emblem, the tower. The Virgin is dressed in the blue tunic and red mantle, usual to her-the latter being edged with a simple line of gold; a diadem of pearls throws back her hair, and makes it fall over her shoulders; a white drapery partly surrounds the Infant. The monk is uncowled and dressed in white, whilst St. Barbara, in a violet tunic, is covered completely by a warm, dark green cloak; her hair, also, is held back by a cincture of pearls, exposing her forehead and features. Pleasing as the grouping and arrangement of the figures undoubtedly appears, there are no less interesting and agreeable features in the arrangement of the scene in which the benediction is given. Through a high arch which opens behind St. Barbara, the kneeling monk and his attendant saint appear to have entered. They pause in a high and broadly-lighted space, opening out into arcades, through which the eye wanders over immeasurable space. Above these arcades are glass windows, in front of which hangs a transparent daïs of a filmy texture, fringed with red and white. The ground, composed of squares of stone, inlaid with coloured ornaments, is flooded with light, like the figures and landscape. The Virgin is so placed as to have her person relieved upon the distance, which is one of the marvels of Van Eyck's brush. Seen through the central arch, and completing the perspective lines of the foreground, it exhibits a town composed of an incredible number of houses, relieved amongst each other by judicious. contrasts of blue and red, according to the substance covering their painted roofs and gables. The city fills an undulating plain, which swells into gentle eminences, and rises into distant hills clothed with vegetation. A central

street and canal, with avenues of trees, under which innumerable figures proceed, divides the city; a church stands at its extremity, and a drawbridge on the canal has figures upon it which are reflected in the water, whilst a small boat is propelled beneath it by a figure: the stream meanders on till it is lost in the horizon, and completes the perspective illusion of the lines.

Through the opening to the left of St. Barbara, a landscape, similar in minuteness to the last, is visible. It recedes from a foreground of strawberries to a middle distance, where, with a magnifying glass, may be seen a square, a cross, numberless houses and shops with goods in them, and innumerable figures; further on, a wall and a windmill ;—the atmosphere is clear, the sky limpid and blue, filled with flights of birds, and relieved only by a couple of broken, fleecy clouds. In all these details not one point can be called obtrusive; and those who have seen the Paris Rollin altar-piece, with its hundreds of miniature houses and figures, will wonder when they learn that greater detail is observed in the picture of Burleigh House on a panel of a quarter the size. Nor is this minuteness confined to the distance-it is also visible in the capitals of the columns which support the arches, where are basreliefs and carvings of the richest kind.

The general aspect of the picture is equally pleasing as are its parts when taken separately-the composition being as remarkable for harmony of lines, as for the perfection of its chords of colours. The attitude of the Virgin and St. Barbara are as graceful as that of the kneeling monk is severe and noble. The female heads, elegant and pleasing as they are in form and expression, remind us of the saints

led by St. Barbara in the "Agnus Dei." The monk is a splendid portrait, and a marvel for nature and severity; the head being as fine in details as it is able in the mass. If the general character of John Van Eyck, in rendering the Divinity, be borne in mind, the type of the Infant Saviour strikes the spectator as a soft and agreeable one— his attitude being dignified without the exaggeration of age and gravity. Still, in the square form of the body, and somewhat heavy gathers of the flesh, as well as in the meagreness of the limbs, the thickness of the joints, and weight of the extremities, we may trace the germ of those defects which are developed in the larger representations of the same kind, during the later career of the painter. Another remarkable feature is the shortness of the hands. This, as exhibited in the kneeling figure, may be derived. from a desire to copy nature faithfully; but it is found in the Virgin and St. Barbara, and must, therefore, be marked as a curious departure from the painter's ordinary rule of representing thin and long-fingered hands. The outlines of all the parts are firm without being hard; and this quality extends to the draperies, which are free from angularity, and are marked by breadth of fold and elegance of form richness and choice of colour enhance the other qualities of the picture; and the unity of the harmonies, caused by the perfection of the contrasts, combine to give completeness to the whole. The flesh-tints are luminous and well relieved, and painted in with a firmness and mastery which cause all traces of manipulation to be invisible. Such are the characteristics of a small masterpiece, which by its minuteness creates our astonishment and admiration, and by its beauties of composition, proportion, and colour

:

is comparable only to the best part of the greatest work of John Van Eyck.

At page 65 will be found a notice of a picture by John Van Eyck, "in which are represented a lady and gentleman, standing in a chamber, and holding each other's hand." This production of the great Flemish painter was in the Gallery of Margaret of Austria, in 1516, as is proved by the following extract from the inventory of that date :—

"Ung grant tableau qu'on appelle Hernoult le Fin, avec sa femme, dedens une chambre, qui fut donné à Madame par Don Diego, les armes duquel sont en la couverte du dit tableaul.—Fait du paintre Johannes."

Don Diego, the donor of this picture, or its original proprietor, seems to have been living when this inventory was made. In 1524, a second was drawn up, of a somewhat different tenor :

"133. Ung autre tableau fort exquis qui se clot à deux feulletz, ou il y a painctz un homme et une femme, estants des boutz, touchantz la main l'ung de l'autre, fait de la

1 It is supposed, at Burleigh House, that this picture was painted for the Abbot of St. Martin's, at Yprès. The fact is so stated, in the Flemish language, on the back of the panel. There is but one picture described in the earliest authors as being painted for St. Martin's, at Yprès-a large tryptic, in which the Abbot of Mælbeke kneels before the Virgin and Child. He is dressed in a cope and stole, embroidered, and edged with a band containing portraits of the Twelve Apostles; he is not supported by St. Barbara; on the wings are four scriptural subjects. The panel of the Marquis of Exeter corresponds neither in size nor in subject with that which John Van Eyck is known to have painted for the Abbot of St. Martin's, at Yprès.

main de Johannes, les armes et dévise de feu Don Dieghe esdits deux feulletz-nommé le personnaige, Arnoult."

Here, evidently, Don Diego is dead; but no clue is given as to whom that personage may have been. In 1555, Mary of Hungary having succeeded to the regency of the Netherlands, this picture seems to have passed into her hands,— the panel already noticed being then catalogued, in the inventory of her treasures, as follows :—

“39. Una tabla grande, con dos puertas con que se cierra, y en ella un hombre é una muger que se toman las manos, con un espejo en que se muestran los dichos hombre é muger, y en las puertas las armas de Don Diego de Guevara; hecha por Juanes de Hec. Año 1434.”

Here we discover that Don Diego is one of the noble family of Guevara, several of whose members resided in Belgium at the end of the fifteenth and commencement of the sixteenth centuries. Mr. Pinchart, to whom we are indebted for the last-named inventory, assumes erroneously that Don Diego de Guevara and his wife are represented on the panel; but the extracts from the catalogues of Margaret of Austria, previously quoted, prove that Don Diego lived long after John Van Eyck, and could not have been painted by that artist. They also name the person really represented, who is Hernoult le Fin, or Arnoult. Who the latter person was, and where the picture in question now is, are matters treated of at pages 65 and 85.

The life of Van der Weyden has been further elucidated, in some of its obscure points, by the last researches of Mr. A. Wauters, from whom we transcribe a few facts of