The German and Flemish masters in the National gallery

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Preface

The important and interesting collections of German and Flemish pictures in the National Gallery have scarcely received the special study which has been accorded so often to the rival schools of Italy. They have never, perhaps, been treated as a whole, nor in that intimate relation to one another which their early history demands. The literature connected with German and Flemish art is indeed extensive and increasing. Since the remarkable Exhibition held at Bruges in 1902 the early Flemish painters in particular have been subjected to the most careful and critical examination, and much that was before cloudy and vague has been defined, while many new problems have arisen.

No attempt has been made in this volume to enter upon the more controversial aspects of the subject. The vexed question of attributions is after all of secondary importance to the intrinsic beauty of the pictures. The writer's object has been to trace the development of these schools through the examples in our Gallery, and to sum up in regard to them the results of the most recent criticism, acknowledging here the debt due to the indefatigable researches of writers both in this country and abroad. Every picture of the German and Flemish schools in the National Gallery, from the Primitives of the early period to the Great- Masters of the seventeenth century, has been discussed

VUl

PREFACE from this point of view as well as from that of its artistic value. It is hoped that the book may, therefore, prove of use to the visitor to the Gallery and to the general reader who has little opportunity of examining into the critical sources for himself.

In addition to the pictures in the National Gallery, reference has been made to the fine examples of the later Flemish school in our new National collection in Hertford House.

Westminster, 1903

Contents

PAGE

List of Illustrations xi

Chapter I. Introductory i

II. The van Eycks 9

III. The School of Roger van der Weyden 29

IV. Gerard David and his Followers . 58

V. The German Painters of the Fifteenth Century . . . . 78

VI. Matsys and the Italianisers . . 97

VII. The German Painters of the Renaissance ia6

IX. Van Dyck and the Painters of

Antwerp 182

Table of German and Flemish Pictures . an

Index 319

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Meister Wilhelm

Hubert van Eyck Jan van Eyck

Antonello da

Messina

Roger van der Weyden

Jacques Daret (?)

Memlinc

Dirk Bouts .

Flemish School

Gerard David

Flemish School Flemish School

Stephan Lochner

German School Master of the Life OF THE Virgin .

TO FACE PAGE

Madonna with the Bean-flower

Cologne 4 Adoration of the Lamb

(Central panel) S. Bmion^ Ghent 1 1 Portrait of Arnolfini and his Wife

National Gallery i6

S. Jerome in his Study

Joys and Sorrows of the Virgin

Berlin 3 1 Death of the Virgin

National Gallery 34 Virgin and Child with S. George

xaA.^&YiQTiox National Gallery 32 Entombment . National Gallery. 53 Exhumation of S. Hubert

National Gallery 54 Canon and Patron Saints

National Gallery 62 Deposition . National Gallery -68 Legend of S. Giles

National Gallery 74 Adoration of the Magi (Central panel of Dom-Bild)

Cologne Cathedral 79 Crucifixion . National Gallery 82

Birth of the Virgin . , Munich 83

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TO PACE FAGS

Master of S.

Bartholomew

QUENTIN MATSYS

QUENTIN MaTSYS AND PaTINIR

Marinus van romerswael Mabuse .

Albert Durer Baldung Grun

Cranach Holbein Holbein Rubens .

Rubens .

Rubens .

Van Dyck Van Dvck

COQUES .

Teniers .

S.S. Bartholomew, Agnes, and

Cecilia .... Munich 85 Salvator Mundi and the Virgin

Crucifixion . National Gallery loo

The Usurers . National Gallery 103 Portrait of a Man National Gallery 115 Portrait of the Painter Munich 1 28 Portrait of a Senator

National Gallery 133 Portrait of a Lady

National Gallery 136 The Ambassadors

National Gallery 142 Christina Sforza, Duchess of Milan

National Gallery 148 " Chapeau de Paille "

National Gallery 162 " Rainbow " Landscape

Wallace Collection 173 Judgment of Paris

National Gallery 174 Cornelius van der Geest

National Gallery 184 Equestrian Portrait of Charles I.

