Flemish versus Netherlandish: A Discourse of Nationalism
This essay shows how scholarship on fifteenth-century Flemish panel painting became intertwined with efforts at national identity-building in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe. Paintings such as Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece were not only dispersed across regional and national boundaries, but were intellectually appropriated for competing national programs. The paintings consequently became a site of conflict between the Latin and Germanic traditions. These conflicts are clearly visible through the shifting terminology of this art, variously claimed as ``Flemish'' and ``Netherlandish.'' Such nationalist discourses shaped future scholarship on Flemish painting and contributed to its perceived inferiority vis-a-vis the Southern artistic tradition.