more sunny than those of Flanders, and this he did with accuracy
and not without poetic feeling. We may ascribe much of the
success which attended his efforts to complete the altarpiece
of Ghent to the cleverness with which he [reproduced the varied
aspect of changing scenery, reminiscent here of the orange
groves of Cintra, there of the bluffs and crags of his native
valley. In all these backgrounds, though we miss the scientific
rules of perspective with which the van Eycks were not familiar,
we find such delicate perceptions of gradations in tone, such
atmosphere, yet such minuteness and perfection of finish, that our
admiration never flags. Nor is the colour less brilliant or the
touch less firm than in Hubert’s panels. John only differs from
his brother in being less masculine and less sternly religious.
He excels in two splendid likenesses of Jodocus Vijdts and his
wife Catherine Burluuts. The same vigorous style and coloured
key of harmony characterizes the small “Virgin and Child” of
1432 at Ince, and the “Madonna,” probably of the same date,
at the Louvre, executed for Rollin, chancellor of Burgundy.
Contemporary with these, the male portraits in the National
Gallery, and the “Man with the Pinks,” in the Berlin Museum
(1432–1434), show no relaxation of power; but later creations
display no further progress, unless we accept as progress a more
searching delicacy of finish, counterbalanced by an excessive
softness of rounding in flesh contours. An unfaltering minuteness
of hand and great tenderness of treatment may be found,
combined with angularity of drapery and some awkwardness
of attitude in the full length portrait couple (John Arnolfini and
his wife) at the National Gallery (1434), in which a rare insight
into the detail of animal nature is revealed in a study of a terrier
dog. A “Madonna with Saints,” at Dresden, equally soft and
minute, charms us by the mastery with which an architectural
background is put in. The bold and energetic striving of earlier
days, the strong bright tone, are not equalled by the soft blending
and tender tints of the later ones. Sometimes a crude ruddiness
in flesh strikes us as a growing defect, an instance of which
is the picture in the museum of Bruges, in which Canon van der
Paelen is represented kneeling before the Virgin under the
protection of St George (1434). From first to last van Eyck
retains his ability in portraiture. Fine specimens are the two
male likenesses in the gallery of Vienna (1436), and a female, the
master’s wife, in the gallery of Bruges (1439). His death in
1440/41 at Bruges is authentically recorded. He was buried
in St Donat. Like many great artists he formed but few pupils.
Hubert’s disciple, Jodocus of Ghent, hardly does honour to his
master’s teaching, and only acquires importance after he has
thrown off some of the peculiarities of Flemish teaching. Petrus
Cristus, who was taught by John, remains immeasurably behind
him in everything that relates to art. But if the personal
influence of the van Eycks was small, that of their works was
immense, and it is not too much to say that their example,
taken in conjunction with that of van der Weyden, determined
the current and practice of painting throughout the whole of
Europe north of the Alps for nearly a century.
See also Waagen, Hubert and Johann van Eyck (1822); Voll, Werke des Jan van Eyck (1900); L. Kämmerer on the two families in Knackfuss’s Künstler-Monographien (1898). (J. A. C.)
EYE, a market-town and municipal borough in the Eye
parliamentary division of Suffolk; England; 9412 m. N.E. from
London by the Great Eastern railway, the terminus of a branch
from the Ipswich-Norwich line. Pop. (1901) 2004. The church
of St Peter and St Paul is mainly of Perpendicular flint work,
with Early English portions and a fine Perpendicular rood
screen. It was formerly attached to a Benedictine priory.
Slight fragments of a Norman castle crown a mound of probably
earlier construction. There are a town hall, corn exchange,
and grammar school founded in 1566. Brewing is the chief
industry. The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and
12 councillors. Area, 4410 acres.
Eye (Heya, Aye) was once surrounded by a stream, from which it is said to have derived its name. Leland says it was situated in a marsh and had formerly been accessible by river vessels from Cromer, though the river was then only navigable to Burston, 12 m. from Eye. From the discovery of numerous bones and Roman urns and coins it has been thought that the place was once the cemetery of a Roman camp. William I. gave the lordship of Eye to Robert Malet, a Norman, who built a castle and a Benedictine monastery which was at first subordinate to the abbey of Bernay in Normandy. Eye is a borough by prescription. In 1205 King John granted to the townsmen a charter freeing them from various tolls and customs and from the jurisdiction of the shire and hundred courts. Later charters were granted by Elizabeth in 1558 and 1574, by James I. in 1604, and by William III. in 1697. In 1574 the borough was newly incorporated under two bailiffs, ten chief and twenty-four inferior burgesses, and an annual fair on Whit-Monday and a market on Saturday were granted. Two members were returned to each parliament from 1571 till 1832, when the Reform Act reduced the membership to one. By the Redistribution Act of 1885 the representation was merged in the Eye division of the county. The making of pillow-lace was formerly carried on extensively, but practically ceased with the introduction of machinery.
EYE (O. Eng. eáge, Ger. Auge); derived from an Indo-European
root also seen in Lat. oc-ulus, the organ of vision (q.v.).
Anatomy.—The eye consists of the eyeball, which is the true organ of sight, as well as of certain muscles which move it, and of the lachrymal apparatus which keeps the front of it in a moist condition. The eyeball is contained in the front of the orbit and is a sphere of about an inch (24 mm.) in diameter. From the front of this a segment of a lesser sphere projects slightly and forms the cornea (fig. 1, co). There are three coats to the eyeball, an external (protective), a middle (vascular), and an internal (sensory). There are also three refracting media, the aqueous humour, the lens and the vitreous humour or body.
 | |
| Fig. 1.—Diagrammatic Section through the Eyeball. | |
| cj, Conjunctiva. co, Cornea. Sc, Sclerotic. ch, Choroid. pc, Ciliary processes. mc, Ciliary muscle. O,Optic nerve. R,Retina. I,Iris. aq,Anterior chamber of aqueous humour. |
L, Lens. V, Vitreous body. Z, Zonule of Zinn, the ciliary process being removed to show it. p, Canal of Petit. m, Yellow spot. The dotted line behind the cornea represents its posterior epithelium. |
The protective coat consists of the sclerotic in the posterior five-sixths and the cornea in the anterior sixth. The sclerotic (fig. 1, Sc) is a firm fibrous coat, forming the “white of the eye,” which posteriorly is pierced by the optic nerve and blends with the sheath of that nerve, while anteriorly it is continued into the cornea at the corneo-scleral junction. At this point a small canal, known as the canal of Schlemm, runs round the margin of the cornea in the substance of the sclerotic (see fig. 1). Between the sclerotic and the subjacent choroid coat is a lymph space traversed by some loose pigmented connective tissue,—the
