Northern Renaissance Art

“The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry”

“February”, FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, 1416

• manuscript illustration

• describes how pilgrims lived

• stacked spaces

• reverse perspective

• (inventory of tasks)

• microcosm world view —> focus on object details

“Merode Altarpiece”: “Annunciation of Mary”

FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, Robert Campin, 1428

• no interactions, no human dramatics

• microscopic focus on objects = symbols

“Merode Altarpiece”: “Joseph in Carpenter’s Shop”

FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, Robert Campin, 1428

• anachronism —> out of time period

• symbols of Christ + crucifixion

• Christ’s death is mouse trap

“The Ghent Altarpiece”: “Adam” and “Eve”

FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, Jan van Eyck, Hubert van Eyck, 1432

• open and closed and played music

• life sized figures

• fig leaf —> symbol

“The Ghent Altarpiece”: “God the Father”

FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, Jan van Eyck, Hubert van Eyck, 1432

• details of materials

• celestial crown and terrestrial crown

• oil paint allows detail [Jan van Eyck]

“Amolfini Wedding Portrait”

FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, Jan van Eyck,1434

• marriage document

• convex mirror with image reflected as artist reflected as a witness

• symbolism —> removing shoes, swollen belly, catholic, fertility, fidelity

“The Portionari Altarpiece”: “The Adoration of the Shepherds”

FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, Hugo van der Goes,1476

• anachronism (15th Flemish City)

• Renaissance clothing

• symbol —> classifying angels

• shepherds —> reverse perspective

• wheel spoke perspective —> arrangement of figures in a circular pattern directed towards the center

• still-life symbols

• repetition of colors

“The Garden of Earthly Delights”: “Creation of Eve”

FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, Hieronymus Bosh,1510

• Symbolism of Adamites

  • regain Adams innocence

  • Adamite symbolism

  • “phallic tree” —> sin in symbols

“The Garden of Earthly Delights”: “Garden”

FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, Hieronymus Bosh,1510

• mechanical “human creation.”

• nude figures, giant fruit, bizarre hybrid creatures

“The Garden of Earthly Delights”: “Hell”

FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, Hieronymus Bosh,1510

• results of Hell

• portraits of Bosh

• Alchemical references: purification through fire

• Alchemical references: beaker purification of flood

“Self-Portrait”

GERMAN RENAISSANCE, Albert Dürer,1526

• Chiliasm—> anticipation of the end of the world (predicted for 1500)

• Anachronism —> connecting time periods

• makes permanent his youth

• oil paint, surfaces, and details

• chiaroscuro

“The Fall of Man”: “Adam and Eve”

GERMAN RENAISSANCE, Albert Dürer,1504

• “The humor” —> bodily fluids associated with different human personalities symbolically

• animal —> personalities

• psychopomp —> spirit carrier

  • chiaroscuro

  • contrapposto poses

“French Ambassadors”

GERMAN RENAISSANCE, Hans Holbein,1533

• symbolizes politics

• symbolized the clergy, the church

• symbols of divine vs. earthly

• Rome is at the center

• Protestants vs. Catholicism

• “anamorph” —> distorted image

• planimetric separation 

Flemish Renaissance Art

• microcosm (objects, surfaces, details)

• emphasis on symbolism

• oil paint [Jan van Eyck]

German Renaissance Art

• microcosm + macrocosm

• details (symbolism) + concave space, convex forms

• perspective systems

calendar pages

• Illustrated pages from Books of Hours or liturgical calendars that depict the labors of the months and zodiac signs (especially by Flemish)

Northern Renaissance vs. Italian Renaissance (Humanism, Neoplatonism)

• Northern Renaissance: meticulous detail, empirical observation, and symbolism embedded in everyday objects

• more interested in Christian humanism

• German + Flemish

Northern Renaissance vs. Italian Renaissance (Humanism, Neoplatonism)

• Italian Renaissance: Centered on classical antiquity, idealized proportion, and linear perspective

• Humanism emphasized reviving Greco-Roman texts

• Strong influence of Neoplatonism, which connected physical beauty to spiritual truth and saw earthly forms as reflections of divine ideals.

microcosm

• The human being as a small-scale reflection of the larger universe

• details, symbols, objects

Macrocosm

• The cosmos is a vast version of the human body or moral order

• perspectives systems

altarpiece

• A multi-panel or single-panel artwork placed behind or above a church altar

Triptych

• A three-panel altarpiece with two wings that open and close

• common with flemish

oil paint

• A medium perfected in the Northern Renaissance

• fine details

• texture

• slow drying time, lots of layers

• invented by [Jan van Eyck]

wheel spoke perspective

• arrangement of figures in a circular pattern directed towards the center

• common with Flemish

Adamites

• A radical religious sect that sought to return to the innocence of Adam and Eve

Alchemy: purification process

• More than proto-chemistry, alchemy was a spiritual metaphor

• inner purification, salvation, transformation

chiliasm

• imminent arrival of a thousand-year kingdom of Christ

• apocalyptic imagery —> German Renaissance like Durer

Humours: melancholic, choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic

• A pre-modern theory that human temperament comes from four bodily fluids

psychopomp

• A figure who leads souls to the afterlife

• spirit carreir

anamorph

• A distorted image that appears correct only from a specific viewpoint or with a mirror/lens