Editing Hubert van Eyck (section)

==Life and career==
He was probably born in [[Maaseik]], in what is now the  [[Limburg (Belgium)|Belgian province of Limburg]], into a family in the [[gentry]].

As the name was not a very common one, he is probably the "Magister Hubertus, Pictor" recorded as having been paid in 1409 for panels in the church of Onze Lieve Vrouwe, [[Tongeren]]. He is probably also Master Hubert who had painted a panel bequeathed in 1413 by Jan de Visch van der Capelle to his daughter, a Benedictine nun near [[Grevelingen]]; however he does not appear in [[guild]] records, and his heirs did not include any children, so it has been suggested that he may have been in [[minor orders]], perhaps attached to what was then the abbey, now the cathedral, of [[Saint Bavo Cathedral|St Bavo at Ghent]], where his ''[[Ghent Altarpiece]]'' still remains, settling in [[Ghent]] by {{circa|1420}}.<ref name="vb1"/>

Around the time of his settlement, or shortly afterward, he began his only surviving documented work, the ''Ghent Altarpiece'' in St Bavo's. However, the painting was not finished until six years after his death, in 1432, so the degree to which the surviving altarpiece reflects his work, rather than that of Jan who took it over, remains much discussed. An inscription on the frame, which was destroyed in the ''[[beeldenstorm]]'' in 1566, stated that Hubert van Eyck "maior quo Nemo reports" (greater than anyone) started the altarpiece, but that Jan van Eyck – calling himself "arte Secundus" (second-best in the art) – completed it in 1432.<ref name="burr">{{harvnb|Burroughs|1933}}.</ref>

Writing in 1933, art historian Bryson Burroughs, who at that time attributed to Hubert the ''[[Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych]]'', describing him as "the fountainhead of northern painting", suggests he did the [[underdrawing]] for the ''Ghent Altarpiece'' with Jan painting in after his brother's death;<ref name="burr"/> some form of this view remains common among specialists. Modern scientific investigation reveals various changes between the finished work and the lower painted levels and the [[underdrawing]].  Today the inscription is often regarded as an overgenerous fraternal tribute.<ref name="vb1"/>  Given the circumstances, the Ghent Altarpiece is a difficult work to use for comparison when assessing other attributions, especially as several other artists from the brothers' workshops probably worked on it as well.<ref>{{harvnb|Snyder|1985|pages=90–97}}; {{harvnb|Harbison|1991|pages=194–195}}.</ref>
[[File: Hubert van Eyck 002.jpg|thumb|left|360px|''[[The Three Marys at the Tomb (Hubert van Eyck?)|The Three Marys at the Tomb]]'', painted or begun by Hubert, perhaps between 1410 and 1420, and completed by another artist.]]
The town [[magistrate]]s of Ghent visited his workshop in 1425; the city had commissioned two designs for a painting from him.<ref name="vb1"/> He died on or before 18 September 1426,<ref name="vbs">{{harvnb|van Buren}}; {{harnvb|Snyder|1985|page=90}}.</ref>  probably still in his thirties, and was buried in Saint Bavo's Cathedral, next to his sister Margareta according to the 16th-century writer van Vaernewijck, who says she was also a painter and unmarried. His heirs paid taxes relating to properties in Ghent. 
A copper inscription recording his date of death was engraved on the tombstone, but is now missing.<ref name="vb1"/><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/e/eyck_van/hubert/biograph.html| title = Web Gallery of Art: EYCK, Hubert van}}</ref>  According to a tradition from the 16th century, his arm was preserved as a relic in a casket above the portal of Saint Bavo of Ghent.<ref>{{cite book|last=Weale|first=Frances|title=Hubert and John van Eyck|location=New York|publisher=Longmans|year=1903|page=4}}</ref> Van Vaernewijck also records the local tradition that Jan van Eyck was trained by his brother, though when Jan is first documented in August 1422 he was already a "[[old master|master]]" and working in [[The Hague]].<ref name="vb1"/>
[[File:Graf Hubert van Eyck - Sint-Baafskathedraal Gent - onbekend.jpg|thumb|Grave of Hubert van Eyck in [[Saint Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent]]]]