National Gallery 190 A Family Group National Gallery 199 F€te aux Chaudrons

ERRATA

List of Illustrations —

Memlinc. Virgin and Child. To face p. 42 instead of p. 32. P. 26, line 3 from bottom. For (1318) read (1418). P. 49. line 9. For (993) read (943). P. 58, line 8. For (1145) read (1045). P. 62, line 12 from bottom. For (1145) read (1045). P. 115, line 4 from bottom. For right read left.

Xll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Master of S.

Bartholomew

QUENTIN MaTSYS QUENTIN MaTSYS

and Patinir Marinus van

Romerswael Mabuse .

Albert Durer Baldung Grun

Cranach

TO PACE PACK

S.S. Bartholomew, Agnes, and

Cecilia .... Munich 85 Salvator Mundi and the Virgin

Crucifixion

The Usurers . National Gallery 103 Portrait of a Man National Gallery 115 Portrait of the Painter Munich 128 Portrait of a Senator

National Gallery 133 Portrait of a Lady

National Gallery 136 The Ambassadors

National Gallery 142 Christina Sforza, Duchess of Milan

THE GERMAN AND FLEMISH MASTERS IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY

CHAPTER I

For more than a hundred years after Giotto had laid the keel of Italian painting German and Flemish artists plodded along the old road, which scores of untutored craftsmen had trodden before them. Painting as an independent art scarcely existed in the north before the middle of the fourteenth century. Hitherto it had either taken the shape of rude wall paintings, which bound it to the wheel of architecture, or broken out under the luxuriant fantasy of the miniaturist and illuminator as a costly embellishment of laboriously lettered books. The painter himself was as yet scarcely so much as an individual. A few, very few names come to the surface, but for the most part the workman is content to hide himself behind his handiwork, be it frescoed wall or illuminated page. The artist claimed no particular prestige or consideration, held himself no better than his fellow-men, and had certainly never heard of the feu sacre or inspiration. For in the Middle Ages painting was a trade carried on like any other trade by a company or guild, which regulated every detail of the craftsman's work, even to the actual A materials he should use, and appreciated sound workmanship far more than poetical flights of imagination.

About the middle of the fourteenth century, when in Italy Giotto's immediate followers were busy corrupt-', ing his principles and seemed in danger of reducing painting once more to the monotony of a mechanical tradition, the schools of the north were slowly and painfully awakening to a new conception of the art, as an end in itself, instead of the mere accompaniment of other arts. Germany struck the first spark, but ere long the Netherlands caught fire, and lit a blaze which gave back fresh warmth and animation to the already flickering flame of German art.

In the Bohemian city of Prague, where Charles IV. held his court, gathering about him from all quarters of Germany, and even from foreign lands, artists to adorn his capital, a guild of painters was formed as early as 1348, but religious and social troubles and the Hussite wars extinguished this courtly, imperial art long before it came to maturity.

It was in the Rhine country that German art took firmer root, for here blossomed forth a school of ideal, religious painting, strongly tinged with the enthusiastic piety of the Mystics. The very soul and centre of this school was the old city of Cologne, which, together with Maastricht in the Netherlands, had long been lauded by Wolfram von Eschenbach in his " Parsival " as a home of painting. Cologne was indeed the natural head« quarters of this new and essentially German art. Here in this princely, ecclesiastical city of the Rhine — the Rome of the North — the new cathedral, as we see it pictured in Memlinc's " S. Ursula " shrine, was rapidly rising. Here the Mystics, among them Master Eckhard^

MEISTER WILHELM 3

preached and taught, encouraging the people to new religious fervour, and doubtless every year the demand increased for pictures in the form of altar-pieces on panel to be presented to churches and monasteries or to adorn private chapels. By such gifts the pious donor might secure for himself a sure measure of consideration on earth if but a problematical reward in the heaven of his hopes. The older form of wall painting found little place in the new Gothic churches and cathedrals that were everywhere springing up. Great stained - glass windows filled the spaces formerly assigned to the painter, who now, emancipated and freed from his subordinate task of wall decorator, pursued the more independent art of painting on panel or stretched linen.

