Early Netherlandish Art

by

Bret Rothstein

• LAST REVIEWED: 04 July 2015
• LAST MODIFIED: 29 October 2013
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195399301-0225

Introduction

The term “early Netherlandish art” here refers to objects produced, and to a considerable extent consumed, between roughly 1380 and 1520 in the Low Countries, an area that encompasses modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands. This region underwent a number of seismic cultural shifts during the “long 15th century,” including the birth of modern banking, the rise of regional and linguistic identity, the growth of a middle class, and fundamental changes in vernacular religious practice. Part and parcel of these changes was a remarkable efflorescence of visual expression motivated by shifts in economic and political identity and fuelled by the readily available capital, both owned and loaned. The historical result is a visual culture that demonstrates remarkable complexity. Visual piety, for instance, betrays significant evidence of vernacular literacy (propelled by the printing press), its objects requiring responses that are both emotionally charged and thoughtful, at times even erudite. Far from simply a mechanism to extract tears from a credulous populace, religious imagery became an ever more refined and idiosyncratic tool for self-reform. Political expression seems to have become similarly complex, with civic identity becoming ever more important as conflicts between cities and their noble rulers became increasingly common. Thus, while in some ways visual expression represented a continuation of earlier practices, this efflorescence in the visual arts presented opportunities for the enterprising artist to transform how people conceived of art in the first place. It should come as no surprise, then, that artists who commanded high prices and enjoyed a large body of quite competitive patrons—including Jan van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, the Limbourg brothers, Gerard Loyet, Claus Sluter, and Rogier van der Weyden—were both able and willing to pursue quite striking and, at times, boldly self-conscious sorts of innovation. Indeed, it is hardly surprising that such innovation should occur, given both the expansion of the market for art and the kinds of discernment that governed it.

General Overviews

The majority of scholarship on this subject has tended to favor panel painting (e.g., Snyder 2005), usually to the exclusion of other media. In truth, tapestries, manuscripts, and metalwork outstripped their more familiar counterparts with respect to monetary value and social status. Nonetheless, readers will be hard-pressed to find a proper representation of this outside a few sources, especially Smith 2004 and, to a lesser extent, Harbison 1995 and Nash 2008. Huizinga 1996, Prevenier and Blockmans 1986, and Van Uytven 1998 all provide excellent insight into visual and material culture, though none is an art historical study in the strictest sense of the term.

• Harbison, Craig. The Mirror of the Artist: Northern Renaissance Art in its Historical Context. New York: Prentice Hall, 1995.

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  An accessible, if brief, social history of how images circulated in 15th- and 16th-century northern Europe, with an accent on the Low Countries and, to a lesser extent, Germany. Organized thematically rather than chronologically or by medium. Published in the UK as The Art of the Northern Renaissance (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995).

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• Huizinga, Johan. The Autumn of the Middle Ages. Translated by Rodney J. Payton and Ulrich Mammitzsch. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

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  Though old (the original dates from 1919), this text still offers astute observations about the Netherlandish life of the senses. This translation has problems, but it provides Huizinga’s text in full. An earlier version, The Waning of the Middle Ages (1924), is less stilted, but it offers only an abridged text.

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• Nash, Susie. Northern Renaissance Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

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  A well-illustrated account of art from the later 14th through mid-16th centuries in northern Europe. Particularly strong on the production and circulation of painting, sculpture, and prints.

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• Prevenier, Walter, and Wim Blockmans, The Burgundian Netherlands. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

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  Primarily a social history, this book provides invaluable historical background for anyone interested in visual culture of the day. Beautifully illustrated, including a number of images rarely seen elsewhere, and with some attention to the intellectual, political, and religious place of images.

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• Smith, Jeffrey Chipps. The Northern Renaissance. London: Phaidon, 2004.

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  A rich and subtle account of visual culture in northern Europe more generally. Avoids undue emphasis on painting as well as excessive attention to the Low Countries while still attending nicely to both. Organized in a largely thematic manner; offers an especially sophisticated narrative of the topic.

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• Snyder, James. Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575. Edited by Larry Silver and Henry Luttikhuizen. Rev. ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005.

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  A broad survey of arts in northern Europe, as befits a textbook. Though the revision marks a significant improvement on the original, this book still emphasizes panel painting, dedicating whole chapters to specific artists, treating manuscript illumination as easel painting in the making, and confining other media to secondary roles.

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• van Uytven, Raymond. De zinnelijke middeleeuwen. 2d ed. Leuven, Belgium: Davidsfonds, 1998.

