''Early Netherlandish Painting'' (German: ''Die altniederländische Malerei'') is a pioneering 14-volume series of illustrated books by the German art historian

Max Jakob Friedländer Max Jakob Friedländer (5 July 1867 in Berlin – 11 October 1958 in Amsterdam) was a German museum curator and art historian. He was a specialist in Early Netherlandish painting and the Northern Renaissance, who volunteered at the Kupferstichkab ...

(1867–1958). The first volume was published in 1924, and the series ran until 1937. It was the first comprehensive modern art-historical survey of

Early Netherlandish painting Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...

,The painters are sometimes known as the Flemish Primitives a term often used in art history to describe artists of the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

during the 15th- and 16th-century

Northern Renaissance The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps. From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe. Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renais ...

. Friedländer developed an interest in northern art of the period while director of the

Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum The Bode-Museum (English: ''Bode Museum''), formerly called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (''Emperor Frederick Museum''), is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of Germ ...

in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The collection included a large selection of Flemish paintings, including

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( , ; – July 9, 1441) was a painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. Ac ...

's ''

Madonna in the Church ''Madonna in the Church'' (or ''The Virgin in the Church'') is a small oil panel by the early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. Probably executed between c. 1438–1440, it depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus in a Gothic cathedra ...

'',

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...

's ''

Miraflores Altarpiece ''The Miraflores Altarpiece'' (or ''Triptych of the Virgin'', or ''The Altar of Our Lady'' or the ''Mary Altarpiece'') is a c. 1442-5 oil-on-oak wood panel altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden, in the Gemäldegaleri ...

'' and '' Altar of Saint John'', and

Hugo van der Goes Hugo van der Goes (c. 1430/1440 – 1482) was one of the most significant and original Flemish painters of the late 15th century. Van der Goes was an important painter of altarpieces as well as portraits. He introduced important innovations in pa ...

' '' Adoration of the Maji''. Friedländer was struck by the lack of biographical detail on even the most accomplished of the artists, some of whom were still identified by

notname In art history, a ''Notname'' (, "necessity-name" or "contingency-name") is an invented name given to an artist whose identity has been lost. The practice arose from the need to give such artists and their typically untitled, or generically title ...

s, the sometimes poorly supported attributions, and general historical neglect.McNamee (1998), vii The book focuses on establishing biographical details for the painters, attributing individual works, and detailing their major stylistic themes and techniques. The undertaking was extremely difficult, given the scant historical record of even the most significant artists.Silver (1986), 518 The series was a major influence on

Erwin Panofsky Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover – March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime. Panofsky's work represents a hig ...

's equally seminal ''

Early Netherlandish Painting Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...

'', which expanded on Friedländer's biographical and stylistic analysis to focus on

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

and historical context.

References

Notes

Sources

* McNamee, Maurice. ''Vested Angels: Eucharistic Allusions in Early Netherlandish Paintings''. Peeters Publishers, 1998. * Silver, Larry. "The State of Research in Northern European Art of the Renaissance Era". ''

The Art Bulletin The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...

'', Volume 68, No. 4, 1986 {{refend

External links

All 14 volumes online or for free download
Art history books Case studies

Friedländer Friedländer (Friedlander, or Friedlaender) is a toponymic surname derived from any of German places named Friedland. The surname may refer to: People Friedländer * Adolf Albrecht Friedländer (1870–1949), Austrian neurologist and psych ...