_Unknown_ (Early Flemish: 15th century).
_See also_ (p. xx)
These two pictures closely resemble in style and colouring
the large altar-piece in the church of St. Bavon at Ghent,
which is attributed to Gerard van der Meire.[210] That painter
flourished at Ghent about the middle of the fifteenth century;
entering the Guild of St. Luke in 1452, and becoming sub-dean
in 1474. He is described in a chronicle of the time as a pupil
of Hubert van Eyck, but the historian Van Mander says he began
to paint after the death of Jan van Eyck, a statement which is
confirmed by the date of his enrolment in the Guild. Nothing
is yet really known about him except the bare fact of his
existence, for no picture has been certainly identified as his.
(1079.) It is interesting to compare this representation of the scene,
almost childlike in its simplicity, alike with the treatment by later
painters (see, for instance, Rembrandt's, No. 47), and with the more
decorative and symbolic treatment of the early Italians (_e.g._
Botticelli, No. 1034). The picture before us "shows no particular
felicity of rendering, no depth or insight; it carries little
conviction of reality, but it has a homely charm. The painter was
thoroughly convinced of the actual truth of what he represented, and
thought only of bringing the same home to everyday experience. In the
background he has placed a village, in which men are discussing what is
going on" (J. E. Hodgson, R.A., in the _Magazine of Art_, 1890, p. 42).