and sometimes as the work of one individual. This points up the sad lack of documentary evidence regarding early Netherlandish painting and the complex problem of attributions; a very large number of paintings cannot be identified with any painter's name and many more have been ascribed to particular artists only on the basis of stylistic analysis. Although this has produced great confusion and controversy, it has also resulted in scrupulous attention being paid to the paintings. This has positive results, as in the identification of certain works as Campin's rather than early works by van der Weyden. As Harbison notes, however, this work is hardly complete and many scholars now hold that some of the most characteristic of Campin's works must have been painted by associates of that artist.
Two such works are the famous MTrode Altarpiece (Lane fig. 25) and the Virgin and Child before a Firescreen (c. 1425) (Smith pl. 6). Regardless of who painted them, they are early examples of major characteristics of fifteenth-century Netherlandish painting
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