Note. The list includes, in addition to the artists of the Netherlands, also the painters of Flanders.

15th century Dutch art
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 very an educated person, studied geometry, chemistry, cartography, carried out some diplomatic assignments 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).

The van Eyck brothers occupy an exceptional place in contemporary art. But they were not alone. At the same time, other painters worked with them, stylistically and in a problematic way related to them. Among them, the first place undoubtedly belongs to the so-called Flemal master. Many ingenious attempts have been made to determine his true name and origin. Of these, the most convincing version, according to which this artist receives the name Robert Campin and a fairly developed biography. Formerly called Master of the Altar (or "Annunciation") Merode. There is also an unconvincing point of view attributing the works attributed to him to the young Rogier van der Weyden.

It is known about Campin that he was born in 1378 or 1379 in Valenciennes, received the title of master in Tournai in 1406, lived there, performed many decorative works in addition to paintings, was a teacher of a number of painters (including Rogier van der Weyden, which will be discussed below, from 1426, and Jacques Dare from 1427) and died in 1444. The art of Kampin retained everyday features in the general "pantheistic" scheme and thus turned out to be very close to the next generation of Netherlandish painters. The early works of Rogier van der Weyden and Jacques Dare, an author who was extremely dependent on Campin (for example, his Adoration of the Magi and Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, 1434-1435; Berlin), clearly reveal an interest in the art of this master, which certainly time trend appears.

Rogier van der Weyden was born in 1399 or 1400; and died in 1464. Some of the largest artists of the Dutch Renaissance (for example, Memling) studied with him, and he was widely known not only in his homeland, but also in Italy (the famous scientist and philosopher Nicholas of Cusa called him the greatest artist; later Dürer noted his work ). The work of Rogier van der Weyden served as a nourishing basis for a variety of painters of the next generation. Suffice it to say that his workshop - the first such a widely organized workshop in the Netherlands - had a strong influence on the spread of the style of one master, unprecedented for the 15th century, ultimately relegated this style to the sum of stencil techniques and even played the role of a brake on painting at the end of the century. And yet the art of the middle of the 15th century cannot be reduced to the Rogier tradition, although it is closely connected with it. The other way is embodied primarily in the work of Dirik Bouts and Albert Ouwater. They, like Rogier, are somewhat alien to the pantheistic admiration for life, and for them the image of a person is increasingly losing touch with the questions of the universe - philosophical, theological and artistic questions, acquiring ever greater concreteness and psychological certainty. But Rogier van der Weyden, a master of heightened dramatic sound, an artist who strove for individual and at the same time sublime images, was mainly interested in the sphere of human spiritual properties. The achievements of Bouts and Ouwater lie in the field of enhancing the everyday authenticity of the image. Among the formal problems, they were more interested in issues related to solving not so much expressive as visual problems (not the sharpness of the picture and the expression of color, but the spatial organization of the picture and the naturalness, naturalness of the light and air environment).

Portrait of a Young Woman, 1445, Art Gallery, Berlin

Saint Ivo, 1450, National Gallery, London

Saint Luke Painting the Image of the Madonna, 1450, Groningen Museum, Bruges

But before moving on to consider the work of these two painters, it is necessary to dwell on a phenomenon of a smaller scale, which shows that the discoveries of the art of the middle of the century, being at the same time a continuation of the van Eyck-Kampen traditions and apostasy from them, were in both these qualities deeply justified. The more conservative painter Petrus Christus vividly demonstrates the historical inevitability of this apostasy, even for artists who are not inclined to radical discoveries. From 1444, Christus became a citizen of Bruges (he died there in 1472/1473) - that is, he saw the best works of van Eyck and was formed under the influence of his tradition. Without resorting to the sharp aphorism of Rogier van der Weyden, Christus achieved a more individualized and differentiated characterization than van Eyck did. However, his portraits (E. Grimston - 1446, London, National Gallery; Carthusian monk - 1446, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) at the same time testify to a certain decrease in imagery in his work. In art, the craving for the concrete, the individual, and the particular was more and more pronounced. Perhaps these trends were most clearly manifested in the work of Bouts. Younger than Rogier van der Weyden (born between 1400 and 1410), he was far from the dramatic and analytical nature of this master. And yet, early Bouts in many ways comes from Rogier. The altarpiece with the "Descent from the Cross" (Granada, Cathedral) and a number of other paintings, such as "The Entombment" (London, National Gallery), testify to a deep study of the work of this artist. But the originality is already noticeable here - Bouts gives his characters more space, he is interested not so much in the emotional environment as in the action, in the very process of it, his characters are more active. The same is true for portraits. In a superb portrait of a man (1462; London, National Gallery), prayerfully raised - although without any exaltation - eyes, a special mouth line and neatly folded hands have such an individual coloring that van Eyck did not know. Even in the details you can feel this personal touch. A somewhat prosaic, but ingenuously real reflection lies on all the works of the master. He is most noticeable in his multi-figured compositions. And especially in his most famous work - the altar of the Louvain church of St. Peter (between 1464 and 1467). If the viewer always perceives the work of van Eyck as a miracle of creativity, creation, then other feelings arise before the works of Bouts. Bouts' compositional work speaks of him more as a director. Mindful of the successes of such a "director's" method (that is, a method in which the artist's task is to arrange, as it were, characteristic characters, organize the stage) in subsequent centuries, one should pay attention to this phenomenon in the work of Dirk Bouts.

