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Early Netherlandish painting

Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait , 1434, National Gallery, London.

This work is considered one of the more original and complex paintings in

Western art because of its iconography[1]

and geometric orthogonal

perspective.[2]

Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work 

of artists, sometimes known as the Flemish

Primitives, active in the Burgundian Netherlands

during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern

Renaissance, especially in the flourishing cities of 

Tournai, Bruges, Ghent and Brussels in

modern-day Belgium. Their work follows the

International Gothic style and begins

approximately with Robert Campin and Jan van

Eyck in the early 1420s. It lasts at least until the

death of Gerard David in 1523,[3]

although many

scholars extend it to the start of the Dutch Revolt in

1566 or 1568. Early Netherlandish painting

overlaps in time with the Early and High Italian

Renaissance but is seen as an independent artistic

culture, separate from the Renaissance humanism

that characterised developments in Italy. Because

the works of these painters represent the

culmination of the northern European medieval

artistic heritage and the incorporation of 

Renaissance ideals, the painters are sometimes

categorised as belonging to both the Early

Renaissance and Late Gothic.

The major Netherlandish painters include Campin,

van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Dieric Bouts,

Petrus Christus, Hans Memling, Hugo van der

Goes and Hieronymus Bosch. These artists made significant advances in natural representation and illusionism, and

their work typically features complex iconography. Their subjects are usually religious scenes or small portraits, with

narrative painting or mythological subjects being relatively rare. Landscape is often richly described but relegated as

a background detail before the early 16th century. The painted works are generally oil on panel, either as single

works or more

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Rogier van der Weyden, The Descent from the Cross, c. 1435, Museo del Prado,

Madrid

complex portable or fixed altarpieces in the

form of diptychs, triptychs or polyptychs.

The period is also noted for its sculpture,

tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, stained

glass and carved retables.

The period occurred during the height of 

Burgundian influence in Europe, when the

Low Countries became the political and

economic centre in Northern Europe, noted

for its crafts and luxury goods. In

conjunction with production by the

workshop system, panels and a variety of 

crafts were sold on commissions from

foreign princes or to merchants through

market stalls. The majority of the works

were destroyed during waves of iconoclasm

in the 16th and 17th centuries and today

only a few thousand examples survive. Early northern art in general was not well regarded from the early 17th to the

mid-19th century and the painters and their works were not well documented until the mid-19th century with the

reinvigoration of interest in Early Netherlandish art. Art historians spent almost another century determining

attributions, studying iconography, and establishing bare outlines of even the major artists' lives. Attribution of some

of the most significant works is still debated.

Terminology and scope

The term "Early Netherlandish art" applies broadly to painters active during the 15th and 16th centuries in the

northern European areas controlled by the Dukes of Burgundy and later the Habsburg dynasty. These artists became

an early driving force behind the Northern Renaissance and the move away from the Gothic style. In this political

and art-historical context, the north follows the Burgundian lands which straddled areas that encompass parts of 

modern France, Germany, Belgium and Holland.[4]

Melchior Broederlam, "The Flight into Egypt", from the Altar of 

Jacques de Baerze, 1398. Mus•e des Beaux-Arts de Dijon

The Netherlandish artists have been known by a variety

of terms. "Late Gothic" is an early designation which

emphasises continuity with the art of the Middle Ages.[5]

In the early 1900s the artists were variously referred to in

English as the "Ghent-Bruges school" or the "Old

Netherlandish school". "Flemish Primitives" is a

traditional art-historical term borrowed from the French

that became popular after 1902[6][7]

and remains in use

today, especially in Dutch and German. In this context,

"primitive" does not refer to a perceived lack of 

sophistication, but rather identifies the artists as

originators of a new tradition in painting. Erwin Panofsky

preferred the term ars nova ("new art"), which linked the

movement with innovative composers of music such as

Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois, who were favoured by the Burgundian court over artists attached to the lavish

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French court.[8]

When the Burgundian dukes established centres of power in the Netherlands, they brought with them

a more cosmopolitan outlook. According to Otto P‚cht a simultaneous shift in art began sometime between 1406 and

1420 when a "revolution took place in painting"; a "new beauty" in art emerged, one that depicted the visible rather

than the metaphysical world. This new approach become popular throughout Europe.[]

The Ghent Altarpiece, completed in 1432 by Jan

van Eyck. This polyptych and the Turin-Milan

Hours are generally seen as the first major works

of the Early Netherlandish period.

In the 19th century the Early Netherlandish artists were classified by

nationality, with Jan van Eyck identified as German and van derWeyden (born Roger de la Pasture) as French.

[9]Scholars were at times

preoccupied as to whether the school's genesis was in France or

Germany.[10]

Those arguments and distinctions dissipated after World

War I, and following the leads of Friedl‚nder, Panofsky, and P‚cht,

English-language scholars now almost universally describe the period

as "Early Netherlandish painting", although many art historians view

the Flemish term as more correct.

In the 14th century, as Gothic art gave way to the International Gothic

era, a number of schools developed in northern Europe. Early

Netherlandish art originated in French courtly art, and is especially tied

to the tradition and conventions of illuminated manuscripts. Modern art

historians see the era as beginning with 14th-century manuscript illuminators. They were followed by panel painters

such as Melchior Broederlam and Robert Campin, the latter generally considered the first Early Netherlandish

master, under whom van der Weyden served his apprenticeship.[]

Illumination reached a peak in the region in the

decades after 1400, mainly due to the patronage of Burgundian and House of Valois-Anjou dukes such as Philip the

Bold, Louis I of Anjou and Jean, Duke of Berry. This patronage continued in the low countries with the Burgundian

dukes, Philip the Good and his son Charles the Bold.[11]

The demand for illuminated manuscripts declined towards

the end of the century, perhaps because of the costly production process in comparison to panel painting. Yet

illumination remained popular at the luxury end of the market, and prints, both engravings and woodcuts, found a

new mass market, especially those by artists such as Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dƒrer.[12]

Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1490 € 1510. Museo del Prado,

Madrid. Art historians are divided as to whether the central panel was intended as a moral

warning or as a panorama of paradise lost.

Following van Eyck's innovations, the

first generation of Netherlandish

painters emphasised light and shadow,

elements usually absent from

14th-century illuminated

manuscripts.[13]

Biblical scenes were

depicted with more naturalism, which

made their content more accessible to

viewers, while individual portraits

became more evocative and alive.[14]

Johan Huizinga said that art of the era

was meant to be fully integrated with

daily routine, to "fill with beauty" the

devotional life in a world closely tied

to the liturgy and sacraments.[15]

After

about 1500 a number of factors turned against the pervasive Northern style, not least the rise of Italian art, whose

commercial appeal began to rival Netherlandish art by 1510, and overtook it some ten years later. Two events

symbolically and historically reflect this shift: the transporting of a marble  Madonna and Child by Michelangelo to

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Bruges in 1506, and the arrival of Raphael's tapestry cartoons to Brussels in 1517, which were widely seen while in

the city.[16]

Although the influence of Italian art was soon widespread across the north, it in turn had drawn on the

15th-century northern painters, with Michelangelo's Madonna based on a type developed by Hans Memling.

Netherlandish painting ends in the narrowest sense with the death of Gerard David in 1523. A number of mid- and

late-16th-century artists, including Quentin Matsys and Hieronymus Bosch, maintained many of the conventions,

and they are frequently but not always associated with the school. The style of these painters is often dramatically atodds with that of the first generation of artists.

[] In the early 1500s artists began to explore illusionistic depictions of 

three dimensions.[17]

The painting of the early-16th century can be seen as leading directly from the artistic

innovations and iconography of the previous century, with some painters, following the traditional and established

formats and symbolism of the previous century, continuing to produce copies of previously painted works. Others

came under the influence of Renaissance humanism, turning towards secular narrative cycles, as biblical imagery

was blended with mythological themes.[18]

A full break from the mid-15th-century style and subject matter was not

seen until the development of Northern Mannerism around 1590. There was considerable overlap, and the early- to

mid-16th-century innovations can be tied to the Mannerist style, including naturalistic secular portraiture, the

depiction of ordinary (as opposed to courtly) life, and the development of elaborate landscapes and cityscapes that

were more than background views.[17]

Chronology

Master of the Life of the Virgin, a late Gothic Annunciation,

c. 1463 € 90. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

The origins of the Early Netherlandish school lie in

the miniature paintings of the late Gothic period.[19]

This was first seen in manuscript illumination, which

after 1380 conveyed new levels of realism,

perspective and skill in rendering colour,[20]

peaking

with the Limbourg brothers and the Netherlandish

artist known as Hand G, to whom the mostsignificant leafs of the Turin-Milan Hours are usually

attributed. Although his identity has not been

definitively established, Hand G, who contributed c.

1420, is thought to have been either Jan van Eyck or

his brother Hubert. According to Georges Hulin de

Loo, Hand G's contributions to the Turin-Milan

Hours "constitute the most marvelous group of 

paintings that have ever decorated any book, and, for

their period, the most astounding work known to the

history of art."

[21]

Jan van Eyck's use of oil as a medium was a significant development, allowing artists far greater manipulation of 

paint. The 16th century art historian Giorgio Vasari claimed van Eyck invented the use of oil paint; a claim that,

while exaggerated, indicates the extent to which van Eyck helped disseminate the technique. Van Eyck utilised a

new level of virtuosity, mainly from taking advantage of the fact that oil dries so slowly; it allowed him more time

and more scope for blending and mixing layers of different pigments,[22]

and his technique was quickly adopted and

refined by Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden. These three artists are considered the first rank and most

influential of the early generation of Early Netherlandish painters. Their influence was felt across northern Europe,

from Bohemia and Poland in the east to Austria and Swabia in the south.

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Jan van Eyck, Portrait of a Man in a Turban, 1433; possible self-portrait. National Gallery, London

Cornelis Cort, portrait of Rogier van der Weyden, 1572

A number of artists traditionally associated with the movement had origins that were neither Dutch nor Flemish in

the modern sense. Van der Weyden was born Roger de la Pasture in Tournai.[23][24]

The German Hans Memling and

the Estonian Michael Sittow both worked in the Netherlands in a fully Netherlandish style. Simon Marmion is often

regarded as an Early Netherlandish painter because he came from Amiens, an area intermittently ruled by the

Burgundian court between 1435 and 1471. The Burgundian duchy was at its peak influence, and the innovations

made by the Netherlandish painters were soon recognised across the continent.[25]

By the time of van Eyck's death,

his paintings were sought by wealthy patrons across Europe. Copies of his works were widely circulated, a fact that

greatly contributed to the spread of the Netherlandish style to central and southern Europe.[26]

Central European art

was then under the dual influence of innovations from Italy and from the north. Often the exchange of ideas between

the Low Countries and Italy led to patronage from nobility such as Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, who

commissioned manuscripts from both traditions.[27]

The first generation were literate, well educated and mostly from middle-class backgrounds. Van Eyck and van der

Weyden were both highly placed in the Burgundian court, with van Eyck in particular assuming roles for which an

ability to read Latin was necessary; inscriptions found on his panels indicate that he had a good knowledge of both

Latin and Greek.[28]

A number of artists were financially successful and much sought-after in the Low Countries and

by patrons across Europe.[29]

Many artists, including David and Bouts, could afford to donate large works to the

churches, monasteries and convents of their choosing. Van Eyck was a valet de chambre at the Burgundian court and

had easy access to Philip the Good. Van der Weyden was a prudent investor in stocks and property; Bouts was

commercially minded and married the heiress Catherine "Mettengelde" ("with the money").[30][31]

 Vrancke van der

Stockt invested in land.

