ithout its varnish. It is, therefore, quite conceivable that a painter,
averse to mere mechanical operations, would, in his final process, still
have an eye to the harmony of his work, and, seeing that the tint of his
varnish was more or less adapted to display the hues over which it was
spread, would vary that tint, so as to heighten the effect of the
picture. The practice of tingeing varnishes was not even new, as the
example given by Cardanus proves. The next step to this would be to
treat the tempera picture still more as a preparation, and to calculate
still further on the varnish, by modifying and adapting its color to a
greater extent. A work so completed must have nearly approached the
appearance of an oil picture. This was perhaps the moment when the new
method opened itself to the mind of Hubert Van Eyck.... The next change
necessarily consisted in using opaque as well as transparent colors; the
former being applied over the light, the latter over the darker,
portions of the picture; while the work in tempera was now reduced to a
light chiaroscuro preparation.... It was now that the hue of the
original varnish became an objection; for, as a medium, it required to
be itself colorless."--_Ib._ pp. 271-273.

* * *

119. Our author has perhaps somewhat embarrassed this part of the
argument, by giving too much importance to the conjectural adaptation of
the tints of the tempera picture to the brown varnish, and too little to
the bold transition from transparent to opaque color on the lights. Up
to this time, we must remember, the entire drawing of the flesh had been
in tempera; the varnish, however richly tinted, however delicately
adjusted to the tints beneath, was still broadly applied over the whole
surface, the design being seen through the transparent glaze. But the
mixture of opaque color at once implies that portions of the design
itself were executed with the varnish for a vehicle, and therefore that
the varnish had been entirely changed both in color and consistence. If,
as above stated, the improvement in the varnish had been made only after
it had been mixed with opaque color, it does not appear why the idea of
so mixing it should have presented itself to Van Eyck more than to any
other painter of the day, and Vasari's story of the split panel becomes
nugatory. But we apprehend, from a previous passage (p. 258),
that Mr. Eastlake would not have us so interpret him. We rather suppose
t