The Northern Renaissance

1. The Northern Renaissance

2. Italian Renaissance = mainly secular • Northern = a mixture of secular and Christian attitudes. • Northern Humanism- Tried to unite classical learning and Christian faith, called Christian humanist. • Hated the worldliness of church excess • wanted a balance of afterlife and secular concerns • emphasized bible readings • wanted to reform church, but also maintain church. • Will lead to Luther’s reformation • Christian Humanist used education to rescue church. • Printing Press- Gutenberg invented movable type. Printed mainly the bible…help spread Renaissance ideas along trade routes throughout Europe…except Russia

3. Writers • Erasmus- (1466-1576) ‘prince of the humanists’ and ‘voice of moderation’. Wrote ‘Praise of Folly’ (1512) that ridiculed society’s attitudes, such as ignorance, greed and superstition. Famous intellectual…called for tolerance. ‘Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched.’…books placed on the ‘Index of Prohibited Books’ • Thomas More- greatest English humanist. Wrote ‘Utopia’ about a flourishing society with no private ownership, ignorance or superstition. A satire of 16th C Europe about living better. Very radical!!! • William Shakespeare- wrote about entire range of human experience and emotions. • Cervantes-wrote ‘Don Quixote’…’greatest novel ever written’… about medieval chivalry. • Rabelais- wrote ‘Gargantua' about giants who believed in unrestrained lives and having many pleasures. • Montaigne- wrote ‘Essay’ about religious skepticism and human behavior.

4. Renaissance Art in Northern Europe • Should not be considered an appendage to Italian art. • The differences between the two cultures: • Italy change was inspired by humanism with its emphasis on the classical antiquity. • Northern Europe  change was driven by religious reform, the return to Christian values, and the revolt against the authority of the Church. Tendancy toward realism. • Both have an attention to details. • Northern Renaissance focused on religious scenes, portraits, peasants and landscapes.

5. Flemish Realism

6. Jan van Eyck (1395 – 1441) • More courtly and aristocratic work. • Court painter to the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good. • The Virgin and Chancellor Rolin, 1435.

7. Van Eyck: The Crucifixion&The Last Judgment1420-1425

8. Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife(Wedding Portrait)Jan Van Eyck1434

9. Jan van Eyck - Giovanni Arnolfini & His Wife(details)

10. Massys’ The Moneylender & His Wife, 1514

13. France

14. Chateau Fontainebleau • Gallery [right] by Rosso Fiorentino & Francesco Primaticcio • 1528-1537

15. Germany

16. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) • The greatest of German artists. • A scholar as well as an artist. • His patron was the Emperor Maximilian I. • Also a scientist • Wrote books on geometry, fortifications, and human proportions. • Self-conscious individualism of the Renaissance is seen in his portraits. •  Self-Portrait at 26, 1498.

17. Dürer – Self-Portrait in Fur-Collared Robe, 1500

18. Dürer The Last Supperwoodcut, 1510

19. England

20. Hans Holbein, the Younger (1497-1543) • One of the great German artists who did most of his work in England. • While in Basel, he befriended Erasmus. • Erasmus Writing, 1523  • Henry VIII was his patron from 1536. • Great portraitist noted for: • Objectivity & detachment. • Doesn’t conceal the weaknesses of his subjects.

21. Artist to the Tudors Henry VIII (left), 1540 and the future Edward VI (above), 1543.

22. Anne of Cleves

23. Holbein’s, The Ambassadors, 1533 A Skull

24. The English Were More Interested in Architecture than Painting Hardwick Hall, designed by Robert Smythson in the 1590s, for the Duchess of Shrewsbury [more medieval in style].

25. Burghley House for William Cecil The largest & grandest house of the early Elizabethan era.

26. The Low Countries

27. Bruegel’s, Hunters in the Snow, 1565

28. Bruegel’s, Winter Scene, 1565

29. Bruegel’s, The Harvesters, 1565

30. Spain

31. Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco) • The most important Spanish artist of this period was Greek. • 1541 – 1614. • He deliberately distorts & elongates his figures, and seats them in a lurid, unearthly atmosphere. • He uses an agitated, flickering light. • He ignores the rules of perspective, and heightens the effect by areas of brilliant color. • His works were a fitting expression of the Spanish Counter-Reformation.

32. El GrecoChrist in Agony on the Cross1600s

33. El GrecoPortrait of aCardinal1600

34. El Greco’s, The Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586-1588

35. El Greco’s, The Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586-1588 (details)

36. El GrecoThe View of Toledo1597-1599

37. Conclusions • The artistic production of Northern Europe in the 16c was vast, rich, and complex.