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 9 
 
 [National Gallery. 
 
 JAN ARNOLFINI AND JEANNE DE CHENANY. 
 BY JAN VAN EYCK. 
 
Bell's Miniature Series of Painters 
 
 THE BROTHERS 
 VAN EYCK 
 
 BY 
 
 P. G. KONODY 
 
 LONDON 
 GEORGE BELL & SONS 
 
 1907 
 

 a i, • 
 
n/f 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Times of the Brothers van Eyck - i 
 
 Hubert van Eyck - - - - 9 
 
 Jan van Eyck - - - - - 14 
 
 The Invention of Oil-Painting - - 20 
 
 The Art of the van Eycks - - 25 
 
 Collaboration of the Brothers - - 31 
 
 Our Illustrations - - - - 46 
 List of Works, catalogued according to 
 
 Locality - - - - - 66 
 
 89537G 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Jan Arnolfini and Jeanne de Chenany 
 
 {National Gallery) - - Frontispiece 
 
 By Jan van Eyck. 
 
 The Adoration of the Lamb {Cathedral of 
 
 St. Bavo^ Ghent) - - - - 8 
 
 By Hubert and Jan van Eyck. 
 
 The Enthronement of Thomas a Becket 
 
 {Chatsworth) - - - - 14 
 
 By Jan van Eyck. 
 
 The Man with the Pinks {Berli?i Museum) 28 
 
 By Jan van Eyck, 
 
 St. Barbara {Antwerp Museum) - - 40 
 
 By Jan van Eyck. 
 
 The Just Judges, and Christ's Warriors 
 
 {Berlin Museu7n) - - - - 50 
 
 By Hubert and Jan van Eyck. 
 
 Portrait of Timothy {National Gallery) - 58 
 
 By Jan van Eyck, 
 
 The Van der Paele Altar-piece {Bruges 
 
 Museum) - - - - - 60 
 
 By Jan van Eyck. 
 vii 
 
THE TIMES OF THE BROTHERS 
 VAN EYCK 
 
 T^HE unusual activity which during the latter 
 ^ half of the fourteenth and the first half of 
 the fifteenth centuries throbbed throughout the 
 whole of the Netherlands forms one of the most 
 interesting and surprising studies of national 
 progress that history has furnished. 
 
 Geographically and politically, in her arts 
 and in her industries, the country was affected 
 by changes both radical and lasting. Some 
 years before the period which embraces the 
 life of the subjects of this biographical sketch, 
 the German Ocean had invaded the northern 
 territory of the Netherlands, and had dis- 
 organised a Parliament and divided a people. 
 At the beginning of the thirteenth century over 
 the whole of that low-lying and marshy tract 
 between Kampen on the east and Amsterdam 
 to westward, and southward to within sight of 
 Nieukerk, the North Sea swept in upon the 
 
 I B 
 
2 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 inland lake of Flev^o, swallowing thousands of 
 hamlets, villages, and towns suddenly and com- 
 pletely. Until this time there had been but 
 one Friesland, including Holland, divided only 
 by the Vlie, a small stream hardly to be 
 counted a river. Now East Friesland and 
 West Friesland were divided by this vast 
 stretch of water, the stormy and dangerous 
 Zuyderzee, and it became impossible for 
 Holland to send her representatives to the 
 general assemblies at Aurich. West Friesland 
 was absorbed by Holland, and East Friesland 
 became a self-governing State, and remained 
 such until the power of Charles V. was 
 established. Thus politically as well as geo- 
 graphically was the country disrupted by the 
 forces of Nature. 
 
 To trace the rise of the Netherlands as a 
 European Power from a more remote period 
 than the beginning of the fourteenth century 
 would be beyond the range of this sketch ; but 
 for the purpose of showing the general advance 
 of the country's interests a brief summary of 
 the events culminating in the wellnigh despotic 
 power of the House of Burgundy may refresh 
 the reader's mind, as they affect the constitu- 
 tion of the nation, and may serve to point cause 
 
THEIR TIMES 3 
 
 and effect in the increasing prosperity of the 
 country and in the resulting advance of art ; 
 for just as the political influence of the Bur- 
 gundian Princes spread from their hereditary 
 provinces first over Flanders and Brabant — 
 over that part of the Netherlands which is now 
 known as Belgium— and finally over the Dutch 
 provinces, so the current of art swept from 
 Burgundy to Flanders and thence to Holland. 
 At the beginning of the fourteenth century 
 Holland was ruled by the House of Avenues, 
 Counts of Hainault. Holland having previous 
 to the accession of the Avenues annexed 
 Zeeland, the three provinces may almost be 
 regarded as the nucleus of the Dutch power. 
 William IV., last of the Hainault line, died 
 childless in 1355. His death was the signal 
 for the outbreak of a long and spasmodic series 
 of civil disturbances between the nobles and 
 the cities and municipalities. These parties, 
 known by the titles of the Hooks and the 
 Kabblejaus (codfish), continued their intermit- 
 tent strife throughout the succeeding 150 years. 
 In the meantime William IV. was succeeded 
 by William of Bavaria. Then followed his 
 brother Albert, who was in turn succeeded by 
 his son William VI. At the death of the latter 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 the reins of government were left in the un- 
 certain hands of his young daughter, Jacqueline, 
 a girl of seventeen. Jacqueline, it appears, led 
 anything but a happy life. Her cousin, Philip 
 the Good, Duke of Burgundy, for thirteen 
 years plundered and robbed her, and at her 
 death in 1437 he had already dispossessed her 
 of her lands and reduced her from the position 
 of Sovereign to that of Lady Forester in her 
 own provinces, whilst for himself he had laid the 
 foundation of that Greater Netherlands which 
 by conquest and annexation he proceeded to 
 extend. 
 
 Having acquired the principal Netherlands 
 and inherited the two Burgundies and the 
 counties of Flanders and Artois, he had pur- 
 chased the county of Namur, usurped the 
 duchy of Brabant, and annexed the barony of 
 Mechlin. A few years later he acquired also 
 the duchy of Luxembourg. 
 
 Philip was now the ruler of what may be 
 termed a kingdom of several peoples, who, 
 though in a measure distinct, were of similar 
 temperament and character, and who may be 
 counted now as one. Never has conqueror 
 been in a happier position .when faced with the 
 problem of welding together his conquests. 
 
THEIR TIMES 5 
 
 For Philip ruled those whose interests were 
 similar, and whose characteristics were almost 
 identical — a people born of the sea, strong and 
 fearless, who had lived by strife with their 
 fellows and by strife with Nature; a people 
 born to toil and to hardship, whose battle for 
 life had been with Nature herself — a race which 
 for centuries had fought with swamp and water 
 year in, year out, conquering a mile of morass 
 or patch of barren furze, striving for the soil to 
 live upon, working not for gold, but for life. 
 This nation had now become a power of 
 natural strength and of dominating physique, 
 virile and live and expansive, whose sons, with 
 brooms at their mastheads, should later sweep 
 the seas from whose destructive embrace she 
 had succeeded in wresting herself. 
 
 Under the rule of the Burgundian the pros- 
 perity of the Netherlands rapidly increased. 
 In Holland and in Flanders, in Brabant and 
 in the other leading provinces, industry and 
 wealth, agriculture, commerce, and manufac- 
 tures, were ever augmenting. While Philip, in 
 the zenith of his power, flushed with the 
 passion and success of territorial acquisition, 
 busied himself with the glorification of his 
 sovereignty by founding at Bruges, amid a 
 
6 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 scene of indescribable splendour, the Order of 
 the Golden Fleece, *'to the honour of God, of 
 the Blessed Virgin, and of the holy Andrew," 
 a principle more potent than even territorial 
 power was evolving. For in Haarlem an 
 undistinguished sexton wrestled with the in- 
 tricacies of the printing-press. Lorenz Coster 
 was printing his book of the Dutch language. 
 The question as to the time and place of the 
 invention of printing will probably never be 
 settled to the satisfaction of Holland and 
 Germany ; but the men of Haarlem still claim 
 upon very sound and substantial evidence that 
 between 1423 and 1440 their citizen was the first 
 to employ movable type, which is generally 
 considered the invention of printing proper, as 
 distinguished from the more ancient block- 
 printing. 
 
 Whatever objection may be legitimately 
 raised to the application of the title *' The 
 Good " to a ruler of Philip's character, this 
 Burgundian had many of the qualities that go 
 to the making of a successful monarch. His 
 military talents were considerable ; his politi- 
 cal methods, though despotic, were practicable. 
 Though he taxed the wealth of his country, he 
 protected and encouraged the commerce and 
 
THEIR TIMES 7 
 
 manufactures of Holland and Flanders, their 
 arts and crafts, science and literature. He 
 founded at Bruges the famous Burgundian 
 Library. He remodelled, and to some extent 
 endowed, the University of Louvain. His 
 munificence and princely generosity attracted 
 to his Court at Bruges men of letters like 
 Oliver de la Marche and Philippe de Com- 
 mines, and famous painters like Jan van Eyck, 
 and perhaps, though we lack documentary 
 evidence, his elder brother Hubert, who gave, 
 perhaps, more to the art of painting than even 
 did Coster to the art of printing, or Philip him- 
 self to the sciences of statesmanship and war. 
 
 The most salient points in the life and work 
 of these two brothers, who close the period 
 of stiff Gothic mediaevalism and stand on the 
 threshold of modern art, and whose improve- 
 ments in the technical methods of their art 
 opened up to their successors unthought-of 
 possibilities, are shrouded in deep mystery, and 
 the most recent research to which a number of 
 thoroughly competent scientific experts have 
 devoted themselves, whilst producing many in- 
 genious theories and deductions, has, in a 
 certain sense, added to the confusion by throw- 
 ing doubt upon the authenticity of documents 
 
8 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 and inscriptions which had formerly passed 
 undisputed, and formed the basis of the un- 
 stable edifice that had been erected around the 
 vague fame of the brothers Van Eyck. This 
 uncertainty begins with the parentage and the 
 place and date of birth of the two masters, 
 and extends to the two supreme achievements 
 to which they owe their fame — the reputed 
 invention of oil-painting, which was variously 
 ascribed to Hubert and Jan, then denied to 
 both of them, and, finally, given back to 
 Hubert in the form of an imptovement on the 
 methods of oil-painting practised during the 
 period ; and the much-quoted inscription on the 
 famous Ghent altar-piece, The Adoration of the 
 Lamb J which has been, and must remain, the 
 starting-point for all research in this matter, 
 even though the late Henri Bouchot, Keeper 
 of the Print Cabinet of the Biblioth^que 
 Nationale, suggests that this inscription may 
 have been added when the picture was re- 
 stored in the middle of the sixteenth century. 
 At every turn we are faced by similar doubts 
 and contradictions, especially in the case of 
 Hubert, about whose life and doings we have so 
 little documentary evidence that we have to fall 
 back entirely upon conjecture and deduction. 
 
HUBERT VAN EYCK 
 
 T F Joes van Eyck and Margaret van den 
 ■*- Huntfanghe, who are entered in the register 
 of the Ghent Guild of Painters for 1391, are the 
 parents of the two masters who have made the 
 name of Van Eyck immortal, we should have 
 proof of their descent from artistic stock, which 
 may be taken for granted in view of the fact 
 that not only Hubert and Jan, but also a third 
 brother, Lambert, and a sister, Margaret, de- 
 voted themselves to the art of painting, though 
 Lambert — if he really be responsible for the 
 pictures which stand to his credit — was a man 
 of but mediocre talent ; whilst we have no 
 evidence of the activity of Margaret, who was 
 most probably a miniaturist or illuminator. 
 
 It is believed that Hubert (or Huybrecht) 
 van Eyck was born at Maaseyck, or perhaps 
 at the village of Eyck near that town, between 
 1366 and 1370, and that he received his artistic 
 training either at Cologne or at Maastricht ; 
 but the first definite mention we have of him 
 
 9 
 
10 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 is in Ghent, where he eventually settled, and 
 where, in 1424, the archives record that he was 
 paid certain sums for drawings. Though Mr. 
 Weale and other authorities hold the view that, 
 before settling in Ghent, Hubert must have 
 travelled to the South of Europe, there is abso- 
 lutely no evidence to this effect. The paintings 
 of the two brothers certainly contain details 
 which reveal intimate acquaintance with 
 Southern vegetation and mountain formation ; 
 but, as will be seen later, Mr. Alfred Marks 
 has fairly well established the fact that the 
 younger brother, Jan, must be held responsible 
 for such paintings or portions of paintings as 
 prove the knowledge of Nature in the South of 
 Europe. 
 
 The name of Hubert van Eyck occurs in 
 two other documents, quoted by Edmond de 
 Busscher in his " Recherches sur les Peintres 
 Gantois," but the authenticity of both these 
 entries has lately been questioned. The first 
 of them, which is proved to be a forgery, records 
 the admission of Hubert and of his sister, 
 Margaret, into the Confraternity of Our Lady 
 of the Rays at Ghent in 1419 ; the other the 
 affihation of Hubert and Jan, in 14^ > to the 
 Corporation of Painters and Sculptors of Ghgnt. 
 
HUBERT VAN EYCK ii 
 
 According to the wording of the latter entry, it 
 may be gathered that the election of the two 
 masters was so enthusiastic and unanimous 
 that the Corporation dispensed with the con- 
 ditions and formalities usual on the admission 
 of free masters to the guild. This unusual 
 affiliation, of which the Livve du Metier 
 Gantois does not reveal another example, is 
 there quoted as a homage rendered to the 
 memory of Michelle de France, Countess of 
 Flanders, and first wife of Philip the Good, 
 who appears to have held the two brothers in 
 special, favour. The Corporation, in thus grant- 
 ing to them the professional franchise of Ghent, 
 at the same time expressed their esteem for 
 their talent, and the pious remembrance in 
 which they held the memory of their Queen 
 Consort. 
 
 Of Hubert's early work we have absolutely 
 no record, and no picture is known which bears 
 his signature. Indeed, the only paintings 
 which can with absolute certainty be assigned 
 to him are the great Ghent altar-piece, painted 
 for Jodoc Vydt, on which he was engaged at 
 the time of his death, and which was finished 
 six years later by his brother Jan ; and the 
 shutter of a triptych at the Royal Gallery at 
 
12 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 Copenhagen, which represents Robert Poortier, 
 of Ghent, protected by St. Anthony, with the 
 Angel Gabriel on the reverse. Robert Poor- 
 tier's will, made in 1426, a few months before 
 Hubert's death, mentions this triptych as being 
 in the master's workshop. On the internal 
 evidence of these two authentic works attempts 
 have been made to trace Hubert's hand in 
 several other pictures, though their number is 
 so far restricted to only seven. It has been 
 suggested that Hubert may in the earlier years 
 of his career have devoted himself to miniature 
 painting ; and the wonderful Turin miniatures 
 published by M. Paul Durrieu in the Gazette 
 des Beaux- Arts (January and February, 1903), 
 which date from the same period, show such 
 marked kinship with Hubert's conception and 
 style that they may well be the work of his 
 own hand. The scarcity of his paintings would 
 thus be accounted for if, anterior to the experi- 
 ments which led to the invention of the new 
 method of oil-painting about 1410, Hubert had 
 exercised his rare gifts in a different field. 
 
 From the wording of his epitaph, which has 
 been handed down to us, it is made clear that 
 Hubert died on September 18, 1426. As trans- 
 lated by Sir Charles Eastlake, in his ''Materials 
 
HUBERT VAN EYCK 13 
 
 for a History of Oil-Painting," this epitaph 
 runs as follows : ** Take warning from me, ye 
 who walk over me. I was as you are, but am 
 now buried dead beneath you. Thus it appears 
 that neither art nor medicine availed me. Art, 
 honour, wisdom, power, affluence, are not 
 spared when death comes. I was called 
 Hubert van Eyck ; I am now food for worms. 
 Formerly known and highly honoured in paint- 
 ing, this was all shortly after turned to nothing. 
 It was in the year of the Lord one thousand 
 four hundred and twenty-six, on the eighteenth 
 day of September, that I rendered up my soul 
 to God, in sufferings. Pray God for me, ye 
 who love art, that I may attain to His sight. 
 Flee sin, turn to the best, for you must follow 
 me at last." Hubert was buried in the crypt 
 of the Cathedral of St. Bavo at Ghent. When, 
 owing to some structural alterations to the 
 church, this crypt was destroyed, the tombs, 
 including Hubert's, were removed and the 
 bones dispersed. Only Hubert's right arm 
 was placed in an iron case and exhibited as a 
 relic. 
 
JAN VAN EYCK 
 
 'T^HE date of Jan van Eyck's birth is as un- 
 certain as that of his brother's. Tradition 
 has it that the two brothers are portrayed on the 
 panel of the great Ghent altar-piece, which 
 represents The Just Judges. These portraits 
 suggest a difference of about t\venty years 
 between the two, so that the birth of Jan would 
 have to be placed somewhere between 1386 and 
 1390. Hubert being thus about twenty years 
 his senior, it is natural to suppose that Jan 
 received from him his early education in matters 
 of art. Guicciardini, van Mander, and other 
 early writers, affirm that the two brothers 
 worked in collaboration, and there is no reason 
 to doubt that Jan in his early years assisted his 
 brother in many or most of his paintings — 
 perhaps even in the Ghent altar-piece, which 
 he finished after the elder brother's death. It 
 is certainly a curious fact that, with a single 
 exception — the completely over - painted En- 
 thronement oj St. Thomas oj Cantevhuvy at Chats- 
 
 14 
 
[L/'tatS'h.iorth. 
 
 THE ENTHRONEMENT OF THOMAS A BECKET. 
 BY JAN VAN EYCK. 
 
JAN VAN EYCK 15 
 
 worth — all the signed pictures by Jan bear 
 dates posterior to the death of Hubert. And 
 it is equally significant that the first of this 
 series of ten signed pictures is dated 1432, the 
 year of the completion of the Ghent altar-piece, 
 which was the last work in which both brothers 
 had a share. 
 
 The chief events in the life of Jan van Eyck 
 can be gathered fairly accurately from con- 
 temporarary records and documents. In 1422 
 Jan entered the service of John of Bavaria, at 
 that time Duke of Luxembourg, whose house- 
 hold accounts show the payment of a weekly 
 wage to the artist, from October 25, 1422, till 
 September, 1424, for the decoration of the 
 palace at the Hague. M. Bouchot mentioned 
 an earlier record of Jan's doings, when he 
 believed he discovered him at Cambrai deco- 
 rating a Paschal candle. But the eminent 
 French critic probably confused Jan van Eyck 
 with one Jan de Yeke, whose name occurs in 
 the accounts of the Cathedral of Cambrai as 
 that of a man employed in 1422 and many 
 following years in painting crosses, clocks, and 
 candles on the outer wall of the cathedral to 
 deter the passers-by from committing nuisances! 
 
 In the spring of 1425 Jan van Eyck was 
 
i6 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 appointed vavlet de chamhre to Philip the Good, 
 and though this princely patron availed himself 
 of the master's services as a painter, it would 
 appear from a letter signed by Philip, and 
 bearing the date March 12, 1434, that the 
 appointment of Jan to the position of Court 
 painter to the Burgundian Prince only took 
 place in that year (1434). Still, as vavlet de 
 chamhve Jan van Eyck must have enjoyed a 
 position of considerable trust and emolument 
 at the hands of his august master, for on more 
 than one occasion we find him entrusted with 
 important missions, some of which took him 
 to the Portuguese Court. The first of these 
 excursions took place when he had resided for 
 three months at Bruges. On his return he 
 went at PhiHp's order to live at Lille, where 
 he remained until 1428. His missions were 
 generally of a secret nature, but on one of these 
 occasions, in the year 1428, we find Jan again 
 absent in Portugal, returning to the Court of 
 Philip in the suite of Isabella of Portugal, who 
 was destined to become the royal consort. 
 Gachard, in the Collection de Documents Inedits 
 concevnant VHistoive de Belgique, gives a detailed 
 account of the artist's movements from his de- 
 parture from Kcluse on October ig, 1428, to his 
 
JAN VAN EYCK 17 
 
 return in January, 1430. According to these 
 dates, which are gathered from contemporary 
 documents, the ambassadors with the Infanta set 
 out from Lisbon on October 8, 1429. The ap- 
 parent discrepancy between these dates and that 
 of January 10, 1429, which, at the Golden Fleece 
 Exhibition at Bruges in 1907, was given as the 
 date of the foundation of this Order, and conse- 
 quently of the nuptials of Philip and Isabella 
 and of Jan's return to Bruges, is easily ac- 
 counted for if we remember that the beginning 
 of the year was then reckoned from March i, 
 so that January, 1430, of our own reckoning 
 would tally with January, 1429, of the contem- 
 porary calendar. 
 
