Gershenzon-Chegodaeva N. Netherlandish portrait of the 15th century. Its origins and destiny. Series: From the history of world art. M. Art 1972 198 p. ill. Hardcover publishing, encyclopedic format.
Gershenzon-Chegodaeva N.M. Netherlandish portrait of the 15th century. Its origins and destiny.
The Dutch Renaissance is perhaps even more striking than the Italian - at least in terms of painting. Van Eyck, Brueghel, Bosch, later Rembrandt... The names, of course, left a deep imprint in the hearts of people who saw their paintings, regardless of whether you feel admiration for them, as before "Hunters in the Snow", or rejection, as before "The Garden of Earthly Delights" The harsh, dark tones of the Dutch masters differ from the creations of Giotto, Raphael and Michelangelo filled with light and joy. One can only guess how the specificity of this school was formed, why it was there, to the north of the prosperous Flanders and Brabant, that a powerful center of culture arose. About this - let's keep quiet. Let's look at the specifics, at what we have. Our source is the paintings and altars of the famous creators of the Northern Renaissance, and this material requires a special approach. In principle, this should be done at the intersection of cultural studies, art criticism and history.
A similar attempt was made by Natalia Gershenzon-Chegodaeva (1907-1977), the daughter of the most famous literary critic in our country. In principle, she is a rather well-known person, in her circles, first of all, with an excellent biography of Pieter Brueghel (1983), the above work also belongs to her pen. To be honest, this is a clear attempt to go beyond the limits of classical art criticism - not just to talk about artistic styles and aesthetics, but - to try to trace the evolution of human thought through them ...
What are the features of images of a person in an earlier time? There were few secular artists, the monks were far from always talented in the art of drawing. Therefore, often, images of people in miniatures and paintings are highly conventional. It was necessary to paint pictures and any other images as it should be, in everything obeying the rules of the century of emerging symbolism. By the way, that is why tombstones (also a kind of portraits) did not always reflect the true appearance of a person, rather they showed him the way he needed to be remembered.
The Dutch art of portraiture breaks through such canons. Who are we talking about? The author examines the works of such masters as Robert Compin, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes. They were real masters of their craft, living with their talent, performing work to order. Very often, the church was the customer - in the conditions of illiteracy of the population, painting is considered the most important art, the townspeople and peasants who were not trained in theological wisdom had to explain the simplest truths on their fingers, and the artistic image filled this role. This is how such masterpieces as the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck arose.
Rich townspeople were also customers - merchants, bankers, guilders, nobility. Portraits appeared, single and group. And then - a breakthrough for that time - an interesting feature of the masters was discovered, and one of the first to notice it was the famous agnostic philosopher Nicholas of Cusa. Not only did the artists, when creating their images, paint a person not conditionally, but as he is, they also managed to convey his inner appearance. The turn of the head, the look, the hairstyle, the clothes, the curve of the mouth, the gesture - all this showed the character of a person in an amazing and accurate way.
Of course, it was an innovation, no doubt. The aforementioned Nikola also wrote about this. The author connects the painters with the innovative ideas of the philosopher - respect for the human person, the cognizability of the surrounding world, the possibility of its philosophical knowledge.
But here a quite reasonable question arises - is it possible to compare the work of artists with the thought of an individual philosopher? In spite of everything, Nicholas of Cusa in any case remained in the bosom of medieval philosophy, in any case he relied on the fabrications of the same scholastics. What about master artists? We know practically nothing about their intellectual life, did they have such developed connections with each other, and with church leaders? This is a question. Without a doubt, they had succession to each other, but the origins of this skill remain a mystery. The author does not deal with philosophy in a specialized way, but rather fragmentarily tells about the connection between the traditions of Netherlandish painting and scholasticism. If Dutch art is original, and has no connection with the Italian humanities, where did the artistic traditions and their features come from? A vague reference to "national traditions"? Which? This is a question...
In general, the author perfectly, as it should be an art critic, tells about the specifics of the work of each artist, and quite convincingly interprets the aesthetic perception of the individual. But what concerns the philosophical origins, the place of painting in the thought of the Middle Ages, is very contouring, the author did not find an answer to the question about the origins.
Bottom line: the book contains a very good selection of portraits and other works of the early Dutch Renaissance. It is quite interesting to read about how art historians work with such a fragile and ambiguous material as painting, how they note the smallest features and specific features of style, how they connect the aesthetics of a painting with time ... However, the context of the era is visible, so to speak, in a very, very long term. .
Personally, I was more interested in the question of the origins of this specific trend, ideological and artistic. Here the author failed to convincingly answer the question posed. The art critic defeated the historian, before us is, first of all, a work of art history, that is, rather, for great lovers of painting.
The Netherlands is a historical region that occupies part of the vast lowlands on the northern European coast from the Gulf of Finland to the English Channel. Currently, the states of the Netherlands (Holland), Belgium and Luxembourg are located in this territory.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Netherlands became a motley collection of large and small semi-independent states. The most significant among them were the Duchy of Brabant, the counties of Flanders and Holland, and the Bishopric of Utrecht. In the north of the country, the population was mainly German - the Frisians and the Dutch, in the south the descendants of the Gauls and Romans - the Flemings and Walloons - predominated.
The Dutch worked selflessly with their special talent "without boredom to do the most boring things," as the French historian Hippolyte Taine put it about these people, undividedly devoted to everyday life. They did not know lofty poetry, but the more reverently honored the simplest things: a clean, comfortable home, a warm hearth, modest but tasty food. The Dutchman is used to looking at the world as a huge house in which he is called upon to maintain order and comfort.
The main features of the art of the Renaissance of the Netherlands
Common to the art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the countries of Central Europe is the desire for a realistic depiction of man and the world around him. But these tasks were solved differently because of the difference in the nature of cultures.For the Italian artists of the Renaissance, it was important to generalize and create an ideal, from the point of view of humanism, image of a person. For them, science played an important role - the artists developed theories of perspective and teachings about proportions.
The Dutch masters were attracted by the diversity of the individual appearance of people and the richness of nature. They do not seek to create a generalized image, but convey the characteristic and special. Artists do not use the theory of perspective and others, but convey the impression of depth and space, optical effects and the complexity of light and shade relationships through careful observation.
They are characterized by love for their land and amazing attention to all the little things: to their native northern nature, to the peculiarities of life, to the details of the interior, costumes, to the difference in materials and textures ...
Dutch artists reproduce the smallest details with the utmost care and recreate the sparkling richness of colors. These new pictorial tasks could only be solved with the help of the new technique of oil painting.
