in discharging them, have led to
results of a most beneficial character,--beneficial to artists, and to the
arts as a perpetuity. His highly valuable work, though with the most
modest title, "Materials for a History of Oil Painting," is the real boon,
and will be the lasting proof of his faithful service. Considering the
sacrifice with which a work of so much labour, thought, and research must
have been achieved, we hope the Commissioners are empowered to reward his
energy, ability, and fidelity, according to their merits, and according to
the sacrifice.

Mr Eastlake, justly judging it to be of the first importance, in whatever
schemes might be entertained for the promotion of the Fine Arts, to secure
to the artist the best materials, and the approved methods of the best
times, and to give him as complete a knowledge of the history of the art
he professes as might be obtained, undertook to search out and examine
records with the greatest care, leaving as little to conjecture as
possible. He could not dictate to the mind, but he might be able to put
means into the hands of genius; the more perfect the instruments, the
greater would be the freedom, and, what is of no small importance, the
more durable would be the works. The first step in this direction was
evidently towards a knowledge of what had been done, and had been
universally admired and approved:--to discover first, if possible, what
was the method and what were the technical means in the hands of Titian
and Correggio, of Rubens and most of the Flemish painters.

Aware of the discussions and disputes concerning the invention of Van
Eyck, he found it necessary to trace the progress of art from its earliest
records to the date of the supposed discoverer of painting in oil--or
rather discoverers, Hubert and John Van Eyck, in 1410. The conclusion to
which the documentary evidence led him was this, that:--

"The technical improvements which Van Eyck introduced were unquestionably
great; but the mere materials employed by him may have differed little, if
at all, from those which had been long familiar. The application of oil
painting to figures, and such other objects as (with rare exceptions) had
before been executed only _in tempera_, was a consequence of an
improvement in the vehicle." "It is apparent, that much has been
attributed to John Van Eyck, which was really the invention of Hubert; and
both may have been indebted to earlier painters for the elements of th