Art Enjoyed Over this Quarter

Some of my favorite paintings came from 15th century Flanders painters, Jan van Eyck particularly.  His double portrait of Arnolfini is just breathtaking.  The way Flemish painters described detail in oil paint is absolutely stunning.  The way Van Eyck captures detail in gems, gold, furs and textured fabric is beautiful and simply takes my breath away.  I loved learning that it was mostly Flemish painters who were working in such a detailed manner, their paintings seem to have had to take so long to paint because of the amount of detail and symbolism in each item.  
Albrecht Durer's use of the printing press to distribute and sell his work in order to make himself better known in the art community is one of my favorite things about him.  Not only was he a fantastic artist, he was a smart business man!  Although the subject matter isn't something I am necessarily attracted to, I am not put off by it either.  Not a religious person, I tend to not see the point of religious paintings or works of art, however, when reading about the Reformation (and the Counter Reformation) it made me appreciate the work artists and patrons were trying to do, even if I don't agree with their views.  
You may notice that thus far I have not discussed Italian art.  That isn't because I don't like it, it just isn't as impressive to me, painting-wise.  Michelangelo, for instance was a painter, architect, and sculptor among other things.  I think his sculptures are really where he shines.  Pieta is such a moving piece;  his command of human (male) anatomy is striking.  It is almost as if there are people sitting before you.  The way the muscles are modeled and the toes take the weight of his leg while Mary's shift covers and yet draws attention to her body at the same time.  It strikes me as funny now that he would choose to portray her that way since she is considered to be the Virgin, but is sexualised a bit in this piece.  (Although for a man and woman to really be married, they had to copulate, thereby making Mary not actually a Virgin, only a Virgin when she became pregnant with Jesus.)
Another artist I particularly enjoyed was Hieronymus Bosch.  His command of the surreal goings-on in his paintings is, simply, insane!  His paintings make me feel like I'm on drugs, looking at weird wallpaper that has transformed into something even weirder.  This is probably due to his use of saturated colors, odd actions, alchemical instruments that are larger than the humans, every day objects that are much larger than life and the way he has people literally flying on wings, or fish or other animals.  I would say that since I was already a fan of Surrealist paintings that this is one of my favorites because he seems to be the grandfather of Surrealism.