happened that it was to Jan that
other artists went to learn his secrets.

[Illustration: FIG. 53.--THE ANCHORITES. _In S. Bavon at Ghent._]

Jan van Eyck was something of a diplomat as well as a painter, for when he
was in the service of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, he was sent on
several secret missions, and in 1428 he accompanied the ambassadors of the
duke to Portugal in order to paint the portrait of Isabella of Portugal,
who was betrothed to the duke. There is a goodly number of works by Jan
van Eyck in various galleries. The portrait of himself and wife in the
National Gallery, London, is very interesting; they stand hand in hand,
with a terrier dog at their feet; their dress and all the details of their
surroundings are painted with great care. It is said that the Princess
Mary, sister of Charles V., gave a barber who owned it a position with a
handsome salary in exchange for the picture. Jan van Eyck, being twenty
years younger than his brother Hubert, naturally learned all that the
elder knew, and the story of his life gives him the appearance of being
the more important artist, though in point of highest merit he was not the
superior.

Of LAMBERT VAN EYCK very little is known. It is believed that he made the
copy of Hubert's great work which is in the Antwerp Museum; another work
called by his name is in Louvain. MARGARETHA VAN EYCK is said to have been
a skilful artist, but no one picture can be ascribed to her; she was
buried beside her brother Hubert in the Cathedral of Ghent.

Of course the Van Eycks had many followers. Among them were PETRUS
CHRISTUS (records 1444-1471), GERARD VAN DER MEIRE (records 1447-1474),
HUGO VON DER GOES (1405?-1482), and JUSTUS OF GHENT (1468-?), all of whom
were good artists, but I shall pass to a more important one, ROGIER VAN
DER WEYDEN (1400-1464), who was himself the head of a school of as great
importance as was that of the Van Eycks. His realism was his chief
characteristic, and this was so great as to make some of his works
repulsive, especially his martyrdoms, in which he detailed horrors with
great exactness. He also loved to paint pictures which illustrated the
myths of the Middle Ages. Our illustration is from one of these works
(Fig. 54).

This picture is from the story that when the Roman Senate decreed divine
honors to the Emperor Augustus, he consulted the Tiburtine Sibyl as to
whether he ought to receive them or no. She replied to him that it was
mo