EASTLAKE’S HISTORY OF OIL-PAINTING 273

that it gave a gloss of itself without varnish; and that which appeared to him still more admirable was, that it allowed of blending [the colours] infinitely better than tempera. Giovanni, rejoicing in this invention, and being a person of discernment, began many works.”

19. The reader must observe that this account is based upon and clumsily accommodated to the idea, prevalent in Vasari’s time throughout Italy, that Van Eyck not merely improved, but first introduced, the art of oil-painting, and that no mixture of colour with linseed or nut oil had taken place before his time. We are only informed of the new and important part of the invention, under the pointedly specific and peculiarly Vasarian expression-“altre sue misture.” But the real value of the passage is dependent on the one fact of which it puts us in possession, and with respect to which there is every reason to believe it trustworthy, that it was in search of a Varnish which would dry in the shade that Van Eyck discovered the new vehicle. The next point to be determined is the nature of the Varnish ordinarily employed, and spoken of by Cennini¹ and many other writers under the familiar title of Vernice liquida. The derivation of the word Vernix bears materially on the question, and will not be devoid of interest for the general reader, who may perhaps be surprised at finding himself carried by Mr. Eastlake’s daring philology into regions poetical and planetary:-

“Eustathius, a writer of the twelfth century, in his commentary on Homer, states that the Greeks of his day called amber (hlektron) Veronice (beronikh). Salmasius, quoting from a Greek medical MS. of the same period, writes it Verenice (berenikh). In the Lucca MS. (8th century) the word Veronica more than once occurs among the ingredients of varnishes, and it is remarkable that in the copies of the same recipes in the Mappæ Clavicula (12th century) the word is spelt, in the genitive, Vernicis and Vernicis. This is probably the earliest instance of the use of the Latinised word nearly in its modern form; the original nominative Vernice being afterwards changed to Vernix.

“Veronice or Verenice, as a designation for amber, must have been common at an earlier period than the date of the Lucca MS., since it there occurs as a term in ordinary use. It is scarcely necessary to remark that the letter b was sounded v by the mediæval Greeks, as it is by their

¹ [See above, p. 269 n.]

XII. S

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