" And, of course,
the success of the Van Eycks, Rogier van der Weide (de la Pasture),
Derrick Bonts, and Hans Memling, stirred up the spirit of rivalry among
the illuminators. They all worked in the same minutely, careful manner,
and one could almost take a corporal oath on the identity of
illuminations and panels which are really the work of different artists.
Even yet the illuminations of the Grimani Breviary are attributed in
part to Hans Memling--and no wonder! Only the best qualified judges can
distinguish them. It is known that Gerard David of Oudewater, in
Holland, a master painter, belonged also to the gild of miniaturists.
But no miniatures are known to be from the hands of either Ian, or
Hubert, or Marguerite van Eyck, or Hans Memling. The supposed
identifications are merely guesses. But while this is so there is still
no lack of illuminators, not to mention the illustrious few who were
employed by the brothers of Charles V., King of France; and when we come
to the days of his grandson, Philip of Burgundy (1419-67), we might name
quite a crowd of distinguished illuminators. From 1422 to 1425 Ian van
Eyck was "varlet de chamber" to Duke John of Bavaria, first bishop of
Li?ge, and Regent of Luxembourg, Holland, and Brabant.
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