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  A social history of sense perception in the medieval and early modern Low Countries. Subdivided by objects of attention, including wine, women, clothing, food, odor, and music.

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Museum Collection Catalogues

Most catalogues on early Netherlandish art emphasize specific media. Campbell 1998; Hand and Wolff 1986; Sander 1993; and van Os, et al. 2000 provide excellent accounts of panel painting. For other media, Alexander, et al. 2005; Buck 2001; and Ritsema van Eck 1999 are particularly rich resources. Readers should also consult Rapp Buri and Stucky-Schürer 2001 (cited under Textiles) and van Beuningen, et al. 1993–2001 (cited under Metalwork).

• Alexander, Jonathan J. G., James H. Marrow, and Lucy Freeman Sandler. The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at the New York Public Library. New York: New York Public Library, 2005.

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  Though it attends to a fraction of the library’s holdings (one hundred manuscripts), this volume provides an excellent point of entry for one of the strongest collections of medieval and Renaissance books in the United States. Includes extensive bibliography.

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• Bousmanne, Bernard, Céline van Hoorebeeck, Frédérique Johan, and Tania van Hemelryck. La Librarie des ducs de Bourgogne: Manuscrits conservés à la bibliothèque royale de Belgique. 4 vols. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2000–2009.

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  The definitive survey of the Royal Library of Belgium’s rich collection of Burgundian manuscripts. The volumes are organized according to genre: Volume 1 covers liturgical and other religious works, Volume 2 didactic texts, Volume 3 literary works, and Volume 4 historical texts.

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• Buck, Stephanie. Die niederländischen Zeichnungen des 15. Jahrhunderts im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett: Kritischer Katalog. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2001.

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  Surveys an immensely important collection of drawings. The introductory essay is clear and concise; the catalogue entries are thorough and measured.

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• Campbell, Lorne. The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools. London: National Gallery Publications, 1998.

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  A treasure trove of information concerning this extraordinary collection, including its history. The catalogue is organized by subject, with religious images contrasted with portraiture and other “profane” subjects.

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• Hand, John Oliver, and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1986.

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  A solid account of one of the strongest collections in North America. Discussions of material condition and provenance are particularly useful.

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• Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. The Flemish Primitives: Catalogue of Early Netherlandish Painting: Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. 6 vols. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1996–2013.

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  A well-illustrated survey of paintings held in Belgian collections. Organized by artist rather than collection, these volumes attend most closely to attribution, iconography, and technical analysis.

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• Ritsema van Eck, Pieter C. Gebrandschilderde ruitjes uit de Nederlanden, 1480–1560/Painted Glass Roundels from the Netherlands, 1480–1560. Translated by Lysbeth Croiset van Uchelen and Peter Thomson. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1999.

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  A well-illustrated survey of some of the Rijksmuseum’s finest examples of later 15th- and 16th-century painted glass.

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• Sander, Jochen. Niederländische Gemälde im Städel, 1400–1550. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 1993.

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  Includes essays on the history of the Frankfurt collection and on Johann David Passavant, an early and important curator there. The quite thorough catalogue groups the collection’s contents by artist.

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• van Os, Henk, Jan Piet Filedt Kok, Get Luijten, and Frits Scholten. Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum. Vol. 1, 1400–1600. Zwolle, The Netherlands: Waanders, 2000.

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  A thorough account of the museum’s holdings. Readers should supplement this catalogue with more recent entries on the museum’s website, however, as a wealth of additional information has been made available there.

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• Vlaamse Primitieven/Primitifs Flamands series. Brussels: National Center for the Study of the Flemish Primitives, 1957–1981.

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  One of the longest-running and most important studies of early Netherlandish painting; subdivided by museum. (The Belgian publisher Brepols has been publishing a continuation of the series since 1981.) Entries emphasize iconography and the material condition of objects, though patronage also receives attention.

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Primary Sources

The subject at hand predates the rise of criticism and theory as discrete practices, so the bulk of documentation prior to the 17th century comes in the form of contracts, inventories, or asides in the letters and diaries of visitors. The most reliable transcriptions of such material generally appear in specialized secondary sources, such as biographical studies and catalogues. Van Mander 1994–1999 is the largest and most valuable local source available, though one penned long after the period in question.

• van Mander, Karel. The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters, from the First Edition of the Schilder-Boeck, 1603–1604. Edited by Hessel Miedema. 6 vols. Doornspijk, The Netherlands: Davaco, 1994–1999.

