Early Renaissance
Chapters 20 & 21
Early Renaissance in the
North:
Background
• Took place in Northern Europe in the trade centers of
Flanders (Belgium), Holland, Germany, and France.
• Cities vied with one another for the most elaborately
decorated cathedrals, town halls, and altarpieces.
• Northern artists of the Renaissance were more
innovative in painting than in sculpture or
architecture.
• Secular art becomes increasingly important.
• Flemish life integrated secular and religious
themes-not meant to be disrespectful-fused
together and brought people closer in their
faith
Northern Painting Masters
• Painters preferred oil paint and refined the
technique.
• Northern artists shared the Italian preference for
the representation of 3D space and lifelike
figures
• Painters preferred sharp, precise details-- some
so small you need a magnifying glass to see
them.
Well of
Moses,
Claus Sluter,
Dijon, France,
1406
• Large sculptural fountain with a Crucifixion
(now destroyed) located over a well. This is the
base.
• Moses holds a copy of his writings, signifying
he holds the position as intermediary between
God and his people
• Horns on his forehead are a reference to having
been in the presence of God
• Served as a water source for a monastery
• This sculpture has immense symbolic
importance• -served as a symbolic "fountain of life”
• -the blood of Christ flowing down over the Old
Testament prophets represents their sins being
washed away and promising everlasting life
• Style:
– Drapery in solid, heavy waves down the
figures
– Complex surfaces seem naturalistic
– Differentiated characteristics
– -coarse drapery
– -smooth flesh
– -silky hair
– Rounded, solid volumes
– Resembles Gothic jamb sculptures
May, Les Tres
Riches Heures,
Limbourg
Brothers, 1406,
Illumination
• The Very Rich Hours of Duke the Berrycommissioned work by Duke of Berry (within
Burgundy, eastern France)
• Series of 12 illuminated manuscript paintings with
months of year used as a Book of Hours.
• Most famous 15th century illuminated manuscript
•Rich with costume detail, lightheartedness,
chivalry, and elegance
•Reflects the artists' interest in precise detail and
rich color
•The Limbourg Brothers expanded conventional
ranges of subject matter to include genre subjects
and gave everyday scenes a prominent place in
art.
• A group of patrician ladies and gentlemen,
preceded by trumpeters, ride out to celebrate
the first day of May (a traditional spring
festival in Northern Europe)
• The people are dressed in springtime green and
fresh-leaved garlands
Another
sceneTres
Riches
Heures,
February
The Ghent Altarpiece, Jan Van Eyck, Flemish
Renaissance, oil on panel, 1432, Belgium
Ghent Altarpiece, with wings open
•Van Eyck trained as a miniaturist and illuminator of
manuscripts, his detail is microscopic. Extreme
realism.
•Commissioned by a Church dedicated to J the Bap.
•This is a polyptych-many paneled painting. On the
salvation from Original Sin of Adam and Eve
•Celebrates the Christian cycle from the Fall to the
Redemption- the entire piece amplifies the central
theme of salvation-
Exterior
• Includes donors at top of the painting, kneeling
with hands clasped in prayer
• Upper Register- Annunciation scene appears as a
representation of a Flemish town
Interior
• Top- God the Father is in the center, sits in
Majesty wearing the Pope’s crown, surrounded
by Mary and John the Baptist, and choirs of
angels
• Adam and Eve appear in the corners
• Shown in hierarchical scale
Deposition, Rogier Van der Weyden, Flemish Renaissance, oil
on wood, 1435
3
• Deposition- taking Christ down from the cross
• had a great impact on northern painting
• created fluid and dynamic compositions stressing
human action, emotion, and drama
• He is known for moving observers emotionally by
relating to the sufferings of Christ
• This is the center panel of the triptych
commissioned for the church of Notre Dame in
Belgium
• Van der Weyden's depiction of the agony of
loss is among the most authentic in religious
art.
• Acknowledged patrons by incorporating a cross
bow, the Archer’s Guild's symbol, into the
corners
• Shallow stage for figures jammed into a
confining space, meant to concentrate the
viewers attention
• Superior attention to details such as elaborate,
rich colors and patterns
• Figures are in a mirrored composition: Christ
and Mary are both end figures and have very
similar poses
• Adam's skull is a reminder that the Crucifixion
took place over his grave
The Last Supper, Dirk Bouts, Flemish
Renaissance, oil on wood, 1468
• Believed to be the first Northern painting to
demonstrate the use of a single vanishing point
for constructing an interior
– Linear perspective already being used in Italy
• All of the room's lines lead to a single point in
space in the center of the mantle piece above
Christ's head
• First Northern artist who adjusted figures' scale
to correspond to the space they occupied
• Used a hierarchal scale for Christ; Christ is the
center of focus
Linear Perspective
• Scientific/mathematical method of creating the
illusion of 3D space on a 2D surface using a
vanishing point, horizon line, and orthagonal
lines
Portinari Altarpiece, Hugo Van der Goes,
Flemish Renaissance, tempera & oil on wood,
1470
• placed in the chapel of Santa Maria Nuovo
Hospital complex
• Commissioned by Tomasso Portinari
• Its placement in the hospital chapel influences
imagery:
– Mary, mother of Christ, is central
– St. Margaret, patron saint of childbirth, is on the
right wing with a dragon at her feet
– Plants in the foreground have medicinal value and
symbolic associations
• Sheaf of wheat that symbolizes the Eucharist
bread
• Contains a continuous landscape throughout
the three panels.