The discovery of oil painting is attributed to Jan van Eyck. From the middle of the 15th century, this new "Flemish manner" supplanted the old tempera technique in Italy as well. It is no coincidence that on the Dutch altars, which are a reflection of the whole universe, you can see everything that it consists of - every blade of grass and tree in the landscape, architectural details of cathedrals and city houses, stitches of embroidered ornaments on the robes of saints, as well as a host of other, smallest, details.
The art of the 15th century is the golden age of Netherlandish painting.
Its brightest representative Jan Van Eyck. OK. 1400-1441.
The greatest master of European painting:
opened with his work a new era of the Early Renaissance in Dutch art.
He was the court painter of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good.
He was one of the first to master the plastic and expressive possibilities of oil painting, using thin transparent layers of paint laid one on top of the other (the so-called Flemish manner of multi-layered transparent painting).
Van Eyck's largest work was the Ghent Altarpiece, which he performed with his brother.
The Ghent altar is a grand multi-tiered polyptych. Its height in the central part is 3.5 m, the width when opened is 5 m.
On the outside of the altar (when closed) the daily cycle is depicted:
- Donors are depicted in the bottom row - the city dweller Jodok Veidt and his wife, praying in front of the statues of Saints John the Baptist and John the Theologian, patrons of the church and the chapel.
- above is the scene of the Annunciation, and the figures of the Mother of God and the Archangel Gabriel are separated by the image of a window in which the city landscape looms.
The festive cycle is depicted on the inside of the altar.
When the altar doors open, a truly stunning transformation takes place before the eyes of the viewer:
- the size of the polyptych is doubled,
- the picture of everyday life is instantly replaced by the spectacle of an earthly paradise.
- cramped and gloomy closets disappear, and the world seems to swing open: the spacious landscape lights up with all the colors of the palette, bright and fresh.
The painting of the festive cycle is devoted to the theme of the triumph of the transfigured world, which is rare in Christian art, which should come after the Last Judgment, when evil will be finally defeated and truth and harmony will be established on earth.
Top row:
- in the central part of the altar, God the Father is depicted sitting on a throne,
- the Mother of God and John the Baptist sit to the left and right of the throne,
- further on both sides there are singing and playing angels,
- the nude figures of Adam and Eve close the row.
The bottom row of paintings depicts a scene of worship of the Divine Lamb.
- in the middle of the meadow rises an altar, on it stands a white Lamb, blood flows from his pierced chest into a cup
- closer to the viewer is a well from which living water flows. 
Hieronymus Bosch (1450 - 1516)
The connection of his art with folk traditions, folklore.
In his works, he whimsically combined the features of medieval fantasy, folklore, philosophical parable and satire.
He created multi-figure religious and allegorical compositions, paintings on the themes of folk proverbs, sayings and parables.
Bosch's works are filled with numerous scenes and episodes, lifelike and bizarrely fantastic images and details, full of irony and allegory.
Bosch's work had a huge impact on the development of realistic trends in the Netherlandish painting of the 16th century.
Composition "The Temptation of St. Anthony" - one of the most famous and mysterious works of the artist. The masterpiece of the master was the triptych "The Garden of Delights", an intricate allegory that has received many different interpretations. In the same period, the triptychs "The Last Judgment", "The Adoration of the Magi", the compositions "St. John on Patmos, John the Baptist in the Wilderness.
The late period of Bosch's work includes the triptych "Heaven and Hell", the compositions "The Tramp", "Carrying the Cross".
Most of Bosch's paintings of the mature and late period are bizarre grotesques containing deep philosophical overtones.
The large triptych "Hay Carriage", highly appreciated by Philip II of Spain, belongs to the mature period of the artist's work. The altar composition is probably based on an old Dutch proverb: "The world is a haystack, and everyone tries to grab as much as he can from it."
Temptation of St. Anthony. Triptych. Central part Wood, oil. 131.5 x 119 cm (centre), 131.5 x 53 cm (leaves) National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon 
Garden of Delights. Triptych. Around 1485. Central part
Wood, oil. 220 x 195 cm (centre), 220 x 97 cm (doors) Prado Museum, Madrid
Dutch art of the 16th century. marked by the emergence of interest in antiquity and the activities of the masters of the Italian Renaissance. At the beginning of the century, a movement based on imitation of Italian models was formed, called "romanism" (from Roma, the Latin name for Rome).
The pinnacle of Dutch painting in the second half of the century was the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. 1525/30-1569. Nicknamed Muzhitsky.
He created a deeply national art based on Dutch traditions and local folklore.
He played a huge role in the formation of the peasant genre and the national landscape. In Brueghel's work, coarse folk humor, lyricism and tragedy, realistic details and fantastic grotesque, interest in detailed narrative and the desire for broad generalization were intricately intertwined.
In the works of Brueghel - proximity to the moralizing performances of the medieval folk theater.
The clownish duel between Maslenitsa and Lent is a common scene of fair performances held in the Netherlands on the days of seeing off winter.
Life is in full swing everywhere: there is a round dance, windows are washed here, some play dice, others trade, someone begs for alms, someone is taken to be buried ...
Proverbs. 1559. The painting is a kind of encyclopedia of Dutch folklore.
Brueghel's characters lead each other by the nose, sit down between two chairs, beat their heads against the wall, hang between heaven and earth... The Dutch proverb "And there are cracks in the roof" is close in meaning to the Russian one "And the walls have ears." The Dutch “throw money into the water” means the same as the Russian “to waste money”, “to waste money”. The whole picture is dedicated to the waste of money, strength, all life - here they cover the roof with pancakes, shoot arrows into the void, shear pigs, warm themselves with the flames of a burning house and confess to the devil.
The whole earth had one language and one dialect. Moving from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to each other: "Let's make bricks and burn them with fire." And they became bricks instead of stones, and earthen tar instead of lime. And they said, “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower as high as the heavens, and make a name for ourselves, before we are scattered over the face of the earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. And the Lord said: “This is one people, and all have one language, and this is what they began to do, and they will not lag behind what they planned to do. Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other.” And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth; and they stopped building the city and the tower. Therefore, a name was given to it: Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over all the earth (Genesis, ch. 11). Unlike the motley bustle of Brueghel's early works, this painting strikes the viewer with its calmness. The tower depicted in the picture resembles the Roman amphitheater Colosseum, which the artist saw in Italy, and at the same time - an anthill. Tireless work is in full swing on all floors of the huge structure: blocks rotate, ladders are thrown, figures of workers scurry about. It is noticeable that the connection between the builders has already been lost, probably due to the “mixing of languages” that has begun: somewhere construction is in full swing, and somewhere the tower has already turned into ruins.
