Flemish Miniature Painting in the 15th and 16th Centuries

Most art lovers associate Flemish manuscript illumination with richly decorated Books of Hours and illustrations of Biblical themes or chivalrous tales. Examples of these abound in Dogaer’s scholarly study, yet one finds a tremendous diversity of styles and subjects. From the angular, carton-like drawings by the Master of Wavrin to Loyset Liedet’s strange, courtly romances with their tall, thin, figures, this album surveys some 40 aritsts, most of them anonymous. Gerard Horenbout’s Tower of Babel is a powerful allegory. Simon Bening brought the art of miniaturization close to independent panel painting; his unvarnished realism in The Derrick on the Quay in Bruges lets the viewer step back in time. Dogaer, a curator of the Royal Library in Brussels, unravels the cultural and dynastic mythos that the dukes of Burgundy created through scores of illuminators whom they patronized.