The Early Flemish Painters; Notices of Their Lives and Works (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER El. JOHN VAN EYCK. Philip The Good. Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders, one of John Van Eyck's most cherished patrons, was married early to Michelle of France, sister, as we saw, of the Duke of Orleans, who murdered Jean Sans Peur. The suspicions of Philip as to his wife's implication in the massacre of Montereau, and the necessity under which he subsequently laboured of visiting the numerous provinces into which his dominions were divided, contributed much to affect his character. In policy he was driven by revenge to a course which tended to increase rather than diminish the misfortunes of France. In his social relations he was led by change of place and roving habits to fleeting amours and licentiousness.1 Continually on horseback, and wanderingfrom place to place, he contented himself with the society of his knights and retainers, and varied it with that of numerous mistresses. He drank hard and frequently, and had a philosophical indifference to the quality of his boon companions, which gave occasion to Chastelain to relate that he " offended the nobles by keeping company with valets."' A rude joviality towards inferiors, which gave rise to the nattering epithet of "Le Bon," and a certain roughness towards men of better station, became early characteristic of his nature. He was not restrained by any feeling, moral or religious, from the commission of very unpardonable acts, and he did his share of deeds which do not bear the light. He was very truculent on occasion, as at Dinant, where the city was destroyed and the inhabitants of both sexes were butchered. He sometimes sacrificed truth to expediency, yet he had a rude code of honour, the fruit of his early education in the laws of chivalry, then considerably on the decline. He once said to the Archbishop of...