This catalogue, produced for an exhibition which ran from June to
September 2012, analyses the most intriguing question of ixteenthcentury Netherlandish art: Italian Orientation, that is how Late Gothic art was transformed under the influence of Italian inspiration.
The catalogue questions different ways artists chose to respond to new artistic requirements of their age while keeping with essential elements of their own national traditions. At a time of stormy historical events in the sixteenth-century the Netherlands underwent vast changes in its intellectual life and the arts. This century saw a deepening of the divide between medieval and modern cultures with Italian Humanism and Renaissance playing a major role in the formation of the new, humanistic system of values.
This was the first time the Museum of Fine Arts staged an exhibition solely devoted to sixteenth-century Netherlandish drawings.