BOOKS RECOMMENDED: Busscher, _Recherches sur les Peintres Gantois_; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _Early Flemish Painters_; Cust, _Van Dyck_; Dehaisnes, _L'Art dans la Flandre_; Du Jardin, _L'art Flamand_; Eisenmann, _The Brothers Van Eyck_; Fetis, _Les Artistes Belges a l'Etranger_; Fromentin, _Old Masters of Belgium and Holland_; Gerrits, _Rubens zyn Tyd, etc._; Guiffrey, _Van Dyck_; Hasselt, _Histoire de Rubens_; (Waagen's) Kuegler, _Handbook of Painting--German, Flemish, and Dutch Schools_; Lemonnier, _Histoire des Arts en Belgique_; Mantz, _Adrien Brouwer_; Michel, _Rubens_; Michiels, _Rubens en l'Ecole d'Anvers_; Michiels, _Histoire de la Peinture Flamande_; Stevenson, _Rubens_; Van den Branden, _Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche Schilderschool_; Van Mander, _Le Livre des Peintres_; Waagen, _Uber Hubert und Jan Van Eyck_; Waagen, _Peter Paul Rubens_; Wauters, _Rogier van der Weyden_; Wauters, _La Peinture Flamande_; Weale, _Hans Memling_ (_Arundel Soc._); Weale, _Notes sur Jean Van Eyck_. THE FLEMISH PEOPLE: Individually and nationally the Flemings were strugglers against adverse circumstances from the beginning. A realistic race with practical ideas, a people rather warm of impulse and free in habits, they combined some German sentiment with French liveliness and gayety. The solidarity of the nation was not accomplished until after 1385, when the Dukes of Burgundy began to extend their power over the Low Countries. Then the Flemish people became strong enough to defy both Germany and France, and wealthy enough, through their commerce with Spain, Italy, and France to encourage art not only at the Ducal court but in the churches, and among the citizens of the various towns. [Illustration: FIG. 74.--VAN EYCKS. ST. BAVON ALTAR-PIECE (WING). BERLIN.]