PHILIP THE GOOD AND THE VAN EYCKS
As the sunset is often the most beautiful hour of the day, so the
splendour of the old Flemish communes reached its zenith at the moment
when many of them were about to sink into their long sleep. This was
the period of Burgundian rule. Upon the death of Louis of Maele the
County of Flanders ceased to be a separate sovereignty, as it had been
since Baldwin of the Iron Arm, for the husband of Margaret, the old
Count's daughter, was Duke of Burgundy and brother of the King of
France--a foreign prince whose interests in France far out-weighed in
his mind his interests in Flanders. The new ruler, Philip the Bold,
was acknowledged as Count of Flanders in 1384, but was only able to
enter Audenaerde by stratagem after a siege, and was defied openly by
the sturdy burghers of Ghent. The following year, however, Philip
effected a family union by which he virtually controlled the two
important States of Brabant and Hainaut. His eldest son was married
to Margaret, daughter of the Regent of Hainaut, while the latter's son
married Philip's daughter. These marriages were celebrated at Cambrai,
in April, 1385, and at the same time the Duchess of Brabant recognised
Philip's second son as heir to the Duchy. Brabant at that time was
less rich and powerful than Flanders, but its chief cities, Brussels
and Louvain, were growing rapidly. Hainaut, on the other hand, had
been termed by one of its leaders "a poor country of proud men"--its
chief cities, Mons and Valenciennes, being places of third-rate
importance, and its present vast mineral wealth then undreamed of. The
marriages of Cambrai are worth remembering, however, as explaining the
rapidity with which the House of Burgundy extended its sway over
nearly all of what is now Belgium.
Ghent still resisted its new Count, but an army of one hundred
thousand French and Burgundians--gathered primarily to invade
England--destroyed the seaport of Damme, which had been rebuilt since
its previous destruction by the French, and plundered "the Four
Trades," as the fertile region thereabout was called. Ghent, however,
had suffered enough to make it sue for peace and acknowledge Philip's
sovereignty. The invasion of England project came to nothing--as have
so many others before and since--but it had at least enabled Philip to
establish his power in Flanders.
On Philip's death in 1404, he was succeeded by his son, John the
Fearless (as the old chroniclers call him). The life of this prince
belongs to the history of France rather than Flanders, as he had
little use for his Flemish towns except to extort money from their
burghers--who granted him such sums as he required on his renewing
acknowledgment of their liberties and privileges. In 1407 John caused
the murder of his great rival in the government of France, the Duke of
Orleans. Then came the battle of Agincourt, where the power of France
was ruined by Henry the Fifth, and in 1419 the son of the Duke of
Orleans avenged the murder of his father twelve years previously by
murdering John the Fearless at Montereau.
The son of John the Fearless was Philip, called by the chroniclers
"the Good." A better term would have been "the Magnificent," for
goodness was hardly his chief characteristic. The murder of his father
caused Philip to take the side of England in the long conflict between
that country and France that was still raging--a policy that pleased
his Flemish communes, which depended for their prosperity on the wool
trade. Meanwhile Philip took advantage of the matrimonial difficulties
of Jacqueline of Bavaria, Countess of Hainaut and Holland, to compel
that beautiful but unfortunate princess to abdicate in his favour. The
dungeon in the Castle of the Counts at Ghent, where the fair
Jacqueline was for a time confined, has already been mentioned. He
also succeeded in making himself Duke of Brabant, thus uniting in his
own person the government of these rich provinces with that of
Flanders and Burgundy and his other possessions in France.
In 1430 Philip married the Princess Isabel of Portugal, a
great-granddaughter of John, Duke of Lancaster. This marriage cemented
the English alliance, and the English made Philip Regent of France,
over which they still claimed sovereignty. It was Philip who captured
and indirectly caused the execution of Jeanne d'Arc at the darkest
period of French history.
