Northern Renaissance Art

– The most powerful ruler north of the Alps during the first three-quarters of the 15th century wee the dukes of Burgundy. They controlled Flanders, which derived its wealth from wool and banking
– Duke Philip the Bold was the great patron of the Carthusian monastery at Champmol, near Dijon. He employed Claus Sluter, whose Well of Moses features innovative statues of prophets with portrait-like features and realistic costumes
– Flemish painters popularized the use of oil paints on wooden panels. By superimposing translucent glazes, they created richer colors than possible using tempera or fresco.
– A major art form in churches and private homes alike was the altarpiece with folding wings. Campin’s Merode Altarpiece is an early example painted in oil, in which the Annunciation take place in a Flemish home. Typical of Northern Ren painting, the everyday objects depicted often have symbolic significance.
– Van Eyck and Vander Weyden established portraiture as an important art form in 15th cen flanders. Van Eyck’s self portrait reveals the growing self-awareness of Renaissance artists

– During the 15th century, the Hundred Years’ War crippled the French economy, but dukes and members of the royal court still commissioned some notable works
– The Limbourg brothers expanded the illusionistic capabilities of manuscript illumination in the Book of Hours they produced. Their full-page calendar pictures alternately represent the nobility and the peasantry, always in naturalistic settings with realistically painted figures

– The Late Gothic style remianed popular in 15th century Germany for large carved wooden retables featuring highly emotive figures amid Gothic tracery
– The major German innovation of the 15th century was the development of the printing press, which soon was used to produce books with woodcut illustrations. Woodcuts are relief prints in which the artist carves out the area around the printed lines, a method that requires the images to be conceptualized negatively
– German artists such as Martin Schongauer were also the earliest masters of engraving. This intaglio technique allows for a wider variety of linear effects because the artist incises the image directly onto a metal plate

– Widespread dissatisfaction with the Church in Rome led to the Protestant Reformation, splitting Christendom in half. Protestants object to the sale of indulgences and rejected most of the sacraments of the Catholic Church. They also condemned ostentatious church decoration as a form of idolatry that distracted the faithful from communication with God
– As a result, Protestant churches were relatively bare, but art, especially prints, still played a role in Protestantism.
– The greatest printmaker of the Holy Roman Empire was Durer, who was also a painter. Durer was the first artist outside Italy to become an international celebraty. His work reanged from biblical subjects to botanical studies. Fall of Man reflects Durer’s studies of Vitruvian theory of human proportions and of classical statuary
– Other German artists, such as Hans Holbien was a renowned portraitist who became court painter in England. His French Ambassadors portrays two wordly humansts and includes a masterfully rendered anamorphic skull

– The Netherlands was one of the most commercially advanced and prosperous countries in 16th century Europe. Much of Netherlandish art of this period provided a picture of contemporary life and values
– Pieter Brugel’s repertory also included landscape painting. His hunters in the snow is one of a series of paintings depicting seasonal changes of the year and the activities associated with them, as in traditional Books of Hours
– Prominent female artists of the period include Caterina van Hemmessen, who painted the first known Northern European self-portrait of a woman, and Levina Teerlinc, who painted portraits for the English Court