Download Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance
in the North
Chapter 13
McKay 438-441
Northern Renaissance
• Renaissance ideals spread
outside Italy after 1450
• Much more religious
• Led by Christian Humanists
• Fused Classical and Christian
cultures in order to develop an
ethical way of life
– Stoicism and broadmindedness
fused with love, faith, and hope
• Also stressed reason over
dogma
• Believed humans were
fundamentally good
• Could be improved through
education
Artist: Jan van Eyck
Completion Date: 1436
Style: Northern Renaissance
Series: The Madonna of Canon van der Paele
Thomas More (1478-1535)
• Deeply religious lawyer and adviser to Henry VIII
• Very influenced by Plato’s ideas on the theory of
forms, perfection and materialism
• Utopia (1516)
• Described Ideal “perfect” socialist society
– No private property
– Absolute social equality
– continuous education in Greco-Roman
classics to build rational citizens
– Citizens divide time between manual labor,
business, and learning
– Used gold for chamber pots (placed no value
on material wealth)
– Contradicted pessimistic medieval view of
humans
• Asserted that private property is the source of
conflict and evil
• Major idea: If you improve society’s institutions,
you will improve people
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)
• Major ideas
– Education is means to moral and
intellectual improvement
– Philosophy of Christ
• Stressed philosophy of the
Beatitudes over ceremony
• Used his humanistic learning to better
understand the Bible
• The Education of a Christian Prince
(1504)
– Calls for use of Classics (Cicero, Plato)
to form ethical rulers
• The Praise of Folly
– Satirical criticism of corrupt Church
Amongst the learned the
lawyers claim first place, the
most self-satisfied class of
people, as they roll their rock of
Sisyphus and string together six
hundred laws in the same
breath, no matter whether
relevant or not, piling up
opinion on opinion and gloss on
gloss to make their profession
seem the most difficult of all.
Anything which causes trouble
has special merit in their eyes.
Renaissance Art in Northern Europe
• Should not be considered an appendage to
Italian art
• But, Italian influence was strong
– Painting in OIL, developed in Flanders
– The differences between the two
cultures:
– Italy  change was inspired by
humanism with its emphasis on the
revival of the values of classical antiquity
– Northern Europe  change was driven
by religious reform, the return to Christian
values, and the revolt against the
authority of the Church
• More princes & kings were patrons of artists
Characteristics of Northern Renaissance Art
• Continuation of late medieval attention
to details
• Tendency toward realism & naturalism
(not the classical ideal)
• Fascination with mysterious
supernatural
– less emphasis on the “classical
ideal”
• Interest in landscapes
• More emphasis on middle-class and
peasant life
– Catholic Church had little or no hold
on power
• Details of domestic interiors
• Great skill in portraiture
48-55
Giovanni
Arnolfini and
His Wife
(Wedding
Portrait)
Jan Van
Eyck
1434
Quentin Matsys (Massys) (1465-1530)
• humanist from Antwerp
• Paintings often contain
commentary on society,
religion
• Influenced by da Vinci
• Thomas More called him
“the renovator of the old
art”
• The Ugly Duchess, 15251530
– Likely a real person
who suffered from
Paget's disease
Massys’ The Moneylender & His Wife,
1514
POV?
Commentary?
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
• Greatest of German
Renaissance artists
• Also a scientist
– Wrote books on
geometry, fortifications,
and human proportions
• Self-conscious individualism
of the Renaissance is seen
in his portraits
– Used woodcuts to mass
produce his works
– Began cult of personality
– Signed every work with
monogram AD
•  Self-Portrait at 26, 1498.
Dürer – Self-Portrait in Fur-Collared
Robe, 1500
Albrecht
Dürer’s
Praying
Hands, penand-ink
drawing (c.
1508)
Dürer’s
Adam and
Eve
Dürer
Four
Horsemen
of the
Apocalypse
woodcut,
1498
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
– Rejected the classic ideal
of Italian Renaissance
Artist to the Tudors
Henry VIII (left), 1540
and the future Edward VI
(above), 1543.
Holbein’s,
The
Ambassadors,
1533
Castiglionesque
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569)
• One of the greatest artistic geniuses of his
age
• Flemish style (Flanders)
• Painted common man, his activities,
– referred to as "Peasant Bruegel“
– rituals of village life—including agriculture, hunts,
meals, festivals, dances, and games
– Unsentimental, not romanticized
• Paintings often contain a commentary of
contemporary life
• Biblical themes
• master of landscapes; not a portraitist
– People in his works often have round,
blank, heavy faces
– Not concerned with proportion,
perspective
The Corn Harvest (1565)
Children’s Games
• Painted from God’s
perspective
• 80 different games
– roll hoops, walk on
stilts, mock
tournaments &
weddings …
• children focused on
their games with the
seriousness displayed
by adults in their daily
activities
• mankind is compared
to children who are
entirely absorbed in
their foolish games
and concerns
The Peasant Wedding (1568)