nuteness, if not always of size, yet of style. The method, by its very
finish and the possible completeness of its gradations, must have seemed
well calculated to exhibit numerous objects on a small scale. That this
was really the impression produced, at a later period, on one who
represented the highest style of design, has been lately proved by means
of an interesting document, in which the opinions of Michael Angelo on
the character of Flemish pictures are recorded by a contemporary
artist."[16]

* * *

121. It was not, we apprehend, the resemblance to nature, but the
abstract power of color, which inflamed with admiration and jealousy the
artists of Italy; it was not the delicate touch nor the precise verity
of Van Eyck, but the "vivacita de' colori" (says Vasari) which at the
first glance induced Antonello da Messina to "put aside every other
avocation and thought, and at once set out for Flanders," assiduously to
cultivate the friendship of _Giovanni_, presenting to him many drawings
and other things, until _Giovanni_, finding himself already old, was
content that Antonello should see the method of his coloring in oil, nor
then to quit Flanders until he had "thoroughly learned that _process_."
It was this _process_, separate, mysterious, and admirable, whose
communication the Venetian, Domenico, thought the most acceptable
kindness which could repay his hospitality; and whose solitary
possession Castagno thought cheaply purchased by the guilt of the
betrayer and murderer; it was in this process, the deduction of watchful
intelligence, not by fortuitous discovery, that the first impulse was
given to European art. Many a plank had yawned in the sun before Van
Eyck's; but he alone saw through the rent, as through an opening portal,
the lofty perspective of triumph widening its rapid wedge;--many a spot
of opaque color had clouded the transparent amber of earlier times; but
the little cloud that rose over Van Eyck's horizon was "like unto a
man's hand."

What this process was, and how far it differed from preceding practice,
has hardly, perhaps, been pronounced by Mr. Eastlake with sufficient
distinctness. One or two conclusions which he has not marked are, we
think, deducible from his evidence, In one point, and that not an
unimportant one, we believe that many careful students of coloring will
be disposed to differ with him: our own intermediate opinion we will
therefore venture to state, thoug