The now all-powerful Duke of Burgundy signalized his marriage by
establishing at Bruges the famous Order of the Golden Fleece. This
consisted of himself, as founder and sovereign prince, and twenty-four
knights--naturally the highest in the land--and in renown and lustre
the new order quickly took rank as the very pinnacle of mediæval
chivalry. Membership was an honour than which there was none higher,
while members also enjoyed a personal security against the tyranny of
princes in being amenable only to their comrades of the order. The
head of such an institution naturally exerted powers equal, and, in
some respects, superior, to those of any crowned monarch. The fêtes
with which Philip celebrated the establishment of the order were
without precedent in the history of Europe for magnificence, and the
old city of Bruges was for days thronged with the bravest knights and
the fairest ladies to be found in the Duke's widespread dominions.
Up to this date the policy of Philip had coincided with the interests
of his great communes in Flanders and his popularity throughout the
county was unbounded. Not only did friendship with England protect and
stimulate trade between the two countries, but the misery and ruin of
France also contributed to extend the commerce of the great towns just
over the frontier whose trade and industries were unmolested. In 1435
Philip concluded the treaty of Arras with Charles VII, King of France,
by which, for the sake of peace, the French King ceded to him a
number of counties in France and made him, during his lifetime at
least, an independent prince owing no homage to the French Crown. This
treaty naturally enraged the English, who at once declared war on
Burgundy, destroying many Burgundian vessels and raiding its coast
towns. In revenge Duke Philip marched on Calais with an army of thirty
thousand Flemings whom he induced to join in the war against their
ancient ally chiefly through their confidence in his good intentions
and against their own better judgment. The siege proved to be a long
one, and the Flemings becoming discontented finally set fire to their
camp and crying, "_Go, go, wy zyn all vermanden!_" ("Go, go, we are
all betrayed!") marched back to Flanders, leaving their Duke raging at
his discomfiture.
This fiasco determined Philip to adopt a new policy toward the
communes and compel them to obey his orders. On May 22, 1437, he
camped outside of the city of Bruges with a considerable force of
knights and Picard footmen, informing the burghers that he was on his
way to Holland. The next day, telling his men "That is the Holland we
have come to conquer!" as he pointed to the city, Philip led his
forces to the market-place. The tocsin in the old belfry instantly
sounded the alarm, and angry guildsmen and burghers came pouring down
the narrow streets in thousands. Philip's small force, taken at a
disadvantage, was forced to retreat to one of the gates. It was shut,
its heavy bolts securely drawn. Already some of the French force had
been killed, and in a few moments the Duke himself would have perished
but for Burgomaster Van de Walle, who brought a smith and broke the
lock. The Duke escaped with most of his followers, but many who were
caught in the rear lost their lives. This was the Bruges Vespers--to
distinguish it from Bruges Matin, the year of the Battle of the Spurs.
Philip now set about humbling the proud city in grim earnest, cutting
off the commerce upon which its prosperity depended, and even its food
supplies. To add to the horrors of the siege the plague broke out
within the city, while leprosy was also prevalent. No less than
twenty-four thousand died of pestilence and famine before the brave
burghers at last gave in. Philip's terms were hard. The city officials
were required to meet him bareheaded and barefooted the next time he
deigned to visit the defeated commune, and on their knees give him the
keys of the city. A heavy fine was imposed and forty-two leading
burghers were excluded from amnesty and beheaded--including Van de
Walle, who had saved his life at the Bouverie gate. This was the
"Great Humiliation," as it is sometimes called, but--finding that
continued hostility to the chief trading centre in his dominions was
driving foreign traders away--the Duke now took Bruges again into his
favour and never again molested it during his long reign.
The proud city of Ghent was the next to feel the weight of the
powerful Duke's displeasure. Rebelling in 1448 against the imposition
of a tax on salt, called the gabelle, the city defied the Duke's
authority for five years. Meanwhile Philip gradually cut off its
supplies, as he had done with Bruges. Ghent was more populous,
however, and its burgher armies took the field and carried open war as
far as Audenaerde, which they besieged. Several small battles were
fought, the advantage resting mainly with the Duke, until on July 23,
1453, the decisive conflict took place. The Duke's forces were
encamped at Gavre, a few miles from the city. Spies within the gates
told the burghers that it would be easy to surprise the camp and
destroy Philip's army. The tocsin therefore was sounded and the hosts
of guildsmen and burghers marched out to attack the enemy. The Duke's
forces, aware of the manner in which the Flemings were to be betrayed,
were placed where the open ground favoured the Burgundian horsemen. In
spite of this advantage, the contest was a stubborn one, both the Duke
and his son Charles narrowly escaping death on one occasion. At last
the Flemings began to give way, and the battle became a slaughter,
more than twenty thousand of the guildsmen being slain on the field,
while all prisoners were hanged. This struggle was called "the red sea
of Gavre." As the men of Ghent were fleeing toward their city Philip
sought to pursue them by the shortest way and intercept their flight.
