The Van Eycks and Their Art (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ...in capital letters, here given in extenso, is the antiphon: "SANCTA MARIA SVCCVRRE MISERIS IWA PVSIL-LANIMES: REFOVE FLEBILES: ORA PRO POPVLO: INTERVENI PRO CLERO: INTERCEDE PRO DEVOTO FEMINEO SEXV: SENTIANT OMNES TWM IWAMEN QUICVMQVE CELEBRANT TVAM COMMEMORATIONEM. HEC VIRGO MARIA EX SEMINE ABRAHE ORTA: EX TRIBV IVDA: VIRGA DE RADICE IESSE: EX STIRPE DAVID: FILIA IHERVSALEM: STELLA MARIS: AN-CILLA DOMINI: REGINA GENTIVM: SPONSA DEI: MATER CHRISTI: CONDITORIS TEMPLVM: SANCTI SPIRITVS SACRARIVM." The shutters are divided both on the inner and outer side into two zones. In the lower half of the dexter shutter, Gedeon, clad in a suit of steel armour, stands on a rocky hill, holding with both hands a lance. He has bared his head in presence of the angel who stands beneath an oak tree on the right and is addressing him; on the frame below is the legend "vellus gedeonis." The burning bush is figured in the upper zone as a tall, smooth-trunked tree, the branches of which fill the entire breadth of the panel with a dense mass of foliage. A halflength figure of the Eternal within an aureole appears surrounded by tongues of fire springing from the foliage. He is crowned with a tiara, and vested in an alb and a cope of cloth of gold fastened by an oval morse adorned with a ruby surrounded by nine pearls. His right hand raised in the act of blessing, He holds in His left an orb with a slender crystal cross terminated by gold fleurs-de-lys. At the foot of the tree is a plot of grass and flowers, bordered by a path and a bed with a row of shrubs, beyond which is a moat with ducks and swans. On the farther side are houses and gardens, an inn, a large pond with a variety of waterfowl, and a turreted castle with a man on a ladder...