Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/210

 198 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE of Triebsee, for instance, and another in a church on the island of Ummanz, are amongst the most remarkable art treasures of the fifteenth century. Comparatively few of the artists' names have come down to us. They seem to have been singularly in- different to fame. Their works, so to speak, were the outcome of their spiritual life ; and herein doubtless lies the secret of their power. Their works produce such an impression of greatness because of the greatness of their own natures. Painting The brothers Hubert (1432) and Jan (1440) van Eyck may be called the founders of German painting in the fifteenth century. They were the first who introduced the methods of oil-painting, which had already long been in use, into the higher branches of art, and the first also who introduced the general study of Nature into painting. This is seen in the truthful- ness both of their portrait painting and of the land- scapes in their historical pictures. Their fame spread over all lands, and pupils flocked to them from Italy, as well as from the different parts of Germany. It was from them Antonelli da Messina acquired the love of landscape painting which he carried back to Venice;, and in Florence the influence of their school was mani- fested even in Domenicus Ghirlandajo. The Van Eyck school had greater weight among the artists of Upper Germany, and many of their pupils, such as Lucas Moser of Weil and Frederick Herlen of Nordlingen, belonged to the Netherlands school. Yet it was not Flemish influence that controlled the epoch-making masters of German art as to treatment