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Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a

 Lady, 1460. National Gallery of Art,

Washington. Van der Weyden moved

portraiture away from idealisation and

towards more naturalistic

representation.[32]

The Early Netherlandish masters' influence reached artists such as Stefan

Lochner and the painter known as the Master of the Life of the Virgin, both of 

whom, working in mid-15th-century Cologne, drew inspiration from imported

works by van der Weyden and Bouts.[33]

New and distinctive painterly

cultures sprang up; Ulm, Nuremberg, Vienna and Munich were the most

important artistic centres in the Holy Roman Empire at the start of the 16thcentury. There was a rise in demand for printmaking (using woodcuts or

copperplate engraving) and other innovations borrowed from France and

southern Italy.[]

Some 16th-century painters borrowed heavily from the

previous century's techniques and styles. Even progressive artists such as Jan

Gossaert made copies, such as his reworking of van Eyck's  Madonna in the

Church.[34]

Gerard David linked the styles of Bruges and Antwerp, often

travelling between the cities. He moved to Antwerp in 1505, when Quentin

Matsys was the head of the local painters' guild, and the two became

friends.[35]

By the 16th century the iconographic innovations and painterly techniques

developed by van Eyck had become standard throughout northern Europe.

Albrecht Dƒrer emulated van Eyck's precision.[36]

Painters enjoyed a new

level of respect and status; patrons no longer simply commissioned works but courted the artists, sponsoring their

travel and exposing them to new and wide-ranging influences. Hieronymus Bosch, active in the late 15th and early

16th centuries, remains one of the most important and popular of the Netherlandish painters.[37]

He was anomalous

in that he largely forewent realistic depictions of nature, human existence and perspective, while his work is almost

entirely free of Italian influences. His better-known works are instead characterised by fantastical elements that tend

towards the hallucinatory, drawing to some extent from the vision of hell in van Eyck's Crucifixion and Last 

 Judgement diptych. Bosch followed his own muse, tending instead towards moralism and pessimism. His paintings,

especially the triptychs, are among the most significant and accomplished of the late Netherlandish period[38]

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Hunters in the Snow, 1565.

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The most famous of Bruegel's

several winter landscapes, the panel is indicative of how painting in the

mid-16th century tended towards the secular and everyday life.

The Reformation brought changes in outlook and

artistic expression as secular and landscape imagery

overtook biblical scenes. Sacred imagery was shown

in a didactic and moralistic manner, with religious

figures becoming marginalized and relegated to the

background.[39]

 Pieter Bruegel the Elder, one of the

few who followed Bosch's style, is an important

bridge between the Early Netherlandish artists and

their successors. His work retains many 15th-century

conventions, but his perspective and subjects are

distinctly modern. Sweeping landscapes came to the

fore in paintings that were provisionally religious or

mythological, and his genre scenes were complex,

with overtones of religious skepticism and even hints

of nationalism.[40]

Technique and material

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Campin, van Eyck and van der Weyden established naturalism as the dominant style in 15th-century northern

European painting. These artists sought to show the world as it actually was,[41]

and to depict people in a way that

made them look more human, with a greater complexity of emotions than had been previously seen. This first

generation of Early Netherlandish artists were interested in the accurate reproduction of objects (according to

Panofsky they painted "gold that looked like gold"),[42]

paying close attention to natural phenomena such as light,

shadow and reflection. They moved beyond the flat perspective and outlined figuration of earlier painting in favour

of three-dimensional pictorial spaces. The position of viewers and how they might relate to the scene became

important for the first time; in the  Arnolfini Portrait , Van Eyck arranges the scene as if the viewer has just entered

the room containing the two figures.[43]

Advancements in technique allowed far richer, more luminous and closely

detailed representations of people, landscapes, interiors and objects.[44]

Dieric Bouts's The Entombment , c. 1440 € 55 (National

Gallery, London), is an austere but affecting portrayal

of sorrow and grief, and one of the few surviving

15th-century glue-size paintings.[45]

Although, the use of oil as a binding agent can be traced to the

12th century, innovations in its handling and manipulation define

the era. egg tempera was the dominant medium until the 1430s,

and while it produces both bright and light colours, it dries quickly

and is a difficult medium in which to achieve naturalistic textures

or deep shadows. Oil allows smooth, translucent surfaces and canbe applied in a range of thicknesses, from fine lines to thick broad

strokes. It dries slowly and is easily manipulated while still wet.

These characteristics allowed more time to add subtle detail[46]

and enable wet-on-wet techniques. Smooth transitions of colour

are possible because portions of the intermediary layers of paint

can be wiped or removed as the paint dries. Oil enables

differentiation among degrees of reflective light, from shadow to

bright beams,[47]

and minute depictions of light effects through the

use of transparent glazes.[48]

This new freedom in controlling light

effects gave rise to more precise and realistic depictions of surfacetextures; van Eyck and van der Weyden typically show light

falling on surfaces such as jewellery, wooden floors, textiles and

household objects.[49]

The paintings were most often painted on wood, but sometimes on the less expensive canvas.[50]

The wood was

usually oak, often imported from the Baltic region, with the preference for radially cut boards which are less likely to

warp. Typically the sap was removed and the board well-seasoned before use.[51]

Wood supports allow for

dendrochronological dating, and the particular use of Baltic oak gives clues as to the artist's location.[52]

The panels

generally show very high degrees of craftsmanship. Lorne Campbell notes that most are "beautifully made and

finished objects. It can be extremely difficult to find the joins."

[53]

Many paintings' frames were altered, repainted orgilded in the 18th and early 19th centuries when it was common practice to break apart hinged Netherlandish pieces

so they could be sold as genre pieces. Many surviving panels are painted on both sides or with the reverse bearing

family emblems, crests or ancillary outline sketches. In the case of single panels, the markings on the reverse are

often wholly unrelated to the obverse and may be later additions, or as Campbell speculates, "done for the artist's

amusement". Painting each side of a panel was practical since it prevented the wood from warping.[54]

Usually the

frames of hinged works were constructed before the individual panels were worked on.

Glue binder was often used as an inexpensive alternative to oil. Many works using this medium were produced but

few survive today because of the delicateness of the linen cloth and the solubility of the hide glue from which the

binder was derived. Well known and relatively well preserved € though substantially damaged € examples include

Matsys' Virgin and Child with Saints Barbara and Catherine  (c. 1415 € 

25)[55] and Bouts'  Entombment  

(c. 1440 € 55).[56]

The paint was generally applied with brushes or sometimes with thin sticks or brush handles. The

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artists often softened the contours of shadows with their fingers, at times to blot or reduce the glaze.

Guilds and workshops

The most usual way in the 15th century for a patron to commission a piece was to visit a master's workshop. Only a

certain number of masters could operate within any city's bounds; they were regulated by artisan guilds to whom

they had to be affiliated to be allowed to operate and receive commissions. Guilds protected and regulated painting,

overseeing production, export trade and raw material supply; and they maintained discrete sets of rules for panel

painters, cloth painters and book illuminators.[57]

For example, the rules set higher citizenship requirements for

miniaturists and prohibited them from using oils. Overall, panel painters enjoyed the highest level of protection, with

cloth painters ranking below.

Membership of a guild was highly restricted and access was difficult for newcomers. A master was expected to serve

an apprenticeship in his region, and show proof of citizenship, which could be obtained through birth in the city or

by purchase.[]

Apprenticeship lasted four to five years, ending with the production of a "masterpiece" that proved his

ability as a craftsman, and the payment of a substantial entrance fee. The system was protectionist at a local level

through the nuances of the fee system. Although it sought to ensure a high quality of membership, it was a

self-governing body that tended to favour wealthy applicants.[58] Guild connections sometimes appear in paintings,

most famously in van der Weyden's  Descent from the Cross, in which Christ's body is given the t-shape of a

crossbow to reflect its commission for a chapel for the Leuven guild of archers.[59]

Workshops typically consisted of a family home for the master and lodging for apprentices.[60]

The masters usually

built up inventories of pre-painted panels as well as patterns or outline designs for ready sale.[61]

With the former,

the master was responsible for the overall design of the painting, and typically painted the focal portions, such as the

faces, hands and the embroidered parts of the figure's clothing. The more prosaic elements would be left to

assistants; in many works it is possible to discern abrupt shifts in style, with the relatively weak Deesis passage in

van Eyck's Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych being a better-known example.[62]

Often a master's workshop

was occupied with both the reproduction of copies of proven commercially successful works, and the design of newcompositions arising from commissions.

[63]In this case, the master would usually produce the underdrawing or

overall composition to be painted by assistants. As a result, many surviving works that evidence first-rank 

compositions but uninspired execution are attributed to workshop members or followers.[64]

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Patronage

Jan van Eyck, Annunciation,

1434 € 

1436. Wing from a dismantledtriptych. National Gallery of Art,

Washington DC. The architecture

shows Romanesque and Gothic styles.

Mary is overly large, symbolizing her

heavenly status.[65]

By the 1400s the reach and influence of the Burgundian princes meant that the

Low Countries' merchant and banker classes were in the ascendancy. The early

to mid-century saw great rises in international trade and domestic wealth,

leading to an enormous increase in the demand for art. Artists from the area

attracted patronage from the Baltic coast, the north German and Polish regions,

the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and the powerful families of England and

Scotland.[66]

At first, masters had acted as their own dealers, attending fairs

where they could also buy frames, panels and pigments. The mid-century saw

the development of art dealership as a profession; the activity became purely

commercially driven, dominated by the mercantile class.

Smaller works were not usually produced on commission. More often the

masters anticipated the formats and images that would be most sought after and

their designs were then developed by workshop members. Ready made

paintings were sold at regularly held fairs,

[67]

or the buyers could visitworkshops, which tended to be clustered in certain areas of the major cities. The

masters were allowed to display in their front windows. This was the typical

mode for the thousands of panels produced for the middle class  € city officials,

clergy, guild members, doctors and merchants.

Less expensive cloth paintings (t€chlein) were more common in middle-class

households, and records show a strong interest in domestically owned religious

panel paintings. Members of the merchant class typically commissioned smaller

devotional panels, containing specifically desired themes. Changes might vary

from something such as having an individualized panel added to the

prefabricated pattern, to more simply having an individualized image of the

donor depicted as one of the saints. The addition of coats-of-arms were

frequently the smallest and only changes  € an addition seen in van der

Weyden's Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, which has an original and several

variations.[68]

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Rogier van der Weyden, Jean Wauquelin presenting

his 'Chroniques de Hainaut' to Philip the Good ,

presentation miniature, 1447 € 1448. Royal Library of 

Belgium, Brussels

Many of the Burgundian dukes could afford to be extravagant in

their taste. Philip the Good followed the example set earlier in

France by his great-uncles including John, Duke of Berry by

becoming a strong patron of the arts and commissioning a large

number of artworks.[69]

The Burgundian court was seen as the

arbiter of taste and their appreciation in turn drove demand forhighly luxurious and expensive illuminated manuscripts,

gold-edged tapestries and jewel-bordered cups. Their appetite for

finery trickled down through their court and nobles to the people

who for the most part commissioned local artists in Bruges and

Ghent in the 1440s and 1450s. While Netherlandish panel

paintings did not have intrinsic value as did for example objects in

precious metals, they were perceived as precious objects and in the

first rank of European art. A 1425 document written by Philip the

Good explains that he hired a painter for the "excellent work that

he does in his craft".[]

Jan van Eyck painted the  Annunciationwhile in Philip's employ, and Rogier van der Weyden became the

duke's portrait painter in the 1440s.

