Flemish art

Painting and sculpture of Flanders (now divided between Belgium, the Netherlands, and France). A distinctive Flemish style emerged in the early 15th century based on manuscript illumination and the art of the Burgundian court. It is distinguished by keen observation, minute attention to detail, bright colours, and superb technique – oil painting was a Flemish invention. Apart from portraits, Flemish art is chiefly religious and often set in contemporary landscapes, townscapes, and interiors.

15th century
During the 14th century painters in Flanders still worked in the French miniature style. This was transformed into a brilliant school of national art in the 15th century by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, who made Bruges the first centre of Flemish art. Other schools arose in Tournai, Ghent, and Louvain. The great names of the early period were Robert Campin, Rogier van der Weyden, Dierick Bouts, Petrus Christus, Hugo ven der Goes, Hans Memling, and Gerard David. The works of this period were mostly religious, though there were also a few outstanding portraits. A closely observed realism, a fascination with rich materials and fabrics, and an elaborate religious symbolism characterize the period.

16th century
Italian influences became strongly felt, and the centre of art production shifted to Antwerp. An important figure is Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse, who changed the whole spirit of Flemish art by Italianizing it under the influence of the work of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Contemporary with Mabuse, however, were painters who defied or ignored the Italian influence. One was the extraordinary painter (who must be classified with the Flemish school, though technically Dutch) Hieronymus Bosch, whose fantasy and strange symbolism are strikingly original. Another was Joachim Patenier, the artist who first painted landscape for its own sake – not merely as a background or irrespective of its inherently exciting or dramatic qualities.

Other 16th-century painters were Bernard van Orley, who was famous for tapestry designs; Michael Coxie, whose work shows the influence of Raphael; Lambert Lombard, who was also an engraver; and Antonio Moro (Mor), who achieved an international reputation as a court portrait painter. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, one of the major figures of the century, painted realistic reflections of Flemish life.

17th century
Peter Paul Rubens, the most eminent representative of Flemish art and one of the greatest painters of any school, excelled in every branch of his art, in portraiture, landscape, religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects. For nearly a century the Flemish school of art may be said to have been a reflection of the principles of Rubens. The young Anthony van Dyck worked in Rubens's workshop for two years. At the outset of his career van Dyck's power of conception was greatly superior to his refined taste as a portrait painter. His influence on portraiture would be felt throughout Europe, but especially in England.

David Teniers the Younger and David Teniers the Elder, together with many minor artists, continued the strong tradition of genre painting. Other 17th-century painters are Frans Snyders, painter of animals and of battle-pieces; Casper de Crayer, whose chief works are altarpieces; Adriaen Brouwer, whose humourous genre scenes combined Dutch and Flemish styles; Jakob Jordaens who, after Rubens's death, was the acknowledged leader of the Antwerp school; Gonzales Coques, a pupil of Pieter Brueghel, who excelled in portraiture, taking van Dyck as his model; and Peter Lely, a portrait painter who worked at the English court.

18th–19th centuries
Flemish art declined rapidly after the 17th century, and in the 18th century only two painters are noteworthy: Cornelius Huysmans (1648–1727) and Jan van Bloemen, known as ‘Orizonte’.

20th century
Modern Belgian art at its best has turned to the irrational, with painters deriving their strength from expressionism and surrealism. Ensor painted the thronging crowds and masks of dreams, his bitter satires looking back to Bosch. The surrealists Paul Delvaux and René Magritte, on the other hand, created dream worlds depicted in a cold realism that echoes back to the earliest masters of the Flemish school.