Section 2: The Renaissance
Moves North
Began in Flanders – a region of
northern France, Belgium and the
Netherlands
Artists of Northern Renaissance
Albrecht Durer (1471 – 1528) the
“German Leonardo”
Painter, printer, engraver,
mathematician, theorist from
Nuremberg, Germany – oldest of 18
children!
Studied Italian masters such as
Da Vinci (Florence) & Bellini
(Venice)
Made 2 trips to Italy & 1 to the
Netherlands
Employed techniques in
paintings, engravings (designs
etched on metal plates), prints and
woodcuts
http://www.msu.edu/~cloudsar/nrweb.htm
Durer Self-Portrait (age 28)
(1471-1528)
Dürer deliberately set out to
create a Christ-like image,
with his hand raised to his
chest almost in a pose of
blessing. It was a statement
of faith. Christ was the son
of God, and God had
created Man. For Dürer, the
painting was an
acknowledgment that
artistic skills were a Godgiven talent.
INSCRIPTION: I, Albrecht Dürer of
Nuremberg painted myself thus, with
undying colors, at the age of twentyeight years
Praying Hands (1508)
Pen and ink drawing
Preliminary study for an apostle
Commissioned by Frankfurt
merchant Jakob Heller for an
altarpiece painting
Altarpiece and painting were
destroyed by fire in 1729 at the
residence of Duke Maximilian
of Bavaria in Munich
The story below is probably a
modern myth.
http://www.moytura.com/reflec
tions/prayinghands.htm
Flemish Painters
Jan Van Eyck (13951441)
Patron was Philip the
Good, Duke of Burgundy
(led the capture of Joan of
Arc)
Portrayed townspeople
Detailed religious scenes
perfected oil paint –
lasted longer than tempera
and dried much slower; oil
paints were used in layers
Van Eyck’s oil paint
“recipe” included linseed
oil, walnut oil or poppy
seed oil to bind the
mineral pigments; along
with glass and calcined
bones (heated into a
powder).
The use of oil paints
spread to Venice &
Florence
Da Vinci (1452-1519)
added bee wax to the
mixture.
Jan Van Eyck (1395-1441)
Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and
his Wife/Bride (Giovanna Cenami):
1434
Zoom In!
Flemish Painters continued
Pieter Bruegel (1525-1569) – dropped the h (Brueghel)
from his name in 1559
Known as “Peasant Bruegel”
Traveled to Rome to study; returned to Antwerp and
Brussels
Used vibrant colors
Master of landscapes and lively scenes of peasant life
Peasant Dance and Peasant Wedding are two well-known
paintings
Also painted the Harvesters
Signed his drawings with “Made from life”
Peasant Wedding Details
Peasant Wedding: 1568
Where is the husband?
Peasant Dance: 1568
Northern Humanists
Like the Italian humanists, they stressed education and
classical learning
Put more emphasis on religious themes; 1st major
group to call for reform of the Catholic Church
Criticized abuses of the Church – papacy &
indulgences
Erasmus: Dutch priest and humanist from Rotterdam,
Netherlands, who visited Rome and brought Renaissance
ideas to northern Europe
Thomas More: English humanist & devout Catholic
(opponent of the Protestant Reformation) who was
executed under the reign of Henry VIII of England
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)
Dutch humanist who blended
humanism with strong faith
Produced the 1st
printed/published Greek
edition of the New Testament
wanted the Bible translated
into the vernacular
Called for reform of the
Church – wrote The Praise of
Folly, a satirical work
criticizing the abuses of the
Church
He respected Martin Luther
but chose to remain a Catholic
because he feared a change in
doctrine.
Died of dysentery in Basel
Thomas More (1478-1535)
A friend of Erasmus; wanted
social reform
Wrote Utopia (Latin) to
describe an ideal society
where men and women live in
harmony, all are educated, all
religions are tolerated & order
and discipline prevail over
liberty
Executed for treason in 1535
– He refused to accept the
Act of Supremacy under
King Henry VIII of England.
Canonized in 1935 (Pius XI);
Pope John Paul II made him the
saint of politicians & statesmen
William Shakespeare &
Elizabethan England
English poet and
playwright
Wrote 37 plays
(comedies, tragedies,
histories) between 15901613
Shakespeare Plays
Wrote 154 sonnets on
the subjects of love,
beauty & mortality
Added over 1700 new
words to enrich the
English language
Shakespeare’s Sonnet # 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
More Shakespeare
William (April 23, 1564-April
23, 1616) was born in
Stratford-upon-Avon
He married Anne Hathaway
in 1582. He was 18; she was
26
fathered a daughter Susanna
and twins Judith and Hamnet
(died at 1 yr.)
1594: Became an actor with
Lord Chamberlain’s Men
Plays performed in the
Globe, Rose and Swan
Theatres
Globe Theatre: built in 1599
(Richard Burbage) from the
timbers of “The Theatre”
June 1613: A cannon set fire
to the thatched roof and burnt
the Globe to the ground
(during Henry VIII
performance)
1614: Globe rebuilt
1642: Puritans closed down
all theatres in England
1644: Cromwell’s
Roundheads tore it down &
put up tenement housing
Globe Theatre
Had an octagonal outer wall which enclosed a
roofless pit
Could hold 3,000 playgoers (holds 1,700 today)
Yard (“pit/stinkards”): 1000 people could stand
in front of the stage (1 pence)
Galleries (upper, middle, lower): wooden benches
under thatched roof (2 pence)
Gentlemen’s Room: part of middle gallery…for
richer patrons (3 pence)
Balcony: favored by aristocrats…could be seen
and heard (3 pence)
The Globe Theatre continued
Miguel de Cervantes
(October 9, 1547-April 23, 1616)
Spanish writer and great
literary figure from a town
near Madrid
Traveled to Italy in 1569; served
in the Spanish army in the Battle
of Lepanto in 1571
Captured by pirates &
imprisoned in Algiers for 5 yrs.
Turned to writing to pay off his
debt for the ransom that freed
him
Wrote Don Quixote to mock
medieval chivalry
Don Quixote and his practical
sidekick Sancho Panza battle
windmills (giants), and flocks of
sheep (opposing armies)
The Printing Revolution
1455: Johann Gutenberg (1400-1468) from Mainz,
Germany printed the first complete edition of the Bible
using the printing press—made out of wood & modeled on
the wine press of the Rhineland vineyards.
Development of movable type began a printing
revolution-300 movable pieces are used in the Bible
Gutenberg’s wealthy business partner, Johann Fust, sued
him for an unpaid loan, which had probably gone into
developing the printing press. Gutenberg lost the law suit
and had to turn over much of his equipment to Fust.
Built upon Chinese and Egyptian advances in
papermaking
Gutenberg used handmade paper from Italy –each sheet
contained a watermark – or vellum (scraped calfskin).
Changes in Society
By 1500 more than 20 million copies of the Bible were
printed; of the 180 original Gutenberg Bibles (42-line
Bible) , most were bought by churches and monasteries.
Today, only 48 copies exist worldwide (11 in the United
States).
Gutenberg Bible
Printed books were easier to produce.
Printed books were cheaper.
More people learned to read.
More access to a broad range of knowledge…new ideas
(especially those of the Protestants and Martin Luther)
The press also contributed to the Scientific Revolution.
Johann Gutenberg
The Gutenberg Bible