Early Netherlandish painting flourished in the cities of Bruges, Ghent, Mechelen, Leuven, Tournai and Brussels, all in present-day Belgium. The period begins approximately with Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck in the 1420s and lasts at least until the death of Gerard David in 1523. The artists became an early driving force behind the Northern Renaissance and the move away from the Gothic style.
About Early Netherlandish painting in brief
Early Netherlandish painting flourished in the cities of Bruges, Ghent, Mechelen, Leuven, Tournai and Brussels, all in present-day Belgium. The period begins approximately with Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck in the 1420s and lasts at least until the death of Gerard David in 1523. The 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 complex portable or fixed altarpieces. The first generations of artists were active during the height of Burgundian influence in Europe, when the Low Countries became the political and economic centre of Northern Europe, noted for its crafts and luxury goods. A majority of the works were destroyed during waves of iconoclasm in the 16th and 17th centuries; today only a few thousand examples survive. 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. These artists became an early driving force behind the Northern Renaissance and the move away from the Gothic style.
In the early 20th century, the artists were variously referred to in English as the \”Ghent-Bruges school\” or the \”Old Netherlandish school\”. The Netherlandish artists have been known by a variety of terms including ‘Flemish Primitives’, ‘Late Gothic’ and ‘Netherlandish Gothic’ The term ‘N Netherlandish art’ is still in use today in Dutch and German, especially in the context of a new tradition in Dutch painting. In this context, the term ‘primitive’ does not refer to a perceived lack of sophistication but rather identifies the artists as originators of anew tradition in painting. According to Otto Pächt, the shift to a more cosmopolitan outlook took place between 1406 and 1406 when a simultaneous shift in art took place with the French revolution. When a lavish French court attached artists to the French court, they became attached to the lavish French style of music such as Guillaume Dufayes, Binis Binis and Gilles Gilles Binis, who were favoured by the Burgundy court. The French court favoured these artists over the Dutch court artists who were attached to lavish French music. The Dutch court favoured the French artists over those of the Burgundians, who favoured the composers of the French Renaissance. The shift to French style began when a French court attach artists to French composers like Guillailla Dufyes, binis Binas, Guillaillou Gilles, Gilles Dufeyes and Guillaumes Dufoyes.
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This page is based on the article Early Netherlandish painting published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 19, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
