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KYCK. HUBERT VAN. 



ETCK, JOHN VAN. 



nuk of Viee-AdminJ of the Blue, and returned borne at the com- 

 eat of the following year. In 1810 he wan employed in 

 ding Flushing, and soon afterward* was lent to the Hedit-r- 

 M eonuniacWin chief there. On the 14th of M.y 1814 Sir 

 Edward Pellew WM derated to the peerage, with the title of Baron 

 Exmouth of Canontoign in Devonshire, with a pension of 20001 a 

 jtar for hi* loog and eminent service*. On the 4th of June 1814, 

 Lord Ezmonth WM promoted to the rank of full admiral ; on the 2nd 

 of January 1815 he was created a K.C.B., and on the 10th of March 

 181 a O.C.a 



During hi* command in the Mediterranean Lord Exmouth had con- 

 cluded treaties with the ruler* of Algien, Tunii, and Tripoli, for the 

 abolition of Christian slavery in those state* ; but after hi* return to 

 "H** 1 "* it became known that the Dey of Algien had violated his 

 treaty in the most flagrant manner. The British government, in 

 conjunction with that of Holland, having resolved to chastise the 

 Alcerioea, Lord Exmouth set sail on board the Queen Charlotte with 

 nsjTilfinn other Teasel* of war, and baring been joined by the Dutch 

 admiral with six frigates, they appeared before the city of Algiers on 

 ike 9tfth of August 1816. The plan of attack WM one of the moat 

 dating on record. The Queen Charlotte sailed into the harbour, 

 and took her station within the mole at eighty yards from the prin- 

 cipal batteries, and with her bowsprit almost touching the houses. 

 The other ships were placed in admirable order to support each 

 other and act with moat effect against the enemy. A tremendous fire 

 WM commenced on both sides at a quarter to three in the afternoon. 

 The Algerioe fleet, contorting of four large frigates, five large corvettes, 

 and a Urge number of smaller vessels, were all on fire at onoe, and 

 the flames had extended to the arsenal and other public and private 

 buildings. At ten o'clock .p.m. the firing ceased, .the l)ey of Algien 

 having consented to every demand. On the 30th of August a treaty 

 WM concluded on the terms dictated by the conquerors. Lord 

 Exmouth wa* slightly wounded in the leg aud also on the check, 

 and hi* coat i* described a having been almost torn into strip* by 

 grape and musket shot. On his return to England he received the 

 thanks of both Houses of Parliament, and on the 1 Oth of December 

 1810 WM raised to the rank of Viscount About 1200 Christian 

 laves were set at liberty, and insignia of knighthood were sent to 

 Lord Exmouth from several state* to which they belonged. On the 

 death of Sir Thomas Duckworth he was appointed to the chief 

 command at Plymouth, but after 1821 be retired from public servico. 

 He died January 23, 1883. 



EYCK, HUBERT VAN. This celebrated old Flemish painter, the 

 abler brother and master of John Van Kyck, was born, according to 

 Van Vander, in 1804, and probably at Eyck (now Alden Eyck), a 

 small village near Maaaeyck on the Haas. The two brothers established 

 themselves first in Bruges and afterwards in Ghcut. The name of 

 Hubert Van Eyck is nearly lost in that of his younger brother and 

 pupil John, apparently from no other reason than that John alone is 

 mentioned by Vauri in hia story of the invention of the new method 

 of oil-painting, while he takes no notice whatever of Hubert ; John's 

 name therefore appears as the principal or indeed sole name in nearly 

 all subsequent investigations relating to the origin of this method of 

 oil-painting, and the joint productions of the two brothers are generally 

 adduced M the works of John alone. But the groat probability is that 

 much of the invention or improvement was the result of their joint 

 experiments, and it is not unlikely that their great merit really con- 

 sisted in carrying forward to a much higher, point of success the 

 practice of their predecessors. 



Tan Mander says that the Van Eycks must have painted in their 

 new method M early M 1410, and as Hubert did not die till the 18th 

 of September 1426, according to the inscription on his tomb in the 

 church of St. Bavon at Ghent, they worked a sufficient number of 

 yean together to completely dcvclope it in practice. John Van Eyck 

 cannot have been very old in 1426, as, according to an authentic 

 lottery notice of his widow, though alive in 1445, he died before the 

 24th of February 1440, and he was still young when he died, according 

 to Marco* Van Vaernewyck, who published a ' History of Belgium ' in 

 1646. This is somewhat corroborated by a portrait of John in the 

 Museum of Berlin, dated 1430, in which he appears about thirty-five 

 rears of ag. John wa* therefore about thirty years younger than hin 

 brother Hubert, supposing the Utter to have been born in 1800, and 

 accordingly he can have been at first little more than the assistant of 

 Hubert in their masterpiece, the great altar piece of St. Bavon's, Ghent, 

 which WM finished by John in 1432. His name is clearly subordinate 

 to Hubert's in the inscription on the work, which is as follows, the 

 last tone being a chronogram : 



" Plctor Uubertiw e Krok. major quo nemo roper tm 

 IncepK ; pondiuquc Johinnri itte Mcundtti 



.rttett, Judocl Vjd prece fretm 

 VnV wXta Mil Vo. CoLLoCat aCta tTerl." 



The capitals in the last line, when added together according to their 

 valoo M Homao numeral*, make 1482. 



