hat we are expressing his real opinion in stating our own, that Van
Eyck, seeking for a varnish which would dry in the shade, first
perfected the methods of dissolving amber or copal in oil, then sought
for and added a good dryer, and thus obtained a varnish which, having
been subjected to no long process of boiling, was nearly colorless; that
in using this new varnish over tempera works he might cautiously and
gradually mix it with the opaque color, whose purity he now found
unaffected, by the transparent vehicle; and, finally, as the thickness
of the varnish in its less perfect state was an obstacle to precision of
execution, increase the proportion of its oil to the amber, or add a
diluent, as occasion required.

120. Such, at all events, in the sum, whatever might be the order or
occasion of discovery, were Van Eyck's improvements in the vehicle of
color, and to these, applied by singular ingenuity and affection to the
imitation of nature, with a fidelity hitherto unattempted, Mr. Eastlake
attributes the influence which his works obtained over his
contemporaries:--

* * *

"If we ask in what the chief novelty of his practice consisted, we shall
at once recognize it in an amount of general excellence before unknown.
At all times, from Van Eyck's day to the present, whenever nature has
been surprisingly well imitated in pictures, the first and last question
with the ignorant has been--What materials did the artist use? The
superior mechanical secret is always supposed to be in the hands of the
greatest genius; and an early example of sudden perfection in art, like
the fame of the heroes of antiquity, was likely to monopolize and
represent the claims of many."--_Ib._ p. 266.

* * *

This is all true; that Van Eyck saw nature more truly than his
predecessors is certain; but it is disputable whether this rendering of
nature recommended his works to the imitation of the Italians. On the
contrary, Mr. Eastlake himself observes in another place (p. 220), that
the character of delicate imitation common to the Flemish pictures
militated _against_ the acceptance of their method:--

* * *

"The specimens of Van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Memling, and others,
which the Florentines had seen, may have appeared, in the eyes of some
severe judges (for example, those who daily studied the frescoes of
Masaccio), to indicate a certain connection between oil painting and
mi