Saint Barbara (van Eyck)

Saint Barbara is a small 1437 drawing on oak panel, signed and dated 1437 by the Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck. It is unknown if the work is a chalk ground study in pencil for a planned oil painting, an unfinished underdrawing or a completed work in of itself, although the latter is deemed more likely. The panel shows Saint Barbara imprisoned in a tower by her pagan father to preserve her from the outside world, especially from suitors he did not approve of. While there, she converted to Christianity, enraging her father and leading to her murder and martyrdom.

Art historians debate whether the work is an unfinished painting or a complete drawing or study. The panel was completed with brush strokes, a stylus, silverpoint, ink, oil and black pigment on a chalk ground. The blue and ultramarine paint may be later additions.

Some areas of the panel are more detailed than others, and it has long been debated if it is an autonomous drawing or the underdrawing for a lost painting. If intended as a finished work, it would be the earliest surviving drawing of any artist, although not prepared on paper or parchment. Evidence includes that the work was highly regarded at the time by Flemish aesthetics as an object in itself.