Panel Painting in the Low Countries in the second half of the 15th Century: The Importance of Utrecht

Abstract

The city of Utrecht in the fifteenth century contained various qualities to uphold a highly developed art market. With approximately twenty thousand inhabitants by the end of the century it was the biggest city of the northern Netherlands, it was the political and ecclesiastical centre of the diocese, and it had a long tradition of manuscript and sculpture production. Nevertheless, concerning the production of panel painting little seems to have survived. This has raised doubts about the importance of Utrecht painters in the fifteenth century among art historians. In this thesis the issue of the importance of Utrecht is re-examined in two chapters. The first chapter describes the existing debate on Utrecht fifteenth century panel painting, covering the leading authors within this field of study, like most notably Hoogewerff, Châtelet, and Defoer. The second chapter concentrates on Utrecht cityscapes on fifteenth and early sixteenth century paintings, with the aim to examine to which extent the identification of buildings results in reliable attributions of these artworks to Utrecht workshops. It became clear that it is indeed difficult to locate an Utrecht school of painting within the confines of the city. However, the importance of Utrecht-trained panel painters did exist outside of the city, with skilled artists active in Flanders and the Lower Rhine region.