Few travellers are aware just how attractive and unspoilt are the ancient cities of Flanders, or how glorious are the paintings of the Flemish school when displayed in their original environment.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp and Brussels were among the most prosperous and progressive cities in Europe. Though ruled successively by two of the most illustrious European dynasties – the Burgundian dukes of Burgundy and the House of Habsburg – these great cities were virtually independent. Their flourishing cultural life sustained one of the most brilliant episodes in the history of art.

The Golden Age of Flemish painting was inaugurated at the beginning of the fifteenth century by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, whose consummate skill with the new art of oil painting resulted in pictures which have never been surpassed for their jewel-like brilliance and breathtaking naturalism.

The tradition of exquisite workmanship was continued with the same tranquillity of spirit by such masters as Hans Memling in Bruges and with greater emotionalism by Rogier van der Weyden in Brussels and Hugo van der Goes in Ghent. Hieronymus Bosch was an individualist who specialised in the depiction of diabolical nastiness. The sixteenth century saw a shift towards mannerist displays of virtuoso skill and spiritual tension, though the outstanding painter of the century was another individualist, Pieter Bruegel.

A magnificent culmination was reached in the seventeenth century with Peter Paul Rubens, the greatest painter of the Baroque age. His works are of an unsurpassed vitality and painted with a breadth and bravura which exploited to the utmost the potential of the technique of oil painting.

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