Van Eyck to Gossaert: Towards a Northern Renaissance, published alongside the exhibition Jan Gossaert’s Renaissance at the National Gallery, 23 February – 30 May 2011, is a comprehensive account of the Renaissance in the Netherlands & the Low Countries. Objects of beauty & prestige, early Netherlandish paintings were among the most widely sought-after works of the Renaissance. Their appeal lay partly in their materials & astonishing technical refinement, as well as their descriptive realism, emotional power & innovative subject matter. Van Eyck to Gossaert: Towards a Northern Renaissance draws on the extensive collection of the National Gallery, & provides an essay & commentaries on over 50 selected works – all magnificently illustrated in colour. Van Eyck to Gossaert reveals how these artists exploited the medium of oil paint to depict an impossible level of detail – fascination with the surface of things, subtle depictions of light & an uncompromising attitude towards realistically depicting the human face – & explores the essential visual roles played by these paintings in various political & domestic, religious & secular contexts. In their day, Netherlandish artists were internationally renowned; their mastery of the medium of oil paint was emulated across Europe while their interest in landscape & depiction of everyday subjects gave rise to new genres of art. In addition to examining material & technical matters, Van Eyck to Gossaert: Towards a Northern Renaissance considers whether Northern European artists, like some of their Italian counterparts, laid claim to intellectual as well as artistic sophistication. Susan Frances Jones examines one of the most glorious & innovative periods for Netherlandish painting, beginning in the early fifteenth century with Jan van Eyck, & ending in the late sixteenth century with Pieter Bruegel the Elder.