This gallery traces the influence of the Italian Renaissance on German, Flemish and Spanish artists. Covering the period between the late 1400s and mid 1600s, works on display show how northern artists began to modify their regional traditions and include elements of Roman sculpture and architecture in their compositions after having spent time in Italy. The small painting of The Toilet of Bathsheba by Johann Koenig shows clear evidence of Italian detailing following the German artist’s arrival in Rome in 1610.
On one wall is a collection of lively oil sketches by Peter Paul Rubens and his assistant Anthony van Dyck as preparatory models for paintings, prints and tapestries. Some of the works completed as a result of these sketches have since been lost or destroyed, while other projects were abandoned and so these studies have an extra value as a record of these lost works by two of the greatest painters of the age.