The brothers, John and Hubert Van Eyck, were attracted by his generosity to Bruges, where they painted many pictures.

John was even a member of the duke's council.

The art of oil-painting was carried to great perfection by Hubert's scholar, John of Bruges.

An incredible number of painters, of greater or less merit, flourished at this epoch in the Netherlands, heralds of that great school, which, at a subsequent period, was to astonish the world with brilliant colors; profound science, startling effects, and vigorous reproductions of Nature.

Authors, too, like Olivier de la Marche and Philippe de Comines, who, in the words of the latter, "wrote, not for the amusement of brutes, and people of low degree, but for princes and other persons of quality," these and other writers, with aims as lofty, flourished at the court of Burgundy, and were rewarded by the Duke with princely generosity.