EYCK. 3<J3 EYCK. paint things exactly as they saw them. Their Madonnas and saints were Flemish men am! women, clot lied in tlir costume (if the day. Tiny appeared in real Gothic churches ami house*, or in landscapes containing actual trees and walled fit ies. The brothers Van Eyck take their name from a little town on the Maas, near .Maastricht, called Maaseyck, where they were horn. The date- of their birth are unknown, Eubert's being various- ly assigned from 1360 to 137"), and Jan's from 1386 to 1400. Of Hubert we only hear that in I 121-22 he was a member of a religious guild at Ghent, where he lived. He executed work for the magistrates of Ghent, who in 1424 visited his studio in state. They perhaps came to see the great altar which the rich burgher Jodocus Vydt, Lord of Panicle, had ordered for his chapel in the Church of Saint Bavon. Hubert did not live to finish this work, but died on September 18, 1420, and was buried in the crypt directly under the chapel he had been asked to decorate. As re- gards the life of Jan we are better informed. He was probably the pupil of his brother, who much exceeded him in years. From 1422 till 1424 he was in the service of John of Bavaria, then living as Count of Holland at The Hague, and in 1425 he was appointed Court painter and 'valet de chambre' (a sort of chamberlain), with a salary of 100 livres a year, to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. He lived at Lille with the Duke, who employed him upon various diplomatic mis- sions. In 1428-29 he was one of the embassy sent to Lisbon to negotiate the marriage of the Prin- cess Isabella of Portugal to his master, and dur- ing his stay in Portugal he became acquainted with the southern vegetation which appears in his pictures. He made a pilgrimage to San Iago di Campostella, and visited the Alhambra. After his return to Flanders he retired to Bruges, and there he finished the altarpiece which his brother had left incomplete, on May 0. 1432. In 1430 he was sent upon another distant diplomatic mis- sion. He died at Bruges on duly It. 1410. and lies buried in the Church of Saint Donatus. The Vydt altar in the Church of Saint. Bavon, now the Cathedral of Ghent, is the masterpiece of the brothers Van Eyck. It was a large triptych containing twentv-eight different panels portray- ing the central dogma of the Christian religion — the "Redemption from Sin through the Sacrifice of the Lamb." Both exterior and interior of the altar were painted. The Predella. now lost, rep- resented "Purgatory" : upon the upper part of the exterior of the closed wings was the "Annun- ciation," and above it the prophets "Micah" and "Zaehariah" and the "Two Sibyls," wdio foretold the event. In the centre, below the "Annuncia- tion." were "John the Baptist" and "John the Evangelist," the patrons of the church, painted like contemporary stone statues, and on either side of them the kneeling figures of the donors, Jodocus Vydt and Isabella Burlunt, his wife — portraits of admirable realism. The interior of the altar, opened only on great occasions, re- vealed the mystery of faith for which the ex- terior prepared us. The largest central panel is the "Sacrifice of the Lamb." The part taken by the two brothers in this great work is a subject of much controversy. The general plan is due to Hubert, but most of the execution to Jan. From Jan's other works we know that his art was very minute and re- alistic, and it is reasonable to suppose that llu hcri, who wa n much older, approximated mori closely to the ancient manner, which was more monumental. Applying this criterion to the Ghent altar, the central figures of the "Al- mighty," the "Virgin," and "John the Baptist" must be assigned to Hubert, and probably the "Hermits" and "Pilgrims" as well. Some also ascribe to him a part at least of the "Adoration oi the Lamb." Although none of Hubert's othei works survive, these alone arc sufficient to prove him a painter of great importance, as is also evident from the tribute of his brother Jan in an inscription of the altar. The Ghent altar was held in the highest re- pute, both when it was executed and in the cen- turies following. It survived the Burgundian wars and the iconoclastic riots of the Reforma- tion. Philip II. in vain attempted to acquire it for Spain, but had to content himself with a copy finished by Michel Coxcie (q.v.) in 1559. The original was taken, in part, to Paris during the French Revolution, but was returned to Ghent. After its return the wings were sold, and are in the Museum of Berlin, except "Adam" and "Eve," two nude figures at the end of the altar, which are now at Brussels. The central panels arc in their original position, the wings being supplied by Coxie's copies. A large number of paintings are ascribed to Jan in the different European galleries, but many of these are works of his school. Some of them are signed and dated. The earliest of these is the "Consecration of Thomas ft Becket as Arch- bishop of Canterbury" (1421), belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth House, the authenticity of which has been disputed. There is a charming little Madonna (1432), character- istic of his early work, at Ince Hall, near Liver- pool. The National Gallery (London) has three gooa portraits — the "Scholar." the "Man with a Turban" (1433), and the newly married "Gio- vanni Arnolfini and His Wife," a wonderful piece of realism. At Paris there are "Madonna with the Child," in the Rothschild Collection, and the "Madonna of the Chancellor Rollin," in the Louvre. The Antwerp Museum possesses "Saint Barbara" (1430), while that at Bruges has the "Madonna of Canon George van der Pael" and the portrait of "The Artist's Wife" (1439). In Vienna are the portraits of the "Old Man in a Red Coat" and "Jan de Leeuw." and at Frankfort is a delightful "Madonna Suckling the Child" of the early period. At Dresden there is a small triptych, which, according to the legend, was used by Charles V. on his travels. The central panel shows the Madonna in a beautiful Gothic chapel; on one wing are "Saint Michael" and the "donor." on the other "Saint Catherine." The Berlin Museum is richest of all in works of Jan van Eyck. Besides the part of the Ghent altar. and other works of more doubtful authenticity, it possesses a "Head of Christ." in a style like that of Hubert: a portrait of "Giovanni Arnolfini"; and the "Man with the Pinks" — one of the art- ist's finest portraits. The Metropolitan Museum. New York, has two works ascribed to him, of which the "Madonna of the Baldachin" may be original. A chief characteristic of Jan van Eyek's works is their detailed finish, almost like the miniatures of a manuscript. His pictures are like exquisite- ly wrought jewels. Such detail, of course, pre-