 Jan's first duty on arrival at the Portuguese 
 Court was to paint the portrait of the Princess. 
 It appears that he was at work upon this 
 picture for a month. Several portraits of 
 Isabella are still extant painted in the manner 
 of the van Eycks, and pointing to the same 
 origin, but none has so far been discovered to 
 possess qualities or details which would justify 
 its identification as Jan's original panel. Evi- 
 dently Jan's portrait was pleasing to the eye of 
 the Lowland monarch, for upon Philip express- 
 ing his satisfaction with the personal appearance 
 
 c 
 
i8 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 of Isabella, the ambassadors and the bride 
 immediately embarked on the homeward 
 journey. Soon after his return — namely, in 
 1431 — Jan bought a house in Bruges, where he 
 married and continued to work, after the com- 
 pletion of the Ghent altar-piece in the following 
 year, until his death, which took place about 
 the end of June, 1441. He was buried in the 
 churchyard of St. Donatian at Bruges, but his 
 body was subsequently removed to a vault 
 near the font of that church. 
 
 Mr. Weale, while arranging the archives 
 of St. Donatian at Bruges, discovered in the 
 account of the fabric of the church for the year 
 beginning June 25, 1440, and ending June 24, 
 1 44 1, entries of sums received for the grave of 
 Jan van Eyck and for the ringing of the funeral 
 bell, and in the obituary of the church his 
 anniversary set down as celebrated on July 9. 
 In an article in the Burlington Magazine (1904) 
 Mr. Weale makes the following comment : 
 *' Hence it appears certain that he died on 
 July 9, 1440. This date, now generally ac- 
 cepted, is, however, incorrect. Two entries 
 in the account of Walter Poulain, Receiver- 
 General of Flanders for the year ending 
 December 31, 1441, prove that John's death 
 
JAN VAN EYCK 19 
 
 took place in 1441, but leave the exact day 
 uncertain." Three entries show that Jan died 
 about the end of June, and that on July 22 a 
 grant of 3.60 livres — the equivalent of her 
 husband's salary for half a year — was made to 
 Jan's widow by the Duke Philip in recogni- 
 tion of the services rendered by her deceased 
 husband. It also shows that Jan's wife was 
 named Margaret, and that he left at least two 
 children— one, the Duke's godchild, Pjiilip or 
 Philippina, born in June, 1434 ; the other, 
 Lyennie, who became a nun at Maaseyck in 
 1449, which lends colour to the theory that 
 Maaseyck was her father's birthplace. 
 
 His epitaph, as translated by Sir Charles 
 Eastlake, runs : " Here lies Joannes, who was 
 celebrated for his surpassing skill, and whose 
 felicity in painting excited wonder. He painted 
 breathing forms, and the earth's surface, 
 covered with flowery vegetation, completing 
 each work to the life. Hence Phidias and 
 Apelles must give place to him, and Polycletus 
 be considered his inferior in art. Call, there- 
 fore, the Fates most cruel, who have snatched 
 from us such a man. Yet cease to weep, for 
 destiny is immutable ; pray only now to God 
 that he may live in heaven." 
 
 c 2 
 
THE INVENTION OF OIL-PAINTING 
 
 nPRADITION has for centuries connected the 
 name of Van Eyck with the invention of 
 oil-painting, and has fixed upon the year 14 lo 
 as the date of this invention. This, at least, 
 is the year given by such early writers as 
 Guicciardini, Vasari, Opmeer, and Karel van 
 Mander. Vasa,ri, indeed, gives a most de- 
 tailed and circumstantial account of this epoch- 
 making event, which, according to the Aretine 
 biographer, was brought about by the single- 
 handed efforts of Jan. And it is easy to 
 understand that the fame of the elder brother 
 had in the sixteenth century become obscured 
 and merged in that of the brilliantly successful 
 Jan, the varlet de chambre and official Court 
 painter. This " Giovanni of Bruggia," Vasari 
 tells us, *' after having given extreme labour 
 to the completion of a certain picture, and with 
 great diligence brought it to a successful issue, 
 he gave it the varnish and set it to dry in the 
 sun, as is the custom. But whether because 
 
 20 
 
INVENTION OF OIL-PAINTING 21 
 
 the heat was too violent, or that the wood was 
 badly joined or insufficiently seasoned, the 
 picture gave way at the joinings, opening 
 in a very deplorable manner. Thereupon 
 Giovanni, perceiving the mischief done to his 
 work by the heat of the sun, determined to 
 proceed in such a manner that the same thing 
 should never again injure his work in like 
 manner. And as he was no less embarrassed 
 by his varnishes than by the process of tempera- 
 painting, he turned his thoughts to the dis- 
 covery of some sort of varnish that would dry 
 in the shadow, to the end that he need not 
 expose his pictures to the §un. Accordingly, 
 after having made many experiments on sub- 
 stances, pure and mixed, he finally discovered 
 that linseed oil and oil of nuts dried more 
 readily than any others of all that he had tried. 
 Having boiled these oils, therefore, with other 
 mixtures, he thus obtained the varnish which 
 he — or, rather, all the painters of the world — 
 had so long desired. He made experiments 
 with many other substances, but finally de- 
 cided that mixing the colours with these oils 
 gave a degree of firmness to the work which 
 not only secured it against all injury from 
 water when once dried, but also imparted so 
 
22 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 much life to the colours that they exhibited a 
 sufficient lustre in themselves without the aid 
 of varnish ; and what appeared to him more 
 extraordinary than all besides was that the 
 colours thus treated were much more easily 
 united and blent than when in tempera." 
 
 Vasari then proceeds to tell us of Jan's great 
 success, of the ** blameless envy" of all other 
 artists in Flanders and abroad, from whom he 
 would jealously guard his secret, until, in his 
 old age, he imparted it to ** his disciple Ruggieri 
 da Bruggia," a name which surely can hide no 
 other personality than Rogier van derWeyden's. 
 Of Hubert never a mention, save a short refer- 
 ence in the last volume, in the chapter on 
 " Divers Flemish Artists." As in most of 
 Vasari's anecdotes, there is probably a founda- 
 tion of truth to the elaborate network of fiction. 
 The incident explained by him at great length 
 may have occurred, but its hero can only have 
 been Hubert, and not Jan, who was then a 
 mere youth working in his brother's hottega^ 
 and may have assisted Hubert in his experi- 
 ments. Though it has since been doubted that 
 Hubert or Jan van Eyck actually invented oil- 
 painting, no evidence has yet been discovered 
 to prove they were not the first to employ oil 
 
INVENTION OF OIL-PAINTING 23 
 
 as a medium in putting colour on the prepared 
 panel. It is true that oil as a protective 
 varnish was frequently used during the four- 
 teenth century, and it is probable that some 
 kind of oil-colour was employed in the colouringr 
 of statuary and in the painting of banners at 
 an early period. For this reason the statement 
 that Hubert and Jan van Eyck *' discovered 
 painting in oils" has been disputed, and 
 generally accepted as inaccurate, but the ques- 
 tion is one rather of terminology than of the 
 technical point. 
 
 As the term ''oil-painting" is generally 
 accepted to-day, it is fairer to credit these 
 brothers with the invention, than to speak of 
 their achievement as an improvement in oil- 
 painting, for hitherto the medium in common 
 use had been a preparation of g;um and white 
 of eggs. And as there is neither definite proof 
 nor any good evidence that oil had ever been used 
 as a medium to mix the colours for panel-painting 
 before Hubert and Jan made their experiments, 
 we surely have an easy distinction to draw. 
 The brothers Van Eyck were the first success- 
 fully to rnix the oil with the colours for 
 painting, and this process is what we now 
 understand as " painting in oils." The use of 
 
24 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 oils as a protective or varnish does not enter 
 into the painting, since such had only been 
 used on the completion of the work. 
 
 For the rest, the brothers either acted 
 more generously than Vasari would have it, or 
 they did not altogether succeed in guarding 
 their precious secret, for their method appears 
 to have been fairly generally practised at 
 Ghent about 1420. We find, for instance, 
 that in 1419 the "free painters," Willem van 
 Appoele and Johannes Maertens, received a 
 commission to paint some pictures for the 
 town hall of Ghent in '* good oil-colours." It 
 is also certain that Rogier van der Weyden — 
 Vasari's Ruggieri da Bruggia — never was a 
 pupil of either Jan or Hubert van Eyck. 
 
THE ART OF THE VAN EYCKS 
 
 'T^HE position occupied by Hubert and Jan 
 -■■ van Eyck in the history of art is one of 
 unparalleled importance. A deep gulf divides 
 them from all their immediate precursors, who 
 seem to belong altogether to a different epoch 
 — nay, a different world. Just as their im- 
 provement in the technical methods of their 
 craft opened up a vista of till then un- 
 thought-of possibilities, so their conception 
 of life and of pictorial form marks the begin- 
 ning of a new era, the passing of the vague 
 mediaeval idealism into an art that is based 
 upon the close study and loving appreciation 
 of Nature. Perhaps too much stress has 
 been laid upon the so-called " realism " of the 
 brothers van Eyck, and more especially of Jan. 
 Again and again critics have insisted upon 
 Jan's uncompromising love of literal truth, 
 upon his insistence on details that are in them- 
 selves at times repulsively ugly. This realism 
 was tempered with deep sentiment and a sense 
 
 25 
 
26 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 of style which kept such details well subordi- 
 nated to the general scheme, and it is in this 
 respect that Jan van Eyck stands immeasurably 
 above Melchior Broederlam, who occupied the 
 position of varlet de chamhre and Court painter 
 to Philip the Bold, the grandfather of Jan's 
 patron. Broederlam, indeed, as may be seen 
 in his famous altar-piece at Dijon, seems to be 
 a far more pronounced realist than Jan van 
 Eyck, simply because he lacks that sense of 
 style and harmony and subordination — in short, 
 that concentration — which makes us forget the 
 realistic detail in the beauty of the complete 
 thing. 
 
