All this is admirably depicted with what I would call divine rather than human art . . . everything you would think to have been produced not by the artifice of human hands but by all-bearing nature herself." (Cyriac of Ancona, 1449) The period from about 1420 to 1550 was one of astonishing and almost uninterrupted artistic achievement in the Netherlands. Taking "all-bearing nature" as their guide, Netherlandish artists extended the boundaries of painting until they seemed as limitless as the blue-tinged mountains of the distant horizons in their pictures. Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden became the most renowned painters in Europe, Van Eyck acquiring legendary status as the inventor of oil painting. Works by Netherlandish masters were sought by princes and merchants throughout Europe, who prized them for their remarkable qualities of verisimilitude, their technical and coloristic virtuosity, and their heightened expressive power. Whether they were made as objects for veneration, as records of human existence in a certain time and place, or as adornments for private dwellings or public sites, Netherlandish paintings reveal the pursuit of a common goal—to make the painted image vividly present and to render the unseen palpable. To achieve this goal Netherlandish artists investigated a variety of pictorial strategies based on a naturalistic vocabulary that, for subtlety and nuance, has never been surpassed. We are repeatedly struck by details of astonishing and microscopic verisimilitude—of landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and genre elements—that convey the experience of everyday life. Artists attempted to engage the viewer by depicting figures that serve as metaphors for ourselves in the way they pose, gesture, or directly address us. Fictive frames and other trompe-l’oeil elements, as well as representations of mirrors and other reflective surfaces, break the barrier between the pictorial space and our own space, inviting us to take part in the world of the image. Netherlandish painting was nourished by a vibrant national economy and international trade. Bruges was the favored residence of the dukes of Burgundy in the fifteenth century, and Antwerp was the commercial hub of Europe in the sixteenth. The majority of the Museum’s holdings of Netherlandish pictures originated in these two cities. Modern-day princes of industry in America rediscovered the glories of Netherlandish painting and helped to form the collections at the Metropolitan, which are here united in a single exhibition for the first time. Back | Next

Home |  Home |  Works of Art |  Curatorial Departments |  Collection Database |  Features |  Timeline of Art History |  Explore & Learn |  The Met Store |  Membership |  Ways to Give |  Plan Your Visit |  Calendar |  The Cloisters |  Concerts & Lectures |  Educational Resources |  Events & Programs |  FAQs |  Special Exhibitions |  My Met Museum |  Press Room |  Met Podcast |  Site Index |  Now at the Met |  MuseumKids Photograph Credits Copyright © 2000–2008 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All rights reserved.  Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy.