In western history, the fifteenth century was the transition period betwee the Middle Ages and the modern world. During that period, the Alps was the geographic dividing line of the two leading schools of painting in Europe: the Netherlandish school in the north and the Italian school in the south. The early Netherlandish artists painted with newly invented oils, which produced a more accurate and realistic effect in portraiture, still life and landscape paintings. Moreover,they combined the rationale of composing on a plane with that of the three dimensional perspective to make painting symbolic and realistic at the same time. This innovation laid the groundwork for the future development of modern painting.