This piece is called Madonna with Canon Joris van der Paele by Jan van Eyck. Joris van der Paele was a wealthy canon of St Donatian Church in Bruges and the man who commissioned this painting. He was very rich but very unwell and thought he was going to die and so he hoped that in creating this painting he could keep his soul alive forever in heaven.

We’re placed in a church with Mary, baby Jesus, St. Donatian, St. George and Joris van der Paele (and a parakeet). Van der Paele appears to have been praying just moments ago. Perhaps the scene before us depicts a vision that came to the Canon during one of his prayer sessions. He likely created this painting also as a sort of medical certificate to excuse him from his duties at church that he was unable to carry out due to his ill health.

Jan van Eyck has injected so much detail in this painting that doctors today have been able to diagnose the canons exact ailments: polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis. I hope you all love looking at all of the amazing detail in this painting like I do. Thanks for watching!

Credits:

Investigations by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

African Drums (Sting) by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

Arcadia Wonders by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

smoke effect from Vecteezy