 The real precursors of the van Eycks were the 
 sculptors who carved the tombs, monuments, and 
 reliefs in the churches of Tournai. In these 
 we first find the faithful adherence to the facts 
 of Nature and the understanding of the subtleties 
 of form which in painting appear first in the 
 works of the brothers van Eyck, who may 
 have also owed much of their knowledge to the 
 flourishing school of Flemish miniature-painters, 
 if, indeed, Hubert in his early days did not 
 actually practise this art. Yet, even though 
 the new era in painting is, as it were, heralded 
 by the new tendencies in plastic art — ^just as in 
 
THE ART OF THE VAN EYCKS 27 
 
 ItalyGiotto wasprecededbythesculptorNiccolo 
 Pisani — there is something wonderful, some- 
 thing almost difficult to realise, in the sudden 
 appearance of complete and perfect works of 
 art, like the paintings of the van Eycks, that 
 with masterly sureness express the whole 
 essence of the Ggthic style, whilst at the same 
 time they reveal a new understanding of the 
 inexhaustible beauty of Nature, a keen percep- 
 tion of structural growth and of individual 
 characteristics, and, above all, an almost mo^iern 
 understanding of the play of light upon figures 
 and objects in and out of doors. 
 
 The picturesque, brilliant, varied life of such 
 cities as Bruges and Ghent at the beginning of 
 the fifteenth century cannot have failed to sti- 
 mulate the artists' power of observation, to 
 sharpen their perception of the differences of 
 race, gesture, and costume; for the streets and 
 squares of the rich commercial centres of 
 Flanders were filled from morning to night 
 with ever-moving crowds of courtiers and mer- 
 chants from all parts of the world — Spaniards 
 and Italians, Germans, and Slavonians, and 
 even Moors and Turks, all in their different 
 costumes and following their different customs. 
 At the same time the painters' eyes were con- 
 
28 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 stantly met by the wonders of the creations of 
 architects, armourers, and other craftsmen who 
 flourished under the protection of the Burgun- 
 dian rulers ; and one may well understand the 
 love and enthusiasm with which a receptive 
 artist like Jan van Eyck applied himself to the 
 faithful delineation of the splendours and of the 
 seething life by which he was surrounded. 
 
 Although the two brothers were in the habit 
 of working together upon the same pictures, 
 which has given rise to many disputes as to the 
 authorship of unsigned works, and although 
 Jan, the realist, at times approached, though 
 never equalled, the spirituality and decora- 
 tive sumptuousness of Hubert, whilst Hubert, 
 the stylist and greater mind of the two, 
 sometimes vied with Jan in the minute and 
 exquisite elaboration of details, the signed works 
 of Jan and those parts of the Ghent altar-piece 
 which are unquestionably Hubert's own have 
 made it possible to characterise the distinguish- 
 ing qualities of the two masters. Hubert far 
 exceeds his brother in monumental impressive- 
 ness, in grandeur of style, in idealistic signi- 
 ficance, in sumptuousness, and even in sense of 
 beauty. Even the folds of his draperies have a 
 fulness and a noble swing which form a striking 
 
[Berlin IMuseuiii, 
 THE MAN WITH THE PINKS. 
 BY JAN VAN EYCK, 
 
THE ART OF THE VAN EYCKS 29 
 
 contrast to the more laboured irregularity of 
 Jan's, as may be seen in comparing the gar- 
 ments of God the Father, the Virgin Mary, and 
 St. John, of the Ghent altar-piece, with the 
 curiously broken folds of Barbara's dress in 
 Jan's picture at Antwerp. 
 
 The conception of such ideas as are em- 
 bodied in the Adoration of the Lamb, or in the 
 Triumph of the Church over the Synagogue, at the 
 Madrid Museum, would also have been quite 
 beyond the pale of the more prosaic Jan's 
 imagination. Jan, on the other hand, excelled 
 in stating the reality of the visible world. 
 Generalisations of human types or of landscape 
 features are unknown to him. He was the 
 first to fix upon his panels all the carefully 
 studied and exquisitely wrought details of the 
 actual world — sky and mountain and river, forest 
 and fields, flowers and trees, and the churches 
 and castles, houses and bridges, placed in 
 Nature by human hands. It is scarcely too 
 much to say that he was the first landscape- 
 painter, just as he was the first portrait painter 
 in the modern sense of the word — the first 
 who could paint a scene so that it could be 
 identified after the lapse of centuries, the first 
 who could paint a portrait so that the model 
 
30 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 stands before us living and breathing, in all his 
 beauty or ugliness. To appreciate the keenness 
 of his vision one has only to examine the mar- 
 vellous Arnolfini group at the National Gallery, 
 with its almost scientific treatment of softly 
 diffused indoor light. A comparison of this 
 picture, from the point of view of lighting, with 
 anything that was painted before the days of 
 the van Eycks will reveal perhaps the greatest 
 step forward that is on record in the whole 
 history of painting. 
 
COLLABORATION OF THE 
 BROTHERS 
 
 ^^THEN piecing together the lives of the 
 brothers van Eyck, it is necessary to 
 delve into a confusing mass of conflicting state- 
 ments — evidence which is only in part to be 
 relied upon, and the theories of those who have 
 devoted a vast amount of time and labour to 
 the unearthing, sorting, and arranging of such 
 evidence as they have been able to lay their 
 hands upon. Incomplete as the records are, 
 we must, until further evidence has been dis- 
 covered, accept the obvious conclusions from 
 the indisputable data left to us. 
 
 We have tgn unquestionably genuine signed 
 pictures by Jan, and a small group of others 
 which may, from internal evidence, be safely 
 ascribed to the same source. We know that 
 the great Adoration of the Lamb, though de- 
 signed in its entirety by Hubert, is the com- 
 bined work of the two masters. We know also 
 that the Copenhagen panel of Robert Poortier 
 
 31 
 
32 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 was in Hubert's studio at the time of his death 
 — perhaps unfinished. The remaining pictures 
 generally accepted as genuine van Eycks 
 have been variously ascribed to Hubert, or to 
 Jan, or to their united efforts. In view of 
 the fact that not a single really authenticated 
 work by Hubert alone is known, special signi- 
 ficance must be attached to a statement, several 
 times repeated by early writers, that Hubert 
 and Jan " continually painted on the same 
 works." 
 
 In trying to solve the difficult question which 
 part of the extant mivve is Hubert's and which 
 is Jan's, our knowledge of Jan's journeys to the 
 South assumes considerable importance. For 
 Hubert's travels we lack proof — they are mere 
 conjecture; But there is documentary evi- 
 dence of Jan's journey to Portugal in 1428, in 
 addition to which Mr. Weale has, I understand, 
 recently unearthed some further documents 
 which establish another and earlier journey of 
 Jan to Spain. On these travels Jan must have 
 become well acquainted with certain plants 
 peculiar to the South, and especially the dwarf 
 palm or palmetto, which is confined almost 
 exclusively to Spain and Portugal. It is there- 
 fore not unreasonable to assign to him those 
 
THEIR COLLABORATION 33 
 
 portions of the disputed pictures in which this 
 palmetto appears. Some authorities hold that 
 Jan did not have any independent artistic career 
 before Hubert's death, and that in the division 
 of labour Hubert's share was, as a rule, the 
 general design and the painting of the figures, 
 whilst Jan filled in the landscape and architec-i 
 tural backgrounds. 
 
 The collaboration theory has been advanced 
 by Mr. A. Marks, whose knowledge of Flemish 
 art is profound, and whose deductions are as 
 conscientious as they are convincing. To him 
 we are indebted for an interesting paper upon 
 the subject, which is at once exhaustive and 
 reasonable. Tq retail all that Mr. Marks ad- 
 vances in support of his theory would be to 
 reprint his treatise in toto ; but though it is 
 impossible here to follow all his arguments, 
 it is equally impossible to avoid reference to the 
 valuable correspondence between him and 
 Mr. James Weale in the AthencBum between 
 November, 1902, and April, 1903. This corre- 
 spondence arose from an article by Mr. A. 
 Marks in the AthencBum in May, 1900, in 
 which attention is drawn to the presence of the 
 palmetto in the picture of St. Francis receiving 
 the Stigmata (now in possession of Mr. J. G. 
 
 D 
 
34 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 Johnson, Pennsylvania ; a copy in Turin), 
 which picture had been formerly variously 
 ascribed to Henri met de Bles, Joachim Patinier, 
 and Mostaert. Mr. Marks has since supple- 
 mented and explained his views in the essay 
 mentioned ; whilst Miss Frances Weale has 
 published an excellent study on the *' van 
 Eycks," which, in a concise and interesting 
 form, presents her father's views on the 
 subject. 
 
 It is, of course, likely that nothing is proved 
 as to the authorship of certain paintings by the 
 presence or absence of the exotic plants or 
 other details ascribed to one or other of the 
 brothers. Supposing the assumed visit of 
 Hubert to Southern Europe to be a fact, Jan 
 may have made use of his brother's studies 
 to embellish his landscapes ; or Hubert may 
 have utilized Jan's studies. But either supposi- 
 tion is extremely unlikely. We have certain 
 proof that Jan did several times visit the South, 
 while Hubert's sojourn in these parts is pure 
 surmise ; and not only is it likely that, rather 
 than make use of second-hand material, Hubert 
 left portions of the pictures to be painted by 
 Jan, but the examination of the various pictures 
 reveals the same hand in the painting of the 
 
THEIR COLLABORATION 35 
 
 recurring details. We must, then, take the 
 facts and the most likely deductions in preference 
 to deductions drawn from data which are merely 
 conjectural. 
 
 Documentary evidence proves that Jan, im- 
 mediately after his reception by the King of 
 Portugal on January 12, 1429, began the work 
 of painting the portrait of the Infanta, which, 
 by the way, was executed in tempera, and not 
 in oil. This painting is, unfortunately, lost, 
 and though there are several portraits of 
 Isabella now extant, of which one at least may 
 be a copy of Jan's picture, there is nothing in 
 any of them that can be traced to this master. 
 He took a month over its completion, and 
 while the Court and Embassy were awaiting 
 the decision of Philip, to whom the picture had 
 been sent, Jan and his colleagues had time to 
 visit several places of interest and people of 
 distinction. They travelled to the north to 
 see the shrine of St. lago of Compostella ; then 
 to the south, where they were received in turn 
 by the Duke of Arjona and the King of Castile ; 
 and then to Granada, in the extreme south, 
 where they visited the King of that city. It is 
 stated that they also visited many other places ; 
 and, as from Granada they returned to Lisbon, 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 they must have passed through the country 
 lying between Cordova and Seville. 
 
