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Flemish art

World Encyclopedia | Date: 2005

Flemish art (Netherlandish art) Loose art history term used to describe artists working in what roughly corresponds to modern-day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. In the 14th and early 15th centuries, Flemish artists were masters of the International Gothic style, brilliantly characterized by the illuminated manuscripts of the Limbourg brothers. Naturalism became a hallmark of Flemish art, such as the portraits and altarpieces of van Eyck and van der Weyden and the landscape paintings of Bruegel the Elder. The greatest figures of the next era were Anthony Van Dyck, who spent much of his career in England, and Peter Paul Rubens, the chief exponent of Baroque art in n Europe. After 1650, Flemish art went into a long decline. In the 19th century, the leading Belgian artist was James Ensor, a precursor of expressionism. In the 20th century, Magritte and Paul Delvaux both made significant contributions to the surrealism movement. See also Dutch art


© World Encyclopedia 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005.