He accordingly called for a guide. A peasant of the neighbourhood
volunteered, and, after leading the Burgundian army across fields and
by-paths for several hours, conducted the victors--not to the gates of
Ghent, but back to their own camp again! This nameless hero was
incontinently hanged to the nearest tree, but he no doubt saved the
city from pillage and rapine that night.
Philip by this victory completely crushed the spirit of the communes,
for none dared resist when Ghent the all-powerful had failed. He seems
to have had at least a fleeting realisation, however, that victories
of this sort were not matters for unmitigated satisfaction. The day
after the battle the women of Ghent were searching the ghastly heaps
of dead for the bodies of their husbands, their brothers and their
lovers when Philip exclaimed--possibly touched by the sad sight--"I do
not know who is the gainer by this victory. As for me, see what I have
lost--for these were my subjects!"
The privileges of Ghent were somewhat curtailed, and the dearly loved
guild banners carried away by the conqueror, but Philip, on the whole,
was very moderate. The obnoxious gabelle, the cause of the war, was
removed, and all citizens guaranteed their individual liberties. The
following year, Philip, possibly to celebrate his now undisputed
supremacy, gave a series of fêtes at Lille that surpassed even those
held on the occasion of his marriage at the foundation of the Order of
the Golden Fleece. Upon one dining table stood a cathedral, with a
choir singing within; another held a huge pie, inside of which an
orchestra of twenty-eight musicians played; a third contained a
pantomime representing Jason in search of the golden fleece. These
fêtes and tournaments lasted for days, and were the wonder of Europe.
During the remainder of his reign of fifty years Philip never again
had occasion to make war on his Flemish subjects, and while he
seriously curtailed the power and importance of the communes, his rule
was, on the whole, a period of great prosperity for Flanders. Both
merchants and artisans were waxing rich, while the chief cities were
being beautified on every hand. It was under Philip the Good that the
cathedral at Antwerp was begun, and the town halls of Mons, Louvain
and Brussels erected. It was also during his reign that William Caxton
learned the art of printing at the house of Colard Manson at Bruges,
but the prejudice of the burghers led to his banishment as a
foreigner--thus depriving Bruges of the lustre of his achievements.
The greatest event of Philip's reign, however, was one of which the
glory is shared by both Bruges and Ghent--the establishment in
Flanders of the school of painters in oils whose masterpieces loom so
large in the history of art.
Like most men whose commanding personality dominates the age in which
they live, Philip the Good was many sided. The Professor admires him
because he was, in his judgment, one of the greatest constructive
statesmen of the Middle Ages--aiming steadily throughout his long
reign to weld together, by fair means or foul, a compact Burgundian
nation. On the other hand, I look upon him as a foe rather than a
friend of true progress, because he crushed the self-governing
communes and guilds, the bulwarks of personal liberty in feudal
Europe. Mrs. Professor cares nothing for either of these aspects of
his career, but looks upon him as great for all time because he was an
ardent friend and patron of the fine arts.
In this she is undoubtedly right, for no greater glory belongs to any
of the long line of princes who ruled over Flanders than that which is
associated with his reign--the birth at Bruges of the art of painting
with oils and of the wonderful school of painting represented by the
early Flemish masters. In his _History of Flemish Painting_ Prof. A.
J. Wauters recounts the names and some faint traces of the work of a
few Flemish painters who lived prior to the period of Philip the Good.
At Ghent there are two interesting frescoes dating from about the end
of the thirteenth century. At that city in 1337 the first guild of
sculptors was organised, under the patronage of St. Luke, and similar
corporations were instituted at Tournai in 1341, in Bruges in 1351,
at Louvain by 1360 and Antwerp by 1382. To this guild from the very
earliest period the painters belonged, sometimes the goldsmiths and
goldbeaters being also associated with them. In the same way the
illuminators of Bruges and Ghent, and the tapestry workers of Arras,
Tournai, Valenciennes and Brussels were organised into guilds, and
these associations of men whose work was in a high degree artistic
soon resulted in the transformation of the artisan into the artist.
