Synopsis
Around 1420 a ‘new art’ emerged in Flanders – an artistic turning point as significant as that which occurred at the same time in Renaissance Italy. Though not a ‘renaissance’ in the sense of a classically inspired cultural rebirth as in Italy, the Netherlandish ars nova (as the 20th-century art historian Erwin Panofsky called it) shares many characteristics with its Italian counterpart, notably the striving for naturalism, grounded in the faithful observation of reality. The preeminent figure in this visual revolution was Jan van Eyck (c.1390-1441), the most celebrated painter of his day, followed by the slightly younger Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1400-1464). Dr Paula Nuttall, an expert on the visual culture of the Low Countries in this period, gives three lectures on Van Eyck and Van der Weyden, and their artistic background.