These cities are very different in character and atmosphere yet all three reflect in many ways the conditions governing the production and reception of art. Known as the Lowlands due to the flatness of the landscape, the huge skies and reflection of light informed many of the artists who worked in it.
Having strong links with Britain through the wool trade, Brugge's textile industry produced the rich fabrics and colours that inhabit many of the interiors painted by Flemish Masters such as Jan van Eyck, Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden.
Church of Our Lady, The Groeningenmuseum, Memling Museum, St. John's Hospital
City Hall, Church of the Holy Blood, Gruuthuse Museum. The Begijnhof
Plantin Moretin Museum, Cathedral of Our Lady, Museum Mayer Van Den Bergh
The altarpiece of the Lamb
The County of Flanders was established by the Carolingian king Charles the Bald in 862. After the murder of Count Charles the Good in Bruges in 1127, the local merchant aristocracy helped resolve the political crisis and in return received political privileges from Count Thierry of Alsace. By the middle of the next century, power was concentrated in the hands of the merchants: in Bruges, government was in the hands of the members of the Flemish Hanse of London from 1241; in Ghent, the '39 aldermen', drawn from about 100 families, ruled from 1228. These urban patricians (burghers) prospered greatly from the wool trade with England; a yearly trade fair was established in 1200.
In 1280, Count Guy de Dampierre, supported by those townspeople excluded from power, challenged the burgher oligarchies, suspending the 39 aldermen in Ghent. The burghers turned to France for help; at the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302 the Counts and the townspeople defeated the French and the burghers, and the merchant oligarchy fell from power.
The Hundred Years War, and increasing competition from English and Italian merchants (see below) brought economic hardship and social unrest; the County split into city states based on Bruges, Ghent and Ypres. Bloody civil disturbances were only quelled after the surrender to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in 1385.
Under Burgundian rule, central authority was re-established. Bruges became the artistic capital of Flanders through the patronage of the Burgundian court. When Flanders passed to the Hapsburgs in 1482, the cities rose in revolt; Bruges succeeded in briefly imprisoning Maximilian of Austria, who took his revenge by moving the trade fairs from Bruges to Antwerp. Bruges, whose port was increasingly blocked by sand, lost her position as Europe's leading trading city.
Antwerp belonged to the 12th century Duchy of Brabant. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Dukes of Brabant granted freedom of trade in the city to English, Venetian and Genoese merchants and Antwerp trade fairs began to flourish. In 1356, in return for financial support, the Duke granted a charter of liberties to the towns of Brabant known as the Joyeuse Entree.
In 1430 the Duchy passed to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and then in 1482 to the Hapsburg Maximilian of Austria, who favoured it over the other Flemish cities, confirming Antwerp's supremacy at their expense. Antwerp quickly became the leading commercial centre of western Europe.
