Early Netherlandish art: Quick Facts

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Photos

Mater Dolorosa (Sorrowing Virgin), oil on panel by the workshop of Dieric Bouts, 1480/1500; in the Art Institute of Chicago.

Flowers, detail from the central panel of the Portinari Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes, c. 1476; in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. The scattered violets indicate Christ's humility; the columbine flowers represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit with which Christ was endowed at birth. The flowers in the albarello (pottery jar) are in royal colours, for Christ was of the royal line of the Israelite King David.

Claus Sluter: Well of Moses

Gothic mirror, detail from The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami by Jan van Eyck, 1434; in the National Gallery, London.

Ghent Altarpiece

Christus, Petrus: Portrait of a Carthusian

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