The next step in the art of the Netherlands captures the last three or four decades of the 15th century - an extremely difficult time for the life of the country and its culture. This period opens with the work of Jos van Wassenhove (or Joos van Gent; between 1435-1440 - after 1476), an artist who played a significant role in the development of new painting, but who left in 1472 for Italy, acclimatized there and organically included in Italian art. His altarpiece with the "Crucifixion" (Ghent, St. Bavo's Church) testifies to the attraction to the narrative, but at the same time about the desire to deprive the story of cold dispassion. The latter he wants to achieve with the help of grace and decorativeness. His altarpiece is secular in nature, with a light color scheme built on exquisite iridescent tones.
This period continues with the work of the master of exceptional talent - Hugo van der Goes. He was born about 1435, became a master at Ghent in 1467 and died in 1482. The earliest works of Hus include several images of the Madonna and Child, which differ in the lyrical aspect of the image (Philadelphia, Museum of Art, and Brussels, Museum), and the painting "Saint Anna, Mary with Child and a Donor" (Brussels, Museum). Developing the findings of Rogier van der Weyden, Hus sees in the composition not so much a way of harmonic organization of the depicted as a means of concentration and revealing the emotional content of the scene. A person is remarkable for Gus only by the strength of his personal feelings. At the same time, Gus is attracted by tragic feelings. However, the image of Saint Genevieve (on the back of Lamentation) testifies that, in search of naked emotion, Hugo van der Goes began to pay attention to its ethical significance as well. In the Portinari altar, Hus tries to express his faith in the spiritual capabilities of man. But his art becomes nervous and tense. Artistic techniques Gus are diverse - especially when he needs to recreate the spiritual world of a person. Sometimes, as in conveying the reaction of the shepherds, he juxtaposes close feelings in a certain sequence. Sometimes, as in the image of Mary, the artist outlines common features experiences, according to which the viewer finishes the feeling as a whole. Sometimes - in the images of a narrow-eyed angel or Margarita - he resorts to deciphering the image to compositional or rhythmic techniques. Sometimes the very elusiveness of psychological expression turns into a means of characterization for him - just like a reflection of a smile plays on the dry, colorless face of Maria Baroncelli. And a huge role is played by pauses - in the spatial solution and in action. They make it possible to mentally develop, to complete the feeling that the artist has outlined in the image. The nature of the images of Hugo van der Goes always depends on the role they should play as a whole. The third shepherd is really natural, Joseph is fully psychological, the angel to his right is almost surreal, and the images of Margaret and Magdalene are complex, synthetic and built on exceptionally subtle psychological gradations.

Hugo van der Goes always wanted to express, embody in his images the spiritual softness of a person, his inner warmth. But in essence, the last portraits of the artist testify to the growing crisis in Hus's work, because his spiritual structure is generated not so much by the awareness of the individual qualities of the individual, but by the tragic loss of the unity of man and the world for the artist. In the last work - "The Death of Mary" (Bruges, Museum) - this crisis results in the collapse of all the creative aspirations of the artist. The despair of the apostles is hopeless. Their gestures are meaningless. Floating in the radiance of Christ, with his suffering, it seems to justify their suffering, and his pierced palms are turned out to the viewer, and a figure of indefinite size violates the large-scale structure and sense of reality. It is also impossible to understand the measure of the reality of the experience of the apostles, for they all have the same feeling. And it is not so much theirs as the artist's. But its bearers are still physically real and psychologically convincing. Similar images will be revived later, when at the end of the 15th century in the Dutch culture the century-old tradition (with Bosch) comes to its end. A strange zigzag forms the basis of the composition of the picture and organizes it: the seated apostle, only motionless, looking at the viewer, is tilted from left to right, the prostrate Mary is from right to left, Christ, floating, is from left to right. And the same zigzag in colors: the figure of the seated color is associated with Mary, the one lying on a dull blue fabric, in a robe also blue, but the blue is the ultimate, extreme, then the ethereal, immaterial blueness of Christ. And around the colors of the robes of the apostles: yellow, green, blue - infinitely cold, clear, unnatural. The feeling in "Assumption" is naked. It leaves no room for hope or humanity. At the end of his life, Hugo van der Goes went to a monastery, his very last years were overshadowed by mental illness. Apparently, in these biographical facts one can see a reflection of the tragic contradictions that determined the art of the master. Hus's work was known and appreciated, and it attracted attention even outside the Netherlands. Jean Clouet the Elder (Master of Moulin) was strongly influenced by his art, Domenico Ghirlandaio knew and studied the Portinari altarpiece. However, his contemporaries did not understand him. Netherlandish art was steadily leaning towards a different path, and a few traces of the impact of Hus's work only set off the strength and prevalence of these other trends. They manifested themselves with the greatest completeness and consistency in the works of Hans Memling.

