Seven museums in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region (Arras, Calais, Douai, Dunkerque, Lille, Valenciennes and Saint-Omer) hold a hundred paintings executed in Flanders and the north of France from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Renaissance. These collections include the Altarpiece of St Crispin and St Crispinian, dated around 1410-1420 a rare example of pre-eyckian art, the coat of arms of the knights of the Golden Fleece, and numerous panels by anonymous masters from the end of the 15th-century and the beginning of the 16th-century, an exceptional collection of paintings by Jean Bellegambe including the great Anchin Polyptych, mannerist masters from the second quarter of the 16th-century and Vanity by Jan van Hemessen.
The ninety-four works studied in this volume represent the entirety of works from this period in these collections with the exception of a few Flemish paintings from the Museum of Lille, to be published shortly in a dedicated Corpus by Albert Châtelet. As well as major works of art, a great number of unknown panels and even unpublished paintings are included in the current Repertory, the fifth of the series. Researchers will find new and completely revised material, including many new illustrations made specifically for this volume by the KIK-IRPA, Brussels and the Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris.