But these reallocated galleries also facilitate the unification of the Northern paintings (German, Netherlandish, Dutch, Flemish), which had previously been disconnected.

WSJ: The Metropolitan Museum of Art's European Reunion | By Tom L. Freudenheim

Most moving are the gentle faces of the African Magus and his attendant, the only two figures who look directly at the viewer in the c. 1514 "Adoration of the Kings" from the workshop of the Netherlandish master Gerard David.

WSJ: Less Familiar Faces | Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe | Princeton University Art Museum | By Barrymore Laurence Scherer

In this regard, Braque likely knew of the iconographical use of a skull in an extraordinary 15th-century altarpiece panel picture in the Louvre, painted by the Netherlandish master Rogier van der Weyden and named the "Braque Triptych" for the work's patron, one Jehan Braque of Tournai.

WSJ: Vanitas I | Georges Braque | Denying Death | Masterpiece by E.A. Carmean Jr.

It is impossible not to be astonished anew by the display of the Met's five Vermeers and 19 Rembrandts, which are assembled in their own galleries for the first time, and the brilliant display of early Netherlandish portraits, one of several thematic groupings that interrupt the chronology with focal points one might otherwise miss.

WSJ: The Met's European Reunion