of the Virgin's chamber, into the streets of a town, one of which we
recognize as a street in Ghent.

In the semicircles which close these panels above, on the right and
left, are the prophets Micah and Zechariah, whose heads have great
dignity, but are somewhat stiff and unsatisfactory in their attitudes.
In the centre (corresponding with the figures in chiaroscuro over Adam
and Eve) are two kneeling female figures represented as sibyls.

The exterior portion of the lower wings contains the statues of the two
St. Johns. These display a heavy style of drapery, and there is
something peculiarly angular in the breaks of the folds, imitated
perhaps from the sculpture of the day, which had also already abandoned
the older Northern mould. This peculiarity by degrees impressed itself
more and more on the style of painting of the Fifteenth Century, and the
drapery of the figures in the Annunciation already betrays a tendency
towards it. The heads exhibit a feeling for beauty of form which is rare
in this school. John the Baptist, who is pointing with his right hand
to the Lamb on his left, is appropriately represented, as the last of
the Prophets, as a man of earnest mien and dignified features, with much
hair and beard. John the Evangelist, on the other hand, appears as a
tender youth with delicate features, looking very composedly at the
monster with four snakes which, at his benediction, rises from the
chalice in his hand.

The likenesses of the donors are given with inimitable life and
fidelity. They show the careful hand of Jan van Eyck, but already
approach that limit within which the imitation of the accidental and
insignificant in the human countenance should be confined. The whole,
however, is in admirable keeping, and the care of the artist can hardly
be considered too anxiously minute, since feeling and character are as
fully expressed as the mere bodily form. The aged Jodocus Vydts, to
whose liberality posterity is indebted for this great work of art, is
dressed in a simple red garment trimmed with fur; he kneels with his
hands folded, and his eyes directed upwards. His countenance, however,
is not attractive; the forehead is low and narrow, and the eye without
power. The mouth alone shows a certain benevolence, and the whole
expression of the features denotes a character capable of managing
worldly affairs. The idea of originating so great a work as this picture
is to be found in the noble, intellectual, and ex