Earthly vanity, triptych, central panel,

Hell, left panel of the triptych "Earthly Vanity",
1485, Museum fine arts, Strastbourg

Hans Memling, apparently born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt am Main, in 1433 (died 1494), the artist received excellent training from Rogier and, having moved to Bruges, gained wide popularity there. Already relatively early works discover the direction of his search. The beginnings of light and sublime received from him a much more secular and earthly meaning, and everything earthly - some ideal elation. An example is the altar with the Madonna, saints and donors (London, National Gallery). Memling seeks to preserve the everyday appearance of his real heroes and bring ideal heroes closer to them. The exalted beginning ceases to be an expression of certain pantheistically understood general world forces and turns into a natural spiritual property of a person. The principles of Memling's work come through more clearly in the so-called Floreins-Altar (1479; Bruges, Memling Museum), the main stage and the right wing of which are, in essence, free copies of the corresponding parts of Rogier's Munich altarpiece. He drastically reduces the size of the altar, cuts off the top and sides of Rogier's composition, reduces the number of figures and, as it were, brings the action closer to the viewer. The event loses its majestic scope. The images of the participants are deprived of representativeness and acquire private features, the composition is a shade of soft harmony, and the color, while maintaining purity and transparency, completely loses Rogier's cold, sharp sonority. It seems to tremble with light, clear shades. Even more characteristic is the Annunciation (circa 1482; New York, Leman collection), where Rogier's scheme is used; the image of Mary is given the features of soft idealization, the angel is significantly genreized, and the interior items are written out with van Eyckian love. At the same time, motives Italian Renaissance- garlands, putti, etc., and the compositional structure becomes more and more measured and clear (triptych with "Madonna and Child, Angel and Donor", Vienna). The artist tries to blur the line between the concrete, burgher-like beginning and the idealizing, harmonious one.

Memling's art attracted the close attention of the masters of the northern provinces. But they were also interested in other features - those that were associated with the influence of Hus. The northern provinces, including Holland, lagged behind the southern ones in that period both economically and spiritually. Early Dutch painting generally did not go beyond the late medieval yet provincial mold, and its craft never rose to the level of the artistry of the Flemish painters. Only from the last quarter of the 15th century did the situation change thanks to the art of Hertgen tot sint Jans. He lived in Harlem, with the monks of St. John (to which he owes his nickname - Sint Jans in translation means St. John) and died young - twenty-eight years old (born in Leiden (?) around 1460/65, died in Harlem in 1490-1495 ). Gertgen vaguely felt the anxiety that worried Hus. But without rising to his tragic insights, he discovered the soft charm of simple human feeling. He is close to Gus with his interest in the inner, spiritual world of man. Among the major works of Gertgen is an altarpiece written for the Harlem Johnites. From it, the right, now sawn double-sided sash, has been preserved. Its inner side is a large multi-figure mourning scene. Gertgen achieves both goals set by the time: conveying warmth, humanity of feeling and creating a vitally convincing narrative. The latter is especially noticeable on the outer side of the leaf, which depicts the burning of the remains of John the Baptist by Julian the Apostate. The participants in the action are endowed with an exaggerated characteristic, and the action is divided into a number of independent scenes, each of which is presented with lively observation. Along the way, the master creates, perhaps one of the first in European art new time of group portraits: built on the principle of a simple combination portrait characteristics, it anticipates the work of the 16th century. To understand the work of Gertgen, his "Family of Christ" (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), presented in a church interior, interpreted as a real spatial environment, gives a lot. The foreground figures remain significant, without showing any feelings, maintaining their everyday appearance with calm dignity. The artist creates images, perhaps the most burgher in character in the art of the Netherlands. At the same time, it is significant that Gertgen understands tenderness, good looks and a certain naivety not as outwardly characteristic signs, but as certain properties. peace of mind person. And this fusion of the burgher feeling of life with deep emotionality is an important feature of Hertgen's work. It is no coincidence that he did not give the spiritual movements of his heroes an exalted universal character. He deliberately prevents his characters from becoming exceptional. Because of this, they seem not individual. They have tenderness and no other feelings or extraneous thoughts, the very clarity and purity of their experiences makes them far from everyday routine. However, the ideality of the image resulting from this never seems abstract or artificial. These features also distinguish one of the best works of the artist, "Nativity" (London, National Gallery), a small picture, fraught with feelings of excitement and surprise.
Gertgen died early, but the principles of his art did not remain in obscurity. However, the Master of the Braunschweig diptych standing closer to him (“Saint Bavo”, Braunschweig, Museum; “Christmas”, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) and some other anonymous masters not so much developed Hertgen's principles as gave them the character of a widespread standard. Perhaps the most significant among them is the Master Virgo inter virgines (named after the painting of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum depicting Mary among the holy virgins), who gravitated not so much to the psychological justification of emotion as to the sharpness of its expression in small, rather everyday and sometimes almost deliberately ugly figures ( Entombment, St. Louis, Museum; Lamentation, Liverpool; Annunciation, Rotterdam). But also. his work is rather evidence of the exhaustion of an age-old tradition than an expression of its development.