After Jesus was handed over for crucifixion, the soldiers put a heavy cross on Him and led Him to the place of the skull called Golgotha. On the way, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was returning home from the field, and forced him to carry the cross for Jesus. Many people followed Jesus, among them were women weeping and weeping for Him. “Carrying the Cross” is a religious, Christian picture, but it is no longer a church picture. Brueghel correlated the truths of Holy Scripture with personal experience, reflected on biblical texts, gave them his own interpretation, i.e. openly violated the imperial decree of 1550, which was in force at that time, which, under pain of death, forbade independent study of the Bible.
Brueghel creates a series of landscapes "Months". "Hunters in the Snow" is December-January.
Each season for the master is, first of all, a unique state of the earth and sky.
A crowd of peasants, captured by the rapid rhythm of the dance.
The art of the Netherlands in the 15th century The first manifestations of Renaissance art in the Netherlands date back to the beginning of the 15th century. The first paintings that can already be classified as early Renaissance monuments were created by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. Both of them - Hubert (died in 1426) and Jan (circa 1390-1441) - played a decisive role in the formation of the Dutch Renaissance. Almost nothing is known about Hubert. Jan was, apparently, a very educated person, studied geometry, chemistry, cartography, carried out some diplomatic missions of the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good, in whose service, by the way, he traveled to Portugal. The first steps of the Renaissance in the Netherlands can be judged by the pictorial works of the brothers, made in the 20s of the 15th century, and among them such as “Myrrh-bearing women at the tomb” (possibly part of a polyptych; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beiningen), “ Madonna in the Church" (Berlin), "Saint Jerome" (Detroit, Art Institute).
Robeo Kampen Dutch painter. Worked in Tournament. The identity of Robert Campin is shrouded in mystery. Identified by art historians with the so-called Master of Flemalle, the author of a whole group of paintings. Being associated with the traditions of the Dutch miniature and sculpture of the 14th century, Kampen was the first among his compatriots to take steps towards the artistic principles of the Early Renaissance. Campin's works (the Annunciation triptych, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Werl Altarpiece, 1438, Prado, Madrid) are more archaic than the works of his contemporary Jan van Eyck, but stand out for their democratic simplicity of images, a penchant for everyday interpretation of plots. The images of saints in his paintings are placed, as a rule, in cozy urban interiors with lovingly reproduced details of the situation. The lyricism of images, elegant coloring, based on the contrasts of soft local tones, are combined in Campin with a sophisticated play of folds of robes, as it were carved in wood. One of the first portrait painters in European painting (“Portrait of a Man”, Art Gallery, Berlin-Dahlem, paired portraits of spouses, National Gallery, London). Kampen's work influenced many Dutch painters, including his student Rogier van der Weyden.
Rogier van der Weyden Dutch painter (aka Rogier de la Pature. He probably studied in Tournai with Robert Campin; from 1435 he worked in Brussels, where he led a large workshop, in 1450 he visited Rome, Florence, Ferrara. Early paintings and altars Van der Weyden reveals the influence of Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin.The work of Rogier van der Weyden, one of the greatest masters of the early Northern Renaissance, is characterized by a peculiar processing of the artistic techniques of Jan van Eyck.In his religious compositions, the characters of which are located in interiors with views opening to distant plans, or on conditional backgrounds, Rogier van der Weyden focuses on the images of the foreground, not attaching much importance to the accurate transfer of the depth of space and everyday details of the situation.Rejecting the artistic universalism of Jan van Eyck, the master in his works concentrates on the inner world of man, his The paintings of the artist Rogier van der Weyden, which in many respects still retain the spiritualistic expression of late Gothic art, are characterized by a balanced composition, softness of linear rhythms, emotional saturation of a refined and bright local color (“Crucifixion”, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; “Nativity”, middle part of the “Bladelin Altarpiece”, circa 1452 -1455, Art Gallery, Berlin-Dahlem; Adoration of the Magi, Alte Pinakothek, Munich; “Descent from the Cross”, circa 1438, Prado Museum, Madrid). The portraits of Rogier van der Weyden (“Portrait of a Young Woman”, National Gallery of Art, Washington) are distinguished by pictorial laconicism, sharp revealing of the specificity of the model.
Hus Hugo van der Netherlandish Renaissance painter. He worked mainly in Ghent, from 1475 - in the monastery of Rodendal. Around 1481 visited Cologne. The work of Hus, who continued the traditions of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden in the Dutch art, is characterized by a tendency towards the courageous truthfulness of images, intense drama of action. In his compositions, somewhat conventional in terms of spatial construction and scale ratios of figures, full of subtle, lovingly interpreted details (fragments of architecture, patterned robes, vases of flowers, etc.), the artist Hugo van der Goes introduced a lot of brightly individual characters, rallied by a single experience, often giving preference to sharp-witted common folk types. The background for the altar images of Hus is often a poetic landscape, subtle in its colorful gradations (“The Fall”, circa 1470, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Hus's painting is characterized by careful plastic modeling, flexibility of linear rhythms, cold refined coloring based on the harmonies of gray-blue, white and black tones (the Adoration of the Magi triptych or the so-called Portinari altarpiece, circa 1474–1475, Uffizi; Adoration of the Magi and “The Adoration of the Shepherds”, Art Gallery, Berlin-Dahlem). Features characteristic of late Gothic painting (dramatic ecstatic images, sharp, broken rhythm of folds of clothes, tension of contrasting, sonorous color) appeared in the Assumption of Our Lady (Municipal Art Gallery, Bruges).
Hans Memling (circa 1440-1494) Dutch painter. Studied possibly with Rogier van der Weyden; from 1465 he worked in Bruges. In the works of Memling, who combined in his work the features of late Gothic and Renaissance art, everyday, lyrical interpretation of religious subjects, soft contemplation, harmonious construction of the composition is combined with the desire to idealize images, canonize the techniques of Old Dutch painting (the triptych “Our Lady with Saints”, 1468, National gallery, London; painting of the shrine of St. Ursula, 1489, Hans Memling Museum, Bruges; altar with the Last Judgment, about 1473, Church of the Virgin Mary, Gdansk; triptych of the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Memling Museum, Bruges). Memling's works, among which stand out "Bathsheba", a life-size depiction of a naked female body rare in the art of the Netherlands (1485, Museum of Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart), and portraits accurate in recreating the appearance of the model (male portrait, Mauritshuis, The Hague; portraits of Willem Morel and Barbara van Vlanderberg, 1482, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels), are distinguished by their elongated proportions, the elegance of linear rhythms, and the festive coloring based on soft contrasts of red, blue, faded green and brown tones.
