EYCK, IlunEnT and JAN VAN, two illustrious painters of the old Flemish school. Much discussion has arisen as to the time of the birth of these brothers, and the various dates assigned range from 1350 to 1400. Some maintain that Hubert was born in 1366, and Jan in 1370; while Kugler—in general a good authority on ancient art—states the dates to be 1366 and 1400, making Hubert 34 years older than Jan. Their birthplace was Maas-Eyck, and they chiefly resided at'Bruges and Ghent, and became the founders of the Flemish school of painting. The honor of being the inventors of oil-painting is claimed for them, though sufficient evidence has been adduced to show that it was prac ticed previously. Before their time, the custom, however, particularly in Italy, was to paint with gums or other substances of an adhesive nature dissolved in water; and if not the inventors, they were at least the first who brought into notice and perfected the mode of mixing colors with oil or some medium of which oil was the chief ingredient; while, for transparent and brilliant coloring and minute finish, their works have never been surpassed. Till the death of Hubert, the brothers generally painted in conjunction: one of their most important works was an altar-piece with folding-doors, representing the Elders adoring the Lamb—a subject taken from the Apocitlypse—painted for .Todoca4
Yyts, who presented it to the cathedral of St. Bavon, in Ghent. The two central divi sions of this picture are all that now remain in the church at Ghent. Some of the wings are in the gallery at Berlin. The masterpieces of the brothers are for the most part in the cities of Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Berlin, Munich, and Paris. In the national gal lery, London, there are three pictures of Jan van E„ which, though small, well exem plify the high qualities of his works. These are portraits of a Flemish merchant and his wife, standing in the middle of an apartment, with their hands joined—signed and dated 1434: of the portrait of a man in a cloak and fur collar, with a red handkerchief twisted round the head as a turban—painted, according to an inscription on the lower part of the frame, Oct. 21, 1433: and portrait of a man with a dark-red dress, with a green head-covering—signed and dated 10th Oct., 1432. Hubert died in 1426, and Jan in 1441. Compare Waagen, Ueber Hub. and Jan tan Eyck (Breslau, 1822).