A great and beneficent man was Philip the Good, one of the magnificent Dukes of Burgundy who ruled over the Netherlands in the fifteenth century. In Bruges, their capital, craftsmen were encouraged in the making of brocades and fine glass, ornaments of precious metal, miniatures and illuminated manuscripts. Professor John C. Van Dyke remarks that, with the rise of the House of Burgundy, “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.” The story of Flemish painting will be related and illustrated in a future number of The Mentor. The brothers Van Eyck, Hubert (born 1370) and Jan (1390), were not the first of the Fleming painters to substitute oil for other mediums in mixing paints, but the use of oil paints became more popular after their invention of certain mellow colors associated with their names. Their most renowned work is the twelve-paneled altar-piece painted for St. Bavon’s Church, Ghent, the city of their birth. This is the most important work of the early Flemish school, in composition, drawing and lustrous detail. Hans Memling, the next great painter of the Flemish School, if we except that excellent draftsman and decorative artist, Roger van der Weyden, was especially successful in making portraits and religious pictures. His infinitely beautiful “Reliquary of St. Ursula,” executed about the middle of the fifteenth century for the Hospital of St. John, Bruges, represents the apex of his ability as a miniaturist. Another of the early Flemish painters was Quentin Metsys (1466-1530)--a blacksmith by trade, who became a painter because the stern father of the maiden he adored refused to give her hand to any but an artist. To the surprise of the art-loving old city of Antwerp, Metsys achieved such mastery with the brush that, after several years of persevering effort, he was hailed as the best Flemish painter of his century.