We know all too little of the early painters of Cologne who flourished towards the end of the fourteenth century. Their names, like most of their works, have perished, and from the wreckage little has emerged. , One figure alone looms from out of the darkness, that of a certain Wilhelm Herle, whom an old chronicler of 1380 acclaims as "the best painter in Germany," naively remarking that he could paint a man as though he were alive. We should scarcely subscribe to this opinion when confronted with the paintings attributed to this Meister Wilhelm and his followers, but then our eyes are sharpened by the trained observation and artistic experience of five centuries, and it is only with an effort of the imagination that we can force ourselves to see as men saw in those days, when, as Vasari said of the crowd who had applauded Cimabue's " Madonna " a century earlier, they had never beheld anything better.

Meister Wilhelm is little more than a name, for no details of his life have come down to us, and it is not even absolutely certain that he painted the group of pictures traditionally assigned to him. But in the absence of all positive fact his name is useful, and serves to distinguish the first brief period of artistic activity in Cologne. His paintings are notable for their sweet, bright freshness and warm colour. His delightful "Madonna with the Bean-flower," in the Cologne Museum, embodies all the tenderness and mild sentiment of the school, exhibits also, in spite of the chronicler's eulogy, its utter inability to paint a figure that could ever have been alive. His saints are tall, attenuated, boneless apparitions, intent no doubt on the inward beauties of the soul, but dead, it would seem, before their time to the physical life of the body.

We have only one unimportant example of this early school in the National Gallery, the " Legend of S. Veronica" (687), unfortunately hung too high to be seen properly. It represents S. Veronica holding before her the sacred handkerchief, upon which appears imprinted the face of Christ surrounded by a gold halo. Though the miraculous impression on the cloth is that of a life-sized head, S. Veronica is only about half the natural size. But this was the traditional composition, and even Schongauer adhered to it some hundred years later in his engraving of the same subject. She has something of the calm sweetness of the " Madonna with the Bean-flower," but the head of Christ is uninspired and commonplace. The picture seems to have been largely repainted, and the gold of the background and halo is dull and tarnished, the more so in contrast to the gaudy modern gilt frame which encloses it. There is a better example of this

[Cologne Museum

MADONNA WITH THE BEAN-FLOWER

By Meister Wilhelm

ORIGIN OF FLEMISH PAINTING 5

subject in the Munich Gallery, which may perhaps be by Meister Wilhelm himself.

It was almost coincident with the decline of this ear'^ Cologne art that the cities of Flanders, Bruges and- Ghent, came Jnto ^prominence as the pioneers of a new, vigorous and lifelike school of painting.~^ Under "the beneficent iway" of the Dul«eForBurgun3y, Flanders had reached the height of her prosperity. Bruges was the principal port of the north; The ships of every nation rode in her harbours ; every language might be heard in her streets. Bruges, like Pisa, is now a dead city, haunted only by the ghosts of her former greatness. It is hard to believe to-day that the quiet old inland town, with its silent streets and waterways and its air of sleepy tranquillity, was once the scene of bustling activity and of pageants fully as magnificent as those that taxed the energies of Florentine artists. Yet something of the spirit of the fifteenth century seems to linger round her Gothic churches and quaint gabled houses and to ring out from her ancient belfry. Time indeed has rolled on and passed her by.

