Northern
Renaissance
The northern European tradition of
Gothic Art was greatly affected by
the technical and philosophical
advancements of the Renaissance in
Italy. While less concerned with
studies of anatomy and linear
perspective, northern artists were
masters of technique, and their works
are marvels of exquisite detail.
Albrecht Durer
St. Jerome dans sa cellule
1514; Engraving
Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece),
ca. 1427–1432
Workshop of Robert Campin (South
Netherlandish, active by 1406, died 1444)
During this period, central Europe is a seat of religious upheaval, intellectual activity,
and technical innovation. Holy Roman Emperors struggle with increasing difficulty to
control their territorial holdings—the boundaries of which continue to expand until
the late sixteenth century—in the face of opposition from local princes and foreign
threats, especially France and the Ottoman Turks. By the sixteenth century, humanist
ideas from Italy—chiefly a renewed interest in classical scholarship—take root in
central Europe, where they are promoted at centers of learning such as the University
of Wittenberg, founded in 1505. It is here that professor of theology Martin Luther sets
in motion the events leading to the Protestant Reformation, rejecting the authority of a
corrupt clergy and asserting that of the Scriptures themselves.
Of great importance is the rise of printmaking in the fifteenth century, of which the
works of Martin Schongauer (1445–1491) and Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) are the
crowning achievements. An unprecedented demand for sculpture in all materials leads
to radical innovations in southern Germany. Easel painting flourishes throughout the
period; the iconoclastic movement that accompanies the Reformation is a significant
setback for religious painting, whereas secular subject matter rises in popularity.
AuLes Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry:
August, 1412-16,
The Limbourg Brothers
International Gothic Style
Brothers Herman, Paul and Jon
created an elaborate illuminated
Book of Hours which was a personal
devotional book. These books would
include calendar pages, devotional
prayer pages, and excerpts from the
bible. Nobility started to commission
artists to create these books designed
for personal worship. This style
continues in the north until the
Northern Renaissance in the mid
1400s.
Jan van Eyck
[Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1395-1441]
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife
1434
Oil on oak, 82 x 60 cm
National Gallery, London
Giovanni Arnolfini, a prosperous
Italian banker who had settled in
Bruges, and his wife Giovanna
Cenami, stand side by side in the
bridal chamber, facing towards the
viewer. The husband is holding out
his wife's hand.
Despite the restricted space, the painter has contrived to surround them with a host of symbols. To
the left, the oranges placed on the low table and the windowsill are a reminder of an original
innocence, of an age before sin. Unless, that is, they are not in fact oranges but apples (it is difficult
to be certain), in which case they would represent the temptation of knowledge and the Fall. Above
the couple's heads, the candle that has been left burning in broad daylight on one of the branches of
an ornate copper chandelier can be interpreted as the nuptial flame, or as the eye of God. The small
dog in the foreground is an emblem of fidelity and love. Meanwhile, the marriage bed with its bright
red curtains evokes the physical act of love which, according to Christian doctrine, is an essential
part of the perfect union of man and wife.
Although all these different elements are highly charged with meaning, they are of secondary
importance compared to the mirror, the focal point of the whole composition. It has often been
noted that two tiny figures can be seen reflected in it, their image captured as they cross the
threshold of the room. They are the painter himself and a young man, doubtless arriving to act as
witnesses to the marriage. The essential point, however, is the fact that the convex mirror is able to
absorb and reflect in a single image both the floor and the ceiling of the room, as well as the sky and
the garden outside, both of which are otherwise barely visible through the side window. The mirror
thus acts as a sort of hole in the texture of space. It sucks the entire visual world into itself,
transforming it into a representation.
The cubic space in which the Arnolfinis stand is itself a prefiguration of the techniques of
perspective which were still to come. Van Eyck practised perspective on a purely heuristic basis,
unaware of the laws by which it was governed. In this picture, he uses the mirror precisely in order
to explode the limits of the space to which his technique gives him access as soon as it threatens to
limit him.
[German Northern Renaissance Painter and Engraver, 1471-1528
Albrecht Dürer
Rhinoceros
woodcut, 1515
The Adoration of the Magi, engraving
Adam and Eve, 1504, engraving,
Rabbit,
1502
The Draughtsman And The Lute, by Albrecht Dürer, 1525.
Hieronymus Bosch
Netherlandish Northern Renaissance
Painter, ca.1450-1516
Garden of Earthly Delights
Bosch, Hieronymous
Death and the Miser
c. 1490
Oil on wood
36 5/8 x 12 1/8 in. (93 x 31 cm)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Bosch, Hieronymous
The Extraction of the Stone of Madness
1475-80
Oil on board
18 7/8 x 13 3/4" (48 x 35 cm)
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Hans Holbein the Younger
[German Northern Renaissance Painter,
1497-1543]
Henry VIII, 1537:
The two men pictured
are Jean de Dinterville,
French ambassador to
England, and Georges
de Selve, French
ambassador to the
Imperial Court. To
show they were
cultured men, the
symbols of music (a
lute, a bag of flutes)
and science (globes, a
sundial, a quadrant, a
polyhedron) are well
represented. Mortality
is uniquely signified
by a skull slanting
across the foreground.
The Ambassadors, 1533
anamorphic art - An image that appears distorted, because it is constructed on an elongated
grid, rendering it unintelligible until it is viewed from a specific, extremely oblique point of view
or reflected in a curved mirror, or with some other optical device. "Anamorphosis" is a Greek
word meaning transformation, or more literally "formed again." Road signs such as "SCHOOL
CROSSWALK" and directional arrows are designed anamorphically — stretched out — when
painted on pavement, so that these signs are easily understood by the drivers who must view
them obliquely. Do not confuse anamorphosis with metamorphosis.
Examples:
Hans Holbein (German, 1497/8-1543), The Ambassadors, oil. A human skull in the lower third of
the painting can be seen
undistorted only from a viewpoint that is near and below the painting,
and
"The Dance of Death," Hans Holbein the Younger, 1493
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
[Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1525-1569]
“The Tower of Babel,” oil painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563
BRUEGEL, Pieter the Elder
Children's Games
1559-60
Oil on wood, 118 x 161 cm
The painting is referred to as the "encyclopedia of Flemish children's games". It
represents about 84 games some of them are practiced until present days. There is
also an assumption that the painting is part of a four-piece cycle representing the
four seasons.
In addition to the games in the left part of the background a typical Flemish
landscape, while on the right a street with excellent perspective can be seen.
BRUEGEL, Pieter the Elder
Netherlandish Proverbs
1559
Oil on oak panel, 117 x 163 cm