An exploration of a highly innovative and exciting period of art following the careers of artists such as Van Eyck, Dürer and Holbein. Jeffrey Chipps Smith analyses the context of the time, such as the Protestant Reformation and the discovery of the Americas, offering the reader an insight into domestic, civic and court life illustrated by some of the most exquisite artworks ever created. Stimulated by the atmosphere of intellectual curiosity about the individual and the natural world, Northern Renaissance artists, such as Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein, mastered the new techniques of oil painting and printmaking to produce some of the most exquisite art of all time. The works range from tapestries, altarpieces and illuminated manuscripts to churches, palaces and civic architecture. The result is a book that reveals how the Northern Renaissance masters laid the foundations for the art of succeeding centuries.