Part 9 (1/2)

CHAPTER IV

PAINTING IN FLANDERS, HOLLAND, AND GERMANY

Flanders foriuian provinces of East and West Flanders It also covered a portion of Holland and some territory in the northwest of France The principal Flees, Tournai, Louvain, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Mechlin, Liege, and Utrecht

There are so ue and uncertain that I shall pass thein with the family of Van Eyck, in which there were four painters--three brothers and a sister The eldest, HUBERT VAN EYCK (1366-1426), effected a great change in the art of his ti man, or indeed of his personal history at all, except that he passed his es and his later years at Ghent The subjects of his pictures were mostly scriptural

I do not suppose that the pictures of this master would seereat value His greatest as an altar-piece for Judocus Vyts and his wife Lisabetta; it was for the decoration of their funeral chapel in the Church of St

Bavon in Ghent It was an is that could be closed; the inside was divided into twelve different pictures, and the outside also was painted We do not kno much of this was completed when Hubert died and left it to be finished by his brother John

Philip I of Spain wished to buy this altar-piece, and when he could not do so, he employed Michael coxie to copy it; this artist spent two years on the work, and was paid four thousand florins Of the original work, a large portion re of six beautiful, tall panels, are in the Berlin Museum, and two outer compartments are in the Brussels Museum The picture of holy s of this altar-piece (Fig 53)

But the principal interest attached to Hubert van Eyck comes from the fact that he made such discoveries in the use of colors as led to e call the ”Invention of Oil-Painting,” and this invention is always attributed to the Van Eycks, for it is probable that the discoveries of Hubert were perfected by JAN VAN EYCK (1390-1440), who beca had been known, it is true, a long ti the colors and the varnish used before the time of the Van Eycks was very unsatisfactory, and the improvement of these substances was the work of these er than those of Jan, as really the founder of a school remarkable for delicacy and fine finish rather than for power It was after the death of Hubert that the fame of the new colors spread abroad, and thus it happened that it was to Jan that other artists went to learn his secrets

[Illustration: FIG 53--THE ANCHORITES _In S Bavon at Ghent_]

Jan van Eyck was so of a diplomat as well as a painter, for when he was in the service of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, he was sent on several secret missions, and in 1428 he accoal in order to paint the portrait of Isabella of Portugal, as betrothed to the duke There is a goodly nualleries The portrait of himself and wife in the National Gallery, London, is very interesting; they stand hand in hand, with a terrier dog at their feet; their dress and all the details of their surroundings are painted with great care It is said that the Princess Mary, sister of Charles V, gave a barber ned it a position with a handso twenty years younger than his brother Hubert, naturally learned all that the elder knew, and the story of his life gives hih in point of highest merit he was not the superior

Of LAMBERT VAN EYCK very little is known It is believed that he reat hich is in the Antwerp Museum; another work called by his name is in Louvain MARGARETHA VAN EYCK is said to have been a skilful artist, but no one picture can be ascribed to her; she was buried beside her brother Hubert in the Cathedral of Ghent

Of course the Van Eycks hadthem were PETRUS CHRISTUS (records 1444-1471), GERARD VAN DER MEIRE (records 1447-1474), HUGO VON DER GOES (1405?-1482), and JUSTUS OF GHENT (1468-?), all of ere good artists, but I shall pass to a more important one, ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN (1400-1464), as hireat importance as was that of the Van Eycks His realisreat as to make some of his works repulsive, especially his reat exactness He also loved to paint pictures which illustrated the es Our illustration is fro 54)

This picture is from the story that when the Roustus, he consulted the Tiburtine Sibyl as to whether he ought to receive the for hio away silently, and told hin over the Gods the should come from heaven whose power should never end Another version, which is the one this picture represents, says that the heavens opened, and a vision of the Virgin with the Saviour in her ar on an altar, was shown the e, ”Haec ara filii Dei” (This is the altar of the Son of God)

