The brothers Van Eyck

by Paul G. Konody

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The portrait group by Jan van Eyck known as Jan Arnolfini and Jeanne dc Chenany, his Wife, must be counted among the greatest treasures of the London National Gallery, as it is, perhaps, the most perfect as well as the most characteristic example of the master's art. Arnolfini, who was Jan's brother-in-law, a man of solemn and depressing countenance, with heavy, drooping lids and long, wide-nostrilled nose, is seen standing in his bed-chamber. His right hand is raised as if enjoining silence, his left extended to his wife, whose open countenance denotes docility and calm. Arnolfini wears a tunic of a dark green stuff, over which is a cloak of dark red, which reaches well below the knees, and is lined and edged with fur. It is divided at the sides from the bottom to the shoulder. He wears a large and curiously shaped hat, which in a manner resembles a "beefeater's" head-gear. His wife is habited in a long and ample robe of green, rather bright in colour, and lined and trimmed with white fur. She has raised the folds of the robe in front, thus revealing an undergarment of dark blue, trimmed also with fur. Round her strikingly high waist is a narrow belt of leather, decorated with gilding and polished. On her head is a large kerchief with a worked border, which is caught up at the sides in the prevailing fashion. Round her neck she wears a double row of pearls. The drawing of the drapery, which falls straight to the floor, is bold and severe, realistic, and devoid of any attempt at affectation.

In the foreground is a small dog, and to the left, on the floor, a pair of pattens. In the centre of the room, slightly behind and above the heads of the figures, hangs a brass chandelier of pierced work. Of its six arms only one holds a candle, and this is burning, the single flame being probably a symbol of conjugal affection or unity, as there is no other reason for its presence in a chamber well lit by two large windows on the left—one behind the figures and one in advance, which is not shown, but the light from which falls straight upon the faces. On the wall behind the two figures a circular convex mirror reflects a portion of the room, with two additional figures. Beside it hangs an amber rosary. The flesh painting is admirably soft, delicate, and transparent; the light and shade powerful, yet so well arranged that only the closest examination will reveal what an important factor it is in the success of the picture. The whole thing is touching in the simple straightforwardness of statement, and all the details are wrought with inimitable but unobtrusive minute precision. In the management of tone-values and of indoors atmosphere Jan proves himself in this picture far ahead of his time.

The signature of this Arnolfini picture is written in ornamental Gothic characters immediately above the mirror, and takes the extraordinary form "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic" (Jan van Eyck was here), with the date 1434. Owing to this ambiguous wording, which may be, and has been, interpreted as "this was Jan van Eyck," the picture was formerly held to represent the artist himself and his wife, a theory which still has its defenders. A full pedigree of the picture is given in the National Gallery catalogue. It belonged in 1516 to Margaret of Austria, to whom it was given by Don Diego de Guevara, whose arms were painted on the shutters which were originally attached to it. Afterwards it passed into the hands of a barber-surgeon at Bruges, who presented it to the then Regent of the Netherlands, Mary, the sister of Charles V., and Queen Dowager of Hungary. This Princess valued the picture so highly that she granted the barber-surgeon in return a pension, or office, worth 100 florins per annum. The picture is included in the list of valuables which she carried with her to Spain in 1556, from which date it disappeared until 1815, when it was discovered by Major-General Hay in the apartments to which he was taken, in Brussels, to recover from wounds received at Waterloo. He subsequently purchased the picture, and disposed of it to the British Government in 1842, since which date it has been at the National Gallery. Henri Bouchot was of opinion that the picture is not the one of Arnolfini the traces of which are lost in 1556, but a portrait of van Eyck and his wife, painted as a pendant to the lost Arnolfini group. To support his view he pointed out the resemblance of the woman in this picture with the portrait of Jan's wife at the Bruges Museum.

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PORTRAIT OF TIMOTHY.
BY JAN VAN EYCK.

The portrait at the National Gallery which, from the name inscribed in Greek characters on the stone parapet that extends across the bottom of the panel, is known as the bust of Timothy, bears the date October 10, 1432, and is therefore the earliest of Jan's signed and dated pictures—always excepting the much-overpainted Chatsworth panel of 1421. It is not in quite so good a state of preservation as the other portrait of a man by Jan, in the same Gallery, which is dated 1433, but the face itself is in fairly good condition. The features are broad and massive, and inclined to heaviness; the eyes are somewhat deep-set, while the cheek-bones are prominent. His right hand holds a small roll of parchment with some writing upon it. On the parapet, beneath the Greek word "Tymotheos," is the inscription LEAL SOVVENIR, and the signature "FactÅ« año. Dm̄. 1432. 10. die Octobris. a Joh. de Eyck."

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