A sharp decline in the artistic level is also noticeable in the art of the southern provinces, whose masters were more and more inclined to be carried away by minor everyday details. More interesting than others is the very narrative Master of the legend of St. Ursula, who worked in Bruges in the 80-90s of the 15th century (“The Legend of St. Ursula”; Bruges, Monastery of the Black Sisters), unknown author not devoid of skillful portraits of the Baroncelli spouses (Florence, Uffizi), as well as the very traditional Bruges Master of the legend of St. Lucia (Altar of St. Lucia, 1480, Bruges, St. James Church, as well as a polyptych, Tallinn, Museum). The formation of empty, petty art at the end of the 15th century is the inevitable antithesis of the quests of Huss and Hertgen. Man has lost the main pillar of his worldview - faith in a harmonious and favorable structure of the universe. But if the widespread consequence of this was only the impoverishment of the former concept, then a closer look revealed threatening and mysterious features in the world. To answer the unsolvable questions of time, late medieval allegories, demonology, and gloomy predictions were involved. Holy Scripture. In the context of growing acute social contradictions and severe conflicts, Bosch's art arose.

Hieronymus van Aken, nicknamed Bosch, was born in Hertogenbosch (he died there in 1516), that is, away from the main art centers 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 contemporary art- with his craving for the real, with his concretization of the image of a person, and then - the lowering of his 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. This is his "Operation to extract the stones of stupidity" (Madrid, Prado). The operation is performed by a monk - and here one sees an evil grin at the clergy. But the one to whom it is made looks intently at the viewer, this look makes us involved in the action. Sarcasm grows in Bosch's work, he presents people as passengers on a ship of fools (a painting and a drawing for it in the Louvre). He turns to folk humor - and it takes on a gloomy and bitter shade under his hand.
Bosch comes to the affirmation of the gloomy, irrational and base nature of life. He not only expresses his worldview, his sense of life, but gives it a moral and ethical assessment. Haystack is one of Bosch's most significant works. In this altar, a naked sense of reality is fused with allegoricalness. The haystack alludes to the old Flemish proverb: "The world is a haystack: and everyone takes from it what he can grab"; people in plain sight kiss and play music between an angel and some diabolical creature; fantastic creatures pull the wagon, and the pope, the emperor, ordinary people follow it joyfully and obediently: some run ahead, rush between the wheels and die, crushed. The landscape in the distance is neither fantastic nor fabulous. And above everything - on a cloud - a little Christ with raised hands. However, it would be wrong to think that Bosch gravitates towards the method of allegorical similes. On the contrary, he strives to ensure that his idea is embodied in the very essence of artistic decisions, so that it appears before the viewer not as an encrypted proverb or parable, but as a generalizing unconditional way of life. With a sophistication of fantasy unfamiliar to the Middle Ages, Bosch populates his paintings with creatures that whimsically combine different animal forms, or animal forms with objects of the inanimate world, puts them in obviously improbable relationships. The sky turns red, birds with sails fly through the air, monstrous creatures crawl across the face of the earth. Horse-legged fish open their mouths, and rats are adjacent to them, carrying on their backs reviving wooden snags from which people hatch. The horse's croup turns into a giant jug, and a tailed head sneaks somewhere on thin bare legs. Everything crawls and everything is endowed with sharp, scratching forms. And everything is infected with energy: every creature - small, deceitful, tenacious - is seized with an evil and hasty movement. Bosch gives these phantasmagoric scenes the greatest persuasiveness. He abandons the image of the action unfolding in the foreground and spreads it to the whole world. He imparts to his multi-figured dramatic extravaganzas an eerie tinge in its generality. Sometimes he introduces a dramatization of a proverb into the picture - but there is no humor left in it. And in the center he places a small defenseless figure of St. Anthony. Such, for example, is the altar with the "Temptation of St. Anthony" on the central sash from the Lisbon Museum. But here Bosch shows an unprecedentedly sharp, naked sense of reality (especially in the scenes on the outer doors of the mentioned altar). In the mature works of Bosch, the world is limitless, but its spatiality is different - less impetuous. The air seems clearer and damper. This is how "John on Patmos" is written. On the reverse side of this picture, where scenes of the martyrdom of Christ are depicted in a circle, amazing landscapes are presented: transparent, clean, with wide open spaces of the river, a high sky, and others - tragic and intense ("Crucifixion"). But the more insistently Bosch thinks about people. He tries to find an adequate expression of their life. He resorts to the form of a large altar and creates a strange, phantasmagoric grandiose spectacle of the sinful life of people - the "Garden of Delights".