Burgundian rule created a large class of courtiers and

functionaries. Some gained enormous power and commissioned

paintings to display their wealth and influence.[70]

Civic leaders

also commissioned works from major artists, such as Bouts'  Justice for Emperor Otto III , van der Weyden's The

 Justice of Trajan and Herkinbald and David's  Justice of Cambyses.[71]

Civic commissions were less common and

were not as lucrative, but they brought notice to and increased a painter's reputation, as with Memling, whose St 

 John Altarpiece for Bruges' Sint-Janshospitaal brought him additional civic commissions.[72]

Wealthy foreign patronage and the development of international trade afforded the established masters the chance to

build up workshops with assistants. Although first-rank painters such as Petrus Christus and Hans Memling found

patrons among the local nobility, they catered specifically to the large foreign population in Bruges. Painters not only

exported goods but also themselves; foreign princes and nobility, striving to emulate the opulence of the Burgundian

court, hired painters away from Bruges.[73][74]

Iconography

The paintings of the first generation of Netherlandish artists are often characterised by the use of symbolism and

biblical references.[75]

Van Eyck pioneered, and his innovations were taken up and developed by van der Weyden,

Memling and Christus. Each employed rich and complex iconographical elements to create a heightened sense of 

contemporary beliefs and spiritual ideals. Morally the works express a fearful outlook, combined with a respect for

restraint and stoicism. The paintings above all emphasise the spiritual over the earthly. Because the cult of Mary was

at an apex at the time, iconographic elements related to the Life of Mary vastly predominate.[76]

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Rogier van der Weyden, The Magdalen Reading, before

1438. National Gallery, London. This fragment is unusually

rich in iconographical detail, including the Magdalen's

averted eyes, her attribute of ointment, and the concept of 

Christ as the word represented by the book in her hands.[77]

Craig Harbison describes the blending of realism and

symbolism as perhaps "the most important aspect of early

Flemish art".[]

The first generation of Netherlandish painters

were preoccupied with making religious symbols more

realistic. Van Eyck incorporated a wide variety of 

iconographic elements, often conveying what he saw as aco-existence of the spiritual and material worlds. The

iconography was embedded in the work unobtrusively;

typically the references comprised small but key background

details. The embedded symbols were meant to meld into the

scenes and "was a deliberate strategy to create an experience

of spiritual revelation."[78]

  Van Eyck's religious paintings in

particular "always present the spectator with a transfigured

view of visible reality". To him the day-to-day is

harmoniously steeped in symbolism, such that, according to

Harbison, "descriptive data were rearranged ... so that theyillustrated not earthly existence but what he considered

supernatural truth."[]

This blend of the earthly and heavenly

evidences van Eyck's belief that the "essential truth of 

Christian doctrine" can be found in "the marriage of secular

and sacred worlds, of reality and symbol".[79]

He depicts

overly large Madonnas, whose unrealistic size shows the separation between the heavenly from earthly, but placed

them in everyday settings such as churches, domestic chambers or seated with court officials.

Yet the earthly churches are heavily decorated with heavenly symbols. A heavenly throne is clearly represented in

some domestic chambers (for example in the Lucca Madonna). More difficult to discern are the settings for paintingssuch as  Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, where the location is a fusion of the earthly and celestial.

[80]Van Eyck's

iconography is often so densely and intricately layered that a work has to be viewed multiple times before even the

most obvious meaning of an element is apparent. The symbols were often subtly woven into the paintings so that

they only became apparent after close and repeated viewing, while much of the iconography reflects the idea that,

according to John Ward, there is a "promised passage from sin and death to salvation and rebirth".[81]

Other artists employed symbolism in a more prosaic manner, despite van Eyck's great influence on both his

contemporaries and later artists. Campin showed a clear separation between spiritual and earthly realms; unlike van

Eyck, he did not employ a programme of concealed symbolism. Campin's symbols do not alter the sense of the real;

in his paintings a domestic scene is no more complicated than a one showing religious iconography, but one the

viewer would recognise and understand.[82] Van der Weyden's symbolism was far more nuanced than Campin's but

not as dense as van Eyck's. According to Harbison, van der Weyden incorporated his symbols so carefully, and in

such an exquisite manner, that "Neither the mystical union that results in his work, nor his reality itself for that

matter, seems capable of being rationally analyzed, explained or reconstructed."[83]

His treatment of architectural

details, niches, colour and space is presented in such an inexplicable manner that "the particular objects or people we

see before us have suddenly, jarringly, become symbols with religious truth."

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Anonymous, The Cambrai Madonna, c 1340. Cambrai Cathedral, France. This small c. 1340 Italo-Byzantine replica

was believed an original by Saint Luke and therefore widely copied.[84][85]

Geertgen tot Sint Jans,  Man of Sorrows, c. 1485 € 95. Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht. One of the finest

examples of the "Man of Sorrows" tradition, this complex panel has been described as an "unflinching, yet emotive

depiction of physical suffering".[86]

Paintings and other precious objects served an important aid in the religious life of those who could afford them.

Prayer and meditative contemplation were means to attain salvation, while the very wealthy could also build

churches (or extend existing ones), or commission artworks or other devotional pieces as a means to guarantee

salvation in the afterlife.[87]

Vast numbers of Virgin and Child paintings were produced, and original designs were

widely copied and exported. Many of the paintings were based on Byzantine prototypes of the 12th and 13th century,

of which the Cambrai Madonna is probably the best known.[88]

In this way the traditions of the earlier centuries

were absorbed and re-developed as a distinctly rich and complex iconographical tradition.

Marian devotion grew from the 13th century, mostly forming around the concepts of the Immaculate Conception and

her Assumption into heaven. In a culture that venerated the possession of relics as a means to bring the earthly closer

to the divine, Mary left no bodily relics, thus assuming a special position between heaven and humanity.[89]

By the

early 1400s, Mary had grown in importance within the Christian doctrine to the extent that she was commonly seen

as the most accessible intercessor with God. It was thought that the length each person would need to suffer in limbo

was proportional to their display of devotion while on earth.[90]

The veneration of Mary reached a peak in the early

15th century, an era that saw an unending demand for works depicting her likeness. From the mid 15th centuryNetherlandish portrayals of the life of Christ tended to be centred on the iconography of the Man of Sorrows.

Those who could afford to commissioned donor portraits. Such a commission was usually executed as part of a

triptych, or later as a more affordable diptych. Van der Weyden popularised the existing northern tradition of 

half-length Marian portraits. These echoed the "miracle-working" Byzantine icons then popular in Italy. The format

became extremely popular across the north, and his innovations are an important contributing factor to the

emergence of the Marian diptych.[91]

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Formats

Although the Netherlandish artists are primarily known for their panel paintings, their output includes a variety of 

formats, including illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, tapestries, carved retables, stained glass, brass objects and

carved tombs.[92]

According to art historian Susie Nash, by the early 16th century the region led the field in almost

every aspect of portable visual culture, "with specialist expertise and techniques of production at such a high level

that no one else could compete with them". The Burgundian court favoured tapestry and metalwork, which are well

recorded in surviving documentation, while demand for panel paintings is less evident[]

  € they may have been less

suited to itinerant courts. Wall hangings and books functioned as political propaganda and as a means to showcase

wealth and power, whereas portraits were less favoured. According to Maryan Ainsworth, those that were

commissioned functioned to highlight lines of succession, such as van der Weyden's portrait of Charles the Bold; or

for betrothals as in the case of van Eyck's lost Portrait of Isabella of Portugal.[93]

Religious paintings were commissioned for royal and ducal palaces, for churches, hospitals, and convents, and for

wealthy clerics and private donors. The richer cities and towns commissioned works for their civic buildings. Artists

often worked in more than one medium; van Eyck and Petrus Christus are both thought to have contributed to

manuscripts. Van der Weyden designed tapestries, though few survive.[94][95]

The Netherlandish painters were

responsible for many innovations, including the advancement of the diptych format, the conventions of donor

portraits, new conventions for Marian portraits, and, through works such as van Eyck's Madonna of Chancellor Rolin

and van der Weyden's Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin in the 1430s, laying the foundation for the development of 

landscape painting as a separate genre.[96]

Illuminated manuscript

Master of Girart de Roussillon, c. 1450,

Burgundian wedding (Philip the Good and

Isabella of Portugal). Austrian National Library,

Vienna

Before the mid-1400s illuminated books were considered a higher form

of art than panel painting, and their ornate and luxurious qualities

better reflected the wealth, status and taste of their owners.[97]

Manuscripts were ideally suited as diplomatic gifts or offerings tocommemorate dynastic marriages or other major courtly occasions.

[98]

From the 12th century specialist monastery-based workshops (in

French libraires) produced books of hours (collections of prayers to be

said at canonical hours), psalters, prayer books and histories, as well as

romance and poetry books. At the start of the 15th century Gothic

manuscripts from Paris dominated the northern European market. Their

popularity was in part due to the production of more affordable, single

leaf miniatures which could be inserted into unillustrated books of 

hours. These were at times offered in a serial manner designed to

encourage patrons to "include as many pictures as they could afford",which clearly presented them as an item of fashion but also as form of 

indulgence. The single leaves had other uses rather than inserts; they

could be attached to walls as aids to private meditation and prayer,[99]

as seen in Christus' 1450 € 60 panel  Portrait of a Young Man, now in

the National Gallery, which shows a small leaf with text to the Vera

icon illustrated with the head of Christ.[100]

The French artists were

overtaken in importance from the mid-15th century by masters in

Ghent, Bruges and Utrecht. English production, once of the highest quality, had greatly declined and relatively few

Italian manuscripts went north of the Alps. The French masters did not give up their position easily however, and

even in 1463 were urging their guilds to impose sanctions on the Netherlandish artists.

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The Dutch Limbourg brothers's ornate Tr•s Riches Heures du Duc de Berry perhaps marks both the beginning and a

highpoint of Netherlandish illumination. Later the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy explored the same mix of 

illusionism and realism. The Limbourgs' career ended just as van Eyck's began € by 1416 all the brothers (none of 

whom had reached 30) and their patron Jean, Duke of Berry were dead, most likely from plague. Van Eyck is

thought to have contributed several of the more acclaimed miniatures of the Turin-Milan Hours as the anonymous

artist known as Hand G.[101]

A number of illustrations from the period show a strong stylistic resemblance to Gerard

David, though it is unclear whether they are from his hands or those of followers.[102]

Barth•lemy d'Eyck's chivalrous and romantic leaf from

his "Livre du c„ur d'Amour •pris", c. 1458 € 60

A number of factors led to the popularity of Netherlandish

illuminators. Primary was the tradition and expertise that

developed in the region in the centuries following the monastic

reform of the 14th century, building on the growth in number and

prominence of monasteries, abbeys and churches from the 12th

century that had already produced significant numbers of liturgical

texts.[99]

There was a strong political aspect; the form had many

influential patrons such as Jean, Duke of Berry and Philip the

Good, the latter of whom collected more than a thousandilluminated books before his death.

