The national collection of pictures by Old Masters occupies the very handsome modern building known as the =Palais des Beaux-Arts= in the Rue de la Régence, immediately after passing through the Place Royale. (Four large granite columns in front: bronze sculpture groups to R. and L.) See plan on p. 108. Enter by the big door with the four large granite columns. In the vestibule, turn to the R., and mount the staircase. Then pass through Room III. and Corridor A, to Room V. on the right, and on into ROOM I. =Hall of the Old Flemish Masters.= This contains the most interesting works in the Gallery. (You may also, if you like, pass through the collection of Sculpture in the Hall below, entering by Corridor D; in which case, turn to the L. into Rooms VIII. and II., and then to the R. into Room I., as above. This is the handsomer entrance. Much of the sculpture has great merit: but being purely modern, it does not fall within the scope of these Historical Guides.) Begin in the middle of the wall, with No. 170, =**Hubert van Eyck=: the two outer upper shutters from the =Adoration of the Lamb= at Ghent, representing Adam and Eve, whose nudity so shocked Joseph II. that he objected to their presence in a church. These fine examples of the unidealized northern nude are highly characteristic of the Van Eycks’ craftsmanship. The Adam is an extremely conscientious and able rendering of an ordinary and ill-chosen model, surprisingly and almost painfully true in its fidelity to nature. The foreshortening of the foot, the minute rendering of the separate small hairs on the legs, the large-veined, every-day hands, the frank exhibition of the bones and sinews of the neck, all show the extreme northern love of realism, and the singular northern inattention to beauty. Compare this figure with the large German panels on a gold ground in the corners diagonally opposite (No. 624), if you wish to see how great an advance in truth of portraiture was made by the Van Eycks. The Eve is an equally faithful rendering of an uninteresting model, with protruding body and spindle legs. Above, in the lunettes, are the Offerings of Cain and Abel, and the Death of Abel, in grisaille. The _backs of the shutters_ will be opened for you by the attendant. They exhibit, above, two Sibyls, with scrolls from their prophecies; below, the central portion of the Annunciation in the total picture, with a view through the window over the town of Ghent, and the last words of the angelic message, truncated from their context. This portion of the picture is, of course, only comprehensible by a study of the original altar-piece at Ghent. [Illustration: THE PICTURE GALLERY AT BRUSSELS.] Continue now along this wall to the R. of the Adam and Eve.