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Gardner’s Art Through the Ages C23Adam’s A History of Western Art C18

The Age of Reformation

Part One: 16th Century Painting and Printmaking in Northern Europe

Jean Thobaben 2010

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Europe in the 16th Century

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Goals• Understand the consequences of the Protestant

Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation

• Understand the diversity of cultures and artistic styles in Spain and Northern Europe

• Identify artists from the 16th century Spain and Northern Europe

• Recognize and cite artistic terminology from this period

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• The Reformation grew out of dissatisfaction with Church leadership and the perception that popes and upper-level clergy were too concerned with temporal power and material wealth.• Dissatisfaction with the Church led to Martin Luther issuing his 95 Theses, in which he listed objections to Church

practices. • Because the Scriptures were

open to different interpretations, differences arose among the various Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin.

Above: Period print of Martin Luther

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• Northern humanists, such as Desiderius Erasmus and Thomas More, attempted to reconcile humanism with Christianity.

Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam by Quentin Massys 1517, Oil on panel, transferred to canvas, 59 x 46,5 cm, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

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• Catholics and Protestants differed on the role of visual imagery in religion.

• Catholics embraced church decoration as an aid to communicating with God, whereas Protestants believed such imagery could lead to idolatry and distracted viewers from communicating directly with God.

• Because of this, Protestant churches were relatively bare.

• However, Protestants did use art, and especially prints, as a teaching tool.

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Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)

• Bosch’s pictures have always fascinated viewers, but in earlier centuries it was widely assumed that his diabolic scenes were intended merely to amuse or titillate, most people regarded him as “the inventor of monsters and chimeras’.

• For others, Bosch’s art reflects mysterious practices of the Middle Ages.

• No matter what explanation and comprehension of his art might be, Bosch remains the most extravagant painter of his time.

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• There was an old Dutch saying for a person of odd behavior that he had 'a stone in the head'.

• Trading on credulity of simple people, charlatans would offer to extract stones from among those with headaches.

• The 'surgeon' would then tie his patient safely to a bench, make a small cut and under cries, moans and groans of the victim produce a pebble or two covered with blood.

• These 'surgeons' were a popular object of satire in the 17th century.

The Stone Operation. 1475-1480. Oil on panel. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

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Garden of Earthly Delights (Triptych). c.1510. Oil on panel. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

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Hieronymus Bosch. Paradise. c.1504-1510. Oil on panel. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

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Matthias Grünewald (c.1470-1480 - 1528)

• Besides Dürer, Grunewald is the most important representative of Northern painting at the turn of the 16th century.

• His major works include the Isenheim Altarpiece, long believed to be painted by Dürer

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Center: The CrucifixionThe first view of the altar:

L: SaintSebastianR. SaintAnthony

Below:TheEntombment

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Crucifixion

(central section

of the Isenheim

Altar with

closed wings).

1510-1515. Oil on panel.

Musée d'Unte-

rlinden, Colmar, France

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The Crucifixion. Detail. Virgin Mary, St. John Evangelist and St. Mary Magdalene.

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The Crucifixion. Detail. St. John the Baptist.

LINK to this site to view additional images of the Isenheim Altar

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Isenheim Altarpiece (open view), c. 1515, Oil on wood,, Musée d'Unterlinden, ColmarThis is the second view of the altarpiece. When the wings are opened, three scenes of

celebration are revealed: the Annunciation, the Angel Concert for Madonna and Child, and the Resurrection.

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Isenheim Altarpiece (third view), c. 1515, Oil on wood, Musée d'Unterlinden, ColmarThe third view with wings opened again discloses on either side of the carved

innermost shrine two panels, Sts Paul and Antony in the Desert and a Temptation of St Antony.

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• This painting also illustrates Grunewald’s ability to infuse his paintings with strong emotions.

The Mocking of Christ. c.1503. Oil tempera on panel. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.

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Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)

• Though no document attests it, the early meeting between Cranach and Dürer, whose workshop in Nuremberg enjoyed great fame, was unavoidable.

• Cranach had evidently studied Dürer’s graphic art intensively.

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Lucas Cranach's Allegory of Law and Grace is a small woodcut print produced after the Reformation began.It shows the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism.

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• Cranach’s life was closely connected with the life of the Saxon Electors.

• He accompanied Frederick the Wise on his travels to Nuremberg, and to Trient on the occasion of Maximilian I’s coronation.

• He carried out some delicate diplomatic missions and took part in all important events occurring at the court.

• He created numerous portrait of the members of the Electors family and members of the court.

Lucas Cranach the Elder. Portrait of Henry the Devout of Saxony. 1514. Oil on wood. Dresden Gallery, Dresden, Germany.

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Portrait of Martin Luther. 1525. Tempera on wood. Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland

• A friend of Martin Luther, Cranach depicted him several times.

• He became the great portraitist of the Reformation without, however, committing himself to any particular confession.