[103]According to Thomas

Kren, Philip's "library was an expression of the man as a Christian

prince, and an embodiment of the state € his politics and authority,

his learning and piety". Because of his patronage the manuscript

industry in the Lowlands grew so that it dominated Europe for

several generations. The Burgundian book-collecting tradition

passed to Philip's son and his wife, Charles the Bold and Margaret

of York; his granddaughter Mary of Burgundy and her husband

Maximilian I; and to his son-in-law, Edward IV, who was an avid

collector of Flemish manuscripts. The libraries left by Philip andEdward IV formed the nucleus from which sprang the Royal Library of Belgium and the English Royal Library.

[104]

Netherlandish illuminators had an important export market, designing many works specifically for the English

market. Following a decline in domestic patronage after Charles the Bold died in 1477, the export market became

more important. Illuminators responded to differences in taste by producing more lavish and extravagantly decorated

works tailored for foreign elites, including Edward IV of England, James IV of Scotland and Eleanor of Viseu.[105]

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Limbourg brothers, The Death of Christ , folio

153r, Tr…s Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.

There was considerable overlap between panel painting and

illumination; van Eyck, van der Weyden, Christus and other painters

designed manuscript miniatures. In addition, miniaturists would

borrow motifs and ideas from panel paintings; Campin's work was

often used as a source in this way, for example in the "Hours of Raoul

d'Ailly".

[106]

Commissions were often shared between several masters,with junior painters or specialists assisting, especially with details such

as the border decorations, these last often done by women. The masters

rarely signed their work, making attribution difficult; the identities of 

some of the more significant illuminators are lost.[]

Netherlandish artists found increasingly inventive ways to highlight

and differentiate their work from manuscripts from surrounding

countries; such techniques included designing elaborate page borders

and devising ways to relate scale and space. They explored the

interplay between the three essential components of a manuscript:

border, miniature and text.[107] An example is the Nassau book of 

hours (c. 1467 € 80) by the Vienna Master of Mary of Burgundy, in

which the borders are decorated with large illusionistic flowers and

insects. These elements achieved their effect by being broadly painted, as if scattered across the gilded surface of the

miniatures. This technique was continued by, among others, the Flemish Master of James IV of Scotland (possibly

Gerard Horenbout),[108]

known for his innovative page layout. Using various illusionistic elements, he often blurred

the line between the miniature and its border, frequently using both in his efforts to advance the narrative of his

scenes.[]

During the early-19th-century collecting cut-out 15th and 16th century Netherlandish miniatures or parts of them in

albums became fashionable amongst connoisseurs such as William Young Ottley, leading to the destruction of manymanuscripts. Originals were highly sought after, a revival that helped the rediscovery of Netherlandish art in the later

part of the century.[109]

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Tapestry

"The Mystic Capture of the

Unicorn", fragment from The Hunt 

of the Unicorn, 1495 € 1505. The

Cloisters, New York 

During the mid-15th century tapestry was one of the most expensive and prized

artistic product in Europe. Commercial production proliferated across the

Netherlands and northern France from the early 1400s, especially in the cities of 

Arras, Bruges and Tournai. The perceived technical ability of these artisans was

such that, in 1517, Pope Julius II sent Raphael's cartoons to Brussels to be woven

into hangings.[110]

Such woven wall hangings played a central political role as

diplomatic gifts, especially in their larger format; Philip the Good gifted several

to participants at the Congress of Arras in 1435, where the halls were draped from

top to bottom and all around (tout autour ) with tapestries showing scenes of the

"Battle and Overthrow of People of Liege". At Charles the Bold and Margaret of 

York's wedding the room "was hung above with draperies of wool, blue and

white, and on the sides was tapestried with a rich tapestry woven with the history

of Jason and the Golden Fleece". Rooms typically were hung from ceiling to floor

with tapestries and some rooms named for a set of tapestries, such as a chamber

Philip the Bold named for a set of white tapestries with scenes from The Romance

of the Rose.[]

For about two centuries, during the Burgundian period, master

weavers produced "innumerable series of hangings heavy with gold and silver

thread, the like of which the world had never seen."[111]

The practical use of textiles results from their portability; tapestries provided

easily assembled interior decorations suited to religious or civic ceremonies.[112]

Their value is reflected in their positioning in contemporary inventories, in which

they are typically found at the top of the record, then ranked in accordance with

their material or colouring. White and gold were considered of the highest

quality. Charles V of France had 57 tapestries, of which 16 were white. Jean deBerry owned 19, while Mary of Burgundy, Isabella of Valois, Isabeau of Bavaria

and Philip the Good all held substantial collections.[113]

Tapestry production began with design.[114]

The designs, or cartoons were typically executed on paper or parchment,

put together by qualified painters, then sent to weavers, often across a great distance. Because cartoons could be

re-used, craftsmen often worked on source material that was decades old. As both paper and parchment are highly

perishable, few of the original cartoons survive.[115]

Once a design was agreed upon its production might be farmed

out among many weavers. Looms were active in all the major Flemish cities, in most of the towns and in many of the

villages.

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Unknown Flemish weaver, Tapestry with Scenes from the Passion of 

Christ , c. 1470 € 90. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Looms were not controlled by the guilds. Dependent

on a migrant workforce, their commercial activity

was driven by entrepreneurs, who were usually

painters. The entrepreneur would locate and

commission patrons, hold a stock of cartoons and

provide raw materials such as wool, silk, andsometimes gold and silver  € which often had to be

imported.[116]

The entrepreneur was in direct contact

with the patron, and they would often go through the

nuances of the design at both the cartoon and final

stages. This examination was often a difficult

business and necessitated delicate management; in

1400 Isabeau of Bavaria rejected a completed set by

Colart de Laon having earlier approved the designs,

to de Laon's € and presumably his commissioner's € considerable embarrassment.

Because tapestries were designed largely by painters, their formal conventions are closely aligned with the

conventions of panel painting. This is especially true with the later generations of 16th-century painters who

produced panoramas of heaven and hell. Harbison describes how the intricate, dense and overlaid detail of Bosch's

Garden of Earthly Delights resembles, "in its precise symbolism ... a medieval tapestry".[117]

Triptychs and altarpieces

Northern triptychs[118]

and polyptychs were popular across Europe from the late 14th century, with the peak of 

demand lasting until the early 1500s. During the 1400s they were the most widely produced format of northern panel

painting. Preoccupied with religious subject matter, they come in two broad types: smaller, portable private

devotional works, or larger altarpieces for liturgical settings.

[119]

The earliest northern examples are compoundworks incorporating engraving and painting, usually with two painted wings that could be folded over a carved

central corpus.[120]

Rogier van der Weyden, Braque Triptych, c. 1452. Oil on oak panels. Mus•e du Louvre,

Paris. This triptych is noted for the floating inscriptions and speech balloon stretching

from panel to panel, and for the landscape uniting the panels.[121]

Polyptychs were produced by the more

accomplished masters. They provide

greater scope for variation, and a

greater number of possible

combinations of interior and exterior

panels that could be viewed at one

time. That hinged works could be

opened and closed served a practical

purpose; on religious holidays the

more prosaic and everyday outer

panels were replaced by the lush interior panels.[122]

The Ghent Altarpiece, completed in 1432, had different

configurations for weekdays, Sundays and church holidays.[123]

The first generation of Netherlandish masters borrowed many customs from 13th- and 14th-century Italian

altarpieces.[124]

The conventions for Italian triptychs before 1400 were quite rigid. In central panels the mid-ground

was populated by members of the Holy Family; early works, especially from the Sienese or Florentine traditions,

were overwhelmingly characterised by images of the enthroned Virgin set against a gilded background. The wings

usually contain a variety of angels, donors and saints, but there is never direct eye contact, and only rarely a narrative

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connection, with the central panel's figures.[125]

Netherlandish painters adapted many of these  conventions, but

subverted them almost from the start. Van der Weyden was especially innovative, as apparent in his 1442 € 45

 Miraflores Altarpiece and c. 1452  Braque Triptych. In these paintings members of the Holy Family appear on the

wings instead of just the central panels, while the latter is notable for the continuous landscape connecting the three

inner panels.[126]

From the 1490s Hieronymus Bosch painted at least 16 triptychs,[127]

the best of which subverted

existing conventions. Bosch's work continued the move towards secularism and emphasised landscape. Bosch also

unified the scenes of the inner panels.

Hieronymus Bosch, The Hermit Saints, c. 1493. Doge's Palace, Venice

Triptychs were commissioned by

German patrons from the 1380s, with

large-scale export beginning around

1400. Few of these very early

examples survive,[128]

but the demand

for Netherlandish altarpieces

throughout Europe is evident from the

many surviving examples still extant in

churches across the continent.Till-Holger Borchert describes how

they bestowed a "prestige which, in the

first half of the fifteenth century, only

the workshops of the Burgundian

Netherlands were capable of 

achieving."[129]

By the 1390s,

Netherlandish altarpieces were

produced mostly in Brussels and Bruges. The popularity of Brussels' altarpieces lasted until about 1530, when the

output of the Antwerp workshops grew in favour. This was in part because they produced at a lower cost by

allocating different portions of the panels among specialised workshop members, a practice Borchert describes as anearly form of division of labour.

Multi-panel Netherlandish paintings fell out of favour and were considered old-fashioned as Antwerp Mannerism

came to the fore in the mid-1500s. Later the iconoclasm of the Reformation deemed them offensive, and many works

in the Low Countries were destroyed. Extant examples are found mostly in German churches and monasteries. As

secular works grew in demand, triptychs were often broken up and sold as individual works, especially if a panel or

section contained an image that could pass as a secular portrait. A panel would sometimes be cut down to only the

figure, with the background over-painted so that "it looked sufficiently like a genre piece to hang in a well-known

collection of Dutch 17th-century paintings."[]

Diptychs

Diptychs were widely popular in northern Europe from the mid-15th to the early 16th century. They consisted of two

equally sized panels joined by hinges (or, less often, a fixed frame);[130]

the panels were usually linked thematically.

Hinged panels could be opened and closed like a book, allowing both an interior and exterior view, while the ability

to close the wings allowed protection of the inner images. Originating from conventions in Books of Hours, diptychs

typically functioned as less expensive and more portable altarpieces.[131]

Diptychs are distinct from pendants in that

they are physically connected wings and not merely two paintings hung side by side.[132]

They were usually

near-miniature in scale, and some emulated medieval "treasury art" -small pieces made of gold or ivory. The tracery

seen in works such as van der Weyden's Virgin and Child reflects ivory carving of the period.[133]

The format was

adapted by van Eyck and van der Weyden on commission from members of the House of Valois-Burgundy,[] and

refined by Hugo van der Goes, Hans Memling and later Jan van Scorel.

