City Painters in the Burgundian Netherlands

Around 1400, a new official position was created for artists in several major centers in the southern Netherlands, i.e. Antwerp, Louvain, Malines. Appointed by the municipal government, these city painters (called stadsmeester schilders) were paid an annual salary and provided with the benefits and title of civic office. Their primary responsibility was to organize and decorate an annual procession known as the ommegang. While this role continued uninterruptedly for the next one hundred years, for at least two painters--Rogier van der Weyden in Brussels and Dieric Bouts in Louvain--the position was altered to encompass different and apparently more ambitious artistic goals. Drawing on extensive firsthand documentation from municipal accounts and records, this book reconstructs the origins and development of the official city painter over the course of the fifteenth century. At the same time, it addresses the changing status of artists during this period and examines civic patronage as an impetus for generating new artistic goals in the Burgundian Netherlands.