous representative of Old Netherlandish painting. With his
perfect painting technique and his sense of realistic representation, he introduced the new naturalistic artistic epoch
north of the Alps. His most famous work, the Ghent Altarpiece, returned to St. Bavo's Cathedral in 2020 after
several years of restoration. To mark the occasion, the city of Ghent is celebrating a "Van Eyck Year". The coin, designed
by Luc Luycx, shows the portrait Man with a Red Turban, created in 1433 and part of the inventory of the
National Gallery in London, which is considered a self‐portrait of the painter. Under the issue occasion "J. van
Eyck", his signature "Johannes de Eyck" is depicted on the left; the year of issue "2020" and the country abbreviation "BE"
(Belgium) appear on the right; the staff of Hermes the mint mark of the Royal Dutch mint Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt
in Houten appears below and the coat of arms of the municipality of Herzele the logo of the mint master Ingrid
Van Herzele. On the painter's palette shown on the lower left, the initials "LL" of the designer can be seen next to
two brushes and heaps of paint. |
