Under the title Van Eyck to Dürer  the Groeninge Museum in Bruges outlines the artistic exchanges between the Netherlands and Central Europe from about 1420 to 1530.

In terms of dates, the exhibition starts with the generation that included Van Eyck, Campin and Rogier Van Der Weyden and ends with the decade following Albrecht Dürer’s celebrated journey to the Low Countries in 1521.

Ars nova

The first part of the exhibition emphasises the rapid spread of the ‘ars nova’ between 1420 and 1450, Van Eyck’s huge reputation, and his influence on his contemporaries.

In the period following this (roughly 1450-1500) the picture became significantly more complex and it was much less a matter of one-way traffic. Processes of mutual artistic interaction took shape, largely stimulated by travelling artists and by the great and rapid boom in printmaking, which enabled motifs and styles to be distributed at lightning speed. Such painters as Michael Wolgemuth, Martin Schongauer and Hans Holbein the Elder travelled to Flanders from every corner of the Holy Roman Empire and their work was demonstrably influenced by the masters of the Low Countries.

Some of them, Hans Holbein for instance, settled permanently in the Southern Netherlands and themselves even became part of the canon of the Flemish Primitives. But it is equally characteristic of this period that the work (especially the prints) of such masters as Schongauer Israhel von Meckenem and the Hausbuchmeister influenced artists in the Low Countries.

Dürer

The culmination of this process was the printed work of Dürer, which was exceptionally popular in the Low Countries and all over Europe in the first few decades of the 16th century. It is with this artist that the exhibition ends, and the influence he had on the generation that included Jan Gossaert, Joachim Patinir, Barent van Orley and Quinten Massys. In this third wave, the influence came mainly from the East to the Netherlands, thus reversing the process that started with Van Eyck.

Van Eyck to Dürer, at the Groeninge Museum in Bruges

from 29 October 2010 to 30 January 2011.

Dijver 12, 8000 Brugge

www.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be