The Northern Renaissance AVI3M

Overview By 1500, the ideas of the Italian Renaissance had begun spreading beyond the Alps. They spread into northern Europe, especially Germany, France and the lowlands (Belgium). The style of the Northern Renaissance painters was rather different from their Italian counterparts.

The innovation that had the greatest impact during this period was oil paint. The new medium tremendously expanded the use of colour and light and Northern Renaissance artists used it to its full advantage.

Northern artists, especially those from Belgium and Holland, used ordinary everyday objects to render their highly symbolic religious subject matter. There was great attention to detail and an intense focus on realism.

Where an Italian artist was apt to consider scientific principles behind composition (i.e., proportion, anatomy, perspective), northern artists were more concerned with what their art looked like.

The North held onto Gothic (or "Middle Ages") art and architecture with a tighter, longer grip than did Italy. Architecture, in particular, remained Gothic until well into the 16th century.

► Microscopic details in brilliant colours. ► Not intended as a record of their wedding. ► Wife is not pregnant, but holding up her dress in the contemporary fashion. ► The couple are shown in a well-appointed interior. ► The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway. Painter? Van Eyck, “Arnolfini Wedding,” 1434, NG, London.

Jan Van Eyck, Arnolfini Wedding, 1434 Detail

► Moralist paintings. ► Inventive torments handed out as punishment for sinners. ► Hybrid monsters (half- human, half-animal) inhabited his weird, unsettling landscapes. ► 3-part altarpiece called a triptych. Bosch, detail, “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” c.1500, Prado, Madrid.

German Renaissance - In the early 1500s, Germany becomes the leader in art in northern Europe - German artists absorb the influence of the Italian High Renaissance and blend it with northern technique and style

► Showing wealthy, educated men with books and instruments. ► Celestial globe, a portable sundial, lute, a case of flutes, a hymn book, a book of arithmetic, etc. ► In the foreground is the distorted image of a skull, a symbol of mortality. foreground Hans Holbein the Younger, “The Ambassadors,” 1533 Distorted image of a skull. When seen from a point to the right of the picture the distortion is corrected.

Hans Holbein the Younger, The Ambassadors, 1533

► The parallel lines across the image establish a basic middle tone against which the artist silhouettes and overlaps the powerful forms of the four horses and riders—from left to right, Death, Famine, War, and Plague (or Pestilence). Albrecht Durër, “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” c

Albrecht Durër, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, c

Woodcut ► Oldest technique for making prints ► Originated in Germany around 1400’s ► Design is drawn on a smooth block of wood, then the white parts (negative space) were cut away, leaving the design standing up in relief. This was then inked and pressed against paper.

Mannerism and the Late Renaissance ► All problems of representing reality had been solved and art had reached a peak of perfection and harmony. ► What now? ► Replace harmony with dissonance, reason with emotion, and reality with imagination.

► Rome had been sacked by the Germans and Spaniards and the church had lost its authority during the Reformation. ► During the late Renaissance, compositions were oblique, with a void in the center and figures crowded around-often cut off by-the edge of the frame.

► Crowded, dramatic canvas ► Plunging diagonal perspective, making the picture seem off-balance ► He used light for emotional effect, from the darkest black to the incandescent light emanating from Christ’s head Tintoretto, The Last Supper, Oil Paint, 1594, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

Tintoretto, The Last Supper, 1594, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

The Spanish Renaissance ► The most remarkable figure of the Renaissance in Spain was El Greco ► His real name was Domenikos Theotocopoulos, but was nicknamed the Greek ► He once said Michelangelo couldn’t paint and offered to revamp “The Last Judgement”

► Unnatural light of uncertain origin ► Harsh colours like strong pink, acid green, and brilliant yellow and blue ► Figures are distorted and elongated- their scale variable- and the compositions full of swirling movement ► He cared little for representing the real world El Greco, Resurrection, Oil on Canvas, , Prado, Madrid.

Interesting Tidd Bit ► Ridiculously elongated hands and slender figures were a hallmark of Mannerism ► The fingers in an El Greco painting are characteristically long, thin, and expressive. ► Spanish ladies of the time so admired refined hands that they tied their hands to the top of the bestead at night to make them pale and bloodless