Léal SouvenirAlthough the inscription on the parapet does not contain a diacritic on the e. (also known as Timotheus or Portrait of a Man) is a small oil-on-oak panel portrait by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck, dated 1432. The sitter has not been identified, but his distinctive features suggest a historical person rather than the hypothetical ideal typical of the time in northern Renaissance portraiture; his slight, unassuming torso contrasts with a sophisticated facial expression. His features have been described as "plain and rustic", yet thoughtful and inward-looking. The sitter was apparently a significant enough member of the Burgundian duke Philip the Good's circle that his court painter portrayed him.
The man sits before an imitation parapet with three sets of painted inscriptions, each rendered to look as if chiselled or scratched into stone.Panofsky, 80 Van Eyck did not have full command of either classical Greek or Latin and made errors, so readings by modern scholars vary. The first inscription is in Greek and appears to read "TYΜ.ωΘΕΟϹ", which has not been satisfactorily interpreted, though it has led some to title the work 'Timotheus'. The middle reads in French "Leal Souvenir" ("Loyal Memory") and indicates that the portrait is a posthumous commemoration. The third records van Eyck's signature and the date of execution.Bauman, 37 The 19th-century art historian Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert identified the lettering "TYΜ.ωΘΕΟC"Paviot, 212 with the Greek musician Timotheus of Miletus. Panofsky drew the same conclusion, eliminating other Greeks bearing the name Timothy; they were of a religious or military background, professions that do not match the sitter's civilian dress. Panofsky believed the man was probably a highly placed musician in Philip's court, possibly Gilles Binchois.Wood, 650
More recent research focuses on the legalese in one of the inscriptions, suggesting to some that he was connected to the legal profession or an employee of Philip the Good. The panel was acquired in 1857 by the National Gallery, London, where it is on permanent display.
Description Léal Souvenir is one of the earliest surviving examples of secular portraiture in medieval European art and one of the earliest extant unidealised representations.Smith, 42 This is apparent in its realism and acute observation of the details of the man's everyday appearance. Van Eyck worked in the early Renaissance tradition and pioneered the manipulation of oil paint. Oil allowed smooth translucent surfaces, could be applied across a range of thicknesses, and could be altered while wet, which allowed far more subtle detail than available to previous generations of painters.Smith, 61Jones, 10–11Borchert, 22
The parapet dominates the portrait, and his head seems oversized compared to his upper body. Some art historians speculate that this is a result of van Eyck's then inexperience; it was only his second known portrait.Although the dual portraits of the donors in his Ghent Altarpiece were probably completed in 1431 or in the early months of the following year. Meiss speculates that van Eyck may have "los[t] control of [the] design as a whole by indulging his astounding virtuosity."Meiss, 138
Parapet
The decayed parapet allows van Eyck to display his skill in mimicking stone chiselling and scarring, and shows the influence of classical Roman funerary art, particularly stone memorials. The parapet gives the work gravitas, the chips and cracks conveying a sense of the venerable, or, according to art historian Elisabeth Dhanens, a sense of the "fragility of life or of memory itself".
Portrait
The man is positioned within an undefined narrow space and set against a flat black background. Typically for vanEyck, the head is large in relation to the torso. He is dressed in typically Burgundian fashion, with a red robe and a green wool chaperon with a bourrelet and cornette hanging forward. The headdress is trimmed with fur, fastened with two buttons, and extends to the parapet. His right hand might be holding the end of the cornette. Neither the shape of his head nor his facial features correspond to contemporary standard types, let alone canons of ideal beauty. The sitter appears to be bald, although there are some faint traces of fair hair, leading Erwin Panofsky to conclude that his "countenance is as 'Nordic' as his dress is Burgundian."Panofsky, 82 Though he has neither eyebrows nor stubble, he does have eyelashes that are believed to have been added by a 19th-century restorer. Van Eyck's cool observation of the man's narrow shoulders, pursed lips, and thin eyebrows extends to detailing the moisture on his blue eyes.Kemperdick, 19
Unlike Rogier van der Weyden, who paid especially close attention to detail in rendering his models' fingers, for van Eyck hands were often something of an afterthought.Kemperdick notes that Hans Holbein the Younger "used the same pair of hands for many of his portraits, so that they look much the same on 70-year-old William Warham and Anne Lovell, forty years his junior." Kemperdick, 20 They are generically rendered, do not contain much detail, and may have been a later workshop addition. Yet they are very similar to those of the sitter in his 1435 Portrait of Baudouin de Lannoy. The man holds a scroll that might be a legal document, letter, or pamphlet. In his early portraits, vanEyck's sitters are often shown holding objects indicative of their profession.Pächt, 110 The scroll contains six lines of illegible writing. The abbreviations are more prominent and seem to be in Latin, but may be vernacular.