The artist's latest works strangely combine the fantasy and reality of his previous works, but at the same time they have a sense of sad reconciliation. Clusters of evil creatures are scattered, previously triumphantly spreading across the entire field of the picture. Separate, small, they still hide under a tree, appear from quiet river jets or run through deserted hillocks overgrown with grass. But they decreased in size, lost activity. They no longer attack humans. And he (still this is St. Anthony) sits between them - reads, thinks ("St. Anthony", Prado). Bosch was not interested in the position of one person in the world. Saint Anthony in his previous works is defenseless, pitiful, but not alone - in fact, he is deprived of that share of independence that would allow him to feel lonely. Now the landscape is associated with just one person, and the theme of human loneliness in the world arises in Bosch's work. With Bosch, the art of the 15th century ends. Bosch's work completes this stage of pure insights, then intense searches and tragic disappointments.
But the trend personified by his art was not the only one. No less symptomatic is another trend associated with the work of a master of an immeasurably smaller scale - Gerard David. He died late - in 1523 (born around 1460). But, like Bosch, he closed the 15th century. Already his early works (The Annunciation; Detroit) are of a prosaic-real warehouse; works of the very end of the 1480s (two paintings on the plot of the Court of Cambyses; Bruges, Museum) reveal a close relationship with Bouts; better than other compositions of a lyrical nature with a developed, active landscape environment (“Rest on the Flight into Egypt”; Washington, National Gallery). But most prominently, the impossibility for the master to go beyond the century is visible in his triptych with the Baptism of Christ (early 16th century; Bruges, Museum). The closeness, miniaturization of painting seems to be in direct conflict with the large scale of the picture. Reality in his vision is devoid of life, emasculated. Behind the intensity of color there is neither spiritual tension nor a sense of the preciousness of the universe. The enamel of the painting style is cold, self-contained and devoid of emotional focus.

The 15th century in the Netherlands was a time of great art. By the end of the century, it had exhausted itself. New historical conditions, the transition of society to another stage of development caused new stage in the evolution of art. It originated at the beginning of the 16th century. But in the Netherlands, with the primordial combination of the secular principle, which comes from the van Eycks, which is characteristic of their art, with religious criteria in assessing life phenomena, with the inability to perceive a person in his self-sufficient greatness, beyond questions of spiritual communion with the world or with God, there is a new era in the Netherlands inevitably had to come only after the strongest and most severe crisis of the entire previous worldview. If in Italy High Renaissance was a logical consequence of Quattrocento art, there was no such connection in the Netherlands. The transition to a new era turned out to be especially painful, since in many respects it entailed the denial of previous art. In Italy, a break with medieval traditions occurred as early as the 14th century, and the art of the Italian Renaissance retained the integrity of its development throughout the Renaissance. In the Netherlands, the situation is different. The use of medieval heritage in the 15th century made it difficult to apply established traditions in the 16th century. For Dutch painters, the line between the 15th and 16th centuries was associated with a radical break in the worldview.

If the center of artistic production in the 15th and 16th centuries was perhaps more in Flanders, in the south of the Netherlands, where Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, Bernart van Orley, Jos van Cleve and Hans Bol, where Koninksloo, Herri met de Bles and the painter families Brueghel, Winckbons, Walkenborch and Momper, in the 17th century not only was a balance established between the northern and southern provinces, but, as far as many centers were concerned, it leaned in favor of Holland. However, at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, we observe the most interesting results of the development of painting among the Flemings.

