Flemish school, ca. 1520. "Ecce Homo. Oil on panel.

Flemish school, ca. 1520. "Ecce Homo. Oil on panel.

Flemish school, ca. 1520.
"Ecce Homo.
Oil on panel.
Size: 38 x 29 cm.
The work that occupies us, belonging to the Flemish school, is worked with the precise and meticulous brushstroke, of enormous realism, that characterized the Flemish already from the XV century. On a dark neutral background, the snowy skin of Jesus stands out, bringing great luminosity to the scene, as well as the columns that frame it, with fluted shaft and topped by an arch. During the 15th century, the realistic style of the Netherlands had a great influence abroad, especially in Italy, but in the 16th century the panorama was reversed. The Italian Renaissance spread throughout Europe, and Antwerp became the center of the Flemish school, displacing Bruges and functioning as a center for the penetration of Italian influences. Thus, Mannerist influences arrived in the Netherlands, superimposed on the style of the 15th century. There were many painters who continued the style of the Flemish primitives, but others were so open to Renaissance influences that they even stopped painting on panel, the traditional medium of Flemish painting, and began to paint on canvas like the Italians. The main introducers of the Renaissance in the Netherlands were Jan Gossaert (c.1478-1532) and Bernard Van Orley (c.1489-1541 ), painters who may have traveled to Italy but who, in any case, were able to learn about the new style through other channels of penetration, such as the cartoons that Raphael made for the tapestry series of "The Acts of the Apostles," woven in Brussels, the work of Dürer, who made two trips to Italy and passed through the Netherlands, and the figure of Jacopo de Barbari (c.1445-1515), an Italian painter who traveled to Flanders.