The origin of this Flemish school of painting is still obscure. Suddenly, as it seems in our imperfect knowledge of the events, there arose an artist who, by his own unaided efforts, created an art of painting, complete, perfect, sophisticated. Hubert van Eyck had no predecessors worthy the name, and, - in the artistic kingdom he established for himself, no rivals. Was Netherlandish painting born in a night, rising in full beauty and majesty Aphrodite-like from the foam, or emerging like some gay-winged butterfly from the dull, withered chrysalis? Fate has been singularly unkind in destroying the last links of the chain which should unite the new art of the van Eycks with the rude efforts of their predecessors in Germany and the Netherlands. If however it could be proved, as seems likely, that Hubert van Eyck actually studied in Cologne, we should have a direct connection between the early religious painters of the Rhine and their more mundane, and infinitely more accomplished successors in the Netherlands. But the^differences l^^twRPtj fhc two schools are strongly marked from the outset, even thouprTimubert's~Works some famt~perlume' of t hg idyllic s"weetnes Oiuljny5tic2s oIenntfty^"loL RHehish art still lingers. If the Germans cared first for ideal sentlmenfrTSFThe^expressIqiT^fa fdigiolIS'ter^^ in whicffTiafural truth was left out, the FTefrrfah-jjaj p ters grasped-ifSbustly-- at- the facts Of nratuTS^^SLfbllowed unswer^iHgly'teeirfOwn ifisttncts of common-sense and realityr'We^Save here~jusnfie ^differences we might expect between tbe-^aetieal ,. active, jgnijngrciytl atmosphere of the Nethe|iaQdish^towns.^widthe more spiritual air of the old cathedral city. Indeed the early school of Cologne stood to that of Bruges in something the same relation as "soft" Siena to keenly intellectual Florence, and like the school of Siena it died gently and painlessly of its own inanition.

But the greatest and most vital development, which gave to Flemish painting its peculiar power and its "pre-eminence as a colour school, was the discovery df an oil medium by which the disadvantages impeding the older methods of painting were overcome. Oil as a medium for painting had already been known for a long time, but its use was confined to the rougher kinds of decorative work, such as the colouring of stone statues and carvings. For the more delicate kinds of

THE NEW OIL MEDIUM 7

painting it was, as then used, far too thick and clumsy a medium, and panel pictures had always been painted in some form of tempera with egg or size, and afterwards varnished. This tempera painting, however, though admirably adapted to the minute, delicate work of the miniaturists, had its limits and drawbacks when applied on ajarger scale. The medium dried so quickly that the colours put on in small brush strokes were unable to blend ; hence a lack of softness and vivacity. On the other hand, the varnish which was applied afterwards over the surface of the picture had a tendency to dry very slowly unless exposed to the heat of the sun or the fire. An old legend relates how Jan van Eyck, having painted a picture with infinite care and pains, varnished it and set it in the sun to dry, when the heat split the panel, and his labour was brought to nought. This story, whether it be true or false, illustrates the difficulties experienced by early painters on the very outskirts of their art.

The new discovery, for which from Vasari's day onwards._.thevan^j^ckgjiafl?&»alajs^^ the credit,

w as twofold . First, a means wasfouna ot purifying oil so that it became sufficiently flowing and limpid for the most delicate work ; and secondly, with this medium was incorporated a quick-drying and colourless varnish, which should obviate the necessity for applying a separate varnish to the surface jaf the painting. This discovery worked a revolution, raising painting from a minor and subordinate craft to the dignity of a great and independent art ; for the_flg,w method .allowfid-^- richness and flow, a depth and transparencjr3f.colgur unknowti>-befoferTnarHe!ineanon^v^ modellingr^'^^w-^swtsrorej^TessingThe'l^^ o bjects by con trasts j jf-tisbfr-apdjhadow. Yet with all its E^reater tre edom and brea dth the_varni^^Tnediunl aHmittea~orthe utmost mmuteness and finish. It seerne31inif6sf a? tTiough" ing of the iireate miniature paintnaaTe~^ges hadbeen born again with new vigour on a much larger scale, and, now divorced from penmanship, had entered upon an independent and splendid career. Tbe-aewui iethod sg gmsto have been perfected by the early 3/gars o fthe fifteenth century| but history is silent astoj^^^stageTjthrouglLjyhich it was brda^KftS-tKis" completeness. In less than a hundred years it was practised not only in Flandersts and GermafljT^tttTtr^sctsSrTn" ItalyJ|^^^3iB**gfadually superseded tiie traditional tempera painting.

