The brothers Van Eyck

by Paul G. Konody

THE ART OF THE VAN EYCKS

The position occupied by Hubert and Jan van Eyck in the history of art is one of unparalleled importance. A deep gulf divides them from all their immediate precursors, who seem to belong altogether to a different epoch—nay, a different world. Just as their improvement in the technical methods of their craft opened up a vista of till then unthought of possibilities, so their conception of life and of pictorial form marks the beginning of a new era, the passing of the vague mediæval idealism into an art that is based upon the close study and loving appreciation of Nature. Perhaps too much stress has been laid upon the so-called "realism" of the brothers van Eyck, and more especially of Jan. Again and again critics have insisted upon Jan's uncompromising love of literal truth, upon his insistence on details that are in themselves at times repulsively ugly. This realism was tempered with deep sentiment and a sense of style which kept such details well subordinated to the general scheme, and it is in this respect that Jan van Eyck stands immeasurably above Melchior Broederlam, who occupied the position of varlet de chambre and Court painter to Philip the Bold, the grandfather of Jan's patron. Broederlam, indeed, as may be seen in his famous altar-piece at Dijon, seems to be a far more pronounced realist than Jan van Eyck, simply because he lacks that sense of style and harmony and subordination—in short, that concentration—which makes us forget the realistic detail in the beauty of the complete thing.

The real precursors of the van Eycks were the sculptors who carved the tombs, monuments, and reliefs in the churches of Tournai. In these we first find the faithful adherence to the facts of Nature and the understanding of the subtleties of form which in painting appear first in the works of the brothers van Eyck, who may have also owed much of their knowledge to the flourishing school of Flemish miniature-painters, if, indeed, Hubert in his early days did not actually practise this art. Yet, even though the new era in painting is, as it were, heralded by the new tendencies in plastic art—just as in Italy Giotto was preceded by the sculptor Niccolo Pisani—there is something wonderful, something almost difficult to realise, in the sudden appearance of complete and perfect works of art, like the paintings of the van Eycks, that with masterly sureness express the whole essence of the Gothic style, whilst at the same time they reveal a new understanding of the inexhaustible beauty of Nature, a keen perception of structural growth and of individual characteristics, and, above all, an almost modern understanding of the play of light upon figures and objects in and out of doors.

The picturesque, brilliant, varied life of such cities as Bruges and Ghent at the beginning of the fifteenth century cannot have failed to stimulate the artists' power of observation, to sharpen their perception of the differences of race, gesture, and costume; for the streets and squares of the rich commercial centres of Flanders were filled from morning to night with ever-moving crowds of courtiers and merchants from all parts of the world—Spaniards and Italians, Germans, and Slavonians, and even Moors and Turks, all in their different costumes and following their different customs. At the same time the painters' eyes were constantly met by the wonders of the creations of architects, armourers, and other craftsmen who flourished under the protection of the Burgundian rulers; and one may well understand the love and enthusiasm with which a receptive artist like Jan van Eyck applied himself to the faithful delineation of the splendours and of the seething life by which he was surrounded.

Although the two brothers were in the habit of working together upon the same pictures, which has given rise to many disputes as to the authorship of unsigned works, and although Jan, the realist, at times approached, though never equalled, the spirituality and decorative sumptuousness of Hubert, whilst Hubert, the stylist and greater mind of the two, sometimes vied with Jan in the minute and exquisite elaboration of details, the signed works of Jan and those parts of the Ghent altar-piece which are unquestionably Hubert's own have made it possible to characterise the distinguishing qualities of the two masters. Hubert far exceeds his brother in monumental impressiveness, in grandeur of style, in idealistic significance, in sumptuousness, and even in sense of beauty. Even the folds of his draperies have a fulness and a noble swing which form a striking contrast to the more laboured irregularity of Jan's, as may be seen in comparing the garments of God the Father, the Virgin Mary, and St. John, of the Ghent altar-piece, with the curiously broken folds of Barbara's dress in Jan's picture at Antwerp.

THE MAN WITH THE PINKS.
BY JAN VAN EYCK.

The conception of such ideas as are embodied in the Adoration of the Lamb, or in the Triumph of the Church over the Synagogue, at the Madrid Museum, would also have been quite beyond the pale of the more prosaic Jan's imagination. Jan, on the other hand, excelled in stating the reality of the visible world. Generalisations of human types or of landscape features are unknown to him. He was the first to fix upon his panels all the carefully studied and exquisitely wrought details of the actual world—sky and mountain and river, forest and fields, flowers and trees, and the churches and castles, houses and bridges, placed in Nature by human hands. It is scarcely too much to say that he was the first landscape-painter, just as he was the first portrait painter in the modern sense of the word—the first who could paint a scene so that it could be identified after the lapse of centuries, the first who could paint a portrait so that the model stands before us living and breathing, in all his beauty or ugliness. To appreciate the keenness of his vision one has only to examine the marvellous Arnolfini group at the National Gallery, with its almost scientific treatment of softly diffused indoor light. A comparison of this picture, from the point of view of lighting, with anything that was painted before the days of the van Eycks will reveal perhaps the greatest step forward that is on record in the whole history of painting.