Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) by Jan van Eyck

The mission of Northern Renaissance artists to find more precise ways to represent nature lead to some groundbreaking innovations in the history of art. One of these innovations was the invention of oil painting, which is often credited to Jan van Eyck. Although this most likely is an oversimplification, Jan van Eyck certainly is among the first to master this technique to the fullest, achieving levels of detail and realism never seen before.