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  Facsimile with English translation and introduction by Hessel Miedema. The translator’s commentary (Vols. 4–5) is an education in its own right. Readers should also consult Melion 1991 (cited under Historiography and Reception History).

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Historiography and Reception History

The critical fortunes of early Netherlandish art have waxed and waned at least partly because, absent any evidence of an accompanying theoretical apparatus as found elsewhere in Europe at the time, that art has found itself vulnerable to the epithet “primitive.” Unsurprisingly, the earliest systematic discussion of Netherlandish traditions (van Mander 1994–1999, cited under Primary Sources) was motivated at least partly by a desire to demonstrate the sophistication of local pictorial practice. Melion 1991 provides an excellent account of that desire. Sulzberger 1961 and, in more abbreviated form, Deam 1998, Haskell 1993, and Wolfthal 2003 all provide valuable information about the 19th-century revival of interest in early Netherlandish art, particularly painting, and its political and social ramifications. Schade 1996 offers an exhaustive study of the Andachtsbild, or devotional image; Holly 1984 discusses the intellectual foundations of early 20th-century art historical practice as it pertained to Erwin Panofsky, a towering figure in the study of early Netherlandish art.

• Deam, Lisa. “Flemish versus Netherlandish: A Discourse of Nationalism.” Renaissance Quarterly 51.1 (Spring 1998): 1–33.

  DOI: 10.2307/2901661Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

  Maps discourses of national identity that governed the movement of several important paintings in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. Offers a sensitive account of linguistic and regional identity.

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• Haskell, Francis. History and Its Images: Art and the Interpretation of the Past. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993.

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  Discusses the historical uses of imagery. Includes one very important chapter on the revival of scholarly interest in early Netherlandish painting from the 19th century onward, with particular emphasis on questions of what constituted “medieval” versus “Renaissance.”

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• Holly, Michael Ann. Panofsky and the Foundations of Art History. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984.

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  Though concerned with the roots of art history more generally, this book sheds light on an important proponent of iconology and his relationship to other figures in early 20th-century scholarship. Includes specific attention to Panofsky 1953 (cited under Image and Fact).

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• Melion, Walter S. Shaping the Netherlandish Canon: Karel van Mander’s Schilder-Boeck. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

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  Required reading for the study of early modern Netherlandish visual culture. Attends closely to the ideas that underpinned van Mander’s historical project and, in the process, governed his discussion of earlier artists.

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• Schade, Karl. Andachtsbild: Die Geschichte eines kunsthistorischen Begriffs. Weimar, Germany: Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaft, 1996.

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  Traces the concept of the “devotional image,” from the 15th century through the later 20th century. The chapter on Panofsky is of particular importance for scholars of early Netherlandish art.

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• Sulzberger, Suzanne. La réhabilitation des primitifs flamands, 1802–1867. 2 vols. Brussels: Académie Royale de Belgique, 1961.

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  An important early study of 19th-century interest in early Netherlandish painting. Locates the origin of this “rehabilitation” in the work of Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, who declared work by van Eyck, his contemporaries, and their immediate followers “altdeutsch” (early German).

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• van Biervliet, Lori. Leven en werk van W. H. James Weale: Een Engels kunsthistoricus in Vlaanderen in de 19de eeuw. Brussels: AWLSK, 1991.

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  A thorough study of Weale, whose published primary sources continue to undergird much of the literature on early Netherlandish painting; also discusses the intellectual network in which he operated.

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• Wolfthal, Diane. “From Margarethe van Eyck to Agnes van den Bossche: Writing of the Early Netherlandish Female Painters.” In Essays on Women Artists: “The Most Excellent,” Vol. 1. Edited by Liana Cheney, 19–40. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2003.

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  An overview of the literature on women artists in the early modern Low Countries, with particular attention to the methodological questions raised by vanden Bossche.

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Technical Analysis

Few fields have been so affected by the practices of technical analysis and restoration as technical analysis. (Few have benefitted so much from them, too.) Consequently, the literature on this topic is quite substantial, and it tends toward specialization, frequently involving case studies larded with specialized terminology. Faries and Spronk 2003 and Spronk 1996 provide excellent entrées for the nonspecialist, as well as extensive bibliography for further investigation.

• Billinge, Rachel, Lorne Campbell, Jill Dunkerton, et al. “Materials and Methods of Northern European Painting in the National Gallery, 1400–1550.” National Gallery Technical Bulletin 18 (1997): 6–55.

