Jean Van Eyck enjoyed the confidence and affection of Philip the Good until his death, and was often sent on diplomatic missions of great importance. On one occasion he was sent to Portugal with an embassy appointed to propose a marriage between his ducal patron and the Princess Isabel. Jean was also commissioned to paint the portrait of the fair Isabel so that his master could judge for himself whether her charms were as great as he had fancied them to be. This portrait was duly painted and in the inventory of the possessions of Margaret of Austria there was a painting by Jean Van Eyck called _La belle Portugalaise_, which was, no doubt, the very one painted for Duke Philip. It must have been pleasing, for he married the lady. As late as 1516 _La belle Portugalaise_ was still in existence at Malines. It represented a lady in a red habit with sable trimmings, attended by St. Nicholas. It has since disappeared--one of the many thousands that were lost or destroyed during the wars of the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, but both historically and artistically one of the most interesting of them all. There are a considerable number of authenticated paintings by Jean Van Eyck still in existence. Several of these are in the original frames with the artist's famous motto, "_Als ik kan_" (As I can), more or less legible. It is by no means unlikely that in time to come one or more of those now lost will be discovered, thus adding to the priceless heritage that the world owes to his immortal brush. [Illustration: _"George Van der Paele, Canon of St. Donatian worshipping the Madonna" Jean Van Eyck_] Two of the most celebrated of Jean Van Eyck's paintings can be seen at Bruges. One of these is in the Museum and shows George Van der Paele, Canon of St. Donatian, worshipping the Madonna. Of the portrait of the worthy donor Max Rooses, the Director of the Plantin-Moretus Museum at Antwerp, says: "The Canon's face is so astoundingly true to life that it is perhaps the most marvellous piece of painting that ever aspired to reproduce a human physiognomy. This firm, fat painting renders at once the cracks of the epidermis and the softness of the flesh. Beside this head with its lovingly wrought furrows and wrinkles gleam the dazzling white of the surplice with its greenish shimmer, the intense red of Mary's mantle, St. Donatian's flowing cape, and the metallic reflections of St. George's breastplate." Equally fine as an example of faithful portrait painting is the picture of the artist's wife which also hangs in this interesting little gallery of old masters.