"L'ensemble constitue une contribution très solide à l'histoire de la peinture de la fin du Moyen Âge dans les anciens Pays-Bas." (C. Heck, dans: Revue de l'art, n° 169/2010-3, p. 75-83)
Summary
The fifth volume examines all the works painted by anonymous
masters. Most works of the 15th and early 16th centuries are not
signed. Several of these works have not proved possible to
attribute to a known painter or to a master with a provisional
name. These works, labelled as anonymous, have been little studied
until now, because they are in general thought to be of lesser
quality, and because researchers have prioritised the study of more
important masters. It is, however, becoming increasingly apparent
that these reflect the ongoing production of the time in the
Southern Netherlands. Beside the fact that these paintings
represent the themes that enjoyed a certain popularity at the time,
their study opens perspectives onto the socio-economic context and
workshop practice. These paintings could be destined for a broad
market and betray different working methods allowing for swift
execution in several copies. Furthermore, two of these anonymous
works, dating from around 1400 or a little bit later, rank amongst
the rare representatives of pictorial production in the Southern
Netherlands prior to the technical innovations introduced by the
Flemish Primitives. This production is by convention called
“pre-Eyckian painting”.