Augustus reported this to the Senate, and erected an altar upon the spot in Rome where the Church of Santa Maria in Capitolio, or the ”Ara Coeli,” now stands

[Illustration: FIG 54--THE SIBYL AND THE EMPEROR AUGUSTUS _By Rogier van der Weyden In the Berlin Museum_]

Many pictures by Van der Weyden are seen in European galleries He was also a fine miniaturist He was official painter to the city of Brussels, and was buried in its cathedral

His son, ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN the younger, became very rich and benevolent He died at Brussels in 1529 His works are not nualleries

The elder Van der Weyden had a pupil, HANS MEMLING (records 1450-1499), who beca account of hireatest work, which was the Shrine of St Ursula, at the Hospital of Bruges, and is the best example of this type of early Flemish art which still exists It is divided into six compartments, with two ends, and other panels on top, all of which are finished with the greatest care, and give the whole story of St Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins, which is that Ursula was a daughter of a king of Brittany as a Christian The young girl was educated with the greatest care, and the fath the king of England asked for her to be the wife of his son The princess replied that she would wed hiins of noble blood for her coins and to herself he should give a thousand maidens as attendants; second, he should allow her three years with these companions, hom she should visit the shrines where the bodies of the saints repose; and third, the English king and his court should receive baptisive space for all the details of this story, which is of great interest; but the result was that Ursula received all that she asked, and started on her journey to Rome, in the course of which she and the eleven thousandreached Cologne on their return, they encountered an ar the city, and all were slain

The subjects of the pictures as they were painted by Me of the journey; 2, the landing at Basle; 3, the arrival in Rome; 4, the second arrival at Basle on her return toward home; 5, commencement of the martyrdom, when Ursula and her train are first seen by the barbarians; 6, death of Ursula

The works of Me which still realleries After the death of thisdeclined Many artists visited Italy, and the manner of Flemish painters was influenced by association with Italian art and artists I shall, therefore, pass over a period when no very ireat an life as a blacksmith He was born at Antwerp, and there are specimens of iron work there said to have been executed by hihter of an artist who refused to allow him to marry her because he was not a painter; for this reason Matsys devoted hiian ious subjects are full of tender earnestness and deep feeling, and his most important as an altar-piece which is now in the Museum of Antwerp His scenes from common life, his misers and lovers are spirited and truthful

His portrait and that of his second wife, both painted by hiallery of the Uffizi in Florence His works are not very nualleries He was buried in the Cathedral of Antwerp, and a slab is inserted in the hich tells his story; one sentence is, ”_Connubialis aed the sreatthe last part of the sixteenth century there were many Flemish painters of considerable note whose pictures are seen in galleries, and are orth consideration, but whose lives had no circu the best of these artists were ANTONIO MORO, PETER POURBUS (1510-1583), and his son and grandson, both named Frans, PIETER BREUGHEL (1530-1569), and his sons Jan and Pieter the younger, and PAUL BRIL, an early Flemish landscape painter

All the early Fle of the seventeenth century a new enius of PETER PAUL RUBENS (1577-1640) This ood fa, and his father, John Rubens, was one of the two principal istrates of Antwerp This city was the hoen, in the county of Nassau, during a time when his father was in exile on account of a civil hich was then raging He was born June 29th, the feast of Sts Peter and Paul, and hence was naht, scholarly boy, and soon showed his love for drawing When he began to study art under Ada the four years he passed with this teacher he learned thoroughly all the technical part of painting; then, in another four years under Otto Vaenius, he cultivated his taste and the more poetical eleant man In 1598, when twenty-one years old, Rubens was aduild of painters in Antwerp Two years later he went to Venice, and, after studying the works of titian and Paul Veronese there, he entered the service of the Duke of Mantua, to whoovernor of the Netherlands

While in Mantua he painted some fine pictures, and the duke sent him to Rome to copy celebrated works there Rubens also executed some other orders in Rome, from which place he was recalled by the duke, ished to send an envoy to Spain, and had chosen the young artist for that duty