Oil painting has been around for centuries. One once popular belief is that the practice itself originated in the early 1400’s by Jan van Eyck himself. He utilized the technique in the painting Man in a Red Turban, which many speculate is actually a self portrait of van Eyck himself. We now know that van Eyck did not invent the medium, however, he was the first prominent artist to make use of and realize its true potential. He painted the supposed self portrait on wood panel, a popular support for many artists in van Eyck’s time. At first glance at the painting one notices immediately the red turban. The turban itself is unremarkable, but in contrastto the black background it seems to be given much more emphasis. Also giving the turban, as well as the man’s head, more focus is the lack of balance in the portrait itself. The bottom half of the portrait is dominated by the body of the man, adorned in black robes. However, this is rather hard to see as the background is black as well. What we get is almost a neglect of space, forcing us to look anywhere but there. One next may notice the face, a youngish face we can tell from the soft blend to create a smooth texture with very little linear break, indicating some measure of youth. The lines of the painting itself are sharp creating great detail. The lines we see on the face in the painting are not intentional, and were caused by the cracking of the paint, most likely caused by age and the wood panel the painting itself is on. Both paintings, while strikingly different, have there own similarities. The most obvious characteristic they have in common is that they are both non abstract portraits, albeit of two very different people. Another similarity is that they both use oil paint as the primary medium, however van Eyck’s work contains tempura as well. It is here that the similarities end almost completely. Morisot’s painting, for example was done alla prima, creating thick brushstrokes, creating an effect called...