The Netherlands was an important center of cloth production and was famous for its tapestries, exported all over Europe. The Netherlands also attracted and inspired some of the most talented artists of the Renaissance. Artists of the Netherlands were particularly interested in recording the reality of the visible world. Jan van Eyck, a Belgian painter, is credited with being the first to fully understand the potential of oil paint to reproduce reality.

His techniques with oil paint were copied all over Europe. Perhaps this interest in reality explains the reason portraits were so popular during the Renaissance in this region. Northern patrons, from Hapsburg royalty to merchants and craftspeople, had their likenesses captured in portraits during this period.

The Reformation began in 1517 when Martin Luther, a German monk, protested the sale of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church. Buying indulgences allowed wealthy Catholics to be pardoned from some of the penalty for sins. Catholics who had the money, could literally buy their way into heaven.

The Reformation expressed a different view of Christian practice and led to the creation of the Protestant (meaning protest) church. The Roman Catholic Church mounted the Counter-Reformation, denouncing the Protestants. In Italy and Spain, the Counter-Reformation had an immense impact on the arts and religious images increased; while in the Netherlands where Protestants remained popular, religious art continued to decline and interest in the real world grew and flourished.