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Albrecht Dürer(1471-1528)

• The well-traveled and widely admired German artist and printmaker Albrecht Dürer achieved international celebrity.

• He wrote theoretical treatises on a variety of subjects. Albrecht Durer.

Self-Portrait at 28. 1500. Oil on panel. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.

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Dürer's simple and straightforward woodcut of the Last Supper alludes to Lutheran doctrine that the sacrament of Communion was a commemorative event.

                                                                 

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• Dürer conveyed Lutheran ideas in his painting of Four Apostles by giving prominence to John the Evangelist and by showing Peter and John both reading from the Bible.

• Dürer also included quotations from each of the Four Apostles' books in the German of Luther's translation of the New Testament on the frames of each panel.

The Four Holy Men, 1526, Oil on panelEach panel 215 x 76 cm, Alte Pinakothe, Munich

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• Dürer's Lutheran sympathies are also apparent in his engraved portrait of the Protestant scholar Philipp Melanchthon.

ALBRECHT DÜRER, Philipp Melanchthon, 1526. Engraving, 6 7/8" x 5 1/16". British Museum, London.

The Revelation of St John: 4. The Four Riders of the Apocalypse, 1497-98, Woodcut, 399 x 286 mm, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe

• To Dürer's about 60 paintings more than a thousand drawings and watercolors, about 250 woodcuts, 96 engravings, 6 etchings, and 3 drypoints should be added.

• This would mean that the artist Dürer should not be understood or appreciated only through his painting.

• Dürer was primarily a graphic artist - indubitably the greatest draftsman of his time, and among the most accomplished draftsmen that ever lived.

• He was the first to introduce the production of printed graphics in his own publishing business on an equal footing with the running of a painter's workshop.

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Link to videos describing the printing processes:Printmaking Processes: Relief (4:33)

Printmaking Processes: Intaglio (8:14)

Printmaking Techniques• The woodcut is the art of engraving on wood by hollowing

out with chisels areas of a plank of usually cherry wood, pear, apple or boxwood, leaving a design on the surface. The transfer of this design onto paper is achieved by inking the surface

• Intaglio – the distinguishing feature is the fact that the ink forming the design is printed only from the recessed areas of the plate.

• Among intaglio techniques are:– engraving, – etching,– drypoint

• with typographic ink and applying pressure with a press.

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• Dürer's interest in classical ideas, as transmitted through Italian Renaissance artists, is seen in his engraving The Fall of Man (Adam and Eve), for which he studied the Vitruvian theory of human proportions.

• Adam and Eve are idealized figures who otherwise stand in a carefully observed landscape with detailed foliage and animals. The animals are believed to be symbolic references to the four humors. Adam and Eve, 1504, Albrecht Dürer Engraving; 9 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.

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• Dürer's finely detailed engraving

Knight, Death, and the Devil is both idealized and naturalistic.

Albrecht Dürer , Knight, Death and Devil, 1513, engraving on laid paper, sheet: 24.8 x 19 cm (9 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.)

Link to video: Albrecht Dürer: Image of a

Master (21:00) http://digital.films.com/play/NXRXCK  

• Dürer's precise watercolor study of a piece of turf is scientifically accurate.

Durer, Albrecht,The Large Turf, 1503Watercolor and gouache on paper, 41 x 32 cm, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

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Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538)

• A German painter, engraver, architect and leading member of the ‘Danube School’ of German painting.

• His most outstanding works are biblical and historical subjects set against highly imaginative and atmospheric landscape backgrounds. Albrecht Altdorfer.

The Rest on the Flight into Egypt. 1510. Oil on panel. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany

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• He was the first European artist to paint a ‘pure’ landscape, and in many of his other paintings figure and landscape merge in such a way that the scenic becomes the background.

Albrecht Altdorfer. St. George. 1510. Oil on wood. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

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• He was also the first to paint a major battle picture.

• The Battle of Issus shows the defeat of Darius in 333 B.C. by Alexander the Great at Arbela on the Issus River.

• Seen from a bird's eye view, the battle takes place within a vast panoramic landscape.

Alexander's Victory (The Battle at the Issus). 1529. Oil tempera on wood. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

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 Hans Holbein the Younger(1497/8 - 1543)

• Hans Holbein the Younger, son of the painter Hans Holbein the Elder, was both in education and career, a cosmopolitan.

• He worked in Basel, Lucerne, and Zurich from 1515 to 1526.

• From 1526 to 1528 he was in London, but returned to Basel for the next four years.

• From 1532 he was again in London and died there of the plague in 1543.

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• Religious paintings form a significant part of the work Holbein produced in Basel.

• From modest, private commissions in the period 1519-20 (e.g. the Man of Sorrows), through The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb (1521)…

Hans Holbein. The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb. 1521. Oil on wood. Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

• In this beautiful Madonna Holbein incorporates portraits of the Meyer family into the foreground of the painting.

Hans Holbein. Meyer Madonna. 1526. Oil on wood. Schlossmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany. 37

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• From 1528, he concentrated solely on portrait painting.

