HIGH RENAISSANCE IN NORTHERN EUROPE

1500--1599

Northern European Renaissance

16th CENTURY

GIVEN FREE WILL , WHAT WILL MAN CHOOSE TO QUESTION?

IDEALIZATIONTHE CHURCH

ONE’S BEING (AN EXISTENTIAL QUESTION)

Guiding Question…

Geography of Focus

Guiding Events and FiguresThese may be political, scientific, literary, philosophical, religious

Ca. 1455, Gutenberg develops the printing press

Luther nails his 95 Theses to Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517 Leads to the Protestant Reformation

Pope Leo X excommunicates Luther in 1520; Diet of Worms condemns him in 1521

Henry VIII takes control of Church of England in 1534

In 1609, Galileo adapts telescope for astronomy His scientific beliefs will lead to his excommunication

SCIENCE

Francis Bacon Established scientific

method Privileges observation and

experimentation

Rene Descartes Emphasizes deductive

reasoning in answering philosophical questions

“I think; therefore, I am.”

William Shakespeare Author of 37 plays and 154

sonnets He is “not for an age, but

for all time.”—Ben Johnson

Michel de Montaigne Establishes the essai as an

attempt to answer “What do I know?”

Assumes that we can find our own answers

Reflections of the Age

LITERATURE

GIVEN FREE WILL, WHAT WILL MAN CHOOSE TO QUESTION?

IDEALIZATIONTHE CHURCH

ONE’S BEING (AN EXISTENTIAL QUESTION)

Guiding Question…

IN THE VISUAL ARTS , THE GENRE SCENE I S PREFERRED

IN MUSIC , MADRIGALS ARE POPULAR

Idealization

Given free will, what will man choose to question?

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130

FORM

14 lines

3 quatrains

1 couplet

Iambic pentameter

Unstress/stress

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; A

Coral is far more red than her lips' red: B

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; A

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. B

I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, C

But no such roses see I in her cheeks; D

And in some perfumes is there more delight C

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. D

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know E

That music hath a far more pleasing sound. F

I grant I never saw a goddess go: E

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. F

  And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare G

  As any she belied with false compare. G

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Harvesters, 1565

Shows daily life

Presents moral tales without overt religious symbols

Presents the Protestant Work Ethic

THE WEALTHY WILL SUPPORT THE SPLIT AS THEY WILL NOT BE REQUIRED TO :

a. PAY TAXES TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

b. ADOPT THE RELIGIOUS APPOINTMENTS OF THE PAPACY IN NORTHERN EUROPE

LANDS

The Catholic Church

Given free will, what will man choose to question?

Lucas Cranach’s Portrait of Martin Luther, ca. 1526

Author of the 95 Theses, which argue that faith, not works, brings salvation

Angry that Catholic Church is charging for indulgences and the forgiveness of sins

German monk teaching at Wittenberg University

Click icon to add picture

Scientific Discovery questions Church Authority

Copernicus (1473-1543) argues that the Earth revolves around the sun Based on a Greek geographer and astronomer,

Ptolemy

In 1533, Gemma Fisius explained triangulation in mapmaking and surveying, and in 1553, the principle of longitude

In 1609, Galileo adapts telescope to astronomy

WHAT IS OUR NATURE? OUR PURPOSE? WHY ARE WE HERE?

One’s Being

Given free will, what will man choose to question?

Hieronymous Bosch’s Haywain, ca. 1495--1500

Based on Flemish Proverbs

Message: Man’s nature is avaracious (greedy)

From Hamlet’s Soliloquy

Internal thoughts spoken out loud

Existential in nature

To be, or not to be, that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep,No more; and by a sleep to say we endThe heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummationDevoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;To sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there's the rub:For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,Must give us pause – there's the respectThat makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,The pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay,The insolence of office…But that the dread of something after death…makes us rather bear those ills we haveThan fly to others that we know not of?

In subsequent presentations, you will learn more about:

Middle-class preferences in the Visual Arts

Distinctions between Northern European and Italian styles

These presentations will prepare you to incorporate the information in the assignments and assessments for the week