Light falls from the left, leaving traces of shadow on the side of the man's face, a device commonly found in vanEyck's early portraits.Meiss, 137 He is youthful, and his face has a soft fleshiness achieved through shallow curves and flowing, harmonious brushstrokes, giving the appearance of a relaxed, warm, and open personality, which Meiss describes as evoking an almost "Rembrandtesque warmth and sympathy". The sitter is not handsome; he has a flattish face, a stubby yet pointed nose, and prominent cheekbones that might, according to Panofsky, belong to a "Flemish peasant".Panofsky, 88 Dhanens describes him as having an honest expression.Dhanens, 182
A number of art historians have noted the apparent contradiction between the man's plain looks and enigmatic expression. Meiss describes him as "plain and rustic", and finds a resemblance between his rather generic face and a number of figures in the lower portions of the "Adoration of the Lamb" panel in the Ghent Altarpiece.Meiss, 144 Agreeing with Panofsky, he observes a "thoughtfulness on the high, wrinkled forehead, visionary force in the dreamy yet steady eyes, [and] a formidable strength of passion in the wide, firm mouth". According to Panofsky, the man's face is not that of an intellectual, yet he detects a pensive and lonely nature, "the face of one who feels and produces rather than observes and dissects".
Inscriptions and identity of the sitter
The parapet has three horizontal rows of inscriptions; on the upper and lower rows is smaller lettering that is often not visible in reproductions. In places, the Greek characters are unclear and have been subject to much speculation by art historians, not least due to vanEyck's sometimes erratic spelling and unusual spacing.
The top lettering is in chalk white and Greek script that reads "TYΜ.ωΘΕΟC". The last character is deliberately concealed by a chip in the imitation stone, a touch described by Panofsky as a "terminal flourish". This makes the meaning of the inscription difficult to discern. A general consensus among art historians is that the final character is a square C or sigma sign.
"TYΜ.ωΘΕΟC" was interpreted in 1857 by Charles Eastlake as "Timotheos", a proper name.However, if this were the intended meaning, more correct lettering would have read "TIM.OΘEOC". See Paviot, 214Paviot, 214 Campbell points out that vanEyck "appears to have employed the Greek alphabet systematically", and always employed the square sigma C for the Latin "S", and a majuscule omega ω (in the uncial form) for the Latin "O". The inscription may be meant to read "Honour God", or "Be Honoured, OGod", as written in the passive imperative.Paviot, 215 Panofsky gives some consideration to the hypothesis that the final letter is a "N", and that the lettering forms two words rather than one. In this interpretation, the letters spell TYΜω ΘΕΟN, meaning "Honour God". While this would be more straightforward than "Timotheus", he rejects the possibility. He writes that "the presence of a shorter horizontal line connecting with the slightly tapering top of the vertical stroke and completing it into a Γ form ... evidently precludes a "N".Panofsky, 80–81 Dhanens suggests the inscription can be read as "Time Deum" ("Fear God"), a known motto of the Vilain family.
Eastlake's translation is generally accepted. The possibility of it being a variant of "Timothy" has been discounted, as that word was not used in Northern Europe before the Reformation. There is no Germanic name that might imply a humanistic imitation of a Greek word,Panofsky, 81 so art historians have sought to identify the man from Greek history or legend. Although some have suggested certain Athenian and Syrian generals, these have been discounted as the sitter is not wearing military clothing.Panofsky, 82 Saint Timothy, first Bishop of Ephesus and an associate of Saint Paul, has been suggested but eliminated as the man is not dressed as a high cleric.
The larger middle inscription is in French, using a 12th-century script. It reads "LEAL SOVVENIR" (Loyal Remembrance, or Faithful Souvenir),Bauman, 35 and is painted to give the impression that it was carved into the parapet. In 1927 Hippolyte Fierens Gevaert put forward Timotheus of Miletus, a Greek musician and dithyrambic poet born 446. Gevaert proposed that the portrait commemorated a recently deceased court artist and that the classical reference was intended to flatter his memory. Panofsky largely went with this position in 1949. He speculated that the sitter was the celebrated musician Gilles Binchois, by 1430 a canon at St. Donatian's Cathedral, Bruges. Campbell is sceptical, disclaiming that the sitter "is not dressed as a cleric".Campbell, 220 Other theories include that the man was a Greek or Lucchese merchant, Henry the Navigator, Jean deCroÿ or, less likely, that it is a self-portrait. Though there is much disagreement, it is probable that he was a native French speaker, and a notary, poet, or member of the Compagnie du Chapel Vert ("Society of the Green Hat") at Tournai.Campbell, 220 Dhanens rejects the theory that the man was a musician on the basis that vanEyck would have made this explicit, portraying him holding a device or emblem clearly symbolising music. She concludes that he is an accountant or lawyer holding a legal or financial document.Dhanens, 184