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  An excellent overview of working methods, materials, contemporaneous descriptions of workshops, and the like. Includes valuable discussion of frames, grounds, etc. This volume of the Technical Bulletin deals specifically with northern European art of the 15th and 16th centuries, so readers may also wish to consult the other essays in it.

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• Faries, Molly, and Ron Spronk, eds. Recent Developments in the Technical Examination of Early Netherlandish Painting: Methodology, Limitations and Perspectives. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 2003.

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  A collection of studies that demonstrate the state of technical examination as a field. The broader, reflective essays by Faries, Spronk, and Ainsworth will likely be of particular utility for scholars new to this topic.

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• Spronk, Ron. More than Meets the Eye: An Introduction to Technical Examination of Early Netherlandish Paintings at the Fogg Art Museum. Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin 5.1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 1996.

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  Rigorous, concise, and well-illustrated. Placing the making and conservation of paintings in dialogue, the author provides an excellent introduction to both contemporary lab work and 15th-century painting technique.

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Media

Historically, the study of early Netherlandish art has tended to subdivide by medium. Recently, however, this has begun to change, as the field attracts an increasing number of scholars interested in broader issues of intellectual, political, religious, and social history.

Markets for Art

Insofar as extant sources speak to a culture too busy making objects to pontificate about them verbally, studies of the market speak most explicitly to the value and circulation of objects, as well as to the social and economic status of their buyers. Campbell 1976 provides a concise overview of commissions, while Ewing 1990 and Wilson 1983 shed important light on the sale of work made “on spec.” Martens 1992 and Smith 1979 are models of in-depth, highly localized study and remain standard works on patronage. Prak, et al. 2006 provides a broad view of the social and economic life of guilds in the Netherlands, while North and Ormrod 1998 takes a view that is both geographically and temporally more expansive. Van Uytven 1992 surveys arguments about the economic motives that fueled the art market and offers an important hypothesis about art as social capital.

• Campbell, Lorne. “The Art Market in the Southern Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century.” Burlington Magazine 118.877 (April 1976): 188–198.

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  Though brief, this essay remains one of the best starting points for any study of the early Netherlandish art market. Includes extensive documentary sources as well as incisive observations about patronage outside the courts.

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• Ewing, Dan. “Marketing Art in Antwerp, 1460–1560: Our Lady’s Pand.” Art Bulletin 72.4 (1990): 558–584.

  DOI: 10.2307/3045762Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

  An introduction to a large and important art market. Working from extensive archival sources, the author not only maps the contours of the Pand itself but also charts that institution’s declining fortunes as a result of changes to both the economy and the art market in the southern Low Countries.

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• Martens, Maximiliaan P. J. “Artistic Patronage in Bruges Institutions, ca. 1440–1482.” PhD diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1992.

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  Based in extensive archival research. Though quite localized, this remains a model for the study of patronage in the Low Countries. Attention to civic structures also allows it to provide an interesting counterpart to Smith 1979.

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• North, Michael, and David Ormrod, eds. Art Markets in Europe, 1400–1800. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1998.

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  A series of essays on early modern art markets. The essays by Wim Blockmans and Maximiliaan Martens—on manuscript acquisition and on the Bruges art market, respectively—will be most useful.

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• Prak, Maarten, Catharina Lis, Jan Lucassen, and Hugo Soly, eds. Craft Guilds in the Early Modern Low Countries: Work, Power and Representation. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006.

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  A group of essays concerning craft guilds in the Netherlands. Especially strong with respect to economic and social history. Includes extensive bibliography.

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• Smith, Jeffrey Chipps. “The Artistic Patronage of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, 1419–1467.” PhD diss., Columbia University, 1979.

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  A thorough and insightful study of ducal patronage. Contrasts usefully with the findings of Martens 1992.

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• van Uytven, Raymond. “Splendour or Wealth: Art and Economy in the Burgundian Netherlands.” Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 10 (1992): 101–124.

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  An incisive study of the gross conspicuous consumption that drove the art market of the 15th-century Low Countries. Includes earlier bibliography on this disputed topic.

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• Wilson, J. C. “The Participation of Painters in the Bruges ‘Pandt’ Market.” Burlington Magazine 125.965 (August 1983): 476–479.

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  A brief but informative overview of the Bruges Pand. As Ewing 1990 does for Antwerp, so this study also charts the fortunes of its subject over the course of the 15th and early 16th centuries.

