Excerpt from The Science of Painting<br><br>Oil painting began in the fifteenth century. We are not here going to enter into that great discussion, which is not yet finished, as to whether Oil painting was really discovered by Van Eyck, but perhaps we may venture to say that its discovery was really caused by a mistake.<br><br>In the first place, neither John Van Eyck nor his brother ever acquainted anybody with their processes, and their secrets died with them and if report is to be credited, they were even so jealous that they stabbed one prying individual who ventured into their studio.<br><br>In vain distinguished artists, attracted by the fame Of the two brothers, came from Italy to Bruges they could learn nothing, except that the belief spread that Van Eyck owed the exceeding brilliancy Of his colours to the use Of Oil.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.