This invention (if so it was, for the learned are by no means at one on the subject) took place in the year 1410, as there are oil paintings of Van Eyck very near that pe riod, in which the mellow softness peculiar to this mode of painting is not the greatest merit; for they exhibit a wonderful truth of design, accuracy of touch, and address in the general management, with difficult and exact per spective, which would lead us to suspect that it was not in the use of oil alone that the Flemish artist had got the start of those of Italy.
In the course of the fifteenth century, that species of painting which had for its object the decoration of manu scripts, or illuminating, as it is generally termed, was car ried to great perfection. It became a principal object of luxury and munificence among the princes and great men of that age, to possess splendidly illuminated copies of the books of greatest repute at the time, which, from the very great labour and expense attending these performances, could only be attained by the wealthy. The cultivation of this taste, at the particular period that it occurred, was a fortunate circumstance for the preservation of many of the literary works of the ancients, which, but for the value of these embellishments, might never have reached our day. They were regarded as gems, upon which too much care could not be bestowed. The same effect would probably have followed the adoption of the splendid bindings of the present fashion. if our old charters and valuable parch ments had been but handsomely illuminated, instead of be ing left like dirty scraps of sheep-skin, we should not have had to regret the deficiency of our ancient records. What ever is valuable ought to have a certain degree of splen dour, or fictitious merit, attached to it, to secure the re gard and consideration or the ignorant.
There are many of these ancient codexes preserved in the public libraries of the Continent, which exhibit a most surprising degree of beauty and delicacy of penciling, be sides much greater perfection in the other requisites of painting than consists with the generally received idea of the state of its excellence at that time. One of the most beautifully preserved of these illuminated works in the li brary of the King of France, is attributed to the pencil of Rene, the jolly old king of Provence, with every proba bility of authenticity ; as that royal artist is recorded to have presented a beautiful manuscript of his own work manship to one of the princesses of the house or France. There are two pictures preserved with great veneration at Aix in Provence as the reputed works of this king ; there is no doubt of his having exercised the pencil, and if these pictures alluded to are of his hand, he was equal to any artist of that age ; but many connoisseurs believe them to be the works of Van Eyck, who lived upon habits of inti macy with that good humoured monarch. The principal
painting which is preserved in the cathedral is a good spe cimen of that antique style of picture called a triptick ; sort of emanation of the old architectural altar-piece, con sisting of a principal picture of very tall dimensions, with two folding doors, which, when opened, extend the same subject, and, when closed for protection of the picture, re present on the back either an appropriate design, or some whimsical contrast or conceit, calculated to startle the spectator when the picture within is laid open to view. The picture in question has, on the outside, a representa tion of the annunciation to the shepherds, painted in ca mayeu ; within, the centre piece represents Moses and the burning bush—a subject which has been often tried, but seldom successfully. The prophet is here accompanied on the one side by the singularly assorted group of old Rene himself, Mary Magdalene, St. Antony, and St. Mau rice, who gaze at the apparition of the bush ; on the other side, by Joanne, Reno's queen, attended by St. John, St. Catherine, and St. Nicholas, who seem as much at a loss to account for what they see, as how they themselves came there.
Subjects of the same stamp are often seen in the illu minated manuscripts, which are very various in execu tion, some of them exhibiting not only an extraordinary degree of labour and invention, but a correctness and taste in the arabesques, which might dispute in excellence with those of Raphael. Considering the perishable nature of opaque water colours, with which these works are execut ed, the brilliancy and state of preservation in which they are generally found to be, is very surprising. As the sub jects are often historical, and by means of the Calendar of Saints, which generally precedes the work, prove their own date by the insertion or omission of the names of cer tain saints, the xra of whose canonization is known, a good collection of drawings of these illuminations, in chronological order, would be a valuable acquisition. There is a curious collection of them at Toulouse, by a person who makes it the sole object of his pursuit. We have seen in that collection copies of pictures not now ex tant, besides many indications to be gathered from them, highly interesting to the history of the art in general. We know little of the artists, as these works were generally the creation of some laborious monk, in the secrecy of his cell. Attavante of Florence is reported to have illuminat ed a magnificent copy of Silius Italicus, formerly belong ing to a convent at Venice, besides many other works in the different public libraries or Italy. In many of these, lie has painted his own name. I lis time was chiefly em ployed by the convents in embellishing the works of the Fathers.