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Image and Fact

The relationship between visual experience and naturalistic depiction has been a long-standing preoccupation among scholars of early Netherlandish painting. At the heart of the matter lie questions about how the putatively documentary functions of pictorial naturalism relate to religious function, especially where symbolism is at issue. With respect to naturalism as a kind of goal, see Panofsky 1934 and Panofsky 1953 and, in its own way, Bedaux 1986. Essays by Reindert Falkenburg and Peter Parshall in Ainsworth 2001 revisit the question in quite useful ways, echoing a number of ideas first articulated in Marrow 1986. Rothstein 2005 (cited under Painting) argues that early Netherlandish naturalism was less a function of the desire to record optical experience than an investigation of epistemological doubt. Schlie 2002 (cited under Visual Piety) ascribes a sacramental function to it. Parshall 1993 is an indispensable study of discourses of image as reportage in early modern northern Europe.

• Ainsworth, Maryan W., ed. Early Netherlandish Painting at the Crossroads: A Critical Look at Current Methodologies. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.

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  Though dedicated primarily to well-established methods, this volume offers an important survey both of those methods and of the literature on them at the time of publication.

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• Bedaux, Jan Baptist. “The Reality of Symbols: The Question of Disguised Symbolism in Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait.” Simiolus 16.1 (1986): 5–28.

  DOI: 10.2307/3780611Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

  An attempt at refuting iconographical approaches to van Eyck’s London double portrait and, by association, early Netherlandish painting more generally. The author is particularly exercised by the notion of “disguised symbolism,” namely, the idea that painting strove to cloak metaphorical content in meticulous, almost documentary naturalism.

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• Marrow, James H. “Symbol and Meaning in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance.” Simiolus 16.2–3 (1986): 150–169.

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  An incisive review of Panofskian iconography and its various limitations, especially its tendency to approach verbal sources as determinants of visual form. Argues instead that scholars should approach early Netherlandish (and some German) imagery as highly specific and visual prompts to self-reflection, rather than vehicles for conveying textual information.

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• Panofsky, Erwin. “Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait.” Burlington Magazine 64.372 (March 1934): 117–119.

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  An early and particularly concise formulation of the iconographical approach to early Netherlandish painting, which the author went on to advance in subtler but more ambitious ways in Panofsky 1953 Continues on pp. 122–127.

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• Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953.

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  An ambitious study linking stylistic analysis with often subtle iconographical readings. Unsurprisingly, this text now shows its age, particularly in the author’s tendency to treat paintings as repositories for textual information. Nonetheless, this book transformed the study of art from the 15th-century Low Countries, and there is still much of value in it.

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• Parshall, Peter. “Imago Contrafacta: Images and Facts in the Northern Renaissance.” Art History 16.4 (December 1993): 554–579.

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  A crisp and lucid survey of ideas about the relationship between image and referent throughout northern Europe. Particularly useful for its approach to the rather slippery nature of that relationship as articulated in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance.

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Portraiture

While scholars have yet to account fully for the appearance of so new and peculiar a phenomenon as the portrait, there remains much of value in the literature. Van der Velden 2000 (cited under Metalwork) and Dülberg 1990 both address aspects of the portrait’s social and political functions; the latter also addresses some of the genre’s more intriguing interpretive challenges. Bauman 1986 remains the best overview of Netherlandish images in general, while Campbell 1990 and Campbell, et al. 2008 treat the topic within a survey of European portraiture more generally.

• Bauman, Guy. Special Issue: Early Flemish Portraits 1425–1525. Art Bulletin 43.4 (Spring 1986).

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  An excellent overview of the topic. Emphasizes genres—group portraits, individuals, donor portraits, etc.—and iconographical details, rather than social history.

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• Campbell, Lorne. Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait Painting in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.

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  A broad survey of European portraiture in the 15th and 16th centuries. Organized by types (single sitters, group portraits, etc.) and formal attributes (clothing, posture, etc.).

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• Campbell, Lorne, Miguel Falomir, Jennifer Fletcher, and Luke Syson. Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian. London: National Gallery of Art, 2008.

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  Offers another broad survey of types. Also includes four essays on the cultural and technical aspects of Renaissance portraiture.

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• Dülberg, Angelica. Privatporträts: Geschichte und Ikonologie einer Gattung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Mann, 1990.

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  A broad, sophisticated discussion of portraiture as a peculiar artistic and cultural phenomenon. The author employs documents, iconography, and physical format to demonstrate that her subject served not merely as static ornament but as almost an active participant in daily life.