In art, despite the rapid changes in the structure and life of the Netherlands in the second half of the 16th century, there were no particular sharp leaps. And in the Netherlands there was a change of power, followed by the suppression of the Reformation, which caused resistance from the population. An uprising began, the result of which was the withdrawal from Spain in 1579 of the northern provinces united in the Utret Union. We learn more about this time from the fate of artists, many of whom were forced to leave their homeland. In the 17th century, painting becomes more connected with political events.

The Flemings made a decisive contribution to the development of the landscape as an independent genre of painting. After the first beginnings in religious paintings of the 15th century, where the landscape serves only as a background, Paternir, revered by Dürer, did a lot to develop this genre. In the days of Mannerism, the landscape again aroused interest and found final recognition, which was strengthened only in the Baroque era. From at least the middle of the 16th century, Netherlandish landscapes became an important export item.

Since 1528, Paul Bril lived in Rome, who for decades was known as a specialist in this field. Impressed by the landscapes of Annibale Carracci, following Elsheimer, he overcame the manneristic fragmentation in the construction of paintings and, using a small format, approached the ideal of a classical landscape. He painted ideal views of the Roman Company, filled with poetry, with ancient ruins and idyllic staffing.

Roeland Saverey was a student of his brother Jacob, but the school of Brueghel and Gillis van Connixloo probably made a decisive influence on him. His landscapes are often characterized by a wildly romantic note, picturesquely inscribed overgrown ruins are a symbol of frailty, his images of animals have something fantastic. Severei carried Mannerist tendencies deep into the 17th century.

Flemish painting of the 17th century

Flemish painting of the 17th century can be understood as the embodiment of the concept of baroque. An example of this are the paintings of Rubens. He is at the same time a great inspirer and embodyer, without him Jordaens and van Dyck, Snyders and Wildens would be inconceivable, there would be no what we today understand by Flemish Baroque painting.

Development Dutch painting divided into two lines, which over time were to acquire the character of national schools in accordance with the political division of the country, which at first seemed only temporarily existing. The northern provinces, simply called Holland, developed rapidly and had a flourishing trade and important industry. Around 1600, Holland was the richest state in Europe. The southern provinces, present-day Belgium, were under Spanish rule and remained Catholic. Stagnation was observed in the field of economy, and the culture was courtly aristocratic. Art here experienced a grandiose flowering; many brilliant talents, led by Rubens, created Flemish baroque painting, the achievements of which were equal to the contribution of the Dutch, whose outstanding genius is Rembrandt.

The division of his country was especially experienced by Rubens, as a diplomat he tried to achieve the reunification of the country, but soon had to give up hope in this area. His paintings and the entire school clearly show how great the difference between Antwerp and Amsterdam was even then.

Among the Flemish artists of the 17th century, along with Rubens, Jordaens and van Dyck were the most famous; Jordanes retained a relatively independent position, but without the example of Rubens, he is inconceivable, although he was not his student. Jordaens created a world of forms and images, rude in a popular way, more mundane than Rubens's, not so colorfully shining, but still no less broad thematic.

Van Dyck, who was 20 years younger than Rubens and five years younger than Jorden, brought something new, especially to portrait painting, in the Flemish Baroque style developed by Rubens. In the characterization of the portrayed, he is characterized not so much by strength and inner confidence as by some nervousness and refined elegance. In a certain sense, he created the modern image of man. Van Dyck spent his entire life in the shadow of Rubens. He had to constantly compete with Rubens.

Rubens, Jordaens and van Dyck owned a complete thematic repertoire of painting. It is impossible to say whether Rubens was more inclined to religious or mythological assignments, to landscape or portrait, to easel painting or to monumental scenery. In addition to his artistic skill, Rubens had a thorough humanistic education. Many of the master's most outstanding paintings arose thanks to church orders.

IN XVcentury, the most significant cultural center of Northern Europe -Netherlands , a small but rich country, including the territory of present-day Belgium and Holland.

Dutch artistsXVFor centuries, they mainly painted altars, painted portraits and easel paintings commissioned by wealthy citizens. They loved the scenes of the Nativity and the Adoration of the Christ Child, often transferring religious scenes to real life situations. Numerous household items filling this environment for a person of that era contained an important symbolic meaning. So, for example, a washbasin and a towel were perceived as a hint of purity, purity; shoes-li were a symbol of fidelity, a burning candle - matrimony.

Unlike their Italian counterparts, Netherlandish artists rarely depicted people with classically beautiful faces and figures. They poetized the ordinary, "average" person, seeing his value in modesty, piety and integrity.

