In 1902, a large exhibition was organised in Bruges entitled Les Primitifs flamands et l'art ancien. On exhibit were nearly 400 paintings, amongst which were works by (or attributed to) Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, Memling, Bouts, David and Matsys. Over 35,000 people viewed the exhibition. Never before had so many Flemish paintings of this period (15th and early-16th Century) been seen together. Many of the works came from private collections and thus could be seen for the first time in a public context. The impact of this exhibition was unique in scope in that it subsequently stimulated the preservation, acquisition, and research of and on the art of this period and geographic area across all of Northern Europe.
The 'Flemish primitives' were also called 'Les peintres des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux', or their art in German 'Altniederländische Malerei', while in English it was considered 'Early Netherlandish painting' or, when comprising more than the area of Flanders, 'Northern Renaissance painting'. With so many different labels, what then unifies this art of the late-Middle Ages and /or early Renaissance in Flanders? In defining a research area, three aspects can be considered as determiners: stylistic characteristics, geography and chronology.