• In London he executed the Portrait of Georg Gisze of Danzig (1532), and soon came to the notice of Henry VIII and members of his court.

Hans Holbein. Portrait of Georg Gisze of Danzig. 1532. Oil on wood. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany.

• His observation of detail, psychological penetration of his sitters and superb handling of color made him the greatest portrait painter of German art.

Hans Holbein. Portrait of Sir Thomas More. 1527. Oil on wood. The Frick Collection, New York, USA.

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Hans Holbein. The Ambassadors. 1533. Oil on wood. National Gallery, London, UK

Hans Holbein the Younger's meticulously painted double portrait of the French humanist ambassadors to England, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve.

• Holbein painted portraits of all the members of the royal family.

Holbein, Hans, Henry VIII, c. 1536Oak, 27.5 x 17.5 cmThyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid

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.….Including images of prospective brides.• Christina of Denmark rejected Henry and

supposedly told the English ambassador that "If I had two heads, one should be at the King of England's disposal."

• After turning down Henry's proposal, in 1541 she married Francis,Duke of Bar. In an interesting twist of fate, this was the prince who had been betrothed to Anne of Cleves (next slide) who became the 4th wife of Henry VIII, after he was turned down by Christina.

Christina of Denmark, 1538, Oak, 179 x 82.5 cmNational Gallery, London 42

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Anne of Cleves, 1538-9Parchment glued on canvas65 x 48 cmMusee du Louvre, Paris

• Anne of Cleves was the fourth wife of Henry VIII and as such she was Queen of England for 6 months in 1540. The marriage was never consummated. Following the annulment of their marriage, Anne was given a generous settlement and thereafter referred to as the King's Beloved Sister. She was the second longest-lived of all of Henry's wives, after Catherine of Aragon, and the last of them to die.

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THE NETHERLANDS• At the beginning of the 16th century, the

Netherlands consisted of 17 provinces under Spanish control.

• The seven northern provinces were predominantly Germanic in culture, Dutch speaking, and Calvinist, while the southern provinces were largely French and Flemish speaking, Catholic, and culturally linked to France.

• In the 16th century, the Netherlands became commercially advanced and prosperous through overseas trade and shipbuilding.

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Jan Gossaert(1462/70 - 1533/41)

• Gossaert shows an interest in classicism in Neptune and Amphitrite.

Neptune and Amphitrite. 1516. Oil on

panel. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany

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Quentin Massys

(c. 1464/65-1530)

• Quentin Massys's Money-Changer and His Wife shows a man holding scales and checking the weight of coins on the table.

• His wife interrupts her reading of a prayer book to watch him.

• The painting includes numerous references to the importance of a moral, righteous, and spiritual life.

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• Although at first glance, Pieter Aetsen's painting Meat Still-Life appears to be a genre scene, it is embedded with strategically placed religious images which allude to salvation through Christ.

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• Caterina van Hemessen's self-portrait is purportedly the first known northern European self-portrait by a woman.

Self-Portrait, 1548. Panel, 12 1/4" x 9 7/8". Kunstmuseum, Öffentiliche Kunstsammlung Basel.

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• Joachim Patinir's Landscape with Saint Jerome, which shows the saint removing a thorn from a lion's paw in the foreground, subordinates the biblical scene to the exotic and detailed landscape.

• The sense of an expansive landscape is amplified by using color to enhance the visual effect of recession and advance.

Landscape with Saint Jerome, ca. 1520-1524. Oil on panel, 2' 51/8" x 2' 117/8". Prado, Madrid.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569)

• Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was probably the most significant and exciting painter in the Northern Europe during the middle part of the sixteenth century.

• His nickname “Peasant Bruegel” indicates to his subjects: peasant life, proverbs and genre scenes, the New Testament topics set among common folks of contemporary Flanders.

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51Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Big Fish Eat Little Fish. 1556. Ink on paper.

Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, Austria.

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• Pieter Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow, which is one of five surviving paintings of a series of six illustrating seasonal changes in the year, shows a winter scene with human figures in a snowy landscape.

• Bruegel rendered the landscape in an optically accurate manner.

Hunters in the Snow, 1565. Oil on panel, approx. 3' 10" x 5' 4". Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

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• Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs depicts in a bird's eye view a typical Netherlandish village populated by a wide range of people (nobility, peasants, and clerics) in order to illustrate over one hundred proverbs.

Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559. Oil on panel, 3' 10" x 5' 41/8". Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

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• Bruehgel’s Tower of Babel is infused with the architectural influence of his trip to Italy where he was impressed by the coliseum and other Roman ruins.

• He filled the painting with hundreds of tiny figures that contrast with the massive tower structure.

The Tower of Babel 1563, Oil on oak panel, 114 x 155 cm;Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna

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Discussion Questions How does art influence or reflect religion?

How does Protestant art differ from Catholic art during the Reformation and Counter Reformation?

Does religion influence art today? If so, how? How prevalent is religious art today? Why?