At the head of the Dutch school of paintingXVcentury stands ingeniousJan van Eyck (about 1390-1441). His famous"Ghent altar" opened new era in the history of Dutch art. Religious symbols are translated into authentic images of the real world.

It is known that the "Ghent Altarpiece" was started by Jan van Eyck's elder brother, Hubert, but the main work fell on Jan.

The doors of the altar are painted inside and out. From the outside, it looks restrained and strict: all images are solved in a single grayish scale. The scene of the Annunciation, the figures of saints and donors (customers) are captured here. On holidays, the doors of the altar flung open and in front of the parishioners, in all the splendor of colors, paintings appeared, embodying the idea of ​​atonement for sins and the coming enlightenment.

With exceptional realism, the nude figures of Adam and Eve, the most renaissance in spirit images of the Ghent Altarpiece, are executed. The landscape backgrounds are magnificent - a typical Dutch landscape in the scene of the Annunciation, a sun-drenched flowering meadow with various vegetation in the scenes of worship of the Lamb.

With the same amazing observation, the world around is recreated in other works by Jan van Eyck. Among the most striking examples is the panorama of a medieval city inMadonna of Chancellor Rolin.

Jan van Eyck was one of the first outstanding portrait painters in Europe. In his work, the portrait genre acquired independence. In addition to paintings that are the usual type of portrait, van Eyck owns a unique work of this genre,"Portrait of the Arnolfinis". This is the first paired portrait in European painting. The spouses are depicted in a small cozy room, where all things have a symbolic meaning, hinting at the sanctity of the marriage vow.

With the name of Jan van Eyck, tradition also links the improvement of the technique of oil painting. He applied the paint layer by layer on the white ground surface of the board, achieving a special transparency of color. The image seemed to glow from within.

In the middle and in the 2nd halfXVcenturies, masters of exceptional talent worked in the Netherlands -Rogier van der Weyden And Hugo van der Goes , whose names can be put next to Jan van Eyck.

Bosch

On the edge XV- XVIcenturies public life The Netherlands was filled with social contradictions. Under these conditions, complex art was bornHieronymus Bosch (near I 450- I 5 I 6, real name Hieronymus van Aken). Bosch was alien to the foundations of the worldview on which he relied dutch school starting with Jan van Eyck. He sees in the world the struggle of two principles, divine and satanic, righteous and sinful, good and evil. The creatures of evil penetrate everywhere: these are unworthy thoughts and deeds, heresy and all kinds of sins (vanity, sinful sexuality, devoid of the light of divine love, stupidity, gluttony), the machinations of the devil tempting holy hermits, and so on. For the first time, the sphere of the ugly as an object of artistic comprehension captivates the painter so much that he uses its grotesque forms. His paintings on the themes of folk proverbs, sayings and parables ("Temptation of St. An-tonia" , "Hay Cart" , "Garden of Delights" ) Bosch inhabits with bizarre-fantastic images, at the same time creepy, nightmarish, and comical. Here the artist comes to the aid of the centuries-old tradition of folk culture of laughter, the motifs of medieval folklore.

In Bosch's fantasy, there is almost always an element of allegory, an allegorical beginning. This feature of his art is most clearly reflected in the triptychs The Garden of Delights, which shows the detrimental consequences of sensual pleasures, and Hay, the plot of which personifies the struggle of mankind for illusory benefits.

Bosch's demonology coexists not only with a deep analysis of human nature and folk humor, but also with a subtle sense of nature (in vast landscape backgrounds).

brueghel

The pinnacle of the Dutch Renaissance was creativityPieter Brueghel the Elder (about 1525 / 30-1569), the closest to the mood of the masses in the era of the advancing Dutch revolution. Brueghel possessed in the highest degree what is called national identity: all the remarkable features of his art were grown on the basis of original Dutch traditions (he was greatly influenced, in particular, by Bosch's work).

For the ability to draw peasant types, the artist was called Breughel "Peasant". Reflections on the fate of the people permeated all his work. Brueghel captures, sometimes in an allegorical, grotesque form, the work and life of the people, severe national disasters (“The Triumph of Death”) and the inexhaustible love of life of the people ("Peasant Wedding" , "Peasant Dance" ). It is characteristic that in the paintings on evangelical themes("Census in Bethlehem" , "Massacre of the innocents" , "Adoration of the Magi in the snow" ) he presented the biblical Bethlehem as an ordinary Dutch village. With a deep knowledge of folk life, he showed the appearance and occupation of the peasants, a typical Dutch landscape, and even the characteristic masonry of houses. It is not difficult to see modern, and not biblical, history in the Massacre of the Innocents: torture, executions, armed attacks on defenseless people - all this happened during the years of unprecedented Spanish oppression in the Netherlands. Other paintings by Brueghel also have symbolic meaning:"Land of lazy people" , "Magpie on the gallows" , "Blind" (terrible, tragic allegory: the path of the blind, carried away into the abyss - is this not life path all mankind?).

