To the Flemish painters of the fifteenth century belongs, not the
invention of oil-painting, for it was known before their time, but its
acceptable application in picture-making. They applied oil with color
to produce brilliancy and warmth of effect, to insure firmness and
body in the work, and to carry out textural effects in stuffs,
marbles, metals, and the like. So far as we know there never was much
use of distemper, or fresco-work upon the walls of buildings. The oil
medium came into vogue when the miniatures and illuminations of the
early days had expanded into panel pictures. The size of the miniature
was increased, but the minute method of finishing was not laid aside.
Some time afterward painting with oil upon canvas was adopted.
SCHOOL OF BRUGES: Painting in Flanders starts abruptly with the
fifteenth century. What there was before that time more than
miniatures and illuminations is not known. Time and the Iconoclasts
have left no remains of consequence. Flemish art for us begins with
Hubert van Eyck (?-1426) and his younger brother Jan van Eyck
(?-1440).
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