Chapter II

Hubert van Eyck, the father and founder of Flemish painting, and his younger brother Jan, hailed from the valley of the Meuse, a river as celebrated in the history of art as the Rhine or the Arno. Maaseyck, the cradle of their race, is but a Sabbath day's journey from Maastricht, which, together with Cologne, had early acquired repute as a centre of artistic activity. Few indeed of the so-called Flemish painters were actually born on Flemish soil, but were attracted to the wealthy towns of Flanders from the Meuse country or from the northern provinces.

Between Hubert's birth, in about 1 370, and his arrival in Ghent some fifty years later, nothing is known of his movements. It is far from improbable, however, that he spent some years in Cologne, learning the rudiments of his art. Of late it has been suggested that he started his artistic career as a miniature painter. Afterwards he seems to have travelled to Italy, where doubtless he would have wondered at Giotto's wall paintings, still in all their pristine freshness. It is possible, tcfo, that after the adventurous manner of his time Hubert joined a crusade, and journeyed to Jerusalem. All this is, however, mere conjecture, gathered from hints scattered here and there in his pictures.

Hubert's greatest achievement, the wonderful many- 9 lo THE VAN EYCKS

panelled altar-piece of the "Adoration of the Lamb," was painted for the great church of S. Bavon at Ghent. Unfortunately it has been dismembered, only the central compartments of the original remaining in their old position, while the panels composing the shutters are in the Berlin and Brussels Museums. These have 5een replaced, however, in S. Bavon by good sixteenthcentury copies, so that the scheme of the altar-piece may be enjoyed in its entirety. In one of the lower rooms of the National Gallery there is a small but excellent water-colour copy of this master-work, painted for the Arundel society, an exact counterpart of the original in miniature, with its folding shutters. From this we are able to study its composition and significance, though, of course, the tiny copy can give no adequate idea of the depth and splendour of colour, the powerful conception and accomplished technique of the original. But this picture, which is at the same time the starting-point and the chef-d'oeuvre of early Flemish art, demands more than a mere mention, though the National Gallery is not fortunate enough to possess any part of it.

According to the inscription on the painting itself, the work was begun by Hubert and finished by Jan, the "inferior in art" as he there modestly describes himself. When the shutters are thrown back the picture is seen to be divided into twelve parts. The three central panels oif the upper division display majestic figures of God the Father, red -robed and holding up His right hand in blessing, the Virgin in garment of rich blue, and S. John the Baptist in green. These monumental figures seem to dominate heaven and earth. On either side of them bands of angels,

THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB ii

accompanied on the organ by S. Cecilia, unite in singing God's praises, and on the extreme limits of this upper region stand Adam and Eve, life-sized figures of extraordinary vigour and vitality. In these nude forms indeed the very limits of artistic realism have been reached. The painter has cared nothing for purely^ physical beauty, and made no attempt to idealise his models. But their lack of loveliness is made good by no little dignity of bearing, especially in the man. We are not surprised at Albert Durer's admiration for these nudes when in the course of his journey in the Netherlands he passed through Ghent. Comparing these savage yet austere figures with the famous " Adam and Eve " by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence, painted about the same time, we realise how broad is the chasm which separates Italian suavity and idealism from the rugged, truth-loving spirit of Flemish art. This somewhat stern realism is indeed the keynote of Flemish painting, the quality that most markedly distinguishes it from contemporary Italian art, which, for' all its devotion to nature, always aimed first at graceful line and decorative harmony.