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Dieric Bouts, Mater Dolorosa/Ecce Homo, after 1450, a rare

example of a surviving diptych with intact frame and hinges

Netherlandish diptychs tend to illustrate only a small

range of religious scenes. There are numerous depictions

of the Virgin and Child,[134]

reflecting the Virgin's

contemporary popularity as a subject of devotion. The

inner panels consisted mainly of donor portraits  € often

of husbands and their wives €

alongside saints or theVirgin and Child. The donor was nearly always shown

kneeling in full or half length, with hands clasped in

prayer. The Virgin and Child are always positioned on the

right, reflecting the Christian reverence for the right hand

side as the "place of honour" alongside the divine.[135]

Their development and commercial worth has been linked

to a change in religious attitude during the 14th century,

when a more meditative and solitary devotion  € exemplified by the Devotio Moderna movement  € grew in

popularity. Private reflection and prayer was encouraged and the small-scale diptych fitted this purpose. It became

popular among the newly emerging middle class and the more affluent monasteries across the Low Countries and

northern Germany. Ainsworth says that regardless of size, whether a large altarpiece or a small diptych,

Netherlandish painting is a "matter of small scale and meticulous detail". The small size was meant to entice the

viewer into a meditative state for personal devotion and perhaps the "experience of miraculous visions."[136]

Late 20th-century technical examination has shown significant differences in technique and style between the panels

of individual diptychs. The technical inconsistencies may be the result of the workshop system, in which the more

prosaic passages were often completed by assistants. A change in style between panels may be seen, according to

historian John Hand, because the divine panel was usually based on a general design offered on the open market,

while the donor panel was added after a patron was found.[137]

Few intact diptychs survive. As with altarpieces, the majority were later separated and sold as single "genre"

pictures. In the workshop system some were interchangeable, and the religious works may have been paired with

newly commissioned donor panels. Later many diptychs were broken apart, thus creating two saleable works from

one. During the Reformation, religious scenes were often removed.[138]

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Portraiture

Hugo van der Goes, Portrait of a Man, c. 1480.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 

Secular portraiture was a rarity in European art before 1430. The

format did not exist as a separate genre and was only found

infrequently at the highest end of the market in betrothal portraits or

royal family commissions.[139]

While such undertakings may have

been profitable, they were considered a lower art form and the majority

of surviving pre-16th-century examples are unattributed. Large

numbers of single devotional panels showing saints and biblical figures

were being produced, but depictions of historical, known individuals

did not begin until the early 1430s. Van Eyck was the pioneer;[140]

his

seminal 1432  L‚al Souvenir is one of the earliest surviving examples,

emblematic of the new style in its realism and acute observation of the

small details of the sitter's appearance.[141]

His  Arnolfini Portrait is

filled with symbolism,[142]

as is the  Madonna of Chancelor Rolin,

commissioned as testament to Rolin's power, influence, and piety.[143]

Van der Weyden developed the conventions of northern portraiture and

was hugely influential on the following generations of painters. Rather

than merely follow van Eyck's meticulous attention to detail, van der Weyden created more abstract and sensual

representations. He was highly sought after as a portraitist, yet there are noticeable similarities in his portraits, likely

because he used and reused the same underdrawings, which met common ideals of rank and piety. These were then

adapted to show the facial characteristics and expressions of the particular sitter.[144]

Petrus Christus Portrait of a Young Girl, after

1460, Gem‚ldegalerie, Berlin. One of the first

portraits to present its sitter in a

three-dimensional room. Many sources mention

her enigmatic and complex expression, and her

petulant, reserved gaze.[145]

Petrus Christus placed his sitter in a naturalistic setting rather than a

flat and featureless background. This approach was in part a reaction

against van der Weyden, who, in his emphasis on sculptural figures,

utilised very shallow pictorial spaces.[146] In his 1462  Portrait of a

 Man, Dieric Bouts went further by situating the man in a room

complete with a window that looks out at a landscape,[147]

while in the

1500s, the full-length portrait became popular in the north. The latter

format was practically unseen in earlier northern art, although it had a

tradition in Italy going back centuries, most usually in fresco and

illuminated manuscripts.[148]

Full-length portraits were reserved for

depictions of the highest echelon of society, and were associated with

princely displays of power. Of the second generation of northern

painters, Hans Memling became the leading portraitist, taking

commissions from as far as Italy. He was highly influential on later

painters and is credited with inspiring Leonardo's positioning of the

Mona Lisa in front of a landscape view.[149]

Van Eyck and van der

Weyden similarly influenced the French artist Jean Fouquet and the

Germans Hans Pleydenwurff [150]

and Martin Schongauer among

others.[151]

The Netherlandish artists moved away from the profile view  € 

popularised during the Italian Quattrocento € towards the less formal but more engaging three-quarter view. At this

angle, more than one side of the face is visible as the sitter's body is rotated towards the viewer. This pose gives a

better view of the shape and features of the head and allows the sitter to look out towards the viewer. The gaze of the

sitter rarely engages the viewer.[152]

Van Eyck's 1433 Portrait of a Man is an early example, which shows the artist

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himself looking at the viewer.[]

Although there is often direct eye contact between subject and viewer, the look is

normally detached, aloof and uncommunicative, perhaps to reflect the subject's high social position. There are

exceptions, typically in bridal portraits or in the case of potential betrothals, when the object of the work is to make

the sitter as attractive as possible. In these cases the sitter was often shown smiling, with an engaging and radiant

expression designed to appeal to her intended.[153]

Around 1508, Albrecht Dƒrer described the function of portraiture as "preserving a person's appearance after hisdeath".

[154][155]Portraits were objects of status, and served to ensure that the individual's personal success was

recorded and would endure beyond his lifetime. Most portraits tended to show royalty, the upper nobility or princes

of the church. The new affluence in the Burgundian Netherlands brought a wider variety of clientele, as members of 

the upper middle class could now afford to commission a portrait.[156]

As a result, more is known about the

appearance and dress of the region's people than at any time since the late Roman period. Portraits did not generally

require lengthy sittings; typically a series of preparatory drawings were used to flesh out the final panel. Very few of 

these drawings survive, a notable exception being van Eyck's study for his Portrait of Cardinal Niccolƒ Albergati.[]

Landscape

Detail from Jan van Eyck's Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych.

Christ and thief before a view of Jerusalem, c. 1430. Metropolitan

Museum of Art, New York. The Crucifixion panel in this diptych is

framed within an azure sky against a distant view of Jerusalem.

Landscape was a secondary concern to Netherlandish

painters before the mid 1460s. Geographical settings

were rare and when they did appear usually consisted

of glimpses through open windows or arcades. They

were rarely based on actual locations;[157]

the

settings tended to be largely imagined, designed to

suit the thematic thrust of the panel. Because most of 

the works were donor portraits, very often the

landscapes were tame, controlled and served merely

to provide a harmonious setting for the idealised

interior space. In this, the northern artists lagged

behind their Italian counterparts who were already

placing their sitters within geographically identifiable

and closely described landscapes.[158]

  Some of the

northern landscapes are highly detailed and notable

in their own right, including van Eyck's

unsentimental c. 1430 Crucifixion and Last 

 Judgement diptych and van der Weyden's widely

copied 1435 € 40 Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin..

Van Eyck was almost certainly influenced by the

Labours of the Months landscapes the Limbourg

brothers painted for the Tr•s Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. The influence can be seen in the illuminations painted

in the Turin-Milan Hours, which show rich landscapes in the tiny bas de page scenes.[159]

These, according to P‚cht,

should be defined as early examples of Netherlandish landscape painting.[160]

The landscape tradition in illuminated

manuscripts would continue for at least the next century. Simon Bening "explored new territory in the genre of 

landscape", seen in several of the leaves he painted for the c. 1520 Grimani Breviary.[161]

From the late 15th century a number of painters emphasised landscape in their works, a development led in part by

the shift in preference from religious iconography to secular subjects. Second-generation Netherlandish painters

applied the mid-14th-century dictum of natural representation. This was born of the rising affluence of the region'smiddle class, many of whom had now travelled south and seen countryside noticeably different from their flat

homeland. At the same time, the later part of the century saw the emergence of specialisation and a number of 

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masters focused on detailing landscape, most notably Konrad Witz in the mid-1400s, and later Joachim Patinir.[162]

Most innovations in this format came from artists living in the Dutch regions of the Burgundian lands, most notably

from Haarlem, Leiden and 's-Hertogenbosch. The significant artists from these areas did not slavishly reproduce the

scenery before them, but in subtle ways adapted and modified their landscapes to reinforce the emphasis and

meaning of the panel they were working on.

Patinir developed what is now called the world landscape genre, which is ty pified by biblical or historical figureswithin an imagined panoramic landscape, usually mountains and lowlands, water and buildings. Paintings of this

type are characterised by an elevated viewpoint, with the figures dwarfed by their surroundings.[163]

The format was

taken up by, among others, Gerard David and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and became popular in Germany, especially

with painters from the Danube school. Patinir's works are relatively small and use a horizontal format; this was to

become so standard for landscapes in art that it is now called "landscape" format in ordinary contexts, but at the time

it was a considerable novelty, as the vast majority of panel paintings before 1520 were vertical in format.[164]

World

landscape paintings retain many of the elements developed from the mid-15th century, but are composed, in modern

cinematic terms, as a long rather than a medium shot. The human presence remained central rather than serving as

mere staffage. Hieronymus Bosch adapted elements of the world landscape style, with the influence especially

notable in his single-panel paintings.[165]

The most popular subjects of this type include the Flight into Egypt and the plight of hermits such as Saints Jerome

and Anthony. As well as connecting the style to the later Age of Discovery, the role of Antwerp as a booming centre

both of world trade and cartography, and the wealthy town-dweller's view of the countryside, art historians have

explored the paintings as religious metaphors for the pilgrimage of life.[166]

Relationship to the Italian Renaissance

Hugo van der Goes, detail from the Portinari Altarpiece, c. 1475.

Uffizi, Florence

The progressions in northern art developed almost

simultaneously with the early Italian Renaissance. The

philosophical and artistic traditions of the Mediterraneanwere not however part of the northern heritage, to the

extent that many elements of Latin culture were actively

disparaged in the north.[167]

The role of Renaissance

humanism in art, for example, was less pronounced in the

Low Countries than in Italy. Local religious trends had a

strong influence on early northern art, as can be seen in

the subject matter, composition and form of many late

13th- and early 14th-century artworks.[]

The northern

painters' doctrine was also built on elements of recent

Gothic tradition, and less on the classical traditionprevalent in Italy.

[168]

While devotional paintings  € especially altarpieces  € 

remained dominant in Early Netherlandish art, secular

portraiture became increasingly common in both northern

and southern Europe as artists freed themselves from the

prevailing idea that portraiture should be restricted to

saints and other religious figures. In Italy this

development was tied to the ideals of humanism.[169]

Italian influences on Netherlandish art are first apparent in the late 1400s, when some of the painters began to travel

south. This also explains why a number of later Netherlandish artists became associated with, in the words of art

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historian Rolf Toman, "picturesque gables, bloated, barrel-shaped columns, droll cartouches, 'twisted' figures, and

stunningly unrealistic colours  € actually employ[ing] the visual language of Mannerism". Wealthy northern

merchants could afford to buy paintings from the top tier of artists. As a result painters became increasingly aware of 

their status in society: they signed their works more often, painted portraits of themselves, and became well-known

figures because of their artistic activities.[]

Hans Memling, Virgin and Child with Two Angels, c.

