They there consecrated
their lives to the praise of God and the transcription of books,
adorning them with precious pictures."[51] About the year 1730 an
Evangeliary of great age was discovered in the sacristy of the church by
the Benedictine antiquary, Edmond Mart?ne, which on good ground has been
attributed to the two sisters. The MS. is still in existence, and was
exhibited in Brussels in 1880. It is a small folio, and contains a great
number of miniatures in the Carolingian or, perhaps more strictly,
Franco-Saxon manner. On the first leaf is a Romanesque colonnade of
arches surmounted by a larger one. Under the smaller arches are the
figures of saints, demons, and monsters, and in the tympanum scrolls of
foliage and birds. Between the columns are the reference numbers to the
chapters.
[50] Or Relinda.
[51] Bradley, _Dict. of Miniaturists_, ii. 87.
The evangelist portraits are dignified and saintly, recalling the
earliest work of the Byzantine school and that of the catacombs.
Draperies and other details are heavy, dull, and ill drawn. In short,
the work is of the same class as the early Carolingian. The blue, red,
green, and gold of the borders, etc., have all kept their brilliancy.[52]
It is somewhat curious that the Van Eycks, the founders of Flemish
painting, were natives of this little town--then, doubtless, pretty and
rural, now a busy place of breweries, oil-factories, tanneries, and
other fragrant nuisances.
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