section_path: Spread/Renaissance in the Low Countries
section_name: Renaissance in the Low Countries
paragraph_text: Renaissance in the Low Countries
  
  Culture in the Netherlands at the end of the 15th century was influenced by the Italian Renaissance through trade via Bruges, which made Flanders wealthy. Its nobles commissioned artists who became known across Europe. In science, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius led the way; in cartography, Gerardus Mercator 's map assisted explorers and navigators. In art, Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting ranged from the strange work of Hieronymus Bosch to the everyday life depictions of Pieter Brueghel the Elder.
  
  Erasmus was arguably the Netherlands' best known humanist and Catholic intellectual during the Renaissance.