The life of the people in the works of Brueghel is inseparable from the life of nature, in the transfer of which the artist showed exceptional skill. His"Snow Hunters" one of the most perfect landscapes in all world painting.

FLEMISH PORTRAIT PAINTING OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE

Flemish painter Jan van Eyck (1385-1441)

Part 1

Margarita, the artist's wife

Portrait of a man in a red turban (possibly self-portrait)

Jan de Leeuw

Man with a ring

male portrait

Marco Barbarigo

Portrait of the Arnolfini couple

Giovanni Arnolfini

Baudouin de Lannoy

man with carnation

Papal Legate Cardinal Niccolò Albergati

Biography of Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck (1390 - 1441) - Flemish painter, brother of Hubert van Eyck (1370 - 1426). Of the two brothers, the older Hubert was the less famous. There is little reliable information about the biography of Hubert van Eyck.

Jan van Eyck was a painter at the court of John of Holland (1422 - 1425) and Philip of Burgundy. While serving Duke Philip, Jan van Eyck made several clandestine diplomatic trips. In 1428, in the biography of van Eyck, a trip to Portugal took place, where he painted a portrait of Philip's bride, Isabella.

Eyck's style, based on the implicit power of realism, served as an important approach in late medieval art. The outstanding achievements of this realistic movement, such as the frescoes of Tommaso da Modena in Treviso, the work of Robert Campin, influenced the style of Jan van Eyck. Experimenting with realism, Jan van Eyck achieved astounding precision, unusually pleasing differences between the quality of materials and natural light. This suggests that his careful delineation of the details of daily life was done with the intention of displaying the splendor of God's creations.

Some writers falsely credit Jan van Eyck with the discovery of oil painting techniques. Undoubtedly, he played a key role in perfecting this technique, achieving with its help an unprecedented richness and saturation of color. Jan van Eyck developed the technique of oil painting.

He gradually achieved pedantic accuracy in depicting the natural world.

Many followers unsuccessfully copied his style. The distinguishing quality of Jan van Eyck's work was the difficult imitation of his work. His influence on the next generation of artists, in northern and southern Europe, cannot be overestimated. The whole evolution of the Flemish painters of the 15th century bore the direct imprint of his style.

Among the works of van Eyck that have survived, the greatest is the "Ghent Altarpiece" - in the Cathedral of Saint-Bavon in Ghent, Belgium. This masterpiece was created by two brothers, Jan and Hubert, and completed in 1432. Exterior panels show the day of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel visited the Virgin Mary, as well as images of St. John the Baptist, John the Evangelist. The interior of the altar consists of the "Adoration of the Lamb", revealing a magnificent landscape, as well as paintings above showing God the Father near the Virgin, John the Baptist, angels playing music, Adam and Eve.

Throughout his life, Jan van Yayk created many magnificent portraits, which are famous for their crystal-clear objectivity and graphic accuracy. Among his paintings: a portrait of an unknown man (1432), a portrait of a man in a red turban (1436), a portrait of Jan de Lieuw (1436) in Vienna, a portrait of his wife Margaret van Eyck (1439) in Bruges. The wedding painting "Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride" (1434, National Gallery of London) along with the figures shows an excellent interior.

In the biography of van Eyck, the artist's special interest has always fallen on the depiction of materials, as well as the special quality of substances. His unsurpassed technical talent was especially well manifested in two religious works - "Our Lady of Chancellor Rolin" (1436) in the Louvre, "Our Lady of Canon van der Pale" (1436) in Bruges. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. exhibits the painting "Proclamation", which is attributed to van Eyck's hand. Some of Jan van Eyck's unfinished paintings are believed to have been finished by Petrus Christus.

"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 critics have long tried to find the origins Northern Renaissance, 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 to late XIX 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 subtle emotionality in the interpretation of religious subjects, attention to phenomena Everyday life and thoughtful, poetic-spiritual elaboration of details. All this will be developed in a realistic Dutch painting subsequent 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 northern Europe, Rogier's expressive manner 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. Last years his were overshadowed 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)

continued artistic traditions Netherlandish painting of the first half of the 15th century. artistic activity 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)

Most famous work- a large altarpiece "Adoration of the Shepherds", or "Portinari Altarpiece", which was painted c. 1475 commissioned by Tommaso Portinari, a 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 to recreate complete picture his creativity is almost impossible. 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 center for Bosch's creativity 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 received 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 the 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).