Imagine reflecting on a reconstruction of reality through the visual sense alone. Without tasting, smelling, touching or listening, it may be difficult to find yourself in an alternate universe through a work of art, which was the artist's intended purpose. The eyes have a much higher purpose than seeing an object, the absorption of electromagnetic waves allows you to embark on a journey and enter a world without limitations. During the 15th century, particularly in the early Renaissance, Flemish altarpieces conquered Europe with their strong attention to detail. Altarpiece works were able to encompass significant details that the general public can only give a cursory glance at. The size of the altarpieces was its most obvious but also the most important feature. Artists such as Jan van Eyck, Melchior Broederlam, and Robert Campin contributed to the vast growth of the early Renaissance by enhancing visual effects with the use of pious symbols. Jan van Eyck embodied the "rebirth" later labeled the Renaissance by employing his method of oil painting to such a degree that he was once credited with being the inventor of oil painting. Although van Eyck, Broederlam, and Campin each contributed to the birth of the early Renaissance, van Eyck's altarpiece Adoration of the Mystic Lamb epitomized the artworks produced during this time period by vividly incorporating symbols to reconstruct the teachings of Christianity. The Ghent Altarpiece was not simply a representation of symbols alluding to Christianity. Van Eyck's vivid sense of the real world allowed him to reconstruct reality together with its infinite limits. His audience was so widely engaged with his paintings that it can seem almost esoteric. T...... half of sheet......edium; this led to his mastery of creating an altarpiece capable of reconstructing the early Renaissance in a painting. His meticulous positioning of figures and attention to tiny details reflected his success as a painter capable of transforming infinite, unpaintable reality into a finished work. Works Cited Dhanens, Elisabeth. Van Eyck: The Ghent Altarpiece. New York: Viking, 1973. Print.Denis, Valentin. All paintings by Jan Van Eyck. New York: Hawthorn, 1961. Print.Faggin, George T and Hughes, Robert. The complete Van Eyck paintings. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1976. Print.Philip, Lotte Brand. The Ghent Altarpiece and the art of Jan Van Eyck. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1971. Print.Rousseau, Theodore. "The Merode Altarpiece." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16.4 (1957): 117-29. JSTOR. Network. April 1. 2010.