TL;DR
AI brushstroke analysis by Swiss firm Art Recognition has found that two famous paintings attributed to Jan van Eyck — held in Philadelphia and Turin — are unlikely to be by the master’s own hand. Both scored over 86% negative for Van Eyck’s brushwork, suggesting they are studio works.
A New Challenge for Art History
Two near-identical paintings of Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata, long attributed to the 15th-century Flemish master Jan van Eyck, may not have been painted by him at all. AI-powered analysis conducted by Art Recognition, a Swiss firm collaborating with Tilburg University, has concluded that the Philadelphia Museum of Art version is “91% negative” and the Turin Royal Museums version is “86% negative” for Van Eyck’s brushstrokes.
The findings have taken experts by surprise. Dr Carina Popovici, Art Recognition’s chief executive, said she expected that if one painting proved negative, the other would be positive — but both came out negative.
What This Means for Attribution
Till-Holger Borchert, a leading Van Eyck scholar and director of the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen, said the findings support longstanding suggestions that both works were produced in Van Eyck’s workshop rather than by the artist himself.
Art historian Dr Noah Charney described Art Recognition’s previous analyses as “remarkably accurate” and noted the negative results for both pictures were so unexpected that deeper tests were run to confirm them. He suggested the findings point to a lost original that was more fully painted by Van Eyck’s own hand.
By contrast, the firm’s analysis of The Arnolfini Portrait at London’s National Gallery returned an 89% positive result for authenticity.
AI in Art Authentication
Art Recognition has built a track record in the field. In 2024 it detected up to 40 fake paintings being sold on eBay, and in 2021 it concluded that Rubens’ Samson and Delilah in the National Gallery was “91% negative” — backing long-held doubts about that work’s attribution.
With fewer than 20 paintings universally accepted as by Van Eyck’s hand, and a major exhibition of his portraits planned at the National Gallery in November, these findings are likely to sharpen debate over the boundaries between master and workshop in art history.