 Now, through the whole of the south-eastern 
 portion of the peninsula the palmetto, or d\yarf- 
 p^lpi, flourishes abundantly, and Jan could not 
 fail during his tour to become well acquainted 
 with it. In a letter which Mr. Marks quotes in 
 his paper read at the Royal Society of Litera- 
 ture, June 24, 1903, Mr. Luffmann, Director 
 of the School of Horticulture in Melbourne, 
 says that the triangle formed by Seville, 
 Cordova, and Osuna, is ** a piece of country 
 which is literally overrun by the plant," and 
 that the root of the palmetto is commonly used 
 in those parts as fuel. In Italy it is but of 
 rare occurrence, though it grows in some of the 
 islands of the Mediterranean ; whilst in the 
 parts of Spain and Portugal visited by Jan it is 
 almost impossible for the visitor to avoid 
 seeing it. 
 
 Failing, then, even the probability that 
 Hubert ever saw the palmetto growing, we 
 must credit Jan with the painting of this plant, 
 which, like all the other exotics, must have 
 been carefully studied from nature, for they are 
 represented in most minute, careful, and con- 
 scientious manner, and are absolutely true to 
 
THEIR COLLABORATION 37 
 
 life. The palmetto occurs in the picture of 
 St. Francis receiving the Stigmata (above referred 
 to) ; in the St. Anthony luith the Donor at Copen- 
 hagen ; and in The Three Marys at the Sepnlchve 
 in the collection of Sir Frederick Cook at Rich- 
 mond. The portions of these paintings by 
 Hubert van Eyck, where the palmetto occurs, 
 may therefore be safely ascribed to the hand 
 of Jan. 
 
 Other exotic plants, which are not restricted 
 to Spain and Portugal, occur in these pictures ; 
 but they are painted by the same hand, and 
 betray the same loving adherence to truth, and 
 a similar familiarity with the plants as they 
 grow. It is therefore patent that they, too, 
 must be ascribed to Jan, for it is impossible to 
 suppose that the younger brother's work on 
 these pictures was simply that of adding the by 
 no means necessary dwarf-palm to Hubert's 
 completed landscapes. Jjm was probably re- 
 sponsible for the design and execution of these 
 landgcapes. These other exotics also occur in 
 the Ghent altar-piece, in the Calvary of the 
 Berlin Museum, and in the copy, at the same 
 museum, of a lost Virgin and Child. Mr. Marks 
 produces further evidence to prove that Jan 
 must have painted not only the foliage, but the 
 
38 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 whole of the landscapes where the little palm 
 appears, including in most cases the ar(^bi- 
 tecture. He draws attention to the archi- 
 tectural features in the Chancellov Rolin ivith 
 Saints in the Louvre, and the signed and dated 
 altar-piece by Jan in the museum at Bruges : 
 " The architecture in these pictures is not a real 
 architecture — that is, it has not been copied 
 from any actual examples. . . . Agreement is 
 general that it is an architecture invented, not 
 merely copied." These pictures furnish evi- 
 dence of the painter having visited Italy, for 
 marble is represented in a most lavish manner. 
 This marble is not characteristic of Northern 
 architecture ; its use is distinctly Italian. The 
 painting of it displays the usual care and 
 conscientiousness common to all Jan's works. 
 Further points cited by Mr. Marks as evidence 
 of Jan's work in various pictures are the repre- 
 sentations of snow-mountains in various works, 
 and the presence of a flying flock of geese. 
 
 The former is of greater importance, as this 
 again points to acquaintance with the South, 
 where alone the painter could have seen snow- 
 mountains. Now, as very similar architecture 
 to that in the altar-piece at Bruges, which is 
 signed by Jan van Eyck,is found in iheChancellor 
 
THEIR COLLABORATION 39 
 
 Rolin (Louvre), the Virgin and Child (Dresden), 
 and the Carthusian Monk with Saints (Gustave 
 de Rothschild, Paris), the suggestion is clear 
 that in all these pictures the architecture is the 
 work of Jan, and several notable critics hold 
 this view. In three of these four paintings we 
 find the snow-mountains — namely, in the 
 Dresden triptych, the Chancellor Rolin, and the 
 Carthusian Monk. And having established Jan 
 as the author of these snow-mountains, we 
 must credit him with the landscapes where this 
 feature occurs in other pictures — i.e., the Ghent 
 altar-piece, the Crucifixion of the Hermitage in 
 St. Petersburg, the Calvary of the Berlin 
 Museum, and the Three Marys of Sir Frederick 
 Cook. The theory that Jan is responsible for 
 the snow-mountains is amply supported by the 
 very reasonable deduction that he must at some 
 time have visited Italy. This is gathered from 
 the Italian character of the architecture, together 
 with the snow seen in the Rothschild picture, 
 the Chancellor Rolin, the Carthusian Monk, and 
 the Dresden picture. The theory is further 
 supported by the presence of the palmetto 
 together with snow-mountains in the Three 
 Marys of Sir Frederick Cook. Here the 
 palmetto proves the authorship of the land- 
 
40 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 scape, and as the view contains snow-mountains 
 it very materially strengthens the supposition 
 that it was Jan, and not Hubert, who painted 
 them, and who consequently must have been 
 to the South of Europe — probably Italy — to 
 have seen them. 
 
 The flock of geese, which appears in no fewer 
 than six pictures in addition to Jan's signed 
 St. Barbara at Antwerp, is of very much less 
 importance than the snow-mountains and the 
 palmetto, for here the only use that can be 
 made of it as evidence is its frequent repetition. 
 It is found in the landscapes of the Ghent 
 altar-piece, in the Chancellor Roliuj the Car- 
 thusian Monk, another version of the same sub- 
 ject in the Berlin Museum, St. Francis receiving 
 the Stigmata, and in the Three Marys. But the 
 flock of wild-geese is not a feature made use of 
 by the van Eyck brothers only. It seems to 
 have been of common occurrence in several 
 other Flemish painters both before and after 
 the days of the van Eycks. Nevertheless, its 
 presence in the pictures enumerated has been 
 brought forward as supplementary evidence to 
 prove the collaboration of Hubert and Jan. 
 
 So far, then, evidence has been shown to 
 prove Jan's share in the following pictures : the 
 

 
 
 ^ V 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 \Antwerp Museum. 
 
 ST. BARBARA. 
 BY JAN VAN EVCK. 
 
THEIR COLLABORATION 41 
 
 Chancellor Rolin, the Virgin and Child (at Dres- 
 den), the Carthusian Monk in the Rothschild 
 Collection, St. Francis receiving the Stigmata, 
 St. Anthony and the Donor (at Copenhagen), The 
 Three Marys at the Sepulchre, the Crucifixion (at 
 St. Petersburg), the Calvary (at Berlin), and 
 the great altar-piece at St. Bavo, Ghent. Still 
 another point which has been generally urged 
 to prove collaboration of the two brothers is 
 the appearance of their portraits in certain 
 pictures. They are seen in the panel of the 
 Ghent altar-piece representing the Just Judges^ 
 in the copy of the lost Fountain of Life or The 
 Triumph of the Church over the Synagogue in the 
 Madrid Museum, and also, it is said, in the 
 Crucifixion of St. Petersburg. 
 
 Though the theory of collaboration is an old 
 one, doubts have arisen amongst modern critics, 
 who have shown a growing tendency to ascribe 
 the majority of the unsigned works solely to 
 the elder brother, which attribution is refuted 
 not only by the arguments here set forth, but 
 by many early writers, including Guicciardini 
 and van Mander, both notable and reliable 
 historians. 
 
 Before leaving the question of collaboration, 
 a few words must be said concerning the con- 
 
42 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 trQi^ersy that has arisen over the Ghent altar- 
 piece. This painting is indisputably the 
 masi^rpiece of the van Eycks, and is of 
 stupendous proportions. The panel of the 
 Adovation of the Laiiib, from which the whole 
 alter-piece takes its name, and the shutters ' 
 depicting the Just Judges^ the Wavviovs of Chvistj 
 the Holy Hermits, and the Holy Pilgvims, have 
 by many critics been attributed to Hubert's 
 unaided efiforts. It is therefore interesting to 
 examine the landscape backgrounds of these 
 five panels, and to consider them in the light 
 of the evidence deduced from the backgrounds 
 of the other " collaboration " pictures. Evi- 
 dence is needed to prove that Jan's work was 
 not merely confined to finishing the picture 
 after his brother's death (the inscription states 
 that it was begun by Hubert and finished by 
 Jan), which in itself, of course, does not prove 
 collaboration of the brothers. 
 
 In the first place, Jan's handiwork must be 
 identified. In the pictures already discussed 
 it has been proved fairly conclusively that Jan \ 
 is responsible for the painting of the exotic ; 
 plants, the snow-mountains, the flock of wild \ 
 geese, and the architectural setting. The land- 
 scapes in the Ghent altar-piece contain exotic 
 
THEIR COLLABORATION 43 
 
 plants, wild geese, and snow-mountains. Of 
 the latter it is difficult to speak ; they are 
 whitish in colour, but their formation is neither 
 so natural nor so well designed as in the Thvee 
 Mavys. The exotic plants alone prove Jan's 
 work here. The birds may, or may not, be 
 very important. They serve, however, by 
 their repeated appearance in Jan's other 
 pictures, as auxiliary evidence. The question 
 for proof, however, is not the presence of Jan's 
 work on this picture, but the presence of his 
 work before the death of his brother. And 
 from this point of view it is significant that, 
 though other exotics are present in profusion, 
 the palmetto — a sure result of Jan's visit to 
 Portugal — does not appear. The whole work 
 is stated in the inscription to have been finished 
 on May 6, 1432, two years after Jan's return 
 from Portugal. Now, the absence of the 
 palmetto from this picture points to one of two 
 conclusions — either the work left for Jan to do 
 in the completion was comparatively trifling, 
 or that the greater part of the picture, including 
 the design of the landscapes, was already 
 finished before Jan met with the palmetto. 
 
