The Northern Renaissance encompassed Europe north of the Alps from the late fifteenth through mid-sixteenth centuries. Artists like Jan van Eyck established detailed realism and a rich visual language of symbols.
They excelled at empirical perspective and minutely realistic detail, often depicting religious themes. The Northern Renaissance was also a time of humanism, a philosophy that emphasized the value of individual human beings and a renewed study of classical texts.
Flanders
In the 14th and 15th centuries, northern European art evolved in distinct ways compared to Italy. As the Renaissance’s renewed interest in classical learning filtered through the region, artists took notice. They adapted the traditional Gothic style and introduced new techniques to create luminous oil paintings that were remarkable for their realism and illusionism. They also created intricate botanical and zoological studies.
The new style of painting was a product of the Northern Renaissance’s cultural and economic development. The lands that comprise the Low Countries—present-day Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands—were advancing rapidly, as was Germany (referring to lands controlled by the Holy Roman Empire). As a result, the cultural shifts of the Renaissance found an enthusiastic audience in the North.
One of the key characteristics of the Northern Renaissance was humanism, a philosophy that emphasized an individual’s ability to become a master of his or her own world. Humanism was influenced by classical Greek and Roman texts, but also by Catholic teachings. Leading thinkers like Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Albrecht Durer of Germany contributed to the development of a new intellectual energy that was receptive to the Renaissance’s influence on society.
Artists from the Low Countries, led by Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin, were able to integrate their new ideas into traditional practices of art making. This resulting style was called Early Netherlandish painting. Unlike the elaborate court art produced by dukes in Italy, Early Netherlandish painting was more intimate and realistic. It reflected the empathetic piety of the Devotio Moderna movement, which encouraged worshippers to identify with religious figures.
This period also witnessed the invention of the printing press. The technology revolutionized the era by speeding up scientific research and political developments, as well as allowing people to share their own ideas without traveling far. It also increased the availability of ancient and medieval classical texts in the vernacular languages.
The most influential painting of the period is arguably Rembrandt’s The Crucifixion, which depicts Christ’s death on the cross and his descent into Hell. The work is a striking example of the way in which the Northern Renaissance artists combined their knowledge of classical antiquity with a new focus on individual and universal human emotions.
Germany
In the early 16th century, Northern Europe was influenced by Renaissance ideas and art. Painters like Albrecht Durer began to travel to Italy and incorporated some of the techniques and themes they saw there into their work. This style came to be known as the Romanist style. Other prominent artists of the era included Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Hieronymus Bosch. These artists blended realism with symbolism to create scenes of peasant life and human folly, in addition to religious subjects.
The earliest painters of the Dutch Golden Age also used the techniques of the Italian Renaissance to produce works that were uniquely their own. This period also ushered in new ideas about science, philosophy and religion. These changes reflected the growing secularism that was spreading across Western Europe.
Although Northern Europe lags behind Italy in terms of its overall economic development, it was still one of the most powerful and influential regions in European history during this time. It was an important center of trade, commerce and cultural innovation.
Traders brought back prints that illustrated ancient Greek and Roman art, architecture and manuscripts from their trips to Italy, and this helped fuel the Renaissance. It was also during this time that Johann Gutenberg introduced the movable type printing press to Europe, making books more affordable and accessible than ever before.
Artists and scholars alike benefited from the new opportunities provided by this technological advance. As a result, many of the ideas underlying the Renaissance spread quickly and far.
As the Renaissance spread throughout Europe, it took on different forms in each region. In Germany, for example, it was characterized by a more intellectual approach to art, and it was not as aesthetically ambitious as the Italian Renaissance.
In contrast to the religious fervor of Italy, German painters often focused on the figure and its expressive potential, with a special focus on landscapes and interiors. Painters such as Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck developed an oil painting technique that emphasized detail and illusionistic effect, a style which became the hallmark of the Northern Renaissance. These painters also adopted the Devotio Moderna movement, which emphasized empathetic piety.
France
The Renaissance travelled to France and the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark) via universities and the invention of the printing press. This technology brought together images and text to create books for the first time, revolutionizing both literacy and the dissemination of ideas that characterized the Renaissance.
Artists such as Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck developed a style of oil painting that emphasized realism and illusionism. They were influenced by the Devotio Moderna movement that stressed empathetic piety and used realism to convey divine presences in daily life. They also drew on the art traditions of Gothic Europe and the Burgundian court.
The humanists Thomas More, Desiderius Erasmus and Ulrich von Hutten were important contributors to the Northern Renaissance. Their writings emphasized the importance of humanism in Catholic teachings. However, they were careful not to challenge the authority of the church hierarchy and remained staunch defenders of the traditional religious institutions of their day.
Northern artists were less reliant on figurative depictions of the human body in their paintings, focusing instead on landscapes and scenes from everyday life. They aimed to portray peasant morality and human folly with a combination of realism and symbolism. Bruegel the Elder was a leading 16th century Flemish painter who had a particular talent for depicting detail in both natural and urban settings.
Renaissance influences were more easily assimilated by northern artists because of the development of printed books and the widespread use of Latin, which was a common language in Northern Europe. However, these factors were not enough to sustain a High Northern Renaissance that was as long-lasting as the Italian Renaissance.
The decline of the High Northern Renaissance was largely due to the Reformation, which led to a split between Roman Catholics and Protestants in northern Europe. It also was accelerated by the rise of mercantile powers in Portugal, Spain, England and France, which were competing with the Italian states for access to the rich resources of Asia and Africa. This competition was further fueled by the invention of the caravel, which enabled ships to travel the oceans more rapidly and safely.
Italy
Before 1450 Renaissance humanism had little impact outside of Italy. However, after 1450 pictorial ideas such as linear perspective began to spread throughout Europe. This was partly due to the invention of the printing press which enhanced scientific research and spread political ideas. It also allowed artists to share their work more easily, which increased the amount of information they could absorb and incorporate into their own styles.
The rapid transmission of Renaissance techniques can also be attributed to a changing European political system which saw the rise of nation-states. In the 15th century workshops sprang up in France and the Low Countries that created tapestries for royalty and aristocracy across Europe. These workshops adopted Renaissance styles and techniques into their production, such as the use of perspective in the Hunts of Maximilian by Bernard van Orley, which is a fine example of the early Northern Renaissance style known as Romanist.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, many of the artists from the Low Countries started to travel down to Italy more frequently. These artists, who were later called the Antwerp Mannerists, developed a new style that incorporated some of the more formal elements of Italian Renaissance painting. This style became known as Mannerism and is sometimes considered one of the first examples of the High Northern Renaissance.
Along with the Mannerist style, Northern Renaissance painters began to explore new genres of paintings that featured scenes and subjects from daily life, many with a moralizing undertone. Examples of this include the landscape paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who used a mixture of realism and symbolism to portray peasant life.
Another characteristic of the Northern Renaissance is its use of saturated colors. This was especially true in portraiture, where it is believed that the bright colors symbolized purity and the desire to reform religious values. The Northern Renaissance ended almost at the same time as the High Italian Renaissance, but not for the same reasons. The decline of the High Northern Renaissance was more likely caused by the Protestant Reformation and internal conflicts amongst different religious groups.
No comments:
Post a Comment