Hubert & Jan van Eyck
Van Eyck brothers statue in Ghent
Hubert and Jan van Eyck Brothers, Flemish illuminators and painters, founders of the school of Bruges and consequently of all the schools of painting in the North of Europe. Hubert was born at Maeseyck (i.e. Eyck on the Meuse) in the Diocese of Liège, about 1366, and his brother Jan about twenty years later, 1385. They had a sister named Margaret who won fame as a miniaturist.
A document of 1413 makes the earliest mention we have of a painting by "Master Hubert". In 1424 he was living at Ghent, and he died there on the 18th of September, 1426. We have no further definite knowledge concerning the elder of the brothers. Of the younger we know that in 1420 he presented a Madonna's head to the Guild of Antwerp, that in 1422 he decorated a paschal candle for the cathedral of Cambrai, and that in 1425 he was at The Hague in the service of Jean Sans Merci. Afterwards he went to Bruges and to Lille to the court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, as peintre et varlet de chambre. He was already a man of some influence at court, and he travelled in the embassy charged to ask the hand of Isabella of Portugal for Philip, and it was his privilege to paint her portrait "true to life", thereby fixing Philip's choice. This journey lasted from the 18th of October, 1428, to the end of December, 1429. In 1431 he went to Hesdin to superintend, for the Duke, the work going on at the castle there: and afterwards he returned to Bruges, which he seldom left again. He married, and a child of his was baptized in 1434. In 1436 we learn once more that he received 720 livres on account of "certain secret matter", doubtless in connection with some new mission or journey. He died towards the end of June, 1441.
The most important work of the brothers Van Eyck, and the one that places their names among the great masters of painting for ever, is the famous altarpiece, "The Adoration of the Lamb", of which the central Portion is preserved in St-Bavons at Ghent, while the wings have found their way to the Museums of Berlin and of Brussels. [Note: The Ghent alterpiece, after many trials and tribulations during reformation and two world wars, is on display in the Ghent Cathedral (Saint Bavo). In 1934 the panel depicting the Just Judges was stolen and never recovered. It is now substituted with a copy.]
Hubert & Jan van Eyck
Van Eyck brothers statue in Ghent
Hubert and Jan van Eyck Brothers, Flemish illuminators and painters, founders of the school of Bruges and consequently of all the schools of painting in the North of Europe. Hubert was born at Maeseyck (i.e. Eyck on the Meuse) in the Diocese of Liège, about 1366, and his brother Jan about twenty years later, 1385. They had a sister named Margaret who won fame as a miniaturist.
A document of 1413 makes the earliest mention we have of a painting by "Master Hubert". In 1424 he was living at Ghent, and he died there on the 18th of September, 1426. We have no further definite knowledge concerning the elder of the brothers. Of the younger we know that in 1420 he presented a Madonna's head to the Guild of Antwerp, that in 1422 he decorated a paschal candle for the cathedral of Cambrai, and that in 1425 he was at The Hague in the service of Jean Sans Merci. Afterwards he went to Bruges and to Lille to the court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, as peintre et varlet de chambre. He was already a man of some influence at court, and he travelled in the embassy charged to ask the hand of Isabella of Portugal for Philip, and it was his privilege to paint her portrait "true to life", thereby fixing Philip's choice. This journey lasted from the 18th of October, 1428, to the end of December, 1429. In 1431 he went to Hesdin to superintend, for the Duke, the work going on at the castle there: and afterwards he returned to Bruges, which he seldom left again. He married, and a child of his was baptized in 1434. In 1436 we learn once more that he received 720 livres on account of "certain secret matter", doubtless in connection with some new mission or journey. He died towards the end of June, 1441.
The most important work of the brothers Van Eyck, and the one that places their names among the great masters of painting for ever, is the famous altarpiece, "The Adoration of the Lamb", of which the central Portion is preserved in St-Bavons at Ghent, while the wings have found their way to the Museums of Berlin and of Brussels. [Note: The Ghent alterpiece, after many trials and tribulations during reformation and two world wars, is on display in the Ghent Cathedral (Saint Bavo). In 1934 the panel depicting the Just Judges was stolen and never recovered. It is now substituted with a copy.]