Hieronymus van Aken Hieronymus van Aken, nicknamed Bosch, was born in Hertogenbosch (he died there in 1516), that is, away from the main art centers of the Netherlands. His early works are not devoid of a touch of some primitiveness. But already they strangely combine a sharp and disturbing sense of the life of nature with a cold grotesqueness in the depiction of people. Bosch responds to the trend of modern art - with its craving for the real, with its concretization of the image of a person, and then - the decrease in its role and significance. He takes this trend to a certain limit. In the art of Bosch, satirical or, better, sarcastic images of the human race appear.
Quentin Masseyn One of the greatest masters of the first third of the century - Quentin Masseys (born around 1466 in Louwepe, died in 1530 in Antwerp). The early works of Quentin Masseys bear a distinct imprint of the old traditions. His first significant work is a triptych dedicated to St. Anne (1507 - 1509; Brussels, Museum). The scenes on the outer sides of the side doors are distinguished by restrained drama. The images, poorly developed psychologically, are majestic, the figures are enlarged and closely composed, the space seems to be condensed. The gravitation towards the life-real beginning led Masseys to create one of the first genre, everyday paintings in the art of the new time. We are referring to the painting "Changer with his wife" (1514; Paris, Louvre). At the same time, the artist’s constant interest in a generalized interpretation of reality prompted him (perhaps the first in the Netherlands) to turn to the art of Leonardo da Vinci (“Mary and Child”; Poznan, Museum), although here one can speak more about borrowing or imitation .
Jan Gossaert Netherlandish painter studied in Bruges, worked in Antwerp, Utrecht, Middelburg and other cities, visited Italy in 1508-1509. In 1527, Gossaert traveled through Flanders with Lucas van Leyden. The founder of Romanism in Dutch painting of the 16th century, Gossaert sought to master the achievements of the Italian Renaissance in composition, anatomy, and perspective: referring to ancient and biblical subjects, he often depicted nude figures against the background of ancient architecture or in a natural environment, conveyed with a careful and objective approach typical of Dutch art. detail (“Adam and Eve”, “Neptune and Amphitrite”, 1516, both in the Art Gallery, Berlin; “Danae”, 1527, Alte Pinakothek, Munich). The artistic traditions of the Dutch school are closest to the portraits of Jan Gossaert (diptych depicting Chancellor Jean Carondelet, 1517, Louvre, Paris).
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, nicknamed Muzhitsky (between 1525 and 1530-1569) was formed as an artist in Antwerp (he studied with P. Cook van Aelst), visited Italy (1551-1552), was close to the radical thinkers of the Netherlands. Taking a mental look at the creative path of Brueghel, it should be recognized that he concentrated in his art all the achievements of the Netherlandish painting of the previous period. The unsuccessful attempts of late Romanism to reflect life in generalized forms, the more successful but limited experiments of Aartsen in exalting the image of the people, entered into a powerful synthesis with Brueghel. Actually, the craving for a realistic concretization of the creative method, which emerged at the beginning of the century, merged with the deep worldview insights of the master, brought grandiose fruits to Dutch art.
Savary Roelant Flemish painter, one of the founders of the animalistic genre in Dutch painting. Born in Courtray in 1576. Studied under Jan Brueghel the Velvet. Painting by Saverey Roelant “Orpheus”. Orpheus is depicted in a rocky landscape near a river, surrounded by numerous exotic forest animals and birds, enchanted by the sweet sounds of his violin. Saverey seems to be enjoying here a juicy and detailed landscape with a variety of flora and fauna. This fantastical and idealized view is rendered in a Mannerist manner, but inspired by the alpine landscape that the painter Roelant Savery saw during his travels to Switzerland in the early 1600s. The artist made several dozen paintings depicting Orpheus and the Garden of Eden, giving these favorite subjects a magical character. Lively and full of detail, Savery's paintings are marked by the influence of Jan Brueghel. He died in 1639 in Utrecht.
Difference from Italian art Dutch art has become more democratic than Italian art. It has strong features of folklore, fantasy, grotesque, sharp satire, but its main feature is a deep sense of the national identity of life, folk forms of culture, life, customs, types, as well as the display of social contrasts in the life of various strata of society. The social contradictions of the life of society, the realm of hostility and violence in it, the diversity of the opposing forces sharpened the awareness of its disharmony. Hence the critical tendencies of the Dutch Renaissance, manifested in the heyday of the expressive and sometimes tragic grotesque in art and literature, often hidden under the mask of a joke "to tell the truth to kings with a smile." Another feature of the Dutch artistic culture of the Renaissance is the stability of medieval traditions, which largely determined the nature of the Dutch realism of the 15th and 16th centuries. Everything new that was revealed to people over a long period of time was applied to the old medieval system of views, which limited the possibility of independent development of new views, but at the same time forced them to assimilate the valuable elements contained in this system.
Difference from Italian art Dutch art is characterized by a new, realistic vision of the world, the assertion of the artistic value of reality as it is, an expression of the organic connection between man and his environment, the comprehension of the possibilities that nature and life endow man with. In the depiction of a person, artists are interested in the characteristic and special, the sphere of everyday and spiritual life; Dutch painters of the 15th century enthusiastically capture the diversity of people's personalities, the inexhaustible colorful richness of nature, its material diversity, subtly feel the poetry of everyday, inconspicuous, but close to man things, the comfort of lived-in interiors. These features of the perception of the world manifested themselves in the Dutch painting and graphics of the 15th and 16th centuries in the genre of everyday life, portraits, interiors, and landscapes. They revealed a typical Dutch love for details, the concreteness of their image, narrative, subtlety in conveying moods and, at the same time, an amazing ability to reproduce a holistic picture of the universe with its spatial infinity.
Difference from Italian art The turning point that took place in the art of the first third of the 15th century most fully affected painting. Her greatest achievement is associated with the emergence in Western Europe of the easel painting, which replaced the wall paintings of Romanesque churches and Gothic stained glass windows. Easel paintings on religious themes were originally actually works of icon painting. In the form of painted folds with gospel and biblical scenes, they decorated the altars of churches. Gradually, secular subjects began to be included in the altar compositions, which later acquired an independent meaning. The easel painting separated from icon painting and became an integral part of the interiors of wealthy and aristocratic houses. For Dutch artists, the main means of artistic expression is color, which opens up the possibility of recreating visual images in their colorful richness with the utmost tangibility. The Dutch were keenly aware of the subtle differences between objects, reproducing the texture of materials, optical effects - the brilliance of metal, the transparency of glass, the reflection of a mirror, the features of the refraction of reflected and diffused light, the impression of the airy atmosphere of a landscape stretching into the distance. As in Gothic stained glass, the tradition of which played an important role in the development of the pictorial perception of the world, color served as the main means of conveying the emotional richness of the image. The development of realism in the Netherlands caused a transition from tempera to oil paint, which made it possible to more illusoryly reproduce the materiality of the world. The improvement of the oil painting technique known in the Middle Ages, the development of new compositions are attributed to Jan van Eyck. The use of oil paint and resinous substances in easel painting, its application in a transparent, thin layer on underpainting and white or red chalk ground accentuated the saturation, depth and purity of bright colors, expanded the possibilities of painting - they made it possible to achieve richness and diversity in color, the finest tonal transitions. The enduring painting of Jan van Eyck and his method continued to live almost unchanged in the 15th and 16th centuries, in the practice of artists in Italy, France, Germany and other countries.