 That the work of the younger brother was 
 not insignificant is distinctly stated in the text 
 
44 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 of the inscription : " The painter, Hubert van 
 Eyck, greater than whom none is to be found, 
 began [the work] ; the bulk was completed by 
 his brother Jan, second to him in art, relying 
 on the request of Jodoc Vydt. This verse 
 invites you to contemplate that which was 
 completed on May 6, 1432." This translation 
 from the Latin is chosen from three versions. 
 The other renderings seem to be given by those 
 who would translate the word pond us as wovk, 
 and thus give the younger brother credit for 
 no more than finishing an incomplete picture. 
 The text has, however, been translated by 
 several learned scholars, who are entirely free 
 from the taint of partisanship, and it is now 
 generally agreed that the translation given 
 here is the correct one. 
 
 There is yet another possibility which the 
 absence of the palmetto points to — namely, that 
 the picture was practically finished before Jan's 
 visit to Portugal, save some very minor details, 
 which were completed in 1432. The presence 
 of the other exotics points to this view being 
 correct, for it would obviously be unlikely that 
 Jan should omit the palmetto from ail these 
 five landscapes after his careful studies of his 
 favourite plant. The other exotics, not being 
 
THEIR COLLABORATION 45 
 
 a result of the journey, may very well have 
 been painted before 1429. Collaboration in 
 this work is further proved by the portraits of 
 the two brothers. 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 npHE supreme masterpiece of the brothers 
 vail Eyck, the work which, in the history 
 of Flemish art, has played the part that was 
 allotted to Masaccio's frescoes at the Carmine, 
 Florence, in the art of Italy, is the gi^ntic 
 pol)i:ptych painted for the chapel of the Vydt 
 family in the Cathedral of St. John (now St. 
 Bavo) in Ghent, and known from the subject 
 of the chief panel as the Adoration of the Lamb. 
 In its original form this altar-piece, which is 
 now dudded between St. Bavo Cathedral and 
 the museums of Berlin and Brussels, was com- 
 posed of twelve interior panels and a predella 
 (which has unfortunately been destroyed). 
 Including the backs of the shutters, which, like 
 the panels themselves, are covered with the 
 most minute and exquisite painting, the painted 
 surface extends to over i ,000 square feet. The 
 centre panel alone, from which the whole altar- 
 piece takes its name, measures 7J feet in width 
 by 4J feet in height. 
 
 46 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 47 
 
 Horizontally the whole altar-piece is divided 
 into three portions. The central panel of 
 the middle tier is occupied by the Adoration of 
 the Lamb. Like the rest of the picture, it is 
 treated in a decorative spirit, the grouping of 
 the figures, the architecture, and the foliage 
 being almost geometrically arranged and 
 balanced. In a very beautiful and peaceful 
 landscape is set up, on a green mound in the 
 centre, an altar, upon which stands the Lamb 
 of God. Its breast is pierced in the customary 
 manner, the sacred blood flowing into a chalice 
 at its feet. Immediately around the altar 
 fourteen angels, symbolical, probably, of the 
 stations of the Passion of Christ, kneel in 
 adoration. The two in front of the altar offer 
 incense, while emblems of the Passion are held 
 by others. The cross is held on the left, and 
 the pillar of the scourging stands on the right. 
 In the foreground, also in the centre and below 
 the altar, is the Fountain of Life, which divides 
 two groups of worshippers : on the left are the 
 Jewish prophets and patriarchs of the Old 
 Testament, whilst the crowd on the right is 
 composed of Popes, Bishops, priests, monks, 
 and laymen. In the background, emerging 
 from the luxuriant forest immediately behind 
 
48 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 the altar, two processions slowly wend their 
 way. The group on the right is composed of 
 holy women, foremost of whom come St. Agnes 
 with a lamb, St. Catherine, and others. The 
 Procession on the left again includes Popes, 
 Bishops, and monks. These are said to be the 
 confessors. Above all hovers the Holy Ghost 
 in the form of the dove. 
 
 The painting of these figures is most ex- 
 quisite. The draperies are soft and pleasing; 
 the colour is deep and rich ; while the faces are 
 remarkable for their character and variety of 
 expression. The jewels and ornaments worn 
 by some of the Popes and Bishops are drawn 
 with loving care, and the enrichments of the 
 vestments betray a patience and skill that 
 create wonder. In the distance, above the trees, 
 are seen cities with many towers and churches, 
 behind which are hills in the remote distance. 
 The foreground of the beautiful, soft, spring- 
 like grass is profusely enriched by the growth 
 of innumerable flowers and shrubs, all of which 
 are painted with consummate skill and truth. 
 The whole picture makes a profound effect by 
 its sumptuous splendour, and by the masterly 
 disposal of light and shade. 
 
 The two panels on the left are the Just Judges 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 49 
 
 and Christ's Warriors. In the Judges the whole 
 lower half of the picture is taken up by figures 
 on horses. Behind a cliff in the middle distance 
 is seen a forest and some buildings of elaborate 
 architecture, which may represent tribunals. 
 The bridles and trappings of the horses are 
 richly jewelled, and altogether the best is made 
 of the opportunity of rendering with goldsmith- 
 like precision all manner of gorgeous materials, 
 costly and beautifully emblazoned banners, and 
 armour and trappings of beautiful design. 
 Tradition has it that two of the Judges are 
 portraits of the painters, the one in a black 
 garment with a red rosary, who is turning 
 towards the spectator, being the younger brother 
 Jan. To strengthen the theory that this figure 
 was painted by Jan after Hubert's death, Mr. 
 Weale suggests that the black h^bit and red 
 ro,§ary denote mourning, probably for his 
 brother Hubert. 
 
 As regards the other panel, Mr. Six has 
 advanced an interesting theory with respect to 
 the soldier who wears a blue head-dress. He 
 calls attention to a pentimento in substituting 
 for a crown on this figure the blue head-dress. 
 Mr. Six claims to have identified this figure as 
 Jean Sans Peur, who probably saw the painting, 
 
 £ 
 
50 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 and objected to being represented with a crown 
 while Godfrey de Bouillon wore only a fur cap, 
 and therefore persuaded the painter to alter it 
 to the blue cap or bonnet which was the badge 
 of the Burgundians against the Armagnacs. 
 From this the supposed alteration must have 
 taken place a little after 1410, whereas, accord- 
 ing to early art historians, the altar-piece was 
 only begun between 14 15 and 1420. 
 
 Though the limitations of the present little 
 volume make it impossible to reproduce the 
 other panels which originally formed part of 
 the colossal altar-piece, it will not be out of 
 place here to describe them in detail, as they 
 all form part of a wonderfully complete and 
 harmonious scheme. As pendants to the Judges 
 and Waryiovs, to the right of the central panel 
 were the Holy Hermits and the Holy Pilgrims. 
 Rocks, cliff, and foliage are found in the back- 
 ground of the hermits, but, as suggestive of 
 retirement and remoteness, no architecture is 
 seen. The pilgrims are represented walking up 
 a valley towards the spectator. On the right, 
 in the background, is a hill covered with 
 various trees, and in the distance is seen a 
 river and meadows, with a town and low hills 
 beyond. The pilgrims are led by St. Christopher, 
 
{Berlin Museuvt. 
 
 THE JUST JUDGES, AND CHRIST'S WARRIORS. 
 BY HUBERT AND JAN VAN EVCK, 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 51 
 
 whose giant proportions tower above the rest 
 of the procession. 
 
 The upper tier of the polyptych consists of 
 seven panels, or rather three panels, the com- 
 bined width of which corresponds with that of 
 the Adoration panel below, and two shutters on 
 each side. The grand figure in the centre 
 panel, majestically enthroned, has been 
 variously held to represent God the Father 
 and Christ, and the Latin inscription may be 
 equally applied to both. Perhaps it was the 
 painter's idea to personify both in one figure. 
 On His brow is the Crown of Heaven, and at 
 His feet the Crown of Purity and Innocence, 
 which the Lamb has won on earth. The panel 
 to His right shows the Virgin, gazing in devo- 
 tion at an open book in her hands — a conception 
 of such purity and innocence that it recalls the 
 spirit of Fra Angelico. To his left is the 
 equally nobly conceived figure of St. John, an 
 open book in his lap, with his right hand raised, 
 as it were, in exhortation. The monumental 
 style of these figures, and their deep significance, 
 leave no doubt that these panels are from the 
 brush of the elder brother Hubert. 
 
 These panels are flanked by two shutters on 
 each side — a choir of angels and St. Cecilia 
 
 £ 2 
 
52 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 with some angels within, and Adam and Eve 
 at the extreme ends. The relentless realism of 
 the latter, which borders close on ugliness, 
 marks them as the work of Jan . The figures 
 are undoubtedly painted from life, and were 
 held to be so wonderful that for some time the 
 whole altar-piece was known as the " Adam 
 and Eve painting." Jan may also be held 
 responsible for the angels and St. Cecilia, both 
 of which have many characteristics that tally 
 with well-authenticated works by the master. 
 The predella which originally adorned the 
 altar-piece has unfortunately been destroyed. 
 The reverse of the lower shutters shows the 
 figures of St. John the Evangelist, St. John the 
 Baptist, and portraits of the donor, Jodoc Vydt, 
 and his wife ; and of the upper shutters, the 
 Annunciation and figures of prophets and 
 sibyls. Only the Adoxation and the three 
 important panels above (God the Father, the 
 Virgin, and St. John) remain at the Cathedral 
 of St. Bavo at Ghent; the Adam and Eve are 
 now at the Brussels Museum, and the other 
 shutters at the Berlin Museum. 
 
 There are still extant portions of a copy of 
 this great work which was painted at the 
 command of Philip H. of Spain by Michael 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 53 
 
 Cocxie. The wings of this copy are now added 
 to the original centre portion at Ghent. There 
 is a second copy of the Ghent altar-piece in the 
 museum of Autwerp. 
 
 Upon the consecration of the great master- 
 piece at St. Bavo vast multitudes of people 
 came into the city to see the work, the fame of 
 which soon became known throughout the 
 whole of Western Europe. And for more than 
 four centuries it remained the wonder of Ghent. 
 
