--Brussels Library--Splendid Netherlandish MSS. at
Vienna--Gerard David and the Grimani Breviary--British Museum--"Romance
of the Rose"--"Isabella" Breviary--Grisailles.
In speaking of the Netherlands we have to bear in mind that some
portions of what are now called the Netherlands were once parts of
Germany, while others were parts of France. In the thirteenth century
Netherlandish art was simply a variety either of Northern German or
Northern French. The earlier schools of Flanders and Hainaut, and
perhaps of Brabant, belong rather to France, while Holland, Limburg,
Luxembourg, and the Rhine districts were more inclined towards Germany.
But as soon as the schools of Ghent and Bruges and other Burgundian
centres began to assert their claims, it was speedily apparent that they
had an individuality of their own. In no country had the study of nature
a more direct influence on the character of illumination. The
allegorical method which so long had characterised both French and
German art was promptly abandoned, and direct realism both in figure and
landscape became the prevailing characteristic. Symbolism, it is true,
remained in the representation of cities and other generalities of
pictorial composition, but the details were in all cases direct
imitations of contemporary facts.
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