"Never trust a computer that you can't throw out a window." - Steve Wozniak
The Netherlandish painter, usually identified with the Flemal master - an unknown artist who stands at the origins of the tradition of early Netherlandish painting (the so-called "Flemish primitives"). Mentor of Rogier van der Weyden and one of the first portrait painters in European painting.
(The Liturgical Vestments of the Order of the Golden Fleece - The Cope of the Virgin Mary)
A contemporary of the miniaturists working on manuscript illumination, Campin was nevertheless able to achieve a level of realism and observation that no other painter had ever seen before him. Yet, his writings are more archaic than those of his younger contemporaries. Democracy is noticeable in everyday details, sometimes there is an everyday interpretation of religious subjects, which will later be characteristic of Netherlandish painting.
(Virgin and Child in an Interior)
Art historians have long tried to find the origins of the Northern Renaissance, to find out who was the first master who laid this style. For a long time it was believed that the first artist who slightly departed from the traditions of the Gothic was Jan van Eyck. But by the end of the 19th century, it became clear that van Eyck was preceded by another artist, whose brush belongs to the triptych with the Annunciation, previously owned by Countess Merode (the so-called “Merode triptych”), as well as the so-called. Flemish altar. It was assumed that both of these works belong to the hand of the Flemal master, whose identity was not yet established at that time.
(The Nuptials of the Virgin)
(Holy Virgin in Glory)
(Werl Altarpiece)
(Trinity of the Broken Body)
(Blessing Christ and Praying Virgin)
(The Nuptials of the Virgin - St. James the Great and St. Clare)
(Virgin and Child)
Gertgen tot Sint Jans (Leiden 1460-1465 - Haarlem until 1495)
This early dead artist, who worked in Haarlem, is one of the most important figures in North Netherlandish painting at the end of the 15th century. Possibly trained in Haarlem in the workshop of Albert van Auwater. He was familiar with the work of the artists of Ghent and Bruges. In Haarlem, as an apprentice painter, he lived under the Order of St. John - hence the nickname "from [the monastery] St. John" (tot Sint Jans). Hertgen's painting style is characterized by a subtle emotionality in the interpretation of religious subjects, attention to the phenomena of everyday life and a thoughtful, poetic-spiritual elaboration of details. All this will be developed in the realistic Dutch painting of the following centuries.
(Nativity, at Night) 
(Virgin and Child)
(The Tree of Jesse)
(Gertgen tot Sint Jans St. Bavo)
Van Eyck's rival for the title of the most influential master of early Netherlandish painting. The artist saw the goal of creativity in understanding the individuality of the individual, he was a deep psychologist and an excellent portrait painter. Having preserved the spiritualism of medieval art, he filled the old pictorial schemes with the Renaissance concept of an active human personality. At the end of his life, according to the TSB, "rejects the universalism of van Eyck's artistic worldview and focuses all attention on the inner world of man."
(Uncovering the relics of St. Hubert)
Born in the family of a wood carver. The artist's works testify to a deep acquaintance with theology, and already in 1426 he was called "master Roger", which allows us to suggest that he had a university education. He began working as a sculptor, at a mature age (after 26 years) began to study painting with Robert Campin in Tournai. He spent 5 years in his workshop.
(Reading Mary Magdalene)
The period of Rogier's creative formation (to which, apparently, the Louvre "Annunciation" belongs) is poorly covered by sources. There is a hypothesis that it was he who, in his youth, created works attributed to the so-called. Flemalsky master (a more likely candidate for their authorship is his mentor Campin). The apprentice so learned Campin's desire to saturate biblical scenes with cozy details of domestic life that it is almost impossible to distinguish between their works of the early 1430s (both artists did not sign their works).
(Portrait of Anton of Burgundy)
The first three years of Rogier's independent work are not documented in any way. Perhaps he spent them in Bruges with van Eyck (with whom he probably crossed paths before in Tournai). In any case, his well-known composition "The Evangelist Luke Painting the Madonna" is imbued with the obvious influence of van Eyck.
(Evangelist Luke painting the Madonna)
In 1435, the artist moved to Brussels in connection with his marriage to a native of this city and translated his real name Roger de la Pasture from French into Dutch. Became a member of the city guild of painters, became rich. He worked as a city painter on orders from the ducal court of Philip the Good, monasteries, nobility, Italian merchants. He painted the city hall with paintings of the administration of justice by famous people of the past (the frescoes have been lost).
(Portrait of a lady)
By the beginning of the Brussels period belongs the grandiose in emotionality "Descent from the Cross" (now in the Prado). In this work, Rogier radically abandoned the pictorial background, focusing the viewer's attention on the tragic experiences of numerous characters that fill the entire space of the canvas. Some researchers are inclined to explain the turn in his work as a passion for the doctrine of Thomas a Kempis.
(Descent from the cross with donor Pierre de Ranchicourt, Bishop of Arras)
Rogier's return from the crude Campenian realism and refinement of the Vaneik proto-Renaissance to the medieval tradition is most evident in the Last Judgment polyptych. It was written in 1443-1454. Commissioned by Chancellor Nicolas Rolen for the altar of the hospital chapel, founded by the latter in the Burgundian city of Beaune. The place of complex landscape backgrounds here is occupied by a golden glow experienced by generations of his predecessors, which cannot distract the viewer from reverence for the holy images.
(Altar of the Last Judgment in Bonn, right outer wing: Hell, left outer wing: Paradise)
In the jubilee year 1450, Rogier van der Weyden made a trip to Italy and visited Rome, Ferrara and Florence. He was warmly welcomed by the Italian humanists (Nicholas of Cusa is famous for his praise), but he himself was interested mainly in conservative artists like Fra Angelico and Gentile da Fabriano.