 Mr. R. Petrucci states that in 1904, during 
 a demolition of a house in the Rue du Gouverne- 
 ment at Ghent, the old walls were discovered 
 of a Steen believed to have been the property 
 of Jodoc Vydt, the patron of the van Eycks, 
 who commissioned them to execute the Ghent 
 polyptych. In a room upon the third floor, 
 40 feet up, a square window was discovered 
 exactly answering in orientation and position 
 to the town which appears in the Adoration of 
 the Lanibf and which has been recognised as a 
 view over the Rue Courte du Jour. In the 
 foreground is seen the Steen, on the site of 
 which was afterwards built the little butcher's 
 shop near the present bird-market. Above it 
 rises the tournelle of the weavers' chapel, which 
 was used in turn as a butcher's shop, a pleasure 
 
54 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 resort, and a place of auction, and is now a 
 garage for motor-cars. Further away, in the 
 background, is the old fortified gate which 
 defended the passage of the bridge of the canal 
 of the coppersmiths. On the left of the scene 
 is a representation of another front of the Steen, 
 which stood on that side at the corner of the 
 Rue Courte du Jour and the Rue de Brabant. 
 The window reveals this scene exactly. *' It 
 seems certain," says Mr. Petrucci, '* that this 
 was the room in which Hubert and Jan, or, at 
 any rate, Jan, van Eyck painted the famous 
 polyptych of the Mystic Lamb." 
 
 * * * -" * 
 
 The portrait group by Jan van Eyck known 
 3.S Jan Arnolfini and Jeanne de Chenany, his Wife^ 
 must be counted among the greatest treasures 
 of the London National Gallery, as it is, 
 perhaps, the most_ perfect as well as the most 
 characteristic example of the master's art. 
 Arnolfini, who was Jan's brother-in-law, a man 
 of solemn and depressing countenance, with 
 heavy, drooping lids and long, wide-nostrilled 
 nose, is seen standing in his bed-chamber. 
 His right hand is raised as if enjoining silence, 
 his left extended to his wife, whose open 
 countenance denotes docility and calm. 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 55 
 
 Arnolfini wears a tunic of a dark green stuff, 
 over which is a cloak of dark red, which reaches 
 well below the knees, and is lined and edged 
 with fur. It is divided at the sides from the 
 bottom to the shoulder. He wears a large and 
 curiously shaped hat, which in a manner 
 resembles a *' beefeater's " head-gear. His 
 wife is habited in a long and ample robe of 
 green, rather bright in colour, and lined and 
 trimmed with white fur. She has raised the 
 folds of the robe in front, thus revealing an 
 undergarment of dark blue, trimmed also with 
 fur. Round her strikingly high waist is a 
 narrow belt of leather, decorated with gilding 
 and polished. On her head is a large kerchief 
 with a worked border, which is caught up at 
 the sides in the prevailing fashion. Round her 
 neck she wears a double row of pearls. The 
 drawing of the drapery, which falls straight to 
 the floor, is bold and severe, realistic, and 
 devoid of any attempt at affectation. 
 
 In the foreground is a small dog, and to the 
 left, on the floor, a pair of pattens. In the 
 centre of the room, slightly behind and above 
 the heads of the figures, hangs a brass chan- 
 delier of pierced work. Of its six arms only 
 one holds a candle, and this is burning, the 
 
56 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 single flame being probably a symbol of con- 
 jugal affection or unity, as there is no other 
 reason for its presence in a chamber well lit by 
 two large windows on the left — one behind the 
 figures and one in advance, which is not shown, 
 but the light from which falls straight upon the 
 faces. On the wall behind the two figures a 
 circular convex mirror reflects a portion of the 
 room, with two additional figures. Beside it 
 hangs an amber rosary. The flesh painting is 
 admirably soft, delicate, and transparent ; the 
 light and shade powerful, yet so well arranged 
 that only the closest examination will reveal 
 what an important factor it is in the success of 
 the picture. The whole thing is touching in 
 the simple straightforwardness of statement, 
 and all the details are wrought with inimitable 
 but unobtrusive minute precision. In the 
 management of tone-values and of indoors 
 atmosphere Jan proves himself in this picture 
 far ahead of his time. 
 
 The signature of this Arnolfini picture is 
 written in ornamental Gothic characters imme- 
 diately above the mirror, and takes the extra- 
 ordinary form ''Johannes de Eyck fuit hie" 
 (Jan van Eyck was here), with the date 1434. 
 Owing to this ambiguous wording, which may 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 57 
 
 be, and has been, interpreted as " this was Jan 
 van Eyck," the picture was formerly held to 
 represent the artist himself and his wife, a theory 
 which still has its defenders. A full pedigree 
 of the picture is given in the National Gallery 
 catalogue. It belonged in 15 16 to Margaret of 
 Austria, to whom it was given by Don Diego 
 de Guevara, whose arms were painted on the 
 shutters which were originally attached to it. 
 Afterwards it passed into the hands of a barber- 
 surgeon at Bruges, who presented it to the 
 then Regent of the Netherlands, Mary, the 
 sister of Charles V., and Queen Dowager of 
 Hungary. This Princess valued the picture so 
 highly that she granted the barber-surgeon in 
 return a pension, or office, worth 100 florins 
 per annum. The picture is included in the list 
 of valuables which she carried with her to 
 Spain in 1556, from which date it disappeared 
 until 1 815, when it was discovered by Major- 
 General Hay in the apartments to which he 
 was taken, in Brussels, to recover from wounds 
 received at Waterloo. He subsequently pur- 
 chased the picture, and disposed of it to the 
 British Government in 1842, since which date 
 it has been at the National Gallery. Henri 
 Bouchot was of opinion that the picture is not 
 
58 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 the one of Arnolfini the traces of which are 
 lost in 1556, but a portrait of van Eyck and 
 his wife, painted as a pendant to the lost 
 Arnolfini group. To support his view he 
 pointed out the resemblance of the woman in 
 this picture with the portrait of Jan's^wife at 
 the Bruges Museum J' .^ A'^^'*^^ /^kJ^'^ , 
 ***** 
 The portrait at the National Gallery which, 
 from the name inscribed in Greek characters 
 on the stone parapet that extends across the 
 bottom of the panel, is known as the bust of 
 JTimothy, bears the date October 10, 1432, 
 and is therefore the earliest of Jan's signed and 
 dated pictures — always excepting the much- 
 overpainted Chatsworth panel of 142 1. It is 
 not in quite so good a state of preservation as 
 the other portrait of a man by Jan, in the 
 same Gallery, which is dated 1433, but the face 
 itself is in fairly good condition. The features 
 are broad and massive, and inclined to heavi- 
 ness ; the eyes are somewhat deep-set, while 
 the cheek-bones are prominent. His right 
 hand holds a small roll of parchment with 
 some writing upon it. On the parapet, beneath 
 the Greek word " Tymotheos," is the inscrip- 
 tion LEAL SOyVENlR, and the signature 
 
[National Galhry. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF TIMOTHY. 
 BY JAN VAN EYCK. 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 59 
 
 " Factu ano. Dni. 1432. 10. die Octobris. a Joh. 
 de Eyck." 
 
 ***** 
 The portrait known as The Man with the 
 Pinks at the Berlin Museum, is one of the 
 most characteristic of Jan's portraits. It shows 
 an elderly man in a dark grey coat with fur 
 cuffs and collar and a broad-brimmed beaver 
 hat. At the neck the brocade collar of a tunic 
 shows above the fur collar of the coat. The 
 ornament of this brocade seems to consist of 
 the alternating letters Y and C, which occur in 
 one or two other portraits of the period, and 
 may eventually afford some clue as to the 
 identity of the sitter. Round the neck is a 
 twisted wire chain, from which hangs a headless 
 cross and the bell of St. Anthony. Both hands 
 are raised as high as the breast, the fingers and 
 thumb of the left holding three pinks. A hand- 
 some ring with two stones is on the third finger. 
 The face, wrinkled and lined, is full of expres- 
 sion and life ; the lips are parted, as though 
 about to give utterance to speech. Though 
 the drawing is almost hard in its exact delinea- 
 tion, it is far from rigid. It is altogether an 
 admirable example of Jan's lifelike realism, 
 that loves to dwell on every little ugly detail — 
 
6o THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 ill-shapen ears, puffy ** tear-bags," warts and 
 wrinkles — and yet infuses the whole thing with 
 the beauty of life and character. 
 
 nr T^ '1^ 'l^ "t^ 
 
 The Virgin and Child, imth St. Donafian, 
 Si. George, and the Donor, George van der Paele, 
 Canon of the ancient Cathedral of St. Donatian 
 at Bruges, bears the date 1436, and is the 
 most important of Jan van Eyck's religious 
 compositions. The scene is in the circular 
 apse of a Romanesque church, lighted by the 
 soft rays that filter through the leaded win- 
 dows. The Virgin, draped in a red cloak, is 
 seen in the centre under a green canopy, holding 
 the Christ-Child in her lap. She has the same 
 heavy, matronly features as the Virgin of The 
 Annunciation in St. Petersburg and of the 
 Chancellor Rolin picture in Paris, and is no 
 more idealised than the by no means attractive 
 infant Saviour, who is playing with a parrot. 
 It is all very h^man and wonderfully true, and 
 for that very reason lacking in spiritual signifi- 
 cance. On the left stands St. Donatian in a 
 gorgeous and marvellously painted brocade 
 robe, whilst on the right St. George, in 
 armour, presents the kneeling Canon van der 
 Paele to the Virgin. The patron saint, again, 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 6i 
 
 is obviously painted from a model of low rank 
 in life — perhaps a peasant or a stableman ; 
 whilst the rugged irregular features of the donor 
 are set down with an honest and painstaking 
 straightforwardness that seems to delight in doing 
 full justice to all the sitter's ugliness. As objec- 
 tive portraiture pure and simple, this head of van 
 der Paele has probably never been surpassed 
 in the whole history of art. The supreme 
 mastery of Jan van Eyck manifests itself in the 
 creation of a work of unforgettable beauty and 
 sumptuous splendour from such unpromising 
 material. The ugliness of the types chosen is 
 forgotten when one's eyes revel in the rich 
 scheme of colour, the extraordinary beauty of 
 the painting of all the stuffs and accessories, 
 the perfect modelling of the features, and, 
 above all, the (for the time) amazing knowledge 
 of the effect of light. With all the richness of 
 pigment there is not a single note in this whole 
 large panel that is not absolutely " in tone "; 
 nothing is forced, nothing arbitrary, as though 
 the fifteenth-century master had already adopted 
 the principle of the nineteenth-century impres- 
 sipriists — " the first subject of a picture is light." 
 The van der Paele altar-piece was in the 
 sacristy of the church of St. Donatian when 
 
62 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 the old basilica was destroyed by the revolution- 
 ary troops. It was taken to Paris, together 
 with much other artistic booty, but was returned 
 to Bruges in 1814, and is now in the Museum 
 of the Academy of that city. The drapery round 
 the loins of the infant Saviour is a later addi- 
 tion which does not appear in the excellent 
 early copy at the Antwerp Museum, from 
 which our illustration is a reproduction. The 
 original at Bruges bears the inscription in small 
 Gothic letters : Hoc opus fecit fieri magistev 
 Geovgius de Pala, huiiis ecclesie canonicus, per 
 Johannem de Eyck pictorem. Et fundavit hie diias 
 capellanias de gremio chovi domini M. ccc°.xxxiiij°.y 
 completum anno 1436°. 
 
