The Haarlem School, 1470 - 1500: The first phase of the flowering of Dutch art

As my writings on the topic has shown, the flowering of Low Countries painting began with the Early Netherlandish (Flemish Primitives) School and the work of Jan van Eyck. Most of the prominent painters of the period were co-resident with their patrons in the cities of Bruges, Ghent, and Brussels. Antwerp gained prominence after Maximilian I moved foreign merchants to that city from Bruges as retaliation for its actions against his regency and its painting school -- The Antwerp Mannerists -- gained prominence as a result. Both of these movements were located in the southern tier of principalities that comprised the Burgundian Circle.

We know of the Masters of the Dutch Golden Age, but who/what were the forerunners of Rembrandt and Hals and Vermeer? To whom do they owe their exalted positions and where/when did that/those person(s) emerge?

Wilhelm Valentiner (The Art of the Low Countries, Doubleday, 1914) identifies Haarlem and Leyden (now Leiden) as the birthplaces of Dutch painting: "Only in those two cities did coherent activity of painting exist shortly before and after the year 1500" though, as he states, Haarlem preceded Leyden by fully a generation.

In Valentiner's view, it is difficult to separate early Dutch painting from its Flemish counterpart:

• Politically the north and south were regarded as a single unit
• Charles the Bold ruled both areas as a unit until his death in 1477
• Rulers resided at Brughes, Ghent, and Brussels
• The van Eycks and van der Weyden resided in those cities also
• In all areas of culture, Holland was affiliated with Flanders and, through Flanders, with Burgundy.

After the untimely death of Charles' daughter Mary, rulership of the Low Countries passed to the Habsburgs and the region became a part of the Holy Roman Empire. By this time the Flemish Primitives as a movement was becoming long in the tooth:

• The struggle with Spain forced art to struggle for its life
• Italian influences were forcing its way onto the Flemish art scene
• Only a limited number of painters (Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Antonio Moro, for example) were keeping the national flag flying.

This state of affairs provided an opening for the emergence of Dutch art and the first phase of its flowering in the period 1470 - 1530. Valentiner divides this flowering into two sub-phases: (i) the last third of the 15th century and (ii) the first third of the 16th century. The former was dominated by the Haarlem School and the latter by the Leyden School.

Last Third of the 15th Century
The Haarlem School was not as well-defined as was the Leyden School. The notable painters  associated with the school are Dirk Bouts, Albert van Ouwater, and Geertgen tot Sint Jans, with notable mentions for Hieronymus Bosch and the Master of Virgo inter Virgines. The problem for this school is that while most of the painters were born in Haarlem, many of them did not actually reside in Haarlem during their productive years; and many of them did not even know each other.

For example, Dirk Bouts (c. 1415 - 1475), the first "early-Dutch" painter of importance, was born in Haarlem but it is not clear where he received his training and he eventually settled, and did most of his painting, in Louvain in Flanders. He was lauded for his use of color and technical skill and has been referred to as the father of landscaping, a noted specialty of Haarlem painters. Art historians can find no definitive linkage between Bouts and Haarlem (beyond his birth) or Bouts and any painters who worked in Haarlem subsequently but he is described by van Mander -- writing in 1604 -- as the founder of the Haarlem School along with Ouwater and Geertgen tot Sint Jans.

In his Lamentation (c. 1460) below, one can see the vivd color and landscape for which he is noted but there is also a stiffness and elongation associated with the body of Jesus that is somewhat unsettling. His Portrait of a Man (1462) shows us his capability for this genre but still provides us a peek at the landscape beyond the window.

Lamentation, c. 1460
Dirk Bouts

Portrait of a Man, 1462
Dirk Bouts

Albert van Ouwater (c. 1410/15 - 1475) was probably born in Oudewater, a town in the Utrecht region. Very little is known about him beyond Mandel's claim of him being a reputable painter and one of the founders of the Haarlem School. The only piece of work widely attributed to him is Raising of Lazarus (1445). This picture has the bright colors that are one of the hallmarks of Haarlem-School paintings, but does not provide a landscape in the background. The composition, though having fewer subjects than does Bouts' Lamentation, has the same three-element grouping of the subjects.

Raising of Lazarus, 1445
Albert van Ouwater

Geertgen tot Sint Jans (1455/1645 - 1485/95) was an outstanding painter active in Haarlem in his day. His name means Little Gerard of of the Brethren of St John and he painted his only known work for the Monastery of the Brothers where he lived as a lay individual. He is identified by the Rijksmuseum as a founder of Northern Netherlandish art who painted with "exceptional quality" and in "fine and surprisingly precise detail." His only known work was a Triptych of the crucifixion  which was painted for the church of the Brethren. Two large panels -- The Lamentation of Christ and The Legend of the Relics of St. John the Baptist -- survive.

Lamentation of Christ is composed along a diagonal with the bright colors and landscape that are hallmarks of the Haarlem School. The Legend of the Relics of St John is also constructed along diagonals but in a layered fashion. The subjects are grouped within those layers and are backed up by a landscaped background.

Lamentation of Christ
Geertgen tot Sint Jans

The Legend of the Relics of St. John the Baptist
Geertgen tot Sint Jans

Hieronymus Bosch (1474 - 1516) -- "one of the most enigmatic artist of his epoch" -- and Master of the Virgo inter Virgines were two painters active in the Northern Netherlands in the same time frame but neither were associated with the Haarlem School. Bosch was born in the town of s'Hertogensbosch and is famous for the fantastic and disturbing details of his panel pictures, works which bring to mind modern-era surrealists. His most famous work is the Garden of Earthly Delights. It is also said that his work did exert some influence on Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

The Garden of Early Delights, 1490 - 1510
Hieronymus Bosch

According to museothyssen.com, the Master of the Virgo inter Virgines -- a name given to the painter by Max Friedlander based on an altarpiece of the Virgin with four Saints -- has been identified as Dirc Jansz, a painter active in Delft between 1474 and 1495. This artist has been described by Friedlander as the "most elegant and realistic of the Early Netherlandish painters" and by museothyssen.com as having a style that was "notably individual and his figures are expressive to the point of hyper-realism.

The Entombment of Christ, c. 1490
Master of the Virgo inter Virgines

I will cover the Leyden School in a follow-up post.

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