Flemish Influences on Sculpture in Spain

In the last three quarters of the fifteenth century Spain, like the rest of Europe, was under the spell of Flemish art. The realism of the north had a strong appeal to Spanish taste, and the technical discoveries of Flemish painting and the new iconographies from Flanders and Germany were enthusiastically received. In the second half of the century in particular, tapestries, paintings, and sculptured altarpieces from Flanders were in great demand, as they were across the continent of Europe, and the designs of painters like Jan van Eyck and Roger van der Weyden became both a stimulus and a crutch to Spanish artists.