The term early Dutch painters or (less commonly) Dutch primitives for painters who worked in the County of Holland during the fifteenth and the first quarter of the sixteenth century. From this period, partly due to the iconoclasm, only a few paintings have survived. They are mainly murals and frescoes, but also vault are delivered sporadically.

The illuminated manuscripts in this period were made in Holland, have similarities with the large-format paintings, but are ultimately a different tradition and are often not included in overviews. Most of the paintings had a religious function, such tables or memorial altars. In addition there are also independent in 1500 after surviving portraits. Artists are hardly known by name and oeuvre are therefore often attributed to masters with emergency names.