Of Hubert's early work we have absolutely no record, and no picture is known which bears his signature. Indeed, the only paintings which can with absolute certainty be assigned to him are the great Ghent altar-piece, painted for Jodoc Vydt, on which he was engaged at the time of his death, and which was finished six years later by his brother Jan; and the shutter of a triptych at the Royal Gallery at {12} Copenhagen, which represents Robert Poortier, of Ghent, protected by St. Anthony, with the Angel Gabriel on the reverse. Robert Poortier's will, made in 1426, a few months before Hubert's death, mentions this triptych as being in the master's workshop. On the internal evidence of these two authentic works attempts have been made to trace Hubert's hand in several other pictures, though their number is so far restricted to only seven. It has been suggested that Hubert may in the earlier years of his career have devoted himself to miniature painting; and the wonderful Turin miniatures published by M. Paul Durrieu in the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ (January and February, 1903), which date from the same period, show such marked kinship with Hubert's conception and style that they may well be the work of his own hand. The scarcity of his paintings would thus be accounted for if, anterior to the experiments which led to the invention of the new method of oil-painting about 1410, Hubert had exercised his rare gifts in a different field. From the wording of his epitaph, which has been handed down to us, it is made clear that Hubert died on September 18, 1426. As translated by Sir Charles Eastlake, in his "Materials {13} for a History of Oil-Painting," this epitaph runs as follows: "Take warning from me, ye who walk over me. I was as you are, but am now buried dead beneath you. Thus it appears that neither art nor medicine availed me. Art, honour, wisdom, power, affluence, are not spared when death comes. I was called Hubert van Eyck; I am now food for worms. Formerly known and highly honoured in painting, this was all shortly after turned to nothing. It was in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and twenty-six, on the eighteenth day of September, that I rendered up my soul to God, in sufferings. Pray God for me, ye who love art, that I may attain to His sight. Flee sin, turn to the best, for you must follow me at last." Hubert was buried in the crypt of the Cathedral of St. Bavo at Ghent. When, owing to some structural alterations to the church, this crypt was destroyed, the tombs, including Hubert's, were removed and the bones dispersed. Only Hubert's right arm was placed in an iron case and exhibited as a relic. {14} JAN VAN EYCK