Chapter 20 - Late Gothic Art - Art of 15th-Century Northern Europe
Piety, Passion, & Politics
Vocabulary: engraving, glazes, intaglio print, oil paint on canvas, printmaking, relief print
-North of Alps experienced the calamities of war and plague
-Black Death, Great Schism, Hundred Years War, move to centralized government
-Emerging capitalism = flourishing of art
-art focuses on piety and political power & relationship between the two
-Majority of pop=Protestant rather than Catholic, commissioned art to fulfill new and unique needs.
-This northern style emerged in the north, in Flanders, c. 1420
-Belgium and Holland= the Low Countries
-16th Century Germany was characterized by social, religious and political upheaval. Artists found
patrons who shared sensibilities which often meant leaving Germany to find them.
-Ital Ren made little impact on North-- Humanism not an important factor
-In Italy, change was inspired by Humanism, with its emphasis on the revival of the values of
classical antiquity. In the North, change was driven by another set of preoccupations: religious
reform, the return to ancient Christian values, and the revolt against the authority of the
Church.
-LG artists took International Gothic as starting point --not Classical Antiquity
-Sculpture and architecture remained more tied to the Gothic tradition
-To S. Italy this art appeared to be post-medieval
-painted in a very detailed, realistic manner-- much precision-- interest in acute accuracy
-perfected uses of oil paint which allowed subtle variations of form
-did not use frescoes
-These artists, van Eycks, van der Weyden, van der Goes, etc., drew their inspiration from illuminated
manuscripts - NOT Classicism.
-TECHNIQUE of oil paint credited to the van EYCK brothers (note=a century before Titian)
-used oil on wooden panels with paint applied with thick, transparent paint glaze, like varnish
-produced works with jewel-like sheen
-ART characterized by:
-multiple vanishing points on same vertical axis
-atmospheric perspective
-clear, precise, sharply focused outlines for figures
-did not have the solidity of Gothic/Ren figures -despite use of heavy draperies
-use of distinct fore, middle, and distance grounds
-keen eye for observation, not Classical idealism-portraits with all blemishes, very lifelike
-use of irregular and complex compostion
-***Ordindary objects are infused with religious symbolism = "disguised symbolism"
GRAPHIC ARTS, p568-69
-Development of printmaking extremely important as medium
Woodcuts, engraving, drypoint, etching
-relief, intaglio processes--See Printmaking handout
Chapter 23 -- Northern Renaissance -- 16th-Century Art of Northern Europe
-The art of northern Europe during the 1500's
-c.1500 Italian Renaissance influence travels to the North
-A Northern Renaissance began to replace Late Gothic
-Humanist traits found in Ital art are introduced in art found in the North, e.g. Germany
-Northern artists wanted to assimilate Ital art into art and traveled south to study first hand
-Protestant Reformation had tremendous impact
-split Christendom in half= religious civil war between Protestants & Catholics
-increased role of laity and religious individualism
-aimed at redefining Christianity, salvation=by faith alone, not the Church
-Late Gothic art was being replaced by a Northern Renaissance
-art characterized by artists -- sudden interest in advances made in Italian Renaissance
-the impact of Ital art varied greatly-- until more unified styles in Baroque of 1600's
-Greatest Northern Ren artists= Grunewald and Durer, both died in 1528
-contemporaries of High Ren artists in Italy
Germany
-Grunewald= Isenheim Altarpiece, c.1510-1515
-a carved shrine with 2 sets of movable wings
-Crucifixion and Lamentation (in predella) formed when closed
- Durer= Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Self-Portrait, Adam and Eve, Knight, Death and Devil,
Melencolia, The Four Apostles
-outlook= Christian humanism
-did much to advance printmaking techniques, esp. in woodblock and engraving
-The Renaissance in the North crystallized around the intense vision and realism of Dürer's work
-Other artists of period= Cranach the Elder, Albrecht Altdorfer and Hans Holbein the Younger
**SEE The French Ambassadors, 1533 (in Gardner)
-Still life, landscapes, and genre scenes (scenes from everyday life) became popular subject matter
in the Netherlands in the 1500?s.
-Protestant iconoclastic zeal very much alive -- public tastes changing
-fewer church related commissions for artists
-built on tradition of the Van Eycks and Master of Flémalle
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Netherlands) explored landscapes and genre scenes
-The Return of the Hunters, Peasant Wedding, c.1565
France, Architecture and Sculpture
-France had closer ties with Italy than northern countries and assimilated Ital style sooner
-Chateau of Chambord, b.1519
-Greek cross plan, functional grouping
-Square Court of the Louvre, Paris, by Pierre Lescot, b. 1546
-Reliefs from the Fontaine des Innocents by Jean Goujon, Paris, 1548-49