(Beheading of John the Baptist)
With this trip in the history of art, it is customary to associate the first acquaintance of Italians with the technique of oil painting, which Rogier mastered to perfection. By order of the Italian dynasties Medici and d "Este, the Fleming executed the Madonna from the Uffizi and the famous portrait of Francesco d'Este. Italian impressions were refracted in altar compositions ("The Altar of John the Baptist", the triptychs "Seven Sacraments" and "Adoration of the Magi"), made them upon their return to Flanders.
(Adoration of the Magi)
The portraits by Rogier have some common features, which is largely due to the fact that almost all of them depict representatives of the highest nobility of Burgundy, whose appearance and demeanor were imprinted by the general environment, upbringing and traditions. The artist draws in detail the hands of the models (especially the fingers), ennobles and lengthens the features of their faces.
(Portrait of Francesco D "Este)
In recent years, Rogier worked in his Brussels workshop, surrounded by numerous students, among whom, apparently, were such prominent representatives of the next generation as Hans Memling. They spread his influence across France, Germany and Spain. In the second half of the 15th century in the north of Europe, the expressive manner of Rogier prevailed over the more technical lessons of Campin and van Eyck. Even in the 16th century, many painters remained under his influence, from Bernart Orlais to Quentin Masseys. By the end of the century, his name began to be forgotten, and already in the 19th century, the artist was remembered only in special studies on early Netherlandish painting. The restoration of his creative path is complicated by the fact that he did not sign any of his works, with the exception of the Washington portrait of a woman.
(Annunciation of Mary)
Hugo van der Goes (c. 1420-25, Ghent - 1482, Auderghem)
Flemish painter. Albrecht Dürer considered him the largest representative of early Netherlandish painting along with Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden.
(Portrait of a Man of Prayer with St. John the Baptist)
Born in Ghent or in the town of Ter Goes in Zeeland. The exact date of birth is unknown, but a decree of 1451 was found that allowed him to return from exile. Consequently, by that time he had managed to do something wrong and spend some time in exile. Joined the Guild of St. Luke. In 1467 he became the master of the guild, and in 1473-1476 he was its dean in Ghent. He worked in Ghent, from 1475 in the Augustinian monastery of Rodendal near Brussels. In the same place in 1478 he took the monastic dignity. His last years were marred by mental illness. However, he continued to work, fulfilling orders for portraits. In the monastery he was visited by the future emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian of Habsburg.
(The Crucifixion)
He continued the artistic traditions of Dutch painting in the first half of the 15th century. Art activities are varied. Bouts' influence is noticeable in his early work.
Participated as a decorator in the decoration of the city of Bruges on the occasion of the wedding in 1468 of the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold and Margaret of York, later in the design of celebrations in the city of Ghent on the occasion of the entry into the city of Charles the Bold and the new Countess of Flanders in 1472. Obviously, his role in these works was leading, for, according to the surviving documents, he received a larger payment than the rest of the artists. Unfortunately, the paintings that were part of the design have not been preserved. The creative biography has many ambiguities and gaps, since none of the paintings is dated by the artist or signed by him.
(Benedictine Monk)
The most famous work is the large altarpiece "Adoration of the Shepherds", or "Portinari Altarpiece", which was painted c. 1475 commissioned by Tommaso Portinari, the representative of the Medici bank in Bruges, and had a profound influence on Florentine painters: Domenico Ghirlandaio, Leonardo da Vinci and others.
(Portinari Altarpiece)
Jan Provost (1465-1529)
There are references to the master Provost in the documents of 1493, stored in the Antwerp town hall. And in 1494 the master moved to Bruges. We also know that in 1498 he married the widow of the French painter and miniaturist Simon Marmion.
(The Martyrdom of St. Catherine)
We do not know who Provost studied with, but his art was clearly influenced by the last classics of the early Netherlandish Renaissance, Gerard David and Quentin Masseys. And if David sought to express the religious idea through the drama of the situation and human experiences, then in Quentin Masseys we will find something else - a craving for ideal and harmonious images. First of all, the influence of Leonardo da Vinci, whose work Masseys met during his trip to Italy, affected here.
In the paintings of the Provost, the traditions of G. David and K. Masseys merged into one. In the State Hermitage collection there is one work by Provost - "Mary in Glory", painted on a wooden board using the technique of oil paint.
(The Virgin Mary in Glory)
This huge painting depicts the Virgin Mary, surrounded by golden radiance, standing on a crescent moon in the clouds. In her arms is the Christ child. Above her hover in the air God the Father, St. Spirit in the form of a dove and four angels. Below - kneeling King David with a harp in his hands and Emperor Augustus with a crown and scepter. In addition to them, the painting depicts sibyls (characters of ancient mythology, predicting the future and interpreting dreams) and prophets. In the hands of one of the sibyls is a scroll with the inscription "The bosom of the virgin will be the salvation of the nations."
In the depths of the picture, a landscape striking in its subtlety and poetry with city buildings and a port is visible. This whole complex and theologically intricate plot was traditional for Dutch art. Even the presence of ancient characters was perceived as a kind of attempt at a religious justification of ancient classics and did not surprise anyone. What seems complicated to us was perceived by the artist's contemporaries with ease and was a kind of alphabet in the paintings.
However, the Provost takes a certain step forward in mastering this religious story. He unites all his characters in a single space. He combines earthly (King David, Emperor Augustus, sibyls and prophets) and heavenly (Mary and angels) in one scene. According to tradition, he depicts all this against the backdrop of a landscape, which further enhances the impression of the reality of what is happening. The Provost diligently translates the action into contemporary life. In the figures of David and Augustus, one can easily guess the customers of the painting, rich Dutch people. The ancient sibyls, whose faces are almost portrait, vividly resemble the rich townswomen of that time. Even the magnificent landscape, despite all its fantasticness, is deeply realistic. He, as it were, synthesizes the nature of Flanders in himself, idealizes it.
Most of Provost's paintings are of a religious nature. Unfortunately, a significant part of the works has not been preserved, and it is almost impossible to recreate a complete picture of his work. However, according to contemporaries, we know that the Provost took part in the design of the solemn entry of King Charles to Bruges. This speaks of the fame and great merits of the master.
(Virgin and Child)
According to Dürer, with whom the Provost traveled for some time in the Netherlands, the entrance was furnished with great pomp. All the way from the city gates to the house where the king stayed was decorated with arcades on the columns, there were wreaths, crowns, trophies, inscriptions, torches everywhere. There were also many living paintings and allegorical depictions of the "emperor's talents".
The provost took a great part in the design. Netherlandish art of the 16th century, typified by Jan Provost, gave rise to works that, in the words of B. R. Wipper, "captivate not so much as the creations of outstanding masters, but as evidence of a high and diverse artistic culture."
