Ghent–Bruges school

[2] The patronage of Charles continued to play an important role,[5] but the depiction of human figures in the miniatures went from "wooden, clumsily painted stock-figures" to realistic and increasingly large representations of people, eventually developing into half- or full-length portraits.

[2] Simultaneously, but probably unrelatedly,[5] the border decoration of the manuscripts developed towards greater realism and came to occupy a larger part of the page.

[2] The term has been criticised for diverting attention too much to the cities of Ghent and Bruges at a time when manuscript production often was an international or regional undertaking with craftsmen operating in many different urban centres and often collaborating on the same projects.

[8] Christopher de Hamel has on the other hand pointed out that while manuscripts produced in both cities during this time were stylistically similar, illuminators rarely moved between them and they served different markets.

Book production in Ghent, at the time the administrative capital of the region, was oriented towards a domestic, Flemish market while manuscripts made in Bruges were intended mainly for international export.