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Visual Piety

The profusion of religious imagery in the early modern Low Countries is remarkable enough from the standpoints of theology and economic history. No less important, though, is the way this profusion inflected religious thought and practice itself. Attempts to come to grips with the matter began in earnest with Panofsky 1953 (cited under Image and Fact), though in a manner that tended to treat images as repositories for textual information. Ringbom 1984 and Lane 1984 represent later iconographical work at its best, though the method’s limitations cannot be denied there. More recently, attention has turned toward the image as a dynamic component of religious refinement, though it should be noted that Marrow 1979 is an early foray into this line of inquiry. On this point, see, among others, Rothstein 2005 (cited under Painting), Acres 2013, Falkenburg 1994, Falkenburg 2011, Merback 1999, Schlie 2002, and Veelenturf 2000. Lentes 2004–2011 contains essays employing a range of methods and thus providing quite diverse findings. With respect to how one categorizes a given religious image, see also Schade 1996 (cited under Historiography and Reception History).

• Acres, Alfred J. Renaissance Invention and the Haunted Infancy. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2013.

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  Though it ranges beyond the 15th-century Low Countries, this book is nonetheless important for the study of Netherlandish art. Of particular importance is its attention to the religious utility of allusion and to related matters of figuration within the visual arts.

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• Falkenburg, Reindert L. The Fruit of Devotion: Mysticism and the Imagery of Love in Flemish Paintings of the Virgin and Child, 1450–1550. Translated by Sammy Herman. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1994.

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  Discusses how early Netherlandish religious paintings appealed to multiple senses, not simply vision. Drawing on extensive primary sources as well as close visual analysis, the author argues that observation of such pictures was designed to activate a panaesthetic experience with distinct metaphorical and anagogical implications.

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• Falkenburg, Reindert. The Land of Unlikeness: Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights. Zwolle, The Netherlands: W Books, 2011.

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  Though nominally about a single painting by a single (admittedly important) artist, this book is ultimately about Netherlandish imagery as a form of, and prompt to, argument.

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• Lane, Barbara G. The Altar and the Altarpiece: Sacramental Themes in Early Netherlandish Painting. New York: Harper & Row, 1984.

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  An exhaustive iconographical study. Contrasts interestingly with Schlie 2002.

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• Lentes, Thomas, ed. Kultbild: Visualität und Religion in der Vormoderne. 4 vols. Berlin: Reimer, 2004–2011.

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  Collected essays on four important topics: sight and sacral character (Volume 1), the Mass of St. Gregory (Volume 2), cult images in the time of the Reformation (Volume 3), image theory and use (Volume 4). The material in Vols. 1, 2, and 4 address early Netherlandish art most directly.

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• Marrow, James H. Passion Iconography in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance: A Study of the Transformation of Sacred Metaphor into Descriptive Narrative. Kortrijk, Belgium: Van Ghemmert, 1979.

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  A meticulous study of the narratives and component motifs that comprised this crucial pictorial genre. Especially strong on the relationships between verbal and pictorial sources.

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• Merback, Mitchell B. The Thief, the Cross, and the Wheel: Pain and the Spectacle of Punishment in Medieval and Renaissance Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

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  A sophisticated analysis of pain as cultural currency. Treats suffering as a lens through which societies refracted topics critical to their constitution.

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• Ringbom, Sixten. Icon to Narrative: The Rise of the Dramatic Close-Up in Fifteenth-Century Devotional Painting. 2d ed. Doornspijk, The Netherlands: Davaco, 1984.

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  An important early study of half-length religious subjects. While some of the author’s conclusions have come into question, the text remains an excellent point of entry to the topic. Usefully, the author declines to reinforce artificial geographical distinctions, noting instead a broadly shared set of Continental interests.

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• Schlie, Heike. Bilder des Corpus Christi: Sakramentaler Realismus von Jan van Eyck bis Hieronymus Bosch. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 2002.

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  A discussion of the religious utility of pictorial style. Eschewing complex symbolic readings, the author offers an iconology of naturalism. An important counterpart to Lane 1984.

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• Veelenturf, Kees, ed. Geen povere schoonheid: Laat-middeleeuwse kunst in verband met de Moderne Devotie. Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Valkhof, 2000.

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  A collection of essays on the links between a particularly important religious movement, the Modern Devotion, and various art forms, including architecture, pilgrimage keepsakes, manuscript illumination, music, panel painting, and theater.

