Culture
The Low Countries played an important part in the artistic, scientific, and religious life of Europe. In the late Middle Ages, when prosperity was increasing and the princely houses, particularly that of the Burgundians, as well as the middle classes in the towns, were encouraging progress, the Low Countries began to make independent contributions to cultural life.
The most original of these were in the field of visual and applied arts. From the late 14th century the Low Countries produced sculptors like Claus Sluter, whose most famous works are the funerary monuments for the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, and his wife at Dijon, France, and painters like Melchior Broederlam who also served the duke. In the 15th century, however, the cities in the southern Low Countries became the core of cultural activity, because the duke’s court resided mostly in that region and because the local bourgeoisie, clergy, and noblemen profited from the Burgundian prosperity and could invest in works of art, which allowed them to share somewhat in the splendour of the court. The main centres were Ghent (Jan and Hubert van Eyck and Hugo van der Goes), Leuven (Dieric Bouts), Brussels (Rogier van der Weyden), and Brugge (Hans Memling and Gerard David). Each of these masters stands for a school of followers. Miniature painting similarly was a most flourishing activity, reaching its first height in the northern Low Countries (Utrecht) about 1400, but rising also in the south through the 15th century. Tapestry weavers in Arras attained a unique quality, which was imitated in Tournai, Brussels, Oudenaarde, Brugge, Ghent, and elsewhere. Brabant was famous for its woodcut triptychs made in Leuven and Antwerp (then in Brabant), Brugge for its lace, jewelry, and fashionable clothing. All these extraordinary works were exported through Europe, where they won the appreciation of princes, aristocrats, and rich burghers.
In the southern Low Countries, mysticism reached its zenith in the 13th and 14th centuries in the poems of Sister Hadewych and the prose of the prior Joannes Ruusbroec (Jan van Ruysbroeck). Ruusbroec’s writings were founded on a considerable knowledge of theology; it is not certain whether his work had a direct influence on the founding of the religious movement along the IJssel—the modern devotion (devotio moderna)—or whether mysticism merely created the intellectual climate in which the new school of thought could develop. The modern devotion was inspired by Geert Groote (Gerard Groote, 1340–84) of Deventer, who preached, as did many others, the ascetic and pious life and resistance to the secularization of the church. His message was well received, and many lay people found in themselves a desire to live in communities devoted to the service of God; these were the Brethren and Sisters of the Common Life, who later organized themselves into the Windesheim monasteries and convents, which followed Augustinian rules. Their communities were extremely important for both education and religion; they were industrious copyists and brought a simple piety to the lower classes. Their work, like that of the mendicant orders, was a typical product of life in the towns. The movement reached its peak in Thomas à Kempis, from Zwolle, whose Imitatio Christi (The Imitation of Christ) became quite widely read, not least in Dutch versions.