Philip the Good was not the first of his line to give encouragement to
art and artists. One Jehan de Hasselt was court painter to Count Louis
of Maele, while at the same period the better known Jehan de Bruges
was _peintre et varlet de chambre_ for the King of France. By the end
of the fourteenth century not only the great Dukes of Burgundy and the
Kings of France but many minor princes had their chosen painters,
imagers, illuminators and tapestry workers. Philip the Bold, the first
of the Dukes of Burgundy to rule over Flanders, retained his
father-in-law's painter, Jehan de Hasselt, on his pay-roll for some
time, and later employed a resident of Ypres, Melchior Broederlam,
whose masterpiece was an altar-piece for the Carthusian monastery at
Dijon founded by his patron. Part of this has been preserved and is
now in the museum of Dijon. It is of interest as the first great
painting of the early Flemish school and represents the Annunciation
and Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Flight into
Egypt. John the Fearless, the next Duke of Burgundy, likewise had his
official painter, but it was not until the reign of Philip the Good
that any of these Ducal artists, with the exception of Broederlam,
achieved more than mediocre results.
The reason for this may have been the medium with which all painters
in those days were accustomed to work. This was called tempera, the
colours being mixed with water, the white of an egg or some other
glutinous substance, then dried in the sun and varnished over. The
colours, however, soon became dull and pale--often fading away
altogether, especially in course of restoration--and the process of
drying was slow and unsatisfactory. To Flanders belongs the honour of
the great discovery of the art of painting with oils that
revolutionised this branch of the fine arts and made the master-works
of the artists of the brush imperishable for all time.
This epoch-making discovery, which is justly looked upon as the birth
of modern painting, was made by the two brothers Van Eyck about the
year 1410. The early accounts attribute the invention wholly to Jean,
the younger of the two brothers, relating that on a certain occasion
he had placed a painting on wood, which had cost him much time and
labour, in the sun to dry when the heat of the sun caused it to crack.
Seeing his work thus ruined at a blow Jean sought to find some
substance that would obviate the necessity of drying his paintings in
the sun and, after many experiments, discovered that linseed oil and
nut oil were by far the most rapid in drying. He further found that
the colours mixed better in oil than with the white of an egg or glue.
They also had more body, a far richer lustre, were impermeable to
water and--what was best of all--dried just as well in the shade as in
the sun. Later scholarship is not inclined to give the entire credit
for this discovery to Jean alone, however, and his elder brother
Hubert is looked upon by some as the one to whom the glory is due.
Probably it was the joint result of innumerable experiments made by
both, each profiting by the mistakes and successes of the other--just
as was the case with the Wright brothers in perfecting the greatest
invention of our own times. There were, of course, other pioneers who
contributed to the great discovery.
The brothers were born at Maeseyck (Eyck-sur-Meuse) near Maestricht,
and took the name of the village as their own in a way that was then
very common. Literally they called themselves Hubert and Jean of Eyck.
They first obtained service under the prince-bishop of Liége, and were
illuminators of manuscripts and statues as well as painters. The
increasing wealth and luxury of Flanders under the Dukes of Burgundy
drew the two brothers to that country and they appear to have been in
the employ of the Count of Charolais, afterwards the Duke Philip the
Good, at about the date assigned by the early historians as that when
the art of painting with oils was discovered. The Count was residing
at that time in the Château des Comtes at Ghent with his young wife
Michelle, sister of the Duke of Orleans. In 1419, when the news of the
murder of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, by the Duke of Orleans
on the bridge of Montereau arrived at Ghent, Philip rushed into his
wife's room crying, "Michelle, Michelle! Your brother has killed my
father!" The shock of this terrible intelligence, and the subsequent
suspicion of her husband that she knew of the plot, caused the poor
little French princess to pine away and die two years later. As a
tribute to her memory the guild of St. Luke was asked by the Duke to
grant the freedom of the guild to her favourite painters, the two Van
Eycks, which was done.