1480. Uffizi, Florence

The northern masters were greatly admired in Italy. According toFriedl‚nder they exercised a strong influence over 15th-century

Italian artists, a view Panofsky agrees with.[170]

However Italian

painters began to move beyond Netherlandish influences by the

1460s, as they concentrated on composition with a greater

emphasis on harmony of parts belonging together  € "that elegant

harmony and grace ... which is called beauty", evident, for

example, in Andrea Mantegna's  Entombment .[171]

By the early

16th century the reputation of the northern masters was such that

there was an established north-south trade in their works, although

many of the paintings or objects sent south were by lesser artistsand of lower quality.

[172]Innovations introduced in the north and

adopted in Italy included the setting of figures in domestic

interiors and the viewing of interiors from multiple vantage points,

through openings such as doors or windows.[173][174]

Hugo van

der Goes'  Portinari Altarpiece, in Florence's Uffizi, played an

important role in introducing Florentine painters to trends from the

north, and artists like Giovanni Bellini came under the influence of 

northern painters working in Italy.[175]

Memling successfully merged the two styles, exemplified in hisVirgin and Child with Two Angels

. By themid-16th-century, however, Netherlandish art was seen as crude; Michelangelo claimed it was appealing only to

"monks and friars".[176]

At this point northern art began to fall almost completely out of favour in Italy. By the

1600s, when Bruges had lost its prestige and position as the pre-eminent European trading city (the rivers silted and

ports were forced to close), the Italians dominated European art.[177]

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Destruction and dispersal

Iconoclasm

Print of the destruction in the Church of Our Lady in Antwerp, the "signature event" of 

the Beeldenstorm, August 20, 1566, by Frans Hogenberg[178]

Religious images came under close

scrutiny as actually or potentially

idolatrous from the start of the

Protestant Reformation in the 1520s.

Martin Luther accepted some imagery,

but few Early Netherlandish paintings

met his criteria. Andreas Karlstadt,

Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin

were wholly opposed to public

religious images, above all in churches,

and Calvinism soon became the

dominant force in Netherlandish

Protestantism. From 1520, outbursts of 

reformist iconoclasm broke out across

much of Northern Europe.[179]

These

might be official and peaceable, as in

England under the Tudors and the

English Commonwealth, or unofficial

and often violent, as in the  Beeldenstorm or "Iconoclastic Fury" in 1566 in the Netherlands. On 19 August 1566, this

wave of mob destruction reached Ghent, where Marcus van Vaernewijck (1518 € 69) chronicled the events. He wrote

of the Ghent Altarpiece being "taken to pieces and lifted, panel by panel, into the tower to preserve it from the

rioters".[180]

Antwerp saw very thorough destruction in its churches in 1566,[181]

followed by more losses in the

Spanish Sack of Antwerp in 1576, and a further period of official iconoclasm in 1581, which now included city and

guild buildings, when Calvinists controlled the city council.[182]

Many thousands of religious objects and artefacts were destroyed, including paintings, sculptures, altarpieces,

stained glass, and crucifixes,[183]

and the survival rate of works by the major artists is low  € even Jan van Eyck has

only some 24 extant works confidently attributed to him. The number grows with later artists, but there are still

anomalies; Petrus Christus is considered a major artist, but is given a smaller number of works than van Eyck. In

general the later 15th century works exported to southern Europe have a much higher survival rate.[184]

Many of the period's artworks were commissioned by clergy for their churches, with specifications for a physical

format and pictorial content that would complement existing architectural and design schemes. An idea of how such

church interiors might have looked can be seen from both van Eyck's Madonna in the Church and van der Weyden's

 Exhumation of St Hubert . According to Nash, van der Weyden's panel is an insightful look at the appearance of 

pre-Reformation churches, and the manner in which images were placed so that they resonated with other paintings

or objects. Nash goes on to say that, "any one would necessarily be seen in relation to other images, repeating,

enlarging, or diversifying the chosen themes". Because iconoclasts targeted churches and cathedrals, important

information about the display of individual works has been lost, and with it, insights about the meaning of these

artworks in their own time. Many other works were lost to fires or in wars; the break-up of the Valois Burgundian

state made the Low Countries the cockpit of European conflict until 1945. Van der Weyden's The Justice of Trajan

and Herkinbald polyptych is perhaps the most significant loss; from records it appears to have been comparable in

scale and ambition to the Ghent Altarpiece. It was destroyed by French artillery in 1695, and is today known only

from a tapestry copy.[185]

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Documentation

There have been significant challenges for art historians in establishing the names of Netherlandish masters and

attributing specific works. The historical record is very poor, such that some major artists' biographies are still bare

outlines, while attribution is an ongoing and often contentious debate. Even the most widely accepted attributions are

typically only as a result of decades of scientific and historical research originating from after the start of the 20th

century.[186]

Some painters, such as Adriaen Isenbrandt and Ambrosius Benson of Bruges, who weremass-producing panels to be sold at fair stalls, have had as many as 500 painting attributed to them.

[187]

The avenues for research have been limited by many historical factors. Many archives were destroyed in bombing

campaigns in the two world wars, and a great number of works for which records do exist are themselves lost or

destroyed. The record-keeping in the region was inconsistent, and often the export of works by major artists was,

owing to the pressures of commercial demand, not adequately recorded.[]

The practice of signing and dating works

was rare until the 1420s,[188]

and while the inventories of collectors may have elaborately described the works, they

attached little importance to recording the artist or workshop that produced them.[189]

Surviving documentation tends

to come from inventories, wills, payment accounts, employment contracts and guild records and regulations.[190]

Because Jan van Eyck's life is well documented in comparison to his contemporary painters, and because he was so

clearly the period's innovator, a great number of works were attributed to him after art historians began to research

the period. Today Jan is credited with about 26 € 28 extant works. This reduced number in part follows from the

identification of other mid-15th-century painters such as van der Weyden, Christus and Memling,[191]

 while Hubert,

so highly regarded by late-19th-century critics, is now relegated as a secondary figure with no works definitively

attributed to him. Many early Netherlandish masters have not been identified, and are today known by "names of 

convenience", usually of the "Master of ..." format. The practice lacks an established descriptor in English, but the

"notname" term is often used, a derivative of a German term.[192]

Collecting a group of works under one notname is

often contentious; a set of works assigned one notname could have been produced by various artists whose artistic

similarities can be explained by shared geography, training, and response to market-demand influences. Some major

artists who were known by pseudonyms are now identified, sometimes controversially, as in the case of Campin,

who is usually, but not always, associated with the Master of Fl•malle.[23]

Many unidentified late-14th- and early-15th-century northern artists were of the first rank, but have suffered

academic neglect because they have not been attached to any historical person; as Nash puts it, "much of what

cannot be firmly attributed remains less studied". Some art historians believe that this situation has fostered a lack of 

caution in connecting works with historical persons, and that such connections often rest on tenuous circumstantial

evidence. The identities of a number of well-known artists have been founded on the basis of a single signed,

documented or otherwise attributed work, from which follow further attributions based on technical evidence and

geographical proximity. The so-called Master of the Legend of the Magdalen, who may have been Pieter van

Coninxloo, is one of the more notable examples; others include Hugo van der Goes, Campin, Stefan Lochner and

Simon Marmion.

[193]

The lack of surviving theoretical writing on art and recorded opinion from any of the pre-16th century major artists

presents still more difficulties in attribution. Dƒrer, in 1512, was the first artist of the era to properly set down in

writing his theories of art, followed by Lucas de Heere in 1565 and Karel van Mander in 1604. Nash believes a more

probable explanation for the absence of theoretical writing on art outside Italy is that the northern artists did not yet

have the language to describe their aesthetic values, or saw no point in explaining in writing what they had achieved

in painting. Surviving 15th-century appreciations of contemporary Netherlandish art are exclusively written by

Italians, the best known of which include Cyriacus Ancona in 1449, Bartolommeo Fazio in 1456, and Giovanni Santi

in 1482.[194]

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Rediscovery

The dominance of Northern Mannerism in the mid-16th century was built on a subversion of the conventions of 

Early Netherlandish art, which in turn fell out of public favour. Yet it remained popular in some royal art collections;

Mary of Hungary and Philip II of Spain both sought out Netherlandish painters, sharing a preference for van der

Weyden and Bosch. By the early 17th century, no collection of repute was complete without 15th- and 16th-century

northern European works; the emphasis however tended to be on the Northern Renaissance as a whole, more towards

the German Albrecht Dƒrer, by far the most collectable northern artist of the era. Giorgio Vasari in 1550 and Karel

van Mander (c. 1604) placed the art works of era at the heart of Northern Renaissance art. Both writers were

instrumental in forming later opinion about the region's painters, with emphasis on van Eyck as the innovator.[195]

The Netherlandish painters were largely forgotten in the 18th century. When Mus•e du Louvre was converted to an

art gallery during the French Revolution, Gerard David's Marriage at Cana  € then attributed to van Eyck € was the

only piece of Netherlandish art on display there. More large panels were added to the collection after the French

conquered the Low Countries.[196]

These works had a profound effect on German literary critic and philosopher Karl

Schlegel, who after a visit in 1803 wrote an analysis of Netherlandish art, sending it to Ludwig Tieck, who had the

piece published in 1805.[197]

Gerard David, Marriage at Cana, c. 1500. Mus•e du Louvre, Paris. This work was first

publicly displayed in 1802, attributed to van Eyck. Art historians in the 19th century

were preoccupied with the difficulties of attribution.

In 1821 Johanna Schopenhauer became

interested in the work of Jan van Eyck 

and his followers, having seen early

Netherlandish and Flemish paintings in

the collection of the brothers Sulpiz and

Melchior Boisser•e in Heidelberg.[198]

Schopenhauer did primary archival

research because there was very little

historical record of the masters, apart

from official legal documents.[199]

She

published  Johann van Eyck und seine

 Nachfolger in 1822, the same year

Gustav Friedrich Waagen published the

first modern scholarly work on early

Netherlandish painting, Ueber Hubert 

van Eyck und Johann van Eyck ;[200]

Waagen's work drew on Schlegel and

Schopenhauer's earlier analyses.

Waagen went on to become director of 

the Gem‚ldegalerie in Berlin, amassing a collection of Netherlandish art, including most of the Ghent panels, anumber of van der Weyden triptychs, and a Bouts altarpiece. Subjecting the works to meticulous analysis and

examination in the course of acquisition, based on distinguishing characteristics of individual artists, he established

an early scholarly system of classification.

In 1830 the Belgian Revolution split Belgium from the Netherlands of today and created divisions between the cities

of Bruges (home of van Eyck and Memling), Antwerp (Matsys), Brussels (van der Weyden and Bruegel) and Leuven

(Bouts). As the newly created state of Belgium sought to establish a cultural identity, Memling's reputation came to

equal that of van Eyck in the 19th century. Memling was seen as the older master's match technically, and as

possessing a deeper emotional resonance.[201]

When in 1848 the collection of Prince Ludwig of

Oettingen-Wallerstein at Schloss Wallerstein was forced onto the market, his cousin Prince Albert arranged a

viewing at Kensington Palace; though a catalogue of works attributed to the School of Cologne, Jan van Eyck and

van der Weyden was compiled by Waagen, there were no other buyers so Albert purchased them himself.[202][203]

At

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a period when London's National Gallery sought to increase its prestige,[204]

 Charles Eastlake purchased Rogier van

der Weyden's The Magdalen Reading panel in 1860 from Edmond Beaucousin's "small but choice" collection of 

early Netherlandish paintings.[205]

Netherlandish art became popular with museum-goers in the late 1800s. At the beginning of the 20th century, van

Eyck and Memling were the most highly regarded, with van der Weyden and Christus little more than footnotes.