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Social Position in the City and At Court

As Huizinga 1996 (cited under General Overviews) rightly noted, the 15th-century Low Countries were characterized by a muscular and complex life of the senses, from political theater to the plastic arts. What Huizinga did not recognize, however, was that this life was in fact supremely pragmatic and reflective, particularly where people capitalized on it to articulate social and political positions. (Indeed, in his account, the intensity of that life sometimes comes across as almost psychotic.) Fortunately, later scholarship has done much to rectify the situation. Buettner 2001; Damen 2007; Fliegel 2004; Martens 1992; Marti, et al. 2009; and Maurice-Chabard 1999 treat the circulation of objects in courtly milieux. Weigert 2008, by contrast, inverts this, treating of the circulation of courtly life among objects. Stroo 2002 addresses questions of propaganda and broader discourses of power, while Vandenbroeck 1987 sheds important light on class conflict and anxiety. Interest readers should also consult Merback 1999 (cited under Visual Piety). Van der Velden 2000 (cited under Metalwork) discusses the politics of lavish and highly public religious donations, while Willemsen 2008 (also in Willemsen 1998, cited under Metalwork) offers several important observations about the cultural history of childhood.

• Buettner, Brigitte. “Past Presents: New Year’s Gifts at the Valois Courts, ca. 1400.” Art Bulletin 83.4 (December 2001): 598–625.

  DOI: 10.2307/3177225Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

  A fascinating study of objects as social currency in the Valois and, to a lesser extent, Burgundian courts. The author’s attention to putatively minor arts (metalwork, tapestry, and the like) is also welcome. Contrasts interestingly with Damen 2007, which is concerned less with objects than with politics.

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• Damen, Mario. “Gift Exchange at the Court of Charles the Bold.” In In but not of the Market: Movable Goods in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Economy. Edited by Marc Boone and Martha Howell, 81–100. Brussels: Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten, 2007.

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  A case study of gift exchange in the Burgundian court ca. 1468. Provides important information about both the relative values accorded various media and the intricate social codes that govern the circulation of objects in this rarefied environment. Complements Buettner 2001.

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• Fliegel, Stephen N., Sophie Jugie, Virginie Barthélémy, et al. Art from the Court of Burgundy: The Patronage of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless, 1364–1419. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2004.

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  This catalogue for a joint French-American exhibition from 2004–2005 boasts terrific images of a broad array of objects, including manuscripts, tapestries, and metalwork. The essays are generally good, but those on architecture are particularly welcome.

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• Martens, Maximiliaan P. J. Lodewijk van Gruuthuse: Mecenas en Europees diplomaat, ca. 1427–1492. Bruges, Belgium: Stichting Kunstboek, 1992.

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  The catalogue for a 1992 exhibition dedicated to one prominent member of the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece. Essay topics include a biographical survey, heraldry and other courtly signs, and Gruuthuse’s library.

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• Marti, Susan, Till-Holger Borchert, and Gabriele Keck, eds. Charles the Bold (1433–1477): Splendour of Burgundy. Brussels: Mercatorfonds, 2009.

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  The beautifully illustrated catalogue from a 2008–2009 exhibition. Several brief but useful essays address the political and social use of objects in a courtly context.

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• Maurice-Chabard, Brigitte, ed. La splendeur des Rolin: Un mécénat privé à la Cour de Bourgogne. Paris: Picard, 1999.

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  A collection of essays on Nicolas Rolin, who effectively ran the Burgundian court for nearly three decades in the 15th century, and his family. Organized in three main parts: the first pertains to biography and the like, the second to architectural projects, and the third to other arts.

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• Stroo, Cyriel. De Celebratie van de macht: Presentatieminiaturen en aanverwante voorstellingen in handschriften van Filips de Goede (1419–1467) en Karel de Stoute (1467–1477). Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 2002.

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  Examines the discourses of political power in manuscripts and their ornamentation at the 15th-century Burgundian court. Heraldic emblems and the like figure at least as prominently as presentation miniatures.

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• Vandenbroeck, Paul. Beeld van de andere: Vertoog over het zelf; Over wilden en narren, boeren en bedelaars. Antwerp: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 1987.

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  Though oriented largely toward 16th-century material, this is perhaps the most successful of Vandenbroeck’s attempts to trace a history of class conflict in visual culture of the early modern Low Countries. His discussion of disreputable subjects as “negative self-definition” on the part of patrons is especially important.

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• Weigert, Laura. “Chambres d’Amour: Tapestries of Love and the Texturing of Space.” Oxford Art Journal 31.3 (2008): 317–336.

  DOI: 10.1093/oxartj/kcn030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

  Discusses the social and intellectual use of tapestries in French and Burgundian courts. Particularly strong concerning recurrent motifs and the ways these framed the viewer’s movement through space and society.