Jean, however, did not remain at Ghent, but took service for a time
under John of Bavaria, whose capital was at The Hague. In 1425 he
became painter and varlet de chambre of Philip the Good, a position he
retained until his death. For a time he seems to have travelled about
with his ducal master, but he eventually settled at Bruges, where most
of his best work was done. Hubert, meanwhile, remained at Ghent,
painting for the rich burghers of that prosperous city. Here he
presently received an order from Jodocus Vydts for an altar-piece for
a chapel he had founded in the Cathedral of St. Bavon in his native
city of Ghent. Hubert began work immediately, planned the great work
and lived to partially complete it when overtaken by death in 1426.
Hubert was recognised as a great painter in his day, the magistrates
of Ghent on one occasion going in state to his studio to inspect a
picture he was painting--which was no doubt the altar-piece for St.
Bavon. He was, however, wholly forgotten by early historians of art
in Flanders, and it is only recently that he has been given his proper
place as one of the first of the great masters of the Flemish school.
The subject chosen by Hubert for the proposed altar-piece was the
Adoration of the Lamb, and the artist, while true to the conventions
of the age in which he lived, achieved a work that is still full of
interest and charm. Like Shakespeare's plays this, the first great
masterpiece of the Flemish school, belongs not to an age but to all
time. In its entirety the work consists of twenty panels and comprises
more than three hundred separate figures. How far it had been
completed at Hubert's death there is no way to tell, although it is
customary to attribute to him the architectural frame, the central
panel showing the lamb, and the large upper panels. Other critics
believe that Jean practically painted the whole picture when he was
commissioned by the donor to complete it. The books on Flemish art
devote many pages to an analytical description of this picture,[1]
which was finally completed by Jean in 1432. The Duke Philip, his
patron, and the magistrates of Bruges visited his studio in state to
inspect the finished picture, which was afterwards publicly exhibited
at Ghent. When it is considered that this is the very first painting
in oil that has come down to us it is in every respect a most
marvellous performance. The three large central panels in the upper
portion are especially noble and impressive, that of "God the Father,"
in the centre, being finely expressive of majesty and repose. In the
panel to the left of the Virgin Mary is a group of youthful angels
singing, who are so skilfully painted that "one can readily tell from
looking at them which is singing the dominant, which the
counter-tenor, and which the tenor and the bass," according to an
early critic. We were told by a Belgian curé with whom we talked about
this wonderful picture shortly before our visit to Ghent that the work
is so fine in its details that in the case of the figures in the
foreground who are holding open in their hands copies of the
Scriptures the very passage at which each book is opened can be
distinguished! We verified this remarkable assertion by the aid of a
glass loaned us by an attendant.
[Footnote 1: See "The Early Flemish Painters," by J. A. Crowe and G.
B. Cavalcaselle, pp. 49-63; and "Belgium, Its Cities," by Grant Allen,
pp. 164-175.]
The subsequent history of the painting is interesting. Philip II, who
carried many Flemish masterpieces away to Spain, admired this one,
but contented himself with a copy by Michel Coxcie, for which he paid
four thousand ducats--which was quite likely more than the Van Eyck
brothers received for the original. About 1578 the Calvinists of Ghent
wished to present the painting to Queen Elizabeth in return for her
support of their sect. For a time it was placed in the Hotel de Ville
at Ghent, but was finally restored to the cathedral. After several
other escapes from destruction or shipment abroad the work was finally
dismembered out of deference to the views of Joseph II of Austria,
during the period of Austrian rule in Flanders. He objected to the
nude figures of Adam and Eve as unsuited to a church, and these were
accordingly removed. The entire work was carried away during the
French Revolution, but was returned some years later. The wings,
however, were not restored to their original position, and were
finally sold to a London dealer for four thousand pounds sterling. He,
in turn, sold them to the King of Prussia, and they are now in the
Museum of Berlin. The wings now at St. Bavon are the copies made by
Coxcie. The original panels of Adam and Eve were stored for many years
in the cellars of St. Bavon, and then were exchanged with the Belgian
Government for the Coxcie wings just mentioned. They are now in the
Brussels Museum. The Adam and Eve at St. Bavon are not even copies of
the originals.
