Social ‘Under-painting’ in 15th-century landscape depictions

ABSTRACT This paper examines the background landscape depictions of two late fifteenth-century altarpieces and discusses what these commissions reveal about the contrasting societal and cultural influences affecting the respective patrons. It suggests that their aspirations and self-perceptions are evidenced within differing approaches to landscape depiction at this time. The paintings demonstrate contrasting concerns and cultural identities north and south of the Alps and may relate to divergent symbolic associations utilised within their particular elitist environments.