• High horizon typical of Flemish style.
• The figures are of different scales- some very
large, some much smaller (disproportionate)
• Donors and three of their seven children are
in side panels, kneeling before their patron
saints
• Central panel: Mary, Christ child,
shepherds falling to their knees
• Left panel: Saints present alongside
Portinari and his sons. Joseph and Mary in
background
• Right panel: Portinari’s wife alongside St.
Margaret, three wise men
Merode Altarpiece, Robert Campin, Flemish
Renaissance, Triptych/Oil on Wood, 1427
• Artist depicted a well-kept middle class Flemish
home as the site of the Annunciation
• Private devotional piece with images of donor
placed inside-donor portrait
• Left panel– Donors, middle class people, are kneeling before the
holy scene
• Center panel– Annunciation is taking place in everyday Flemish
interior
• Right panel– Joseph in his carpentry workshop
– Mouse trap symbolizes the capturing of the
Devil by using Jesus as bait
• Contains a wealth of Christian symbols– The towels and the water basin symbolize
Christ cleansing the sins of the world
– The lilies have three buds referring to the holy
trinity, the unopened bud represents an
unborn Jesus
– Mary is blocking the fireplace, which signifies
the entrance to hell
– The candlestick signifies that Mary is holding
Christ in her womb
– An angel announcing to Mary that she will be
the mother of Christ
– Tiny Jesus is comes through the window with
his cross as well
• Humanization of traditional themes: no halos,
domestic interiors, view into Flemish
cityscape
• Intricate details, elegant and elongated
draperies
• Steeply rising ground line
• Figures are too large for the architecture they
sit in
• Each panel is seen from a different point
• But the light source is consistent and unified
FYI
• Campin was known as the Master of
Flemalle
• Ingelbrecht was donor-meant angel
bringer
• Donor’s wife’s maiden name was
Scrynmaker-meant cabinet or shrine
maker
FYI
• Campin was known as the Master of
Flemalle
• Ingelbrecht was donor-meant angel
bringer
• Donor’s wife’s maiden name was
Scrynmaker-meant cabinet or shrine
maker
Arnolfini Wedding, Jan Van Eyck, Flemish
Renaissance, oil painting, 1434
• Van Eyck was a master of realism-credited
with inventing oil painting
• Thought to be wedding portrait of Giovanni
Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami
• Intense concentration of minute details
• Everything symbolizes marriage and its
holiness:
– Candle burning represents the presence of God
– Shoes are cast off to indicate Holy Ground
– Dog symbolizes fidelity
– The ripe fruit represents fertility
– St. Margaret finial on bedpost- patron saint of
childbirth
– Medallions in the mirror's frame represent the
Passion of Christ and the promise of Salvation
• Two witnesses in the convex mirror (perhaps
Van Eyck)
Man in a Red Turban, Jan Van Eyck, Flemish
Renaissance, oil on panel, 1433
• Oil on wood
• Possibly a self-portrait ***Secular portrait
• Great skill and detail in reference to the veins in the
bloodshot left eye, the beard stubble, and the
weathered aged skin
• The man looks directly at the viewer or maybe at
himself in the mirror, giving the illusion that from
whatever angle the viewer observes the face, the
eyes are always returning that gaze
• At the top of frame, "As I can" is written; "Jan Van
Eyck made this" is across the bottom
Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymous Bosch, Flemish Renaissance, oil on
wood, 1510
Outside,
Creation of
the World
Left Panel,
Paradise
Left panel:
1. Paradise/The Garden of Eden- the state
of humans in an ideal world
2. Signs of evil to come- animals are violent
and eating one another
3. Adam and Eve are depicted as thin
insubstantial nudes who lack backbone and
resolve and act only on their impulses.
Central Panel,
Garden of
Earthly Delights
(detail)
• Central panel:
1. The Garden of Earthly Delightsthe result of Adam and Eve's sin
2. Primitive humanity indulging in
sexual play
3. Presence of fruit and birds suggest
fertility
4. Animals suggest sexual perversity
Right
Panel,
Hell
3
• Right panel:
1. Hell- the result of the activities in
the central panel
2. Souls are tormented by demons
and made to pay for excesses on earth
3. Musical instruments are used as
symbols of torture
• The altarpiece is believed to symbolize the four stages
of alchemy:
1. Bringing together of opposite elements (left panel)
2. The mixing of the opposite elements (central
panel)
3. The purification process by fire (right panel)
4. The cleansing of the elements (not a panel)
• Figures light and unsubstantial, lack individuality and
will, have no minds of their own
• Some scholars attribute this triptych as a Last
Judgment- a warning to the viewer of the fate awaiting
the sinful, decadent and immoral
• High horizons allow for many details to be
packed in the paintings
• Bosch's moralistic paintings suggested
inventive torments meted out a
punishment for sinners
• Future Surrealists viewed Bosch as their
patron saint
Avignon Pieta, Enguerrand Quarton, French Ren.,
1455, oil on wood
Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons, Martin Schongauer—German
Ren., 1490, Engraving
• 4th c. saint who was a hermit in the woods
• underwent violent temptations, both spiritual and
physical, but overcame them.
• Horrifying demons and spirits of all types beset Saint
Anthony, torturing him almost beyond endurance
• Precise details; tight, vibrant forms; thin emaciated
figures
• Engraving- incised into a metal surface and printed