The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, ca. 1435 This exquisitely detailed oil painting by Jan van Eyck, commissioned by Nicolas Rolin, the chancellor of the duchy of Burgundy, shows the Virgin Mary presenting the infant Jesus to Rolin, whose portrait in a brocade fur-lined robe takes up the entire left side. The foreground is an Italian-style loggia with an inlaid floor, while the background shows Rolin’s hometown of Autun, where he was a major landowner and where the painting was displayed in his parish church. Renaissance paintings from southern and northern Europe often show their patrons together with biblical figures and highlight exactly the qualities the patron wanted: wealth, learning, piety, and power.

(La Vierge au Chancelier, ca. 1435, panel by Jan van Eyck [ca. 1390–1441]/Musée du Louvre, Paris, France/Bridgeman Images)