also a favourable example of the master.

The Virgin,

adored by the donor and donatrix, is surrounded by a glory of angels. As usual with Van der Goes, the Annunciation in chiaro-'scuro is painted on the outer surface of the wings, and the monogram H. G. is on the panel.

St. John the Baptist in the Desert, a solitary figure, signed by the artist and executed in 1472, is the only authentic panel now to be found at Munich.' It is in the painter's dark and vigorous manner; the attitude of the body and the draperies being not unlike Hubert, whilst the landscape by its wildness reminds one of the Agnus Dei of St. Bavon. The drawing of many portions of this figure is far from the careful style of Hugo in the pictures of the Florence gallery and church.

Mary lamenting, surrounded by Holy Women, and St. John, in the same gallery, is a dark, displeasing, and doubtful panel. Still less good is the Annunciation,3 somewhat in the manner of the master.

A Virgin and Child, enthroned beneath a portico,* is of the same character.

The panels at Berlin attributed to Hugo may all be classed as doubtful; for though they bear some traces of his hand, their cold grey shadows and opaque and clouded lights are not unlike attempts at imitating and exag

1 No. 105, Cab. VI. Munich Cat. Signed "Hugo V. d. Goes, 1472." Wood, 11" 6"" by 9", Bavarian measure.

2 No. 66, Cab. IV. Munich Gal. Cat. Wood, 1' 6" by 1′ 2′′, Bavarian measure.

3 No. 43, Cab. III. Munich Gal. Cat. Wood, 3′ 8′′ by 3′ 5′′, Bavarian measure.

4 No. 119, Cab. VI. Munich Cat, Wood, 2' 2" by 1′ 7′′, Bavarian

measure.

gerating his style. Such, in general, are the characteristics of the “Virgin and naked Child;"1 "the Annunciation," twice repeated; "St. Augustine and the donor, with St. John the Baptist;"3" Christ in a purple mantle," "St. John the Evangelist ;" and a "Head of Christ." 996

The Saviour, enthroned with the Virgin, and St. John the Baptist,' have no likeness to his works in manner, design, or colour; and in the latter especially the figures are long and thin, which is unlike Van der Goes, and rather after the manner of the pupils of Petrus Cristus.

The Crucifixion of the Cour d'Appel in Paris, depicts the Saviour crucified, and Mary fainting; St. John the Baptist and St. Louis in contemplation on one side, and St. John the Evangelist, St. Denis, and St. Charlemagne standing on the other. A mountainous landscape, with numerous figures in the distance, completes a clever composition, in which the attitudes of the various actors exhibit the style and character of Van der Goes, with a portion of that severity which he gained from Hubert. The outline has the firmness of the latter with the hardness of the pupil. The vestments are covered, as was customary, with quantities of ornaments. A half figure of God the Father is painted in a niche above the crucifix.

1 No. 529, Berlin Cat. Wood, 2 f. 7 z. by 1 f. 91 z., Prussian

In colour this painting is powerful and red, and somewhat lacks chiaro-'scuro. The Saviour on the Cross is one of the finest portions of it, and may well be called a masterpiece. It is curious to note upon the foreground a dog, a death's head and cross-bones.'

The Belvedere Museum contains two figures of Adam and Eve, apparently copies from those of the Agnus Dei of St. Bavon. They are attributed to Van der Goes, although below the standard of his powers."

His name is also given, without sufficient evidence, to a Virgin and Child, adored by a figure holding a viol.3 This composition, in the Belvedere Gallery, is very much in the spirit of Memling's picture representing the same subject in the gallery of the Uffizi, at Florence. The panel is not remarkable for the delicacy characterising Memling, and appears to be a copy by a pupil of that master. The wings of the picture are separated from the centre composition, and confirm the supposition of these panels being by a pupil of Memling. St. John the Baptist holding the Lamb, and St. John the Evangelist carrying the Chalice, are copied from the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine at Bruges, or the Chiswick altar-piece.

4

A picture by Van der Goes of the Madonna and Child s described as being in the Bologna Gallery."

1 Wood, 3 m. 30 by 2 m. 28, French measure.

2 No. 3, second room, Vienna, Belvedere Cat. Wood, 2' 2" by 1' 7", Austrian measure.

3 No. 9, second room, Belvedere Cat. Wood, 2′ 2′′ by 1′ 51′′, Austrian measure.

4 No. 13, second room, Belvedere Cat. Wood, 2' 2", together 1' 5", Austrian measure.

5 No. 282, Bologn. Pinak.

The greater part of Hugo's works in Belgium were destroyed in 1575 by iconoclasts. His pictures in the church of Vasselaere were burnt on the 4th of October in that year. The Story of St. Catherine, two-panels, painted for the Carmelites of Ghent, have also perished.2 David and Abigail, and the Mariabild, a memorial painting on the tomb of Wouter Gaultier, in St. James of Ghent, have disappeared; but the greatest loss appears to be the Crucifixion, or Christ between the Thieves, which long adorned that edifice. It was saved from the grasp of image-burners, but fell soon after into the hands of Calvinists, who took possession of the Church, and laid the subject under a coat of colour, on which they placed the Ten Commandments. The church was afterwards restored to the Roman Catholic worship, and the picture to its original state, but it has since been lost.4

Like John Van Eyck and most of the Belgian painters, Hugo Van der Goes was often in request for compositions to be drawn on painted glass. Van Mander tells us of a window in St. James of Ghent, the design of which he made, and which seemed so talented that he doubted whether it was not by John Van Eyck. Such are the remaining traces of a clever painter, whose style and talent were more grandiose than sentimental, and whose compositions possessed more energy than grace.

1 Messager des Sciences Historiques. Gand. 8vo. 1845, pp. 117-145.

2 Vaernewyk, ut sup., p. 100. Van Mander, p. 204.

CHAPTER VII.

JUSTUS OR JODOCUS OF GHENT.

THE earliest records of Justus or Jodocus of Ghent connect him with the teaching of Hubert Van Eyck. But the partial and imperfect nature of the information transmitted to us hardly justifies the conclusion, unsupported as it is by a knowledge of the early works of the painter. Serious difficulties, in truth, beset us in the endeavour to give a connected narrative of his life and labours. Through the whole period of his youth,-during the time of his tuition under Hubert Van Eyck,-and for twenty-five years subsequent to the death of that master,—we are unable to trace the name of Justus, except as the author of a lost picture of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist.1

But our difficulty ends not here. In 1451, one Justus d'Allamagna lived and laboured in the Dominican convent of Santa Maria di Castello, at Genoa, painting in its cloisters the Annunciation of the Virgin on the wall. Was

"En Jodocus van Gent, discipel van Hubertus van Eyck, een tafereel verbeeldende St. Jans Onthoofdinge." Extract from Mr. Delbecq's manuscript, ut sup.-Passavant, Kunstreise, p. 381. De Bast, Mess. des Sci. et des Arts. de Belgique, 1824, p. 132. "Furono similmente de primi... maestro Martino e Giusto da Guanto, che fece la tavola della communione del Duca d'Urbino ed altre pitture." -Vasari, ut sup. vol. i. Introd., c. vii. p. 163. "Jodocus Gandavensis, pict. nobilissimus, Huberti Eyck discipulus."-Sanderus, ut sup., De Gand. Erud. Clar., lib. ii. fol. 79.