Jan van Eyck was an early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as early Netherlandish painting, and one of the supreme figures of the Early Northern Renaissance. Such was his legacy, that he has been called "the inventor of oil-painting" by Vasari, Ernst Gombrich, and others, although this claim is now considered an oversimplification. 1390 – July 18, 1441; died at about 51. Alive at the same time as Joan of Arc, Johannes Gutenberg, Geoffrey Chaucer, Zheng He, and Jan Hus. Wiki link