This volume follows on from Pacht's work on the Van Eycks and their circle, to encompass the great artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Figures such as Van Der Weyden, Bouts, Christus, Van Der Goes and Memling, as well as lesser known artists, are examined in turn. With detailed discussion of particular paintings, style and symbolism.

Molly Faries, Indiana University & Groningen University, Re-reading the Evidence: Perspectives on Technical Studies of Early Netherlandish Painting Ron Spronk, Harvard University Art Museum, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Early Years of Conservation and Technical Examinations of Netherlandish Paintings at the Fogg Art Museum J.R.J. Van Asperen de Boer, Professor Emeritus, Groningen University, Slowly towards Improved Infrared Reflectography Equipment Peter Klein, University of Hamburg, Dendrochronological Analyses of Netherlandish Paintings E. Melanie Gifford, Susana Halpne and Suzanne Quillen Lomax, National Gallery of Art, Issues surrounding the painting medium: a case study of a pre-Eyckian altarpiece Teri Hensick, Harvard University Art Museums, The Fogg's Copy After a Lost Van Eyck: Conservation History, Resent Treatment and Technical Examination of the Woman at Her Toilet Gianfranco Pocobene and Ron Spronk, Harvard University Art Museums, The Fogg's Virgin and Child from the Workshop of Dirck Bouts: Findings from Technical Examinations and Recent Conservation Treatment Henry Lie, Harvard University Art Museums, Digital Imaging for the Study of Paintings: Experiences at the Straus Center for Conservation Maryan W. Ainsworth, Metropolitan Museum of Art, What's in a name? The Question of Attribution in Early Netherlandish Painting "The volume brings together the connoisseurship and experience of outstanding scholars and leading scientists. It will highly benefit to all working in the field of technical examination." (H. Verougstraete in Sehepunkte, 5 (2005), nr. 2, 15.02.2005)u

Forty works by early Netherlandish masters from van Eyck to Bosch—reproduced in exquisite detail—are the subject of this breathtaking book that leads readers deep into the paintings to reveal each artist’s astonishing technique and brilliant application of color. The longer we gaze at the paintings of the old masters, the more we appreciate the subtlety and artistry of the painters who created them. This beautiful book offers readers an opportunity to learn and study the art of Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and many other masters of this period and region. It also explores their influence on later artists from the Baroque period. Each of the works is briefly presented along with its historical and contextual background and importance. Then in a series of full-page illustrations, specific details are enlarged to guide the reader carefully and thoughtfully through the piece’s nuances and often overlooked features. The result is the next best thing to a private viewing at a museum—a truly sensuous and emotional experience that will engage both the novice and the expert. Till-Holger Borchert’s texts are informative and engaging as he shares his singular passion for these great works in a magnificent book that will inspire viewers to form their own opinions and exercise their own powers of observation within the context of this important period in art history.

Monographs on Bosch, Van Eyck etc. are numerous. But no affordable work on the subject, the period and the common style of these painters is currently available. This book therefore allows art lovers and students to understand how the art of each of these artists is inter-related.

Otto Pächt's study of the founders of early Netherlandish painting was first published in German in 1989. This paperback translation examines the art of the founders of the style and focuses particularly on the Ghent altarpiece.

Offering a corrective to the common scholarly characterization of seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting as modern, realistic and secularized, Boudewijn Bakker here explores the long history and purpose of landscape in Netherlandish painting. In Bakker's view, early Netherlandish as well as seventeenth-century Dutch painting can be understood only in the context of the intellectual climate of the day. Concentrating on landscape painting as the careful depiction of the visible world, Bakker's analysis takes in the thought of figures seldom consulted by traditional art historians, such as the fifteenth-century philosopher Dionysius the Carthusian, the sixteenth-century religious reformer John Calvin, the geographer Abraham Ortelius and the seventeenth-century poet Constantijn Huygens. Probing their conception of nature as 'the first Book of God' and art as its representation, Bakker identifies a world view that has its roots in the traditional Christian perceptions of God and creation. Landscape and Religion from Van Eyck to Rembrandt imposes a new layer of interpretation on the richly varied landscapes of the great masters. In so doing it adds a new dimension to the insights offered by modern art-historical research. Further, Bakker's explorations of early modern art and literature provide essential background for any student of European intellectual history.