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 cellule1514; Engraving

Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece), ca. 1427–1432Workshop 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 BrothersInternational 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]

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.

Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife1434

Oil on oak, 82 x 60 cmNational Gallery, London

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 DürerRhinoceroswoodcut, 1515

The Adoration of the Magi, engraving

Adam and Eve, 1504, engraving,

Rabbit,

1502

The Draughtsman And The Lute, by Albrecht Dürer, 1525.

Hieronymus BoschNetherlandish

Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1450-1516

Garden of Earthly Delights

Bosch, HieronymousDeath and the Miserc. 1490Oil on wood36 5/8 x 12 1/8 in. (93 x 31 cm)National Gallery of Art, Washington

Bosch, HieronymousThe Extraction of the Stone of Madness1475-80Oil on board18 7/8 x 13 3/4" (48 x 35 cm)Museo del Prado, Madrid

Henry VIII, 1537:

Hans Holbein the Younger[German Northern Renaissance Painter, 1497-1543]

The Ambassadors, 1533

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.

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 ElderChildren's Games1559-60Oil 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 ElderNetherlandish Proverbs1559Oil on oak panel, 117 x 163 cm