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The Flemish Primitives

At the same time as the Italian Renaissance, painting flourished in the Low Countries thanks to patronage from the Burgundian dukes. Artists known as “Flemish Primitives” surpassed International Gothic forms of representation to forge new forms of expression, without any real link to the Renaissance. They also developed oil painting techniques. The most famous “Flemish Primitive” painters are Jan Van Eyck, Rogier Van der Weyden and Hans Memling.