(Christian Allegory)
Jeroen Antonison van Aken (Hieronymus Bosch) (circa 1450-1516)
The Dutch artist, one of the greatest masters of the Northern Renaissance, is considered one of the most enigmatic painters in the history of Western art. In Bosch's hometown of 's-Hertogenbosch, a Bosch creative center has been opened, which presents copies of his works.
Jan Mandijn (1500/1502, Haarlem - 1559/1560, Antwerp)
Dutch Renaissance and Northern Mannerist painter.
Jan Mandijn belongs to the group of Antwerp artists following Hieronymus Bosch (Peter Hayes, Herri met de Bles, Jan Wellens de Kokk), who continued the tradition of fantastic images and laid the foundations of the so-called Northern Mannerism as opposed to Italian. The works of Jan Mandijn, with his demons and evil spirits, are closest to the legacy of the mysterious.
(Saint Christopher. (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg))
The authorship of paintings attributed to Mandane, except for The Temptations of St. Anthony", has not been established for certain. It is believed that Mundane was illiterate and therefore could not sign his "Temptations" in Gothic script. Art historians suggest that he simply copied the signature from the finished sample.
It is known that around 1530 Mandijn became a master in Antwerp, Gillis Mostert and Bartholomeus Spranger were his students.
Marten van Heemskerk (real name Marten Jacobson van Ven)
Marten van Ven was born in North Holland to a peasant family. Against the will of his father, he goes to Haarlem, to study the artist Cornelis Willems, and in 1527 he goes as an apprentice to Jan van Scorel, and at present, art historians are not always able to determine the exact belonging of individual paintings by Scorel or Hemskerk. Between 1532 and 1536 the artist lives and works in Rome, where his works are very successful. In Italy, van Heemskerk creates his paintings in the artistic style of Mannerism.
After returning to the Netherlands, he receives numerous orders from the church for both altar painting and the creation of stained glass windows and wall tapestries. He was one of the leading members of the Guild of Saint Luke. From 1550 until his death in 1574, Marten van Heemskerk served as church warden in the church of St. Bavo in Haarlem. Among other works, van Heemskerk is known for his series of paintings Seven Wonders of the World.
(Portrait of Anna Codde 1529)
(St Luke Painting the Virgin and Child 1532)
(Man of Sorrows 1532)
(The Unhappy Lot of the Rich 1560)
(Self-Portrait in Rome with the Colosseum1553)
Joachim Patinir (1475/1480, Dinant in the province of Namur, Wallonia, Belgium - October 5, 1524, Antwerp, Belgium)
Flemish painter, one of the founders of European landscape painting. Worked in Antwerp. He made nature the main component of the image in compositions on religious subjects, in which, following the tradition of the Van Eyck brothers, Gerard David and Bosch, he created a majestic panoramic space.
Worked with Quentin Masseys. Presumably, many of the works now attributed to Patinir or Masseys are in fact their joint works.
(Battle of Pavia)
(Miracle of St. Catherine)
(Landscape with The Flight into Egypt)
Herri met de Bles (1500/1510, Bouvignes-sur-Meuse - around 1555)
Flemish artist, along with Joachim Patinir, one of the founders of European landscape painting.
Almost nothing is reliably known about the life of the artist. In particular, his name is unknown. The nickname "met de Bles" - "with a white spot" - he probably received a white curl in his hair. He also bore the Italian nickname "Civetta" (Italian Civetta) - "owl" - as his monogram, which he used as a signature to his paintings, was a small figurine of an owl.
(Landscape with a scene of flight to Egypt)
Herri met de Bles spent most of his career in Antwerp. It is assumed that he was the nephew of Joachim Patinir, and the real name of the artist was Herry de Patinir (Dutch. Herry de Patinir). In any case, in 1535 a certain Herri de Patinier joined the Antwerp guild of Saint Luke. Herri met de Bles is also included in the group of South Netherlandish artists - followers of Hieronymus Bosch, along with Jan Mandijn, Jan Wellens de Kock and Peter Geis. These masters continued the tradition of Bosch's fantastic painting, and their work is sometimes called "Northern Mannerism" (as opposed to Italian Mannerism). According to some sources, the artist died in Antwerp, according to others - in Ferrara, at the court of the Duke del Este. Neither the year of his death nor the very fact that he ever visited Italy is known.
Herri met de Bles painted mainly, following the model of Patinir, landscapes, which also depict multi-figured compositions. The atmosphere is carefully conveyed in the landscapes. Typical for him, as well as for Patinir, is a stylized image of rocks.
Lucas van Leiden (Luke of Leiden, Lucas Huygens) (Leiden 1494 - Leiden 1533)
He studied painting with Cornelis Engelbrekts. He mastered the art of engraving very early and worked in Leiden and Middelburg. In 1522 he joined the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp, then returned to Leiden, where he died in 1533.
(Triptych with dances around the golden calf. 1525-1535. Rijksmuseum)
In genre scenes, he took a bold step towards a sharply realistic depiction of reality.
In terms of his skill, Luke of Leiden is not inferior to Dürer. He was one of the first Dutch graphic artists to demonstrate an understanding of the laws of light-air perspective. Although, to a greater extent, he was interested in the problems of composition and technique, rather than fidelity to tradition or the emotional sounding of scenes on religious themes. In 1521, in Antwerp, he met Albrecht Dürer. The influence of the work of the great German master was manifested in more rigid modeling and in a more expressive interpretation of the figures, but Luke of Leiden never lost the features inherent only in his style: tall, well-built figures in somewhat mannered poses and tired faces. In the late 1520s, the influence of the Italian engraver Marcantonio Raimondi manifested itself in his work. Almost all of the engravings of Luke of Leiden are signed with the initial "L", and about half of his works are dated, including the famous Passion of the Christ series (1521). About a dozen of his woodcuts survive, mostly depicting scenes from the Old Testament. Of the small number of surviving paintings by Luke of Leiden, one of the most famous is the Last Judgment triptych (1526).
(Charles V, Cardinal Wolsley, Margaret of Austria)
Jos van Cleve (date of birth unknown, presumably Wesel - 1540-41, Antwerp)
The first mention of Jos van Cleve refers to 1511, when he was admitted to the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke. Prior to this, Jos van Cleve studied under Jan Joost van Kalkar together with Bartholomeus Brein the Elder. He is considered one of the most active artists of his time. His paintings and position as an artist at the court of Francis I testify to his stay in France. There are facts confirming Jos's trip to Italy.
The main works of Jos van Cleve are two altars depicting the Assumption of the Virgin (currently in Cologne and Munich), which were previously attributed to an unknown artist, the Master of the Life of Mary.
