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422 Painting of all earnest men, and throwing every other interest into the background. We maintain, however, that, with all these disadvantages, the simple' truthfulness of Teutonic painting, its faithful rendering of individual character, its purity and distinctness of expression, and, above all, its thorough originality, gave it a charm and value of its own. To sum up, in one word, the vital difference between the painting of the South and that of the North of Europe, we may say that the former is aristocratic and the latter democratic. 1. The Early Flemish and Butch Schools. Even less is known of the Early Flemish than of the German School. The total destruction by iconoclasts in the sixteenth century of the works of the predecessors of the Van Eycks renders it impossible to trace the develop- ment of the great realistic Flemish School, of which Huibrecht van Eyck was so distinguished a member ; yet many of the miniatures of the fourteenth century give a high idea of the capabilities of their artists. One by a certain John of Bruges, for instance, bearing date 1371, now at the Hague, displays great feeling for truth of form and expression, and we think we may fairly conclude this artist to be one of many who paved the way for the great masters of the fifteenth century. We read too of several men who held the post of " painter and varlet " to the Dukes of Burgundy and the Counts of Flanders, of these the chief were Jean van der Asselt (fl. ab. 1364 — 1380) of Ghent, and Melchior Broederlam (fl. ab. 1382— 1400) of Ypres. Fragments of paintings by Broederlam are preserved in the Museum at Dijon.