up and developed by van der Weyden, Memling and Christus. Each employed rich and complex iconographical elements to create a heightened sense of contemporary beliefs and spiritual ideals. Craig Harbison describes the blending of realism and symbolism as perhaps "the most important aspect of early Flemish art". The embedded symbols were meant to meld into the scenes and "was a deliberate strategy to create an experience of spiritual revelation". Van Eyck's religious paintings in particular "always present the spectator with a transfigured view of visible reality". To him the day-to-day is harmoniously steeped in symbolism, such that, according to Harbison, "descriptive data were rearranged ... so that they illustrated not earthly existence but what he considered supernatural truth." This blend of the earthly and heavenly evidences van Eyck's belief that the "essential truth of Christian doctrine" can be found in "the marriage of secular and sacred worlds, of reality and symbol". He depicts overly large Madonnas, whose unrealistic size shows the separation between the heavenly from earthly, but placed them in everyday settings such as churches, domestic chambers or seated with court officials. Yet the earthly churches are heavily decorated with heavenly symbols. A heavenly throne is clearly represented in some domestic chambers (for example in the Lucca Madonna). More difficult to discern are the settings for paintings such as Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, where the location is a fusion of the earthly and celestial. Van Eyck's iconography is often so densely and intricately layered that a work has to be viewed multiple times before even the most obvious meaning of an element is apparent. The symbols were often subtly woven into the paintings so that they only became apparent after close and repeated viewing, while much of the iconography reflects the idea that, according to John Ward, there is a "promised passage from sin and death to salvation and rebirth". Signature Van Eyck was the only 15th-century Netherlandish painter to sign his canvases. His motto always contained variants of the words ALS ICH KAN (or a variant) – "As I Can", or "As Best I Can", which forms a pun on his name. The aspirated "ICH" instead of the Brabantian "IK" is derived from his native Limburgish. The signature is sometimes inscribed using Greek lettering such as AAE IXH XAN. The word Kan derives from the Middle Dutch word kunnen related to the Dutch word kunst or to the