Were the Van Eycks really Dutch?
Every schoolchild in Flanders is taught that the 14th century masters Jan and Hubert Van Eyck were born in the Limburg town of Maaseik in what today is Belgium, but Lucas Van Dijck, a Dutch historian, who has written about the brothers and their masterpiece, the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb or Ghent Altarpiece, now claims the painters hailed from Bergeijk, which today is just over the Dutch border.
It's generally accepted that as their name suggests the Van Eycks were born in Maaseik towards the end of the 14th century, but after years of research the Dutch historian Lucas Van Dijck now claims the brothers were really called Jan and Hubert Bac van Broechoven and used the name Van Eyck as their artist’s name. He claims that the Van Eycks really hailed from Portync Castle in Bergeijk located in a place called Eijckereinde. He points to the surnames used by Jan and Hubert’s children. They were all called Bac or Bacx.
Several manuscripts from the 16th century, over a century after their death, including Karel Van Mander’s Book of Painters, confirm the assumption that the brothers were born in Maaseik. Read More...
