<P> Early Netherlandish painting is the work of artists , sometimes known as the Flemish Primitives , active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th - and 16th - century Northern Renaissance ; especially in the flourishing cities of Bruges , Ghent , Mechelen , Louvain , Tournai and Brussels , all in contemporary Belgium . Their work follows the International Gothic style and begins approximately with Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck in the early 1420s . It lasts at least until the death of Gerard David in 1523 , although many scholars extend it to the start of the Dutch Revolt in 1566 or 1568 ( Max J. Friedländer 's acclaimed surveys run through Pieter Bruegel the Elder ) . Early Netherlandish painting coincides with the Early and High Italian Renaissance but is seen as an independent artistic culture , separate from the Renaissance humanism that characterised developments in Italy . Because these painters represent the culmination of the northern European medieval artistic heritage and the incorporation of Renaissance ideals , they are sometimes categorised as belonging to both the Early Renaissance and Late Gothic . </P>
who was one of the first artist to use the netherlandish style of painting
Robert Campin Jan van Eyck