[Illustration: "SINGING ANGELS" FROM "THE ADORATION OF THE
LAMB."--JEAN VAN EYCK.]
Jean Van Eyck enjoyed the confidence and affection of Philip the Good
until his death, and was often sent on diplomatic missions of great
importance. On one occasion he was sent to Portugal with an embassy
appointed to propose a marriage between his ducal patron and the
Princess Isabel. Jean was also commissioned to paint the portrait of
the fair Isabel so that his master could judge for himself whether her
charms were as great as he had fancied them to be. This portrait was
duly painted and in the inventory of the possessions of Margaret of
Austria there was a painting by Jean Van Eyck called _La belle
Portugalaise_, which was, no doubt, the very one painted for Duke
Philip. It must have been pleasing, for he married the lady. As late
as 1516 _La belle Portugalaise_ was still in existence at Malines. It
represented a lady in a red habit with sable trimmings, attended by
St. Nicholas. It has since disappeared--one of the many thousands that
were lost or destroyed during the wars of the sixteenth to the
eighteenth centuries, but both historically and artistically one
of the most interesting of them all. There are a considerable number
of authenticated paintings by Jean Van Eyck still in existence.
Several of these are in the original frames with the artist's famous
motto, "_Als ik kan_" (As I can), more or less legible. It is by no
means unlikely that in time to come one or more of those now lost will
be discovered, thus adding to the priceless heritage that the world
owes to his immortal brush.
[Illustration: _"George Van der Paele, Canon of St. Donatian
worshipping the Madonna" Jean Van Eyck_]
Two of the most celebrated of Jean Van Eyck's paintings can be seen at
Bruges. One of these is in the Museum and shows George Van der Paele,
Canon of St. Donatian, worshipping the Madonna. Of the portrait of the
worthy donor Max Rooses, the Director of the Plantin-Moretus Museum at
Antwerp, says: "The Canon's face is so astoundingly true to life that
it is perhaps the most marvellous piece of painting that ever aspired
to reproduce a human physiognomy. This firm, fat painting renders at
once the cracks of the epidermis and the softness of the flesh. Beside
this head with its lovingly wrought furrows and wrinkles gleam the
dazzling white of the surplice with its greenish shimmer, the intense
red of Mary's mantle, St. Donatian's flowing cape, and the metallic
reflections of St. George's breastplate." Equally fine as an example
of faithful portrait painting is the picture of the artist's wife
which also hangs in this interesting little gallery of old masters.
Four years after Jean Van Eyck's death, which occurred in 1440,
another Flemish painter of note acquired citizen's rights at Bruges.
This was Petrus Christus. The most celebrated of his paintings depicts
the Legend of Ste. Godeberte. The story was that this young lady's
parents had planned a rich marriage for her, whereas she preferred to
enter a convent. The prospective bride and her groom visited a
jeweller's to select the wedding ring and there encountered St. Eloi,
or Elisius, who was both a goldsmith and a bishop. The Saint, knowing
the wishes of the maiden, placed the ring upon her finger himself,
thereby dedicating her to the service of the Lord. This picture was
painted for the Goldsmiths' Guild of Antwerp, passed into the
collection of Baron Oppenheim, of Cologne, and is now in a private
gallery.
Besides the "Adoration of the Lamb," the Cathedral of St. Bavon
possesses enough other notable works of art to equip a small museum.
One of these is the wooden pulpit, carved by P. H. Verbruggen, and
representing the glorification of St. Bavon. Another is the famous
tomb of Bishop Triest carved by Jerome Duquesnoy in 1654. This
represents the Bishop reclining on a couch, and has been termed "the
most beautiful piece of statuary in the country." Still a third
masterpiece is "St. Bavon withdrawing from the World," by Rubens.
There are a score of other paintings and pieces of sculpture of
interest and importance, but all are so over-shadowed by the famous
polyptych that the average tourist scarcely notices them unless he
goes back to this remarkable church several times. In front of the
Château of Girard, and close to the cathedral, stands the impressive
monument to the two Van Eycks erected by the city in 1913. It is by
the sculptor Georges Verbanck and represents the brothers receiving
the homage of the nations.