Chapter 13McKay 438-441

The Renaissance in the North

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: 1436Style: 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 perfection

and materialism• Utopia (1516)• Described Ideal 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.

Francois Rabelais• French humanist and writer• Gargantua and Pantagruel• Literature that spoofs

contemporary society and a call for educational reform

• Gargantua’s travels are interrupted by conversations with absurd characters– Indirectly pokes fun at

clergy, professors, lawyers• Believes institutions mold

individuals

Supper being ended, they consulted of the business in hand, and concluded that about midnight they should fall unawares upon the enemy, to know what manner of watch and ward they kept, and that in the meanwhile they should take a little rest the better to refresh themselves. But Gargantua could not sleep by any means, on which side soever he turned himself. Whereupon the monk said to him, I never sleep soundly but when I am at sermon or prayers. Let us therefore begin, you and I, the seven penitential psalms, to try whether you shall not quickly fall asleep.

POV?Tone

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• Details of domestic interiors• Great skill in portraiture

Jan van Eyck (1395 – 1441)

• More courtly and aristocratic work– Court painter to the

Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good

• Invented oil-based paint

The Virgin and Chancellor Rolin, 1435

Giovanni Giovanni Arnolfini and Arnolfini and

His WifeHis Wife

(Wedding (Wedding Portrait)Portrait)

Jan Van Jan Van

EyckEyck

14341434

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

Quentin Massys (1465-1530)• humanist from Antwerp• Paintings often contain

comentary• Influenced by

da Vinci• Thomas More called him

“the renovator of the old art”

• The Ugly Dutchess, 1525-1530

Massys’ The Moneylender & His Wife, 1514

POV?Commentary?

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)• Greatest of German 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

Dürer

The Last Supper

woodcut, 1510

Durer – The Triumphal

Arch, 1515-1517

The Triumphal Arch, details

The Triumphal Arch, details

Dürer

FourHorsemen

of theApocalypse

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 Henry VIII (left), 1540 and the future Edward and the future Edward VI (above), 1543.VI (above), 1543.

Holbein’s, The Ambassadors,

1533

The Ambassador (details)

Castiglionesque

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)• A pessimistic view of human nature

• Had a wild and lurid imagination.

– Fanciful monsters & apparitions

• Untouched by the values of the Italian Quattrocento, like mathematical perspective

– His figures are flat.

– Perspective is ignored

• More a landscape painter than a portraitist

• Philip II of Spain was an admirer of his work

• Anticipates surrealism of the late 19th & early 20th Centuries

HieronymusBosch

The Garden of Earthy Delights(details)

1500

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 Wedding Dance (1556)Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Fight between Carnival and Lent

The Inn-symbol of enjoyment

The Church-symbol of religion

Note the behavior of those near the church

Note the behavior of those near

the Inn

The Beggars, 1568

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)

El Greco• Domenikos Theotokopoulos1(541 – 1614)• Most important Spanish artist of this period

was Greek• deliberately distorts & elongates his

figures, and seats them in a lurid, unearthly atmosphere

• Often exude a foreboding mood• uses an agitated, flickering light• ignores the rules of perspective, and

heightens the effect by areas of brilliant color

• Greatest Spanish Counter-Reformation painter

• Considered a Mannerist style or Baroque– Reactionary Movement

El Greco

Christ in Agony on the Cross

1600s

The Last Supper, 1570

El Greco

Portrait of aCardinal

1600

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

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

El Greco’s, The Burial of Count

Orgaz, 1578-1580

El Greco

The View of Toledo

1597-1599

Conclusions• The artistic production of Northern

Europe in the 16c was vast, rich, and complex

• The Northern Renaissance ended with a Mannerist phase, which lasted a generation longer in the North than it did in Italy, where it was outmoded by 1600