The Art of the Northern Renaissance

Vocabulary terms and definitions summarizing major artists, patrons, characteristics, and works of the Northern Renaissance.

Northern Renaissance Driven Change

Artistic and cultural transformation in Northern Europe driven by religious reform, a return to Christian values, and revolt against the authority of the Church, with strong patronage from princes and kings.

Flemish Oil Painting

A painting technique developed in Flanders that was widely adopted in Italy during the Renaissance.

Jan van Eyck

Flemish painter (1395–1441) known for courtly and aristocratic works who served as court painter to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and painted Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife (1434).

Rogier van der Weyden

Flemish realist painter (1399–1564) famous for his 1435 masterwork, The Deposition.

Quentin Massys

Antwerp artist (1465–1530) belonging to Erasmus's humanist circle who was influenced by Leonardo da Vinci and called 'the renovator of the old art' by Thomas More.

Francis I

King of France and important royal patron who encouraged humanistic learning, invited Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Sarto to France, and collected Italian Renaissance masterpieces.

The School of Fontainebleau

A group of artists centered at Francis I's Palace at Fontainebleau (1530s–1560s) forming an offshoot of Italian Mannerism, known for refined elegance, integrated stucco work, and courtly allegory.

Lucas Cranach the Elder

German artist (1472–1553) and court painter at Wittenberg from 1505 to 1553, best known for his famous portraits of Martin Luther.

Matthias Grünewald

German Renaissance painter (1470–1528) who converted to Lutheranism and was known for capturing intense, painful emotion in works like The Crucifixion (1502).

Albrecht Dürer

Prominent German artist, scholar, and scientist (1471–1528) patronized by Emperor Maximilian I, known for his self-conscious individualism, detailed woodcuts, and writings on human proportions and geometry.

Hans Holbein, the Younger

German artist (1497–1543) who worked extensively in England as court painter to King Henry VIII from 1536, renowned for objective portraiture that did not hide subjects' weaknesses.

Hardwick Hall

An English hall designed by Robert Smythson in the 1590s for the Duchess of Shrewsbury, featuring a more medieval architectural style.

Burghley House

Grand residence built for William Cecil, recognized as the largest and grandest house of the early Elizabethan era.

Hieronymus Bosch

Dutch painter (1450–1516) known for a pessimistic view of human nature, flat perspective, and lurid, imaginative apparitions in works like The Garden of Earthly Delights (1500).

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Netherlandish master of landscapes (1525–1569) connected to Erasmian humanists, whose works focused on human vice, folly, and expressionless social types rather than individual portraiture.

Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco)

Greek-born artist (1541–1614) who became the prominent painter of the Spanish Counter-Reformation, known for elongated figures, flickering light, brilliant colors, and ignoring strict perspective rules.