media because the urge to paint as he painted could not be satisfied with the media hitherto in use. His search for new processes was stimulated and guided by observation, imagination and creative will.
Even though the age and the people had their share in this innovation, the inborn love of heroes could have found expression here had not two personalities instead of one laid claim to the honour of the one achieve- ment, namely Hubert and Jan. If genius is rare then the law of averages makes us quite incredulous at the tidings that one pair of parents could produce two geniuses as sons. Wherever two brothers combine for one creative task we suspect from the very outset that one of them is a sub- ordinate assistant. The happy collaboration of craftsmen is conceivable but the way of genius is to command or to repel. Again and again this persistent prejudice has urged historians to make a clean sweep once and for all of the legend of the two founders of Netherlandish painting.
The Ghent altarpiece bears an inscription which reads in English:
"The painter Hubert van Eyck who was surpassed by none (maior quo nemo repertus) began the work. Johannes, second in the art, completed it at the request of Jodocus Vyd in the year 1432 on the 16th of May." This text, which is not everywhere fully intact, poses almost as many problems as it answers.
Should the order of precedence of the brothers be simply accepted? Should it be regarded as a pious lie or a modest piece of self-deception on the part of the younger brother, who was responsible for the inscription? It remains probable that Hubert undertook the Ghent altarpiece which, about the year 1420, was designed to surpass all other altar decorations in the Netherlands in size and richness of content. If nothing had sur- vived but the Ghent altarpiece we would accept without question the order of precedence of the inscription and regard Jan van Eyck as the collaborator, pupil and imitator of his elder brother. But apart from the Ghent altarpiece works by Jan have survived, done by him alone, after the death of Hubert ( 1426), works unequivocally signed with his name, devotional panels and portraits such as the van der Paele altar panel of 1436 and the Arnolfini Couple of 1434. In view of these works by Jan it becomes difficult to uphold the order of precedence of the Ghent inscrip- tion. There means and end seem in perfect harmony. The instrument is handled as only he can handle it who has made it for himself. Could such skill really be inherited and not acquired?
The scales are almost equally balanced. On Hubert's side in addition to his being the first-born is the superlative of the Ghent inscription; on Jan's side is the ever renewed impact of his pictures and, though this
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Publication Information: Book Title: Early Netherlandish Painting: From Van Eyck to Bruegel. Contributors: Max J. Friedlænder - author. Publisher: Phaidon Publishers. Place of Publication: Garden City, NY. Publication Year: 1956. Page Number: 7.
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