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IN THE NETHERLANDS.
was in giving a particular direction to painting in the Nether-
lands, they assuredly were not the source from which it sprung.
It was not until the art was emancipated from the tram-
mels of a traditional that it found favour at court, and
in the towns of tl
Up to tl g e 15th century Art was in neither a
better nor worse condition than in adjacent lands, though the paint-
ers of Cologne could undoubtedly claim pre-eminence. Suc h spe-
painting in Low Countries as are still pre-
an entire want of professional training. The works of
e painters, however, rank higher. Wncouraged by com-
s from French Princes, th ere elaborately finished, and
He th in ‘col ur an d dr 1 of a higher education in
the artists. Sculy could boast of sterling work. If any
general inference is to be drawn from monumental effigies preserved
in Tournai, and dating from the beginning of the 15th century, a
ted there, which successfully aimed ata
nature. The practice of painting works of
sy arts into more intimate relation. So
n advance, that painters found them-
» expedient of adopting the plastic mode of
: disposal of groups, as well as in drawing and the
. A long interval elapsed ere painting acquired
2 of its own, and until every t1 of the plastic relief had «
»d. Such was the condition of the painter’s art in the Nether-
vhen the two brothers Van Eyck made their appe. arance , but
we are not in a position to indicate their immediate pret nor
to determine with certainty the circumstances of their oe training.
The two brothers Van Eyck were natives of Maaseyck, near Mas
tricht, wh Hubert, the elder, was born somewhere about
the years 60-70. Wolfram von Eschenbach, in his ‘Perze
cimens
ct
ring gi
school of sculpture
truthful rendering
sculpture broug
E however, was scul
reduced to
treatment in
reatment of d
ht the
a St
appez
lan¢
val’, had , pronounced the painters of Maastricht and Cologne
to be the best of his time, but how painting at Maastricht or Limburg
was employed in Hubert’s time we know not. Absolutely nothing
is known of the course of Hubert’s early training, of his school, or
early works. About the year 1420, we find him settled at Ghent,
where a guild of painters had already long existed, along with his
brother. Whether while here he was the teacher or the taught,
whether the local influences of Ghent first modified his conceptions
and method, or whether the guild in Ghent derived new light from
him, cannot be determined. We know of only one work from
Hubert van hand, indisputably identified as his, and it was
painted in the concluding years of his life, and left by him un-
finished. This is the gigantic Altarpiece which Jodocus Vyts com-
missioned him to paint for the St. Bavon church in Ghent. In it he
still clings to the traditional rules of composition in the observance
of the severely-symmetrical proportions of an architectural struc-
BREET POS Pe a el
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