Beneath the heavenly courts represented in the upper half of the altar-piece, a beautiful, spacious landscape is unfolded, in the midst of which the Mystic Lamb of the Revelation, raised aloft upon an altar, is worshipped by bands of martyrs, ecclesiastics and laymen. Above the altar hovers the holy Dove. In the foreground we see the Fountain of Life, somewhat out of drawing, it must be confessed, as far as the perspective is concerned. The landscape is continued across the lower compartments of the wings, where the Just Judges and the Champions of Christ on the one hand, and the Holy

Hermits and Pilgrims on the other, press towards the altar of the Lamb. According to tradition the portraits of both the van Eycks are to be found among the Just Judges. Hubert, the elder, in the foreground, mounted on a white horse, is a benevolent-looking elderly man, while Jan, the young man in a kind of turban, who has turned round so as to face the spectators, seems quite twenty years his junior. The smiling, green glade in which the scene is set proclaims the painter of this wonderful allegory an innovator, not alone in his method of painting, but in the actual presentment and setting of his subject. The beautiful flower- strewn expanse, across which the eye is carried to the distant towers of Jerusalem and a range of blue mountains beyond, is perhaps the first landscape scene ever treated in the spirit of naturalism. It is full o f de pth and romance, and,..shBjKS— a- qiutFuieiiL_iinderstaPfiU.Hg mt!jight_^ and atmosphere. "We feel that we might wander for miles through this balmy valley before we reach those distant blue hills. Italian art, for many years to come, has no such landscape to show, and indeed, with the exception of Perugino, the Italian painters of this century cared little for the beauties of natural scenery. Bujjii-llie north it was far otherwise, and fr-^jn tha very, oirhrt the painte rs of the j^j^^;tj[;Hnri^fi ■rh^wfadjin Ifi ss^afO setion for la ndscap e than skill in renderinpr it^ xt^y.^z-or"" ^^^ of tEemost precious characteristlcjs^ofF lem''=h -g|-t- anH

of Rubens himself

OiTfRenpeverse side of the shutters are paintings in grisaille. Here, with hands reverently folded, kneel the elderly donors of the altar-piece, the bald-headed Jodicus Vydts and his wife Isabella. Between them stand the

THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB 13

two SS. John, like statues carved in stone, the Baptist with his lamb, the Evangelist holding the poisoned chalice. Above these full - length figures the angel Gabriel kneels before the Virgin, announcing to her the future birth of Christ. This upper scene takes place in a bare chamber with tiled floor, whence, through an arched window, we look down upon an open square surrounded by houses. One of these may be seen to this day in Bruges,'not far from the site of Jan van Eyck's own house.

The Ghent altar-piece remains for all time the central monument of early Flemish art. Doubtless it became for the artists of the Netherlands what Masaccio's frescoes were to the Florentines — a model, a very academy of painting. Can we not imagine -the young painters of the period standing in wonder and reverence before the great master-work, from which all must have drawn inspiration ? Van Mander, the Vasari of Flemish art, tells us that the altar-piece was opened only for important personages, or for those whose curiosity could be backed by something even more substantial than rank. But on feast days the shutters were thrown back and the public allowed free access to the chapel. Hither they flocked from morning to night, as the chronicler quaintly puts it, " like flies and bees in- summer round a basket of figs and grapes." The exact share of each brother in the execution of the work is not easy to determine. Probably the greater part had been painted by Hubert before his death in 1426, for between this date and its completion in 1432 Jan spent but little time in Bruges, being fully occupied in travelling on embassies for his patron, Philip of Burgundy. But this is still a matter of dispute. It is indeed only of late years that Hubert's name has come forward prominently again, and he is now generally admitted to be the author of a number of pictures formerly ascribed to his better - known brother. Jan, as the trusted ambassador of the duke, versed in the ways of courts, was a more prominent personality in his day than Hubert, who, after his early wanderings, worked as a quiet craftsman in the democratic city of Ghent. But it is easy to distinguish the strong feeling for beauty and grace, the poetry, the mysticism which reign in the Ghent altar-piece from the more consciously realistic, less beautyloving aims revealed in the signed works of the younger and, it must be owned, somewhat unimaginative brother. Whatever Jan's share in the "finishing" of the work may have ^een, the spirit which informs it is Hubert's, and though we may fancy we detect the younger brother's brush in certain parts of the picture, particularly in the figures of Adam and Eve and the lifelike portraits of the donors, he will always remain second as far as this altar-piece is concerned.

