The brothers Van Eyck

by Paul G. Konody

JAN VAN EYCK

The date of Jan van Eyck's birth is as uncertain as that of his brother's. Tradition has it that the two brothers are portrayed on the panel of the great Ghent altar-piece, which represents The Just Judges. These portraits suggest a difference of about twenty years between the two, so that the birth of Jan would have to be placed somewhere between 1386 and 1390. Hubert being thus about twenty years his senior, it is natural to suppose that Jan received from him his early education in matters of art. Guicciardini, van Mander, and other early writers, affirm that the two brothers worked in collaboration, and there is no reason to doubt that Jan in his early years assisted his brother in many or most of his paintings—perhaps even in the Ghent altar-piece, which he finished after the elder brother's death. It is certainly a curious fact that, with a single exception—the completely over-painted Enthronement of St. Thomas of Canterbury at Chatsworth—all the signed pictures by Jan bear dates posterior to the death of Hubert. And it is equally significant that the first of this series of ten signed pictures is dated 1432, the year of the completion of the Ghent altar-piece, which was the last work in which both brothers had a share.

THE ENTHRONEMENT OF THOMAS À BECKET,
BY JAN VAN EYCK.

The chief events in the life of Jan van Eyck can be gathered fairly accurately from contemporary records and documents. In 1422 Jan entered the service of John of Bavaria, at that time Duke of Luxembourg, whose household accounts show the payment of a weekly wage to the artist, from October 25, 1422, till September, 1424, for the decoration of the palace at the Hague. M. Bouchot mentioned an earlier record of Jan's doings, when he believed he discovered him at Cambrai decorating a Paschal candle. But the eminent French critic probably confused Jan van Eyck with one Jan de Yeke, whose name occurs in the accounts of the Cathedral of Cambrai as that of a man employed in 1422 and many following years in painting crosses, clocks, and candles on the outer wall of the cathedral to deter the passers-by from committing nuisances!

In the spring of 1425 Jan van Eyck was appointed varlet de chambre to Philip the Good, and though this princely patron availed himself of the master's services as a painter, it would appear from a letter signed by Philip, and bearing the date March 12, 1434, that the appointment of Jan to the position of Court painter to the Burgundian Prince only took place in that year (1434). Still, as varlet de chambre Jan van Eyck must have enjoyed a position of considerable trust and emolument at the hands of his august master, for on more than one occasion we find him entrusted with important missions, some of which took him to the Portuguese Court. The first of these excursions took place when he had resided for three months at Bruges. On his return he went at Philip's order to live at Lille, where he remained until 1428. His missions were generally of a secret nature, but on one of these occasions, in the year 1428, we find Jan again absent in Portugal, returning to the Court of Philip in the suite of Isabella of Portugal, who was destined to become the royal consort. Gachard, in the Collection de Documents Inédits concevnant l'Histoire de Belgique, gives a detailed account of the artist's movements from his departure from Écluse on October 19, 1428, to his return in January, 1430. According to these dates, which are gathered from contemporary documents, the ambassadors with the Infanta set out from Lisbon on October 8, 1429. The apparent discrepancy between these dates and that of January 10, 1429, which, at the Golden Fleece Exhibition at Bruges in 1907, was given as the date of the foundation of this Order, and consequently of the nuptials of Philip and Isabella and of Jan's return to Bruges, is easily accounted for if we remember that the beginning of the year was then reckoned from March 1, so that January, 1430, of our own reckoning would tally with January, 1429, of the contemporary calendar.

Jan's first duty on arrival at the Portuguese Court was to paint the portrait of the Princess. It appears that he was at work upon this picture for a month. Several portraits of Isabella are still extant painted in the manner of the van Eycks, and pointing to the same origin, but none has so far been discovered to possess qualities or details which would justify its identification as Jan's original panel. Evidently Jan's portrait was pleasing to the eye of the Lowland monarch, for upon Philip expressing his satisfaction with the personal appearance of Isabella, the ambassadors and the bride immediately embarked on the homeward journey. Soon after his return—namely, in 1431—Jan bought a house in Bruges, where he married and continued to work, after the completion of the Ghent altar-piece in the following year, until his death, which took place about the end of June, 1441. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Donatian at Bruges, but his body was subsequently removed to a vault near the font of that church.

Mr. Weale, while arranging the archives of St. Donatian at Bruges, discovered in the account of the fabric of the church for the year beginning June 25, 1440, and ending June 24, 1441, entries of sums received for the grave of Jan van Eyck and for the ringing of the funeral bell, and in the obituary of the church his anniversary set down as celebrated on July 9. In an article in the Burlington Magazine (1904) Mr. Weale makes the following comment: "Hence it appears certain that he died on July 9, 1440. This date, now generally accepted, is, however, incorrect. Two entries in the account of Walter Poulain, Receiver-General of Flanders for the year ending December 31, 1441, prove that John's death took place in 1441, but leave the exact day uncertain." Three entries show that Jan died about the end of June, and that on July 22 a grant of 360 livres—the equivalent of her husband's salary for half a year—was made to Jan's widow by the Duke Philip in recognition of the services rendered by her deceased husband. It also shows that Jan's wife was named Margaret, and that he left at least two children—one, the Duke's godchild, Philip or Philippina, born in June, 1434; the other, Lyennie, who became a nun at Maaseyck in 1449, which lends colour to the theory that Maaseyck was her father's birthplace.

His epitaph, as translated by Sir Charles Eastlake, runs: "Here lies Joannes, who was celebrated for his surpassing skill, and whose felicity in painting excited wonder. He painted breathing forms, and the earth's surface, covered with flowery vegetation, completing each work to the life. Hence Phidias and Apelles must give place to him, and Polycletus be considered his inferior in art. Call, therefore, the Fates most cruel, who have snatched from us such a man. Yet cease to weep, for destiny is immutable; pray only now to God that he may live in heaven."