(Adoration of the Magi. 1st third of the 16th century. Art Gallery, Dresden)
Jos van Cleve is classified as a novelist. In his methods of soft modeling of volumes, he feels an echo of the influence of Leonardo da Vinci's sfumato. Nevertheless, he is closely connected with the Dutch tradition in many essential aspects of his work.
The “Assumption of the Virgin” from the Alte Pinakothek was once in the Cologne Church of the Virgin Mary and was commissioned by representatives of several wealthy, related Cologne families. The altarpiece has two side wings depicting the patron saints of the patrons. The central sash is of the greatest interest. Van Mander wrote about the artist: “He was the best colorist of his time, he knew how to convey very beautiful relief to his works and conveyed the color of the body extremely close to nature, using only one skin color. His works were highly valued by art lovers, which they well deserved.
Jos van Cleve's son Cornelis also became an artist.
Flemish painter of the Northern Renaissance. He studied painting with Bernard van Orley, who initiated his visit to the Italian peninsula. (Coxcie is sometimes spelled Coxie, as in Mechelen on a street dedicated to the artist). In Rome in 1532 he painted the chapel of the Cardinal Enckenvoirt in the church of Santa Maria Delle "Anima and Giorgio Vasari, his work is done in the Italian manner. But the main work of Coxey was the development for engravers and the fable of Psyche on thirty-two sheets by Agostino Veneziano and the master in Daia good examples of their craft.
Returning to the Netherlands, Coxey significantly developed his practice in this area of art. Coxey returned to Mechelen, where he designed the altar in the chapel of the Guild of St. Luke. In the center of this altar, St. Luke the Evangelist, the patron saint of artists, is depicted with the image of the Virgin, on the side parts there is a scene of the martyrdom of St. Vitus and the Vision of St. John the Evangelist in Patmos. He was patronized by Charles V, the Roman Emperor. His masterpieces of 1587 - 1588 are stored in the cathedral in Mechelen, in the cathedral in Brussels, museums in Brussels and Antwerp. He was known as the Flemish Raphael. He died at Mechelen on 5 Mat 1592, falling down a flight of stairs.
(Christina of Denmark)
(Killing of Abel)
Marinus van Reimerswale (c. 1490, Reimerswaal - after 1567)
Marinus' father was a member of the Antwerp Artists' Guild. Marinus is considered a student of Quentin Masseys, or at least was influenced by him in his work. However, van Reimerswale did not only paint. After leaving his native Reimerswal, he moved to Middelburg, where he participated in the robbery of the church, was punished and expelled from the city.
Marinus van Reimerswale has remained in the history of painting thanks to his images of St. Jerome and portraits of bankers, usurers and tax collectors in elaborate clothes carefully painted by the artist. Such portraits were very popular in those days as the personification of greed.
South Dutch painter and graphic artist, the most famous and significant of the artists who bore this name. Master of landscape and genre scenes. Father of painters Pieter Brueghel the Younger (Hellish) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (Paradise).
Genre motifs gradually penetrated into the religious subjects of Dutch painting, concrete details accumulated within the framework of the decorative and refined style of late Gothic art, and emotional accents intensified. The leading role in this process was played by the miniature, which was widely spread in the 13th-15th centuries at the courts of the French and Burgundian aristocracy, who gathered talented craftsmen from urban workshops around them. Among them, the Dutch were widely known (the Limburg brothers, the master of Marshal Boucicault). Books of hours (more precisely, books of hours - a kind of prayer books, where prayers dedicated to a certain hour are arranged by months) began to be decorated with scenes of work and entertainment at different times of the year and their corresponding landscapes. With loving thoroughness, the masters captured the beauty of the world around them, creating highly artistic works, colorful, full of grace (Turin-Milan Book of Hours 1400-1450). Miniatures depicting historical events and portraits appeared in historical chronicles. In the 15th century, portraiture spread. Throughout the 16th century, everyday painting, landscape, still life, paintings on mythological and allegorical subjects stand out as independent genres.
Since the 40s of the 15th century, elements of narrative intensified in Dutch painting, on the one hand, and dramatic action and mood, on the other. With the destruction of patriarchal ties that cement the life of medieval society, the feeling of harmony, orderliness and unity of the world and man disappears. A person realizes his independent vital significance, he begins to believe in his mind and will. His image in art is becoming more and more individually unique, in-depth, it reveals the innermost feelings and thoughts, their complexity. He turns into the central protagonist of plot scenes or into the hero of easel portraits, the owner of a subtle intellect, a kind of aristocrat of the spirit. At the same time, a person discovers his loneliness, the tragedy of his life, his fate. Anxiety and pessimism begin to appear in his appearance. This new conception of the world and of man, who does not believe in the strength of earthly happiness, is reflected in the tragic art of Rogier van der Weyden (c. psychological portraits, of which he was the greatest master.
A sense of mystery and anxiety, a sense of the beautiful, unprecedented and deeply tragic in the ordinary determine the work of the artist of a strongly pronounced individuality and exceptional talent Hugo van der Goes (1440–1482), the author of the powerful Portinari Altarpiece (1476–1476– 1478, Florence, Uffizi). Hus was the first to create a holistic image of a purely earthly existence in its material concreteness. Remaining interested in the knowledge of life's diversity, he focused on man, his spiritual energy and strength, introduced into his compositions purely folk types, a real landscape, involved in its emotional sounding to man. The tragedy of the worldview was conjugated in his courageous art with the affirmation of the value of earthly existence, marked by contradictions, but worthy of admiration.
In the last quarter of the 15th century, the artistic life of the northern provinces (in particular Holland) became more active. In the art of the artists working here, there is a stronger connection with folk beliefs and folklore than in the south of the Netherlands, a craving for the characteristic, base, ugly, for social satire, clothed in an allegorical, religious or gloomy fantastic form.
These features are sharply marked in the painting of the passionate exposer Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450 - 1516), imbued with deep pessimism, who discovered in the world around him a formidable kingdom of evil, scourging the vices of a weak-willed, powerless, mired in the sins of mankind. The anti-clerical moralizing tendencies of his work, the merciless attitude towards man are clearly expressed in the allegorical painting "Ship of Fools" (Paris, Louvre), which ridicules the monks. The expressiveness of Bosch's artistic images, his everyday vigilance, his penchant for the grotesque and sarcasm in the depiction of the human race determined the impressive power of his works, distinguished by the sophistication and perfection of pictorial performance. Bosch's art reflected the crisis moods that captured the Dutch society in the face of growing social conflicts at the end of the 15th century. At this time, the old Dutch cities (Bruges, Tent), bound by narrow local economic regulation, lost their former power, their culture was dying out.