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• Willemsen, Annemarieke. Back to the Schoolyard: The Daily Practice of Medieval and Renaissance Education. Studies in European Urban History (1100–1800) 15. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2008.

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  Though perhaps more of a historical study than a strictly art historical one, this book nonetheless sheds invaluable light on the material and visual cultures of education. The Low Countries figure especially prominently in the author’s analysis.

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Gender

Though ultimately part and parcel civic and courtly identity, gender has in the early 21st century not only attracted increased attention but also propelled the development of new art historical methodologies. Thus, while relegating it to a dedicated section has questionable implications, it does reflect an important and continuing change in the state of the field. Pearson 2008 provides an excellent overview of the situation. Eichberger 2005 and Pearson 2005 address the use of images to negotiate gender politics in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Wolfthal 1999 and Wolfthal 2010 address broader discourses of sexual difference and gender roles.

• Eichberger, Dagmar, ed. Women of Distinction: Margaret of York, Margaret of Austria. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2005.

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  This exhibition catalogue includes several important essays on the visual cultures of gender in the Burgundian court. The bibliography is excellent as well.

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• Pearson, Andrea G. Envisioning Gender in Burgundian Devotional art, 1350–1530: Experience, Authority, Resistance. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005.

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  A study of art and its relationship to contested power in the early modern Low Countries. Especially valuable for its move beyond iconography toward the social history of subjects and formats.

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• Pearson, Andrea. “Introduction: Portraiture’s Selves.” In Women and Portraits in Early Modern Europe: Gender, Agency, Identity. Edited by Andrea Pearson, 1–13. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2008.

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  A clear and concise discussion of the methodological issues raised by the study of gender in early modern European art.

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• Wolfthal, Diane. Images of Rape: The “Heroic” Tradition and Its Alternatives. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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  Examines the visual culture of sexual violence in early modern Europe. Combines iconographical work with broader analyses of underlying cultural patterns.

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• Wolfthal, Diane. In and Out of the Marital Bed: Seeing Sex in Renaissance Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

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  A broad overview of conjugal themes in early modern art; includes important discussions of Netherlandish topics. Organized thematically.

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Cultural Exchange

The vast majority of material on this topic frames it as essentially binary: Italy and its interactions with everything else (generally tagged as “the north”). Some work, such as Alexander-Skipnes 2007; Nuttall 2004; and Schmidt, et al. 1999, tries to render that particular flow of goods and styles more specific; some, such as Belozerskaya 2002, takes a broader Continental view. Bindman, et al. 2010 engages with questions of race as well as religious identity. Borchert 2002 provides some useful information about markets for art north and south of the Alps.

• Alexander-Skipnes, Ingrid, ed. Cultural Exchange between the Low Countries and Italy 1400–1600. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007.

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  Addresses a range of topics. The essays pertaining to the circulation of objects are especially stimulating.

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• Belozerskaya, Marina. Rethinking the Renaissance: Burgundian Arts across Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

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  Surveys the movement of Burgundian objects throughout Europe. Attends especially closely to tapestries, manuscripts, and the like.

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• Bindman, David, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. The Image of the Black in Western Art. Vol. 2, Part 1, From the Early Christian Era to the “Age of Discovery.” Rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.

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  Provides some modest discussion of racial difference in early Netherlandish painting, with particular attention to Burgundian territorial and religious ambitions.

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• Borchert, Till-Holger. Age of Van Eyck: The Mediterranean World and Early Netherlandish Painting, 1430–1530. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002.

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  Aimed at a general audience, the essays in this companion to a 2002 exhibition survey some of the basic issues at stake in the study of early Netherlandish painting. The comparative study of art markets and an essay on the historiography of a landmark 1902 exhibition are particularly useful.

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• Nuttall, Paula. From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400–1500. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.

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  A synthetic account of how painters working or trained in Florence responded to transalpine models. Builds on both primary texts and extensive visual analysis.

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• Schmidt, Victor M., ed. Italy and the Low Countries: Artistic Relations: The Fifteenth Century; Proceedings of the Symposium held at Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, 14 March 1994. Translated by Nicholas Devons, Derick Dreher, and Mark Roberts. Florence: Centro Di, 1999.

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  A collection of short essays, mostly on painting. Some attention to tapestries as well.

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Artists

Smaller studies abound, dealing with artists both prominent and obscure. A few of the more common names appear here. With respect to metalwork, while Gerard Loyet does not receive separate attention here, readers may consult Van der Velden 2000 (cited under Metalwork) for more information.