Later many of the works then attributed to Memling were found to be from van der Weyden or his workshop. In1902, Bruges hosted the first exhibition of Netherlandish art with 35,000 visitors, an event that was a "turning point

in the appreciation of early Netherlandish art".[206]

For a number of reasons, the chief of which was the difficulty of 

securing paintings for the exhibition, only a few of van Eyck's and van der Weyden's panels were displayed, while

almost 40 of Memling's pieces were shown. Nevertheless, van Eyck and van der Weyden, to an extent, were then

considered the first rank of Netherlandish artists.[207]

The Bruges exhibition renewed interest in the period and initiated scholarship that was to flourish in the 20th

century. Johan Huizinga was the first historian to place Netherlandish art squarely in the Burgundian period  € 

outside of nationalistic borders € suggesting in his book The Waning of the Middle Ages that the flowering of the

school in the early 15th century resulted wholly from the tastes set by the Burgundian court.[208]

Another exhibition

visitor, Georges Hulin de Loo, published an independent critical catalogue highlighting the large number of mistakes

in the official catalogue, which had used attributions and descriptions from the owners. He and Max Friedl‚nder,

who visited and wrote a review of the Bruges exhibition, went on to become leading scholars in the field.[209]

Scholarship and conservation

The Ghent Altarpiece undergoing technical analysis in Saint Bavo

Cathedral

The most significant early research of Early

Netherlandish art occurred in the 1920s, in German

art historian Max Jakob Friedl‚nder's pioneering

 Meisterwerke der Niederl„ndischen Malerei des 15.

und 16. Jahrhunderts. Friedl‚nder focused onproviding biographical detail about the painters,

establishing attribution, and closely examining the

major works. The undertaking proved extremely

difficult, given the scant historical record of even the

most significant artists. Fellow-German Erwin

Panofsky's analysis in the 1950s and 1960s followed

and in many ways challenged Friedl‚nder's work.

Writing in the United States, Panofsky made the

work of the German art historians accessible to the

English-speaking world for the first time. Heeffectively legitimized Netherlandish art as a field of study, and raised its status to something similar to the early

Italian renaissance.[210]

Panofsky was one of the first art historians to abandon formalism.[211]

He built on Friedl‚nder's attempts at

attribution, but focused more on social history and religious iconography. Panofsky developed the terminology with

which the Netherlandish paintings are usually described, and made significant advances identifying the rich religious

symbolism especially of the major altarpieces. Panofsky was the first scholar to connect the work of Netherlandish

painters and illuminators, noticing the considerable overlap. He considered the study of manuscripts to be integral to

the study of panels, though in the end came to view illumination as less significant than panel painting € as a prelude

to the truly significant work of the northern artists of the 15th and 16th centuries.

[212]

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Van der Weyden's Last Judgment is held under low light and with the panels

split so that both sides can be displayed simultaneously[213]

Otto P‚cht and Friedrich Winkler continued and

developed on Panofsky's work. They were key in

identifying sources of iconography and ascribing

attribution, or at least differentiating anonymous

masters under names of convenience. The

paucity of surviving documentation has madeattribution especially difficult, a problem

compounded by the workshop system. It was not

until the late 1950s, after the research of 

Friedl‚nder, Panofsky and Meyer Schapiro, that

the attributions generally accepted today were

established.[][214]

More recent research from art historians such as

Lorne Campbell relies on X-ray and infrared

photography to develop an understanding of the

techniques and materials used by the painters.

The conservation of the Ghent Altarpiece in the mid-1950s pioneered methodologies and scholarship in technical

studies. The technical examination of paint layers and underlayers was later applied to other Netherlandish works,

allowing for more accurate attributions. Van Eyck's work, for example, typically shows underdrawings unlike

Christus' work. These discoveries, too, hint at the relationships between the masters of the first rank and those in the

following generations, with Memling's underdrawings clearly showing van der Weyden's influence.

Scholarship since the 1970s has tended to move away from a pure study of iconography, instead emphasizing the

paintings' and artists' relation to the social history of their time.[]

According to Craig Harbison, "Social history was

becoming increasingly important. Panofsky had never really talked about what kind of people these were."[215]

Harbison sees the works as objects of devotion with a "prayer book mentality" available to middle-class burgherswho had the means and the inclination to commission devotional objects. Most recent scholarship is moving away

from the focus on religious iconography; instead, it investigates how a viewer is meant to experience a piece, as with

donor paintings that were meant to elicit the feeling of a religious vision. James Marrow thinks the painters wanted

to evoke specific responses, which are often hinted at by the figures' emotions in the paintings.[216]

References

Notes

[1][1] Ward (1994), 19

[2] Elkins (1991), 53 € 

62

[3][3] Spronk (1996), 7

[4][4] P‚cht (1999), 30

[5] Janson, H.W. (2006), 493 € 501

[6] Deam (1998), 12 € 13

[7][7] Flemish and Netherlandish art were only distinguished from each other from the early 17th century. See Spronk (1997), 7

[8][8] Panofsky (1969), 165

[9][9] Deam (1998), 15

[10][10] Ridderbos et al. (2005), 271

[11] Kren (2010), 11 € 12

[12][12] Nash (2008), 3

[13] P‚cht (1999), 12 € 13

[14][14] Chapuis (1998), 19[15] Huizinga (2009 ed.), 223 € 224

[16][16] Ainsworth (1998b), 321

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Early Netherlandish painting 29

[17] Harbison (1995), 60 € 61

[18] Ainsworth (1998b), 319 € 322

[19] Harbison (1995), 26 € 7

[20][20] Harbison (1995), 25

[21][21] P‚cht (1999), 179

[22][22] Toman (2011), 322

[23][23] P‚cht (1999), 16

[24] Vlieghe (1998), 187 € 

200. Highlights recent instances where institutions in the French-speaking parts of Belgium have refused to loan

painters to exhibitions labelled "Flemish".

[25] Borchert (2011), 35 € 36

[26] Smith (2004), 89 € 90

[27][27] Borchert (2011), 117

[28] Van Eyck used elements of the Greek alphabet in his signature, and a number of Ghent painters taught members of their workshops to read

and write.

[29] Ainsworth (1998a), 24 € 25

[30][30] Nash (2008), 121

[31] Ch†telet (1980), 27 € 28

[32][32] Van Der Elst (1944), 76

[33][33] Borchert (2011), 247

[34][34] Ainsworth (1998b), 319[35][35] Van Der Elst (1944), 96

[36][36] Borchert (2011), 101

[37][37] Toman (2011), 335

[38][38] Oliver Hand et al. 15

[39] Ainsworth (1998b), 326 € 327

[40] Orenstein (1998), 381 € 84

[41][41] Ridderbos et al. (2005), 378

[42][42] Panofsky (1969), 163

[43] Smith (2004), 58 € 60

[44][44] Jones (2011), 9

[45] Campbell (1998), 39 € 41

[46][46] Smith (2004), 61

[47] Jones (2011), 10 € 11

[48][48] Borchert (2011), 22

[49][49] Borchert (2011), 24

[50][50] From contemporary records, it is estimated that about a third were painted on canvas, but as these were far less durable, most extant works

are on wooden panels. See Ridderbos (2005), 297

[51][51] Campbell (1998), 29

[52] Ridderbos (2005), 296 € 297

[53][53] Campbell (1998), 31

[54][54] Spronk (1997), 8

[55] " The Virgin and Child with Saints Barbara and Catherine (http:/   /  www. nationalgallery.  org.  uk/  paintings/ 

quinten-massys-the-virgin-and-child-with-saints-barbara-and-catherine)". National Gallery, London. Retrieved 7 November 2011

[56] " The Entombment (http:/   /  www. nationalgallery. org.  uk/  paintings/  dirk-bouts-the-entombment)". National Gallery, London. Retrieved 7

November 2011[57] Campbell (1976), 190 € 192

[58][58] Harbison (1995), 64

[59] Campbell (2004), 9 € 14

[60][60] Jones (2011), 28

[61][61] Ainsworth (1998a), 32

[62][62] Borchert (2008), 86

[63][63] Jones (2011), 29

[64][64] Chapuis (1998), 13

[65] Harbison (1991), 169 € 187

[66] Smith (2004), 26 € 27

[67][67] Ainsworth (1998a), 37

[68][68] Ainsworth (1998a), 31

[69] Chapuis, Julien. " Patronage at the Early Valois Court (http:/   /  www. metmuseum. org/  toah/  hd/  valo_1/  hd_valo_1.  htm)". The

 Metropolitan Museum of Art . Retrieved 28 November 2013

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Early Netherlandish painting 30

[70][70] Ainsworth (1998a), 24, 28

[71][71] Ainsworth (1998a), 30

[72][72] Ainsworth (1998a), 30, 34

[73] Ainsworth (1998a), 25 € 26

[74] The Duke of Urbino hired Joos van Gent in c. 1473, and Isabella I of Castile € who owned a collection of 300 paintings € hired Michael

Sittow and Juan de Flandes ("John of Flanders") into her service. See Ainsworth (1998a), 25 € 26

[75][75] Ward (1994), 11

[76][76] Powell (2006), 708

[77] Campbell (1998), 392 € 405

[78][78] Ward (1994), 9

[79][79] Harbison (1984), 590

[80] Harbison (1984), 590 € 592

[81][81] Ward (1994), 26

[82] Harbison (1984), 591 € 593

[83][83] Harbison (1984), 596

[84][84] Ainsworth (2009), 104

[85][85] Evans (2004), 582

[86][86] Ridderbos et al (2005), 248

[87][87] Jones (2011), 14

[88] Harbison (1991), 159 € 

160[89][89] MacCulloch (2005), 18

[90] MacCulloch (2005), 11 € 13

[91][91] Borchert (2011), 206

[92][92] Nash (2008), 87

[93][93] Ainsworth (1998a), 24

[94][94] Cavallo (1993), 164

[95] Cleland (2002), i € ix

[96][96] Jones (2011), 30

[97][97] Harbison (1995), 47

[98][98] Harbison (1995), 27

[99][99] Wieck (1996), 233

[100] " Portrait of a Young Man (http:/   /  www. nationalgallery.  org.  uk/  paintings/  petrus-christus-portrait-of-a-young-man)". National Gallery,

London. Retrieved 4 January 2004

[101][101] Kren (2010), 83

[102][102] Hand et al. (2006), 63

[103] Jones, Susan. "Manuscript Illumination in Northern Europe" (http:/   /  www. metmuseum.  org/  toah/  hd/  manu/  hd_manu.  htm). The

 Metropolitan Museum of Art . Retrieved 11 March 2012

[104] Kren (2010), 20 € 24

[105][105] Nash (2008), 93

[106][106] Nash (1995), 428

[107] Nash (2008), 92 € 93

[108][108] Nash (2008), 94

[109] Wieck (1996), 234 € 237

[110][110] Nash (2008), 88

[111][111] Phillip (1947), 123[112][112] Nash (2008), 264

[113][113] Nash (2008), 266

[114][114] Cavallo (1973), 21

[115][115] Nash (2008), 209

[116][116] Cavallo (1973), 12

[117][117] Harbison (1995), 80

[118] The word triptych did not exist during the era; the works were known as "paintings with doors". See Jacobs (2011), 8