 :{: :(: ^t' :f: :f: 
 
 At the Museum of Antwerp is the exquisite 
 unfinished little painting of SLM^irbaya, signed 
 and dated: Johes de Eyck me fecit 1437. The 
 saint, with an open book on her lap and a palm- 
 branch in her hand, is seated in front of an 
 elaborately designed Goihic toiver in course of 
 construction. Around the tower are numerous 
 figures of labourers, masons, horsemen, and 
 others ; and the background shows a landscape 
 with mountains, castles, rivers, fields and trees, 
 and a town on a hill. Technically, this picture 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 63 
 
 is supremely interesting, as it^ shows that at a 
 comparatively late period of his life — a quarter 
 of a century after the reputed discovery of oil- 
 painting — Jan has not altogether discarded the 
 practice of tempera-painting. For the whole 
 composition, the pensive-looking saint and 
 the widespread angular folds of her garment, the 
 tower and the figures, are carefully drawn and 
 shaded in brown tempera colour on a prepara- 
 tion of gum or white of egg. Only the part 
 which required no special design, the sky, is 
 painted in oil-colour. It may thus be assumed 
 that it was the practice of the brothers van 
 Eyck to work with oil-colours on a tempera 
 foundation. 
 
 The St. Bavhava also confirms Karel van 
 Mander's statement that Jan's sketches were 
 more complete and more carefully wrought 
 than the finished paintings of other artists. 
 M. Henri Hymans suggests that this St. 
 Barbara is the very painting which van 
 Mander mentions as being in the possession of 
 his master Lucas de Heere at Ghent, and 
 " representing a woman behind whom was a 
 landscape ; it was but a preparation, and yet 
 extraordinarily beautiful." 
 
64 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 Our last illustration represents, or is supposed 
 to represent, The Enthvonement of Thomas a 
 Becket as Archbishop of Canteybuvy, and is in 
 the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, at 
 Chatsworth. In a late Norman church Thomas 
 a Becket is seen in the foreground under a 
 scarlet canopy, with the Holy Ghost hovering 
 near, and above is a splendid crown in which 
 the figure of the risen Christ is introduced ; 
 above the crown is a circle with a Virgin and 
 Child. Three Bishops are engaged in placing 
 the mitre upon the head of the saint, while a 
 priest with an open book is kneeling before 
 him. On the right are the clergy and on the 
 left the laity, with King Henry H. at their 
 head. On the border is the inscription : Johes 
 de Eyck, fecit, am, M°.CCCCZI, 30° Octohvis, 
 This inscription, if genuine, is the only evidence 
 of Jan's authorship of the picture which has 
 been entirely repainted, so that nothing of the 
 original work is to be seen. The date, i£2i, 
 is eleven years earlier than any other dated 
 picture by Jan van Eyck. It is scarcely 
 necessary to point out the importance of this 
 fact to the art historian in search of evidence 
 of Jan's early activity ; but whilst the picture 
 remains in its present condition it cannot throw 
 
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS 65 
 
 any light upon the debated points. Only if the 
 surface paint were removed would it be 
 possible to judge whether below it is a real 
 early work of Jan van Eyck, and what was 
 the relative position of the two brothers before 
 Hubert's death. 
 
 The Enthronement of Thomas a Becket has 
 an interesting pedigree. It was given by 
 John, Duke of Bedford, to King Henry V., and 
 was afterwards in the collection of the second 
 Earl of Arundel, who died at Padua in 1646, 
 bequeathing it to Henry, the sixth Duke of 
 Norfolk, by whose son, the seventh Duke, it 
 was sold. It came through the Duke's steward, 
 Mr. Fox, to a Mr. Sykes, who sold it to the 
 Duke of Devonshire in 1722. 
 
LIST OF WORKS, 
 
 CATALOGUED ACCORDING TO 
 
 LOCALITY 
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 
 
 Vienna Museum. — Portrait of Jan de Leeuw (Jan), 
 signed and dated 1436. 
 
 Portrait of Nicolas Albergati, Cardinal of the Church 
 of the Holy Cross (Jan), painted, probably, in 143 1, 
 when the Cardinal passed through Flanders on a 
 political mission. This picture is mentioned in the 
 inventory of the Archduke Leopold William, Governor 
 of the Netherlands, 1655. ^ silver-point sketch for 
 the portrait is in the Dresden Print Cabinet. 
 
 BELGIUM. 
 
 Ghent, Cathedral of St. Bavo.— The Adoration 
 
 of the Lamb triptych (Hubert and Jan ; see p. 46). 
 
 66 
 
LIST OF WORKS 67 
 
 Antwerp Museum. — St. Barbara (Jan), 1437 (see 
 p. 62). 
 
 The Virgin and Child by the Fountain (Jan), 1439. 
 
 Bruges Museum. — Virgin and Child, zvith St.Donatian, 
 St. George, and the Donor, George van der Paele (Jan), 1436 
 (see p. 60). 
 
 Portrait oi Jan Van Eyck's Wife (Jan), 1439. 
 
 Brussels Museum. — Adam and Eve: shutters from 
 the Adoration triptych at St. Bavo, Ghent (Jan ; see 
 p. 52). 
 
 LouvAiN, M. G. Helleputte. — Triptych of the Virgin 
 and Child, with the Donor, Nicolas de Maelbehe, in A doration, 
 unfinished (Jan), 1340. The shutters contain repre- 
 sentations of Gideon standing before an angel, the 
 burning bush, Aaron with a blossoming rod, and other 
 subjects from the Old Testament. 
 
 BRITISH ISLES. 
 
 Chatsworth, Duke of Devonshire. — The Enthrone- 
 ment of Thomas a Becket (Jan (?) ; see p. 64). 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 Ince Hall, Mr. Weld Blundell.— 77>^m and Child 
 (Jan) : a panel of very small dimensions and miniature- 
 like execution, painted in 1432, and inscribed Ah ihh 
 kan (As well as I can). 
 
 London, National Gallery. — Jan Arnolfini and 
 Jeanne de Chenany, his Wife (Jan), 1434 (see p. 54). 
 
 Portrait of Timothy, "Leal Souvenir" (Jan), 1432 
 (see p. 58). 
 
 Portrait of a Man with a Chapeyon or Turban (Jan), 
 1433. Inscribed on the frame : Johes de Eyck me fecit 
 anno mcccc 33 21 Octobris^ and Als ikh kan. Formerly 
 in the Arundel Collection. 
 
 Richmond, Sir Frederick Cook. — The Three Marys 
 at the Sepulchre (variously attributed to Hubert and 
 Jan). 
 
 DENMARK. 
 
 Copenhagen, Royal Gallery. — Robert Poortier, 
 protected by St. Antony (Hubert). 
 
LIST OF WORKS 69 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Paris, Louvre. — Chancellor Rolin kneeling before the 
 Virgin and Child, with a river landscape seen through a 
 loggia of three arches (generally ascribed to Hubert, 
 but more probably by Jan). 
 
 Baron G. de Rothschild. — Virgin and Child, with St. 
 Anne, St. Barbara, and a Carthusian Monk, who has been 
 identified as Herman Steenken, of Suutdorp, Vicar of 
 a Carthusian Nunnery near Bruges (Hubert and Jan). 
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 Berlin, National Gallery. — Six shutters from the 
 Adoration altar-piece of St. Bavo, Ghent (Hubert and 
 Jan ; see p. 48). 
 
 A replica of the Virgin and Child, with a Carthusian 
 Monk, in the collection of Baron G. de Rothschild, 
 Paris. 
 
 Head 0/ Christ {]a.n), 1439. 
 
 Portrait of a Knight of the Golden Fleece, probably 
 Baudouin de Lannoy (Jan). 
 
 The Man with the Pinks (Jan ; see p. 59). 
 
70 THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK 
 
 Dresden Gallery. — Triptych, The Virgin and, Child 
 Enthroned. On the wings are the figures of St. Catherine 
 and the donor, and on the back of the shutters the 
 Annunciation (Jan). 
 
 ,7= Frankfort, Staedel Institute. — The Virgin and 
 Child Enthroned (Jan). 
 
 Leipzig Museum.— Portrait of a Man (Jan ?). 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 Turin Gallery. — Copy of St. Francis receiving the 
 Stigmata. The original is in the collection of Mr. J. G. 
 Johnston, Philadelphia. 
 
 RUSSIA. 
 
 St. Petersburg, Hermitage. — Calvary and the Last 
 Judgment. Wings of a triptych, the centre portion of 
 which is lost (Hubert ?). 
 
 The Attnunciation (Jan), formerly in the collection of 
 King William II. of Holland. Bought for the Hermitage 
 Collection for 13,000 francs. 
 
LIST OF WORKS 71 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 Madrid Gallery. — Copy of a lost painting by 
 Hubert and Jan van Eyck, representing The Triumph 
 of the Church over the Synagogue, also known as The 
 Fountain of Life. 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 Philadelphia, J. G. Johnston. — St. Francis receiving 
 the Stigmata (Hubert and Jan). A copy of this picture 
 is at the Turin Gallery. 
 
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