128 



EYCK EYE. 



know the following circumstances. They resided ;it 

 Bruges, then much frequented by the nobles and the 

 wealthy on account of its flourishing commerce. 

 About 1420, or soon after, they went to Ghent, for a 

 considerable time, to execute together a very large 

 work, which Philip the Good, of Burgundy, who 

 succeeded to the government in 1419, had engaged 

 them to do. This is the celebrated adoration of the 

 Lamb, now in the museum at Paris ; a painting, 

 which, in its different parts, contains over three hun- 

 dred figures, and is a masterpiece. It is painted on 

 wood, with side pannels, which contain the portraits 

 of the two artists and of their sister Margaret, like- 

 wise a painter, or, as some think, of the wife of John 

 van Eyck. Of these pannels, one is at Berlin in the 

 collection of Mr Solly, bought by the Prussian govern- 

 ment. This affords the principal argument for the 

 opinion lately started, that John van Eyck was born 

 twenty or thirty years later than the date (1370) 

 assigned to his birth by Sandrart. For these por- 

 traits, which, as well as the whole painting, were 

 executed between 1420 and 1430, represent the elder 

 brother as a man perhaps about sixty which agrees 

 with the account of his birth while the other, John, 

 appears as a man of about thirty, which could not 

 have been the case had he been really born as 

 early as 1370. At the brilliant court of Philip, the 

 brothers had the best opportunities of improving 

 their taste by spectacles of splendour of all kinds, 

 dresses, jewels, furniture, arms, banquets, &c. John 

 particularly availed himself of them in his works, in 

 which such objects are represented with remarkable 

 truth. Hubert did not live to see the painting above 

 mentioned completed. He died at Ghent, as did also 

 his sister Margaret. John finished the work, and 

 returned with his wife to Bruges, where he remained 

 till his death, and executed several excellent pieces. 

 The reputation of this celebrated painter became 

 very great even during his lifetime, by his great share 

 in the introduction of oil painting (q. v.); the original 

 invention of which has been incorrectly ascribed to 

 him by many. John van Eyck was also of great 

 service to the art by his improvements in linear and 

 aerial perspective, and in painting upon glass. In 

 regard to the first, we will only remark that it was a 

 general custom, before his time, to have for the back 

 ground of the picture a flat gold ground, from which 

 the figures stood out without perspective, as may 

 still be seen in numberless works of earlier date. 

 Van Eyck himself followed this practice in his earlier 

 efforts, but, as he made further advances in his art, 

 conceived the idea towards which there had been 

 hitherto only some distant advances, of giving a more 

 natural grouping and perspective to his figures by a 

 natural back ground.* In this he succeeded so emi- 

 nently, as many of his still remaining works prove, 

 that he may be called in this respect the father of 

 modern painting, since he gave the art a new turn 

 and impulse, and laid the foundation of that high 

 degree of improvement which it has since attained in 

 the brightest era of the great masters who succeeded 

 him in the Netherlands and in Italy. In the art of 

 painting on glass he is considered as the author of 

 Hie mode of painting on whole panes, with colours 

 delicately blended, and yet so firmly fixed that obli- 

 teration was impossible an object before attained 

 only by joining together (in Mosaic) several small 

 panes of different colours. The influence of John 

 van Eyck, both as an artist and as an inventor, or 

 rather improver of several branches of the art, was 

 therefore very great. The school of which he was, 

 in some measure, the founder, does not yield in cele- 



* At the name time with him, Pietrodella Francesca and 

 Paolo Utella employed the linear perspective instead of the 

 Bold ground, but not in such perfection as he. 



brity to the best contemporary or succeeding artists, 

 although it must be allowed to be often defective in 

 the representation of the extremities of the human 

 body a fault occasioned by that excessive delicacy 

 which prevented the study of naked forms, and of 

 anatomy in general. On the other hand, the face, 

 dresses, grouping, distribution of light and sliade, 

 are always superior, and the colouring brilliant and 

 splendid, in the works of this painter and most of 

 his scholars. Many of his paintings are still pre- 

 served, either in churches and museums, or in private 

 collections. Among his scholars are reckoned, 

 besides the nearly contemporary Antonello of Mes- 

 sina, Roger van Brugge, Hans Hemling, and others, 

 also the later masters, Albert Durer, Luke of Leyden, 

 Hans Holbein, Luke Kranach, &c. F. Waagen has 

 investigated with care the history of the two brothers 

 in his work entitled Hubert and John van Eyck 

 (Breslau, 1822). 



EYE ; the organ of sight, consisting of several 

 parts, so adapted to each Bother as to answer the 

 purpose of distinct vision when placed in a proper 

 situation with regard to light and shade. The eye, 

 though properly a subject of anatomy, is so connected 

 with the doctrine of vision, that its structure must 

 first be understood before any advances can be made 

 in that theory ; and, as such, it becomes a matter ot 

 philosophical inquiry, and must not, therefore, be 

 wholly omitted in the present work, although our 

 limits will only admit of a brief illustration of its 

 construction and principal mode of operation. The 

 annexed figure represents a section of the human eye 

 made by a plane, which is perpendicular to the coats 

 which contain its several humours, and also to the 



There are four membranes or coats. 1. The 

 sclerotic, aaaa, which envelopes the greater portion 

 of the ball : it is strong ; of a light colour ; that 

 portion nearest the front, b b, constitutes the white 

 of the eye, and to the other portion are attached the 

 muscles, by which the motions of the ball in its socket 

 are effected. 2d. The cornea, b b, so called from 

 its horny nature a thin transparent coat attached to 

 the external surface of the sclerotic : it is extremely 

 tough, and consists of several thin layers, so that, by 

 its strength, it may the more perfectly resist exter- 

 nal injuries. 3d. The interior surface of the sclerotic 

 coat is lined with a very thin and delicate membrane, 

 which is covered with a black substance, and deno- 

 minated the choroid coat. 4th. The inner surface of 

 the choroid membrane towards the back part of the 

 ball is covered by a tender net-like membrane called 

 the retina, rrrr. This membrane is an extension of 

 the optic nerve O O, which enters the back part of the 

 eye, making a communication between it and the 

 brain. The optic nerve enters the eye about a tenth 

 of an inch nearer to the nose than the axis of the eye. 

 At the back of the eye, in the axis, and at the very 

 centre of the retina, there is a small transparent spot, 

 free of the soft pulpy matter of the retina, having a 