[119][119] Jacobs (2000), 1009

[120][120] In 14th-century altarpieces the "nature of the subject" was most important; generally the more sacred the subject the more decorative and

elaborate its treatment. See Huizinga (2009), 22

[121][121] Campbell (2004), 89

[122][122] Toman (2011), 319

[123][123] The work comprises 12 exterior and 14 interior painted panels, and the different possible combinations of panels produced different

intended meanings. See Toman (2011), 319

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Early Netherlandish painting 31

[124] Jacobs (2011), 26 € 28

[125][125] Blum (1972), 116

[126] Acres (2000), 88 € 89

[127][127] Of which three are documented but lost, eight survive fully intact, and five exist in fragments. See Jacobs (2000), 1010

[128][128] Borchert (2011), 35

[129][129] Borchert (2011), 52

[130][130] Pearson (2000), 100

[131][131] Smith (2004), 144

[132][132] Smith (2004), 134

[133][133] Borchert (2006), 175

[134][134] Smith (2004), 178

[135][135] Hulin de Loo (1923), 53

[136][136] Ainsworth (1998c), 79

[137][137] Hand et al. (2006), 16

[138] Borchert (2006), 182 € 185

[139][139] Huizinga (2009 ed.), 225

[140][140] Bauman (1986), 4

[141][141] Kemperdick (2006), 19

[142][142] Dhanens (1980), 198

[143] Dhanens (1980), 269 € 

270[144] Kemperdick (2006), 21 € 23

[145][145] Van der Elst (1944), 69

[146] Smith (2004), 104 € 107

[147][147] Kemperdick (2006), 23

[148][148] Kemperdick (2006), 26

[149][149] Kemperdick (2006), 24

[150][150] Kemperdick (2006), 25

[151] Borchert (2011), 277 € 283

[152][152] Kemperdick (2006), 21

[153][153] Kemperdick (2006), 21, 92

[154]  Awch behelt daz gemell dy gestalt der menschen nach jrem sterben See Rupprich, Hans (ed). "Dƒrer". Schriftlicher Nachlass, Volume 3.

Berlin, 1966. 9

[155][155] Dƒrer's father, a goldsmith, spent time as a journeyman in the Netherlands and met with, according to his son, "the great artists". Dƒrer

himself travelled there between 1520 and 1521 and visited Bruges, Ghent and Brussels among other places. See Borchert (2011), 83

[156][156] Smith (2004), 95

[157] Konrad Witz's Miraculous Draft of Fishes of 1444 is credited as the earliest extant faithful portrayal in European art history of a landscape

based on observation of real topographical features. See Borchert (2011), 58

[158][158] Harbison (1995), 134

[159][159] P‚cht (1999), 29

[160][160] P‚cht (1999), 187

[161][161] Ainsworth (1998b), 392

[162][162] Harbison (1995), 61

[163] Wood (1993), 42 € 47

[164][164] Wood (1993), 47

[165][165] Silver (1986), 27[166] Silver (1986), 26 € 36; Wood, 274 € 275

[167][167] Toman (2011), 317

[168][168] Christiansen (1998), 40

[169][169] Toman (2011), 198

[170] Deam (1998), 28 € 29

[171][171] Christiansen (1998), 53

[172][172] Nash (2008), 35

[173][173] Described by Panofsky as "the interior viewed through a triple arcade". See Panofsky (1969), 142

[174] Panofsky (1969), 142 € 3

[175][175] Christiansen (1998), 49

[176][176] Christiansen (1998), 58

[177] Christiansen (1998), 53 € 59

[178] analysed in Arnade, 146 (quoted); see also Art through time (http:/   /  www. learner. org/  courses/  globalart/  work/  155/  index.  html)

[179][179] Nash (2008), 15

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Early Netherlandish painting 32

[180] Van Vaernewijck (1905 € 6), 132

[181] Arnade, 133 € 148

[182][182] Freedberg, 133

[183][183] Nash (2008), 14

[184][184] Campbell (1998), 21

[185] Nash (2008), 16 € 17

[186][186] Nash (2008), 21

[187][187] Ainsworth (1998a), 36

[188][188] Nash (2008), 123

[189][189] Nash (2008), 44

[190][190] Nash (2008), 39

[191][191] Chapuis (1998), 8

[192][192] Typically pseudonyms are applied after common elements are established among a group of works. Art historians consider similarities of 

theme, style, iconography, biblical source and physical location before attributing work to an individual or workshop, then assign a generic

name.

[193] Nash (2008), 22 € 23

[194][194] Nash (2008), 24

[195] Smith (2004), 411 € 12

[196] The central panels of the Ghent Altarpiece, van Eyck's Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, and Memling's Morel Triptych

[197] Chapuis (1998), 4 € 

7[198] The Boisser•e collection was acquired in 1827, on the advice of Johann Georg von Dillis, to form part of the nucleus of the Alte

Pinakothek, Munich. See Ridderbos (2005), 86

[199][199] Ridderbos et al. (2005), viii

[200] Ridderbos et al. (2005), 219 € 224

[201] Smith (2004), 413 € 416

[202] Steegman, John (1950). Consort of Taste, excerpted in Frank Herrmann, The English as Collectors, 240; Queen Victoria donated the best

of them to the National Gallery after the Prince Consort's death.

[203] " Prince Albert and the Gallery (http:/   /  www. nationalgallery.  org.  uk/  collectors/  prince-albert-and-the-gallery)". National Gallery,

London. Retrieved 12 January 2014.

[204][204] Ridderbos et al. (2005), 203

[205] Campbell (1998), 13 € 14, 394

[206][206] Ridderbos et al. (2005), 5

[207] Chapuis (1998), 3 € 4

[208][208] Ridderbos et al. (2005), 284

[209][209] Ridderbos et al. (2005), 275

[210][210] Silver (1986), 518

[211][211] Holly (1985), 9

[212][212] Kren (2010), 177

[213][213] Campbell (2004), 74

[214] In the 1960s and 1970s Lotte Brand Philip and Elisabeth Dhanens built on Panofsky's work, and resolved many of the issues that Panofsky

had struggled with, especially in relation to identifying the sources of iconography, and attributing works of the early to mid-1400s.

[215] Buchholz, Sarah R. " A Picture Worth Many Thousand Words (http:/   /  www. umass. edu/  chronicle/  archives/  00/  04-14/  harbison28.

html)". Chronicle, University of Massachusetts, 14 April 2000. Retrieved 15 December 2012

[216][216] Chapuis (1998), 12

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External links

‡ Early Netherlandish Painting (http:/   /  www.metmuseum. org/  toah/  hd/  enet/  hd_enet. htm) at the Metropolitan

Museum of Art, New York.

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Article Sources and Contributors 36

Article Sources and ContributorsEarly Netherlandish painting  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=599163844 Contributors: (C4) su1c1de b0mber, Aa77zz, Abusepotential, Afrikaner, Amadalvarez,

Amandajm, AmericanLemming, Another Believer, Anthony Appleyard, Arjayay, Attilios, AxelBoldt, Ayesha23, Bencherlite, Bgwhite, Bjankuloski06en, Brianboulton, Brigade Piron,

Buffbills7701, CaroleHenson, Catfisheye, Ceoil, Chris the speller, ChrisGualtieri, Christian75, Closedmouth, David Warner, Dionaea muscipula, DocWatson42, Download, Edward,

EncycloPetey, EoGuy, Ewulp, Faradayplank, FinalRapture, FinnWiki, Fram, Gaius Cornelius, George Ponderevo, Gerda Arendt, Gidonb, Gilliam, GoingBatty, Ham, Heelmijnlevenlang, Hmains,

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Khazar2, Klemen Kocjancic, Kolbasz, Kot Pafnuty, Kulturtrager, LHOON, Labraun90, Lightlowemon, Lightmouse, LilHelpa, Llywelyn, Makeemlighter, Mandarax, Marcus Cyron,

Materialscientist, Mathiasrex, Mattis, Michael Devore, Michael Hardy, Mild Bill Hiccup, Modernist, Mogism, Mohamed CJ, Mr Stephen, Narayan, Olivier, Oursana, PKM, PKT, Petropoxy(Lithoderm Proxy), Philafrenzy, Pietdesomere, Piledhigheranddeeper, Pinfix, Planetary Chaos Redux, Prof saxx, RekishiEJ, Rholton, Riggr Mortis, Rjwilmsi, Romanbibwiss, Ruskinmonkey,

Sadads, Sailko, SchreiberBike, Sebastian Stadil, Shadetreader, Sluzzelin, SomeHuman, Sparkit, Speculoos, Spronkr, Srnec, Stijn Calle, Stomme, Str1977, Taarten, Techman224,

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Woohookitty, YUL89YYZ, Yomangani, ̂ ‰Š‹ŒŽ Ž, 104 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsImage:Van Eyck - Arnolfini Portrait.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Van_Eyck_-_Arnolfini_Portrait.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: 1Veertje,

Aavindraa, Arctic Kangaroo, Auntof6, Ayesha23, Eusebius, Hannu, Helms, Hystrix, Jarekt, Julia W, M0tty, P. S. Burton, Papa Lima Whiskey, Pitke, Richardguk, Shakko, Wolfmann, 10

anonymous edits

File:El Descendimiento, by Rogier van der Weyden, from Prado in Google Earth.jpg  Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:El_Descendimiento,_by_Rogier_van_der_Weyden,_from_Prado_in_Google_Earth.jpg  License: unknown Contributors: Bukk, CommonsDelinker,

Dcoetzee, Jean-Fr•d•ric, Oursana, Yann, 2 anonymous edits

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 Contributors: Auntof6, Ludmi‘a Pilecka, Oxxo

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File:The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch High Resolution.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights_by_Bosch_High_Resolution.jpg

  License: unknown Contributors: Adam Cuerden, Apalsola, AxelBoldt, Dcoetzee, Foundling, Hekerui, Jean-Fr•d•ric, Jujutacular, M0tty, Mattes, Wouterhagens, 3 anonymous edits

File:Meister des Marienlebens annunciation.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Meister_des_Marienlebens_annunciation.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors:

Shakko

file:Portrait of a Man by Jan van Eyck-small.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Portrait_of_a_Man_by_Jan_van_Eyck-small.jpg License: Public Domain

 Contributors: Aavindraa, Ecummenic, Ham, Jarekt, Leyo, Mel22, 2 anonymous edits

file:Rogier Lamp.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rogier_Lamp.jpg  License: Public Domain Contributors: A1000, Foroa, Jane023, Razr, Siebrand, Vincent

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File:Rogier van der Weyden Portrait of A lady C1460.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rogier_van_der_Weyden_Portrait_of_A_lady_C1460.jpg License: Public

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File:Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Hunters in the Snow (Winter) - Google Art Project.jpg   Source:

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NeverDoING, Onderwijsgek, Shakko, Smuconlaw, Vincent Steenberg

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File:Seguace di dirck bouts, dittico con mater dolorosa e cristo coronato di spine, 1450-1500 ca. 01.JPG  Source:

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Mattis, Sailko, Shakko, Stomme

7/22/2019 Early Netherlandish Painting

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Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 37

File:Frans Hogenberg Bildersturm 1566.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Frans_Hogenberg_Bildersturm_1566.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Blue

Tulip, Fb78, Richardprins, ZH2010, 1 anonymous edits

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Victoriaearle

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