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."
THE INVENTION OF OIL-PAINTING
Tradition has for centuries connected the name of Van Eyck with the invention of oil-painting, and has fixed upon the year 1410 as the date of this invention. This, at least, is the year given by such early writers as Guicciardini, Vasari, Opmeer, and Karel van Mander. Vasari, indeed, gives a most detailed and circumstantial account of this epoch-making event, which, according to the Aretine biographer, was brought about by the single-handed efforts of Jan. And it is easy to understand that the fame of the elder brother had in the sixteenth century become obscured and merged in that of the brilliantly successful Jan, the varlet de chambre and official Court painter. This "Giovanni of Bruggia," Vasari tells us, "after having given extreme labour to the completion of a certain picture, and with great diligence brought it to a successful issue, he gave it the varnish and set it to dry in the sun, as is the custom. But whether because the heat was too violent, or that the wood was badly joined or insufficiently seasoned, the picture gave way at the joinings, opening in a very deplorable manner. Thereupon Giovanni, perceiving the mischief done to his work by the heat of the sun, determined to proceed in such a manner that the same thing should never again injure his work in like manner. And as he was no less embarrassed by his varnishes than by the process of tempera-painting, he turned his thoughts to the discovery of some sort of varnish that would dry in the shadow, to the end that he need not expose his pictures to the sun. Accordingly, after having made many experiments on substances, pure and mixed, he finally discovered that linseed oil and oil of nuts dried more readily than any others of all that he had tried. Having boiled these oils, therefore, with other mixtures, he thus obtained the varnish which he—or, rather, all the painters of the world—had so long desired. He made experiments with many other substances, but finally decided that mixing the colours with these oils gave a degree of firmness to the work which not only secured it against all injury from water when once dried, but also imparted so much life to the colours that they exhibited a sufficient lustre in themselves without the aid of varnish; and what appeared to him more extraordinary than all besides was that the colours thus treated were much more easily united and blent than when in tempera."
Vasari then proceeds to tell us of Jan's great success, of the "blameless envy" of all other artists in Flanders and abroad, from whom he would jealously guard his secret, until, in his old age, he imparted it to "his disciple Ruggieri da Bruggia," a name which surely can hide no other personality than Rogier van der Weyden's. Of Hubert never a mention, save a short reference in the last volume, in the chapter on "Divers Flemish Artists." As in most of Vasari's anecdotes, there is probably a foundation of truth to the elaborate network of fiction. The incident explained by him at great length may have occurred, but its hero can only have been Hubert, and not Jan, who was then a mere youth working in his brother's bottega, and may have assisted Hubert in his experiments. Though it has since been doubted that Hubert or Jan van Eyck actually invented oil-painting, no evidence has yet been discovered to prove they were not the first to employ oil as a medium in putting colour on the prepared panel. It is true that oil as a protective varnish was frequently used during the fourteenth century, and it is probable that some kind of oil-colour was employed in the colouring of statuary and in the painting of banners at an early period. For this reason the statement that Hubert and Jan van Eyck "discovered painting in oils" has been disputed, and generally accepted as inaccurate, but the question is one rather of terminology than of the technical point.
As the term "oil-painting" is generally accepted to-day, it is fairer to credit these brothers with the invention, than to speak of their achievement as an improvement in oil-painting, for hitherto the medium in common use had been a preparation of gum and white of eggs. And as there is neither definite proof nor any good evidence that oil had ever been used as a medium to mix the colours for panel-painting before Hubert and Jan made their experiments, we surely have an easy distinction to draw. The brothers Van Eyck were the first successfully to mix the oil with the colours for painting, and this process is what we now understand as "painting in oils." The use of oils as a protective or varnish does not enter into the painting, since such had only been used on the completion of the work.
For the rest, the brothers either acted more generously than Vasari would have it, or they did not altogether succeed in guarding their precious secret, for their method appears to have been fairly generally practised at Ghent about 1420. We find, for instance, that in 1419 the "free painters," Willem van Appoele and Johannes Maertens, received a commission to paint some pictures for the town hall of Ghent in "good oil-colours." It is also certain that Rogier van der Weyden—Vasari's Ruggieri da Bruggia—never was a pupil of either Jan or Hubert van Eyck.