After the "Adoration of the Lamb" the most important work ascribed to Hubert is the wonderful " Maries at the Sepulchre," belonging to Sir Frederick Cook ; though here again some critics uphold Jan's claim to its authorship. In this picture the beauty of the landscape and lighting seem to hold us spellbound. It is the moment when twilight, dispersed by dawn, melts away before the unutterable glory of a new-born day. The sky is illumined with mysterious light, bathing the whole atmosphere and touching with golden radiance the towers and mosques of distant Jerusalem. The empty tomb, the white -robed angel.

JAN VAN EYCK 15

the three women approaching with spices and ointments, all seem in harmony with the peace of the hour. The clownish guards, lost in heavy slumber, are rendered with true Flemish realism, which frequently touches the borders of caricature. It is the accurate delineation in the background of the features of Jerusalem that has given rise to the suggestion that Hubert himself pilgrimaged to the Holy City, and perhaps, though rather contrary to the habit of the time, painted this picture on the spot. The Hebrew inscription bordering the draperies, of which the words "In the Land of Israel in the year ..." have been deciphered, lends additional colour to this interesting theory. A panel with the Madonna and a donor in the Berlin Museum, an exquisite little "Crucifixion," also in Berlin, and two ~ pictures, one at Turin, the other in New York, representing S. Francis receiving the stigmata — ^these last suggesting that he visited Assisi on his return from the East — make up the tale of works now generally ascribed to Hubert van Eyck. The well-known picture of the " Fountain of Life," in Madrid, can only be the copy of a lost painting from his hand.

Jan van Eyck, the collaborator in the Ghent altar-piece, is magnificently represented in the National Gallery by three portrait panels, one of them a masterpiece. Of Jan's youth we know equally little, but it is easy to infer that he was the pupil of his elder brother. At the age of thirty he took service under John of Bavaria, Bishop of Li%e, as painter and chamberlain, and in the former capacity worked at the Hague, where, since his conquest of Holland, the infamous prelate held his court. Then in 1425 i6 THE VAN EYCKS

he came under a new master, no less a personage than the great Philip of Burgundy himself, and was employed by him almost incessantly as political and diplomatic agent and on missions to various countries. After a few years, however, Jan seems to have given up diplomacy and devoted himself entirely to painting. He settled in Bruges and wrought there, till his death in 1440, that wonderful series of religious pictures and portraits to which he owes his fame.

Turning now to the marvellous double portrait in the National Gallery (186) we find ourselves in front of Jan van Eyck's finest work, painted two years after the completion of the "Ghent altar-piece. It represents Jean Arnolfini and his wife Jeanne de Chenay standing with joined hands in the middle of a small room, softly" lighted from a latticed window on the left. It is' evidently a solemn moment in their joint lives. With quiet fervour the husband seems to vow fidelity to his newly-married wife, the future mother of his children. Both are arrayed in their robes of state, the man in furred purple cloak and the vast beaver hat whicfeS threatens to extinguish him, his wife in the heavy clotfe dress of the period, warm green in colour, and lined* with white fur. These massive draperies with their stiff and voluminous folds are a familiar feature in Flemish and German art. How different from the slight, simple draperies in Florentine pictures which clothe but never conceal the form ! The head-dress of exquisitely dainty white linen, frilled and goffered, under which the hair is arranged in two curious horns, is exactly like that worn by the painter's own wife in his wonderful portrait of her in the Bruges Academy. This is indeed no comely couple. Neither Arnolfini nor his lady can lay