The altar piece i* about fourteen feet wide by twelve feet high, and 

 i* in two horizontal divisions, each ctntro covered by revolving wings 

 or doors, two on each side. There are twelve pictures in all : God the 

 Father, with the \ irriu and St. John the Baptist, as large M life, one 

 on each aide in distinct compartment*, constitute the upper centre ; 



the extreme wings of this division are full-length naked figure* of 

 Adam and Eve, Adam on the right and Ere on the left of the centre : 

 the interior wing* represent on the right band angels singing, on the 

 left, angels playing musical instrument*. The lower centre represent* 

 in one picture the actual Adoration of the Lamb in small figures ; the 

 two wings to the right represent the just judges, Ju*ti Judioot, and 

 the soldiers of Christ, Christi Milites ; the two on the left, the holy 

 hermits, Heyremiti Sti., and the holy pilgrims, Perigrini Sti. : there are 

 in all about 00 figure* and 800 heads. An elaborate copy of it wa* 

 made by Coxie for Philip II. of Spain. [CoxiE, MICHAKU] The 

 colouring of the whole work is beautiful, aud many parts are admirably 

 executed ; and the painting is still in excellent preservation, owing to 

 the excellent oil-vehicle discovered by the Van Eycks. The 

 picture remained entire till the French obtained possession of H> 

 The clergy of the cathedral of St. Bavon succeeded in conccalm 

 of the twelve panels, so that only four were taken to Paris, v 

 they were brought back in 1815. Only the two central divisions 

 however now remain at St. Bavou's, the wings having been so! 

 removed to Berlin, where they are now in the Royal Museum, united 

 with a port of the copy made by Coxio for Philip II. 



The medium employed by the Van Eycks was not merely oil : it 

 was several oils mixed with resins, or some such substances, and pre- 

 pared by fire. Many useless and intemperate discussions have arisen 

 from Vasari's attributing the invention of oil-painting to John Van 

 Eyck, but they are due chiefly to a careless or partial oonsid* 

 of what Vasnri really says. In one passage in the Life of Antonello 

 he fully describes, though in general terms, what the Van Eyck 

 medium WAS, but in others he merely terms it oil-painting, a term, 

 after what he had said before, sufficiently characteristic and distil 

 The Cav* Tambroni however in his preface to the treatise of Cennino 

 Cennini (Rome, 1821), has, with much disingenuousness, argued solely 

 upon the general impressions of Vasari, and ridiculed the story as an 

 absurd fiction, because mere oil-painting WAS known in Italy before it 

 was introduced by Antonello of Messina. [ANTONELLO DA MESSINA.] 

 It is true that Cennino Cennini wrote his book in 1437, and it con- 

 tains five chapters on oil-painting, but he preface* his remarks by the 

 following observation: "I will now teach you to paint in oil, a 

 method much practised by the Germans." The oil-painting which 

 Cennino teaches is no more that of the Van Eycks than tempera 

 painting is ; it is the very method which the Van Eycks superseded. 

 An old German monk of the name of Tutilo or Theophilus wrote on 

 the same subject centuries before Cennini. [TcnLO.] The words of 

 Vasari arc "At last, having tried many things, separately and com- 

 pounded, ho discovered that linseed and nut oils were the most 

 siccative : these therefore ho boiled with other mixtures, and pro- 

 duced that varnish (vehicle) which ho, and indeed every painter in 

 the world, had long desired." This is what the Cav*. Tambroni and 

 others have treated as on assertion that John Van Eyck invented and 

 introduced the practice of mixing colours with oil. Sir C. L. Ea 

 after an elaborate investigation of every passage of contemporary 

 or nearly contemporary authority which in any way hears on the 

 subject, arrives at the conclusion that their new vehicle was an oleo- 

 resinous one, the resin being probably amber or copal ; and that the 

 use of that in conjunction with a great superiority of technical skill 

 would be amply sufficient to account for their works appearing so 

 much finer than those of their predecessors and contemporaries, the 

 painters in temperh and plain oil, as fully to explain the fact of their 

 being termed the inventors of a new method. 



Several interesting notices of the brothers Van Eyck appeared in 

 the Afatager da Sciencaetda Arlt, Gand., 1824 ; and in the KunMatt 

 in 1824 and 1826; see also Posxavant, A'umtrdtc, ftc. (in which there 

 is an outline of the altnr-piece of Ghent) ; and Ratbgeber, Annai' 

 Nitderldnduchen Malerd; see also Eastlake, Material! for a Hutory 

 of Oil-patnting, chap;, vii. and viii. ; and Carton, Let Trott Prira Van 

 Eyck. 



EYCK, .'OH.V VAN, the younger brother of Hubert and the 

 improver and supposed inventor of oil-painting, sometimes called 

 John of Bruges fiom his having settled in that place, was born at 

 Manseyck as is generally said, in 1370, and studied with hi* 

 brother Hubert. There aro however some reasons for supposing 

 John to have been boru much later than 1370. As noticed under 

 Hubert Van Eyck, although the Van Eycks did not invent, they 

 greatly improved the art of oil-painting, and brought it into general 

 use. After having long resided in the rich and flourishing city of 

 Bruges, the two brothers removed about 1420 to Ghent, where their 

 greatest and most renowned work, the adoration of the Lamb for 

 the altar-piece at St. Bavou's, wa* painted between the years 1420 

 and 1432. Some say it was painted for lodocus Vyts, a rich citizen 

 of Ghent, while others affirm that it wa* by order of Philip, duke of 

 Burgundy, count of Flanders, who came to the government in UL'n. 

 It is certain however that John Van I'.yck was long attached to the 

 brilliant court of Philip. John Van Eyck probably greatly a>h 

 in the path opened by hi* elder brother. He wo* endowed, iw 

 lake observes, "with an extraordinary capacity for teeing nature," an 

 endowment of the very first consequence for the painter ; " and thus 

 gifted, and aided by the example and instruction of Hubert, a world 

 wag opened to him, which his predecessors had not attempted to repre- 

 sent" The best works of John Van Eyok are now chiefly in the 



