[Frontispiece: JAN ARNOLFINI AND JEANNE DE CHENANY. BY JAN VAN EYCK.] Bell's Miniature Series of Painters THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK BY P. G. KONODY LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1907 TABLE OF CONTENTS THE TIMES OF THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK HUBERT VAN EYCK JAN VAN EYCK THE INVENTION OF OIL-PAINTING THE ART OF THE VAN EYCKS COLLABORATION OF THE BROTHERS OUR ILLUSTRATIONS LIST OF WORKS, CATALOGUED ACCORDING TO LOCALITY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS JAN ARNOLFINI AND JEANNE DE CHENANY (_National Gallery_) - - - _Frontispiece_ By Jan van Eyck. THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB (_Cathedral of St. Bavo, Ghent_) By Hubert and Jan van Eyck. THE ENTHRONEMENT OF THOMAS À BECKET (_Chatsworth_) By Jan van Eyck. THE MAN WITH THE PINKS (_Berlin Museum_) By Jan van Eyck. ST. BARBARA (_Antwerp Museum_) By Jan van Eyck. THE JUST JUDGES, AND CHRIST'S WARRIORS (_Berlin Museum_) By Hubert and Jan van Eyck. PORTRAIT OF TIMOTHY (_National Gallery_) By Jan van Eyck. THE VAN DER PAELE ALTAR-PIECE (_Bruges Museum_) By Jan van Eyck. {1} THE TIMES OF THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK The unusual activity which during the latter half of the fourteenth and the first half of the fifteenth centuries throbbed throughout the whole of the Netherlands forms one of the most interesting and surprising studies of national progress that history has furnished. Geographically and politically, in her arts and in her industries, the country was affected by changes both radical and lasting. Some years before the period which embraces the life of the subjects of this biographical sketch, the German Ocean had invaded the northern territory of the Netherlands, and had disorganised a Parliament and divided a people. At the beginning of the thirteenth century over the whole of that low-lying and marshy tract between Kampen on the east and Amsterdam to westward, and southward to within sight of Nieukerk, the North Sea swept in upon the {2} inland lake of Flevo, swallowing thousands of hamlets, villages, and towns suddenly and completely. Until this time there had been but one Friesland, including Holland, divided only by the Vlie, a small stream hardly to be counted a river. Now East Friesland and West Friesland were divided by this vast stretch of water, the stormy and dangerous Zuyderzee, and it became impossible for Holland to send her representatives to the general assemblies at Aurich. West Friesland was absorbed by Holland, and East Friesland became a self-governing State, and remained such until the power of Charles V. was established. Thus politically as well as geographically was the country disrupted by the forces of Nature.