preview main idea / reading focus the renaissance spreads north philosophers and writers artists

Renaissance and Reformation Section 2

Preview

• Main Idea / Reading Focus

• The Renaissance Spreads North

• Philosophers and Writers

• Artists

The Northern Renaissance


Reading Focus

• How did the Renaissance spread to northern Europe?

• What contributions did writers and philosophers make to the northern Renaissance?

• How did the works of northern artists differ from those of the Italian Renaissance?

Main Idea

Renaissance ideas soon spread beyond Italy to northern Europe by means of trade, travel, and printed material, influencing the art and ideas of the north.

The Northern Renaissance


Trade, the movement of artists and scholars, and the development of printing helped spread Renaissance ideas north from Italy.

• As cities grew, vast trading network spread across northern Europe

• Network dominated by Hanseatic League, merchant organization, 1200s to 1400s

– Protected members from pirates, other hazards

– Built lighthouses, trained ship captains

Trading Goods• Northern Europeans traded

ideas, goods; spread Italian Renaissance north

• Fleeing violence, Italian artists brought humanist ideas, painting techniques north

• Northern scholars traveled to Italy, brought ideas home

• Universities started in France, Netherlands, Germany

Trading Ideas

The Renaissance Spreads North


Printing Press

• Mid-1400s, Johannes Gutenberg cast letters of alphabet on metal plates, locked metal plates on wooden press; perfected movable type printing

• Result, one of most dramatic upheavals world has ever known

Italics

• Gutenberg’s first publication, 1,282-page Bible

• Printers soon appeared in other cities, made books quickly, inexpensively

• Explosion of printed material quickly spread Renaissance ideas

Printed Word Available to More

• Before only way to reproduce writing was by hand; long, painstaking process

• With movable type, text quickly printed; producing books faster, cheaper

• Easier access to books prompted more people to learn to read

A Book Revolution


Find the Main Idea

How did Renaissance ideas spread to northern Europe?

Answer(s): Ideas were exchanged through trade; artists and scholars traveled between Italy and the north; printing press allowed easier bookmaking; ideas spread with printed material.


Northern humanists expressed their own ideas

Combined interests of theology, fiction and history

Created philosophical works, novels, dramas, and poems

• Combined Christian ideas, humanism

• Wrote of pure, simple Christian life, educating children

• Fanned flames of discontent

• Roman Catholic Church censored, condemned works

Desiderius Erasmus

• More’s best-known work, Utopia, contains criticisms of English government, society

• Presents vision of perfect, non-existent society based on reason

Sir Thomas More

• Italian-born writer focused on role of women in society

• Grew up in French court of Charles V; turned to writing when widowed

• Championed equality, education for women

Christine de Pisan

Philosophers and Writers


• Use of language, choice of themes made plays appealing even to uneducated

• Plays helped spread ideas of Renaissance to mass audience

• Focused on lives of realistic characters, unlike morality plays

• By Shakespeare’s death, 1616, London scene of thriving theatre district

Spread Renaissance Ideas

• Many believe English playwright William Shakespeare greatest writer

• Plots not original, but treatments of them masterful

• Drew inspiration from ancient, contemporary literature

• Knowledge of natural science, humanist topics expressed in plays

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare and His Characters


Summarize

What are some characteristics of Renaissance writers’ work?

Answer(s): expressed humanist ideas, scientific knowledge, realistic experiences, and social conditions


Artists

Like literary counterparts, northern European artists influenced by Italian Renaissance

• Adopted Italian techniques

• Works reflected more realistic view of humanity

– Italian artists tried to capture beauty of Greek, Roman gods in paintings

– Northern artists tried to depict people as they really were


Renaissance Art in Northern Europe

• Should not be considered an appendage to Italian art.

• But, Italian influence was strong.– Painting in OIL, developed in Flanders, was widely

adopted in Italy.

• The differences between the two cultures:– Italy change was inspired by humanism with its

emphasis on the revival of the values of classical antiquity.

– No. Europe change was driven by religious reform, the return to Christian values, and the revolt against the authority of the Church.

• More princes & kings were patrons of artists.


Characteristics of Northern Renaissance Art

• The continuation of late medieval attention to details.

• Tendency toward realism & naturalism [less emphasis on the “classical ideal”].

• Interest in landscapes.• More emphasis on middle-class and

peasant life.• Details of domestic interiors.• Great skill in portraiture.


• 1400s, German artist Albrecht Dürer visited Italy• On return, used Italian techniques of realism, perspective• Oil paintings exhibit features unique to northern Renaissance• Oils reproduced textures; reflection of objects, scenes outside

window

• Artists of Netherlands developed own style, Flemish School

• Used technique perfected by Jan van Eyck, 1400s

• Fused the everyday with religious; lit candle represents God’s presence

Flemish School• 1500s, Pieter Brueghel the Elder

used Italian techniques

• Paintings showed scenes from everyday peasant life

• Different from mythological scenes of Italian paintings

Everyday Life

Dürer and Others


, The Virgin and Chancellor Rolin, 1435.

Jan van Eyck (1395 – 1441)Jan van Eyck (1395 – 1441)


Giovanni Arnolfini and His WifeGiovanni Arnolfini and His Wife

(Wedding Portrait)(Wedding Portrait) Jan Van EyckJan Van Eyck

14341434


Albrecht Durher (1471-1528)

• The greatest of German artists.

• A scholar as well as an artist.• His patron was the Emperor

Maximilian I.• Also a scientist

– Wrote books on geometry, fortifications, and human proportions.

• Self-conscious individualism of the Renaissance is seen in his portraits.

Self-Portrait at 26, 1498.


Duhrer

FourHorsemen

of theApocalypse

woodcut, 1498


Duhrer

The Last Supper

woodcut, 1510

Renaissance and Reformation Section 2Hans Holbein, the Younger (1497-1543)

• One of the great German artists who did most of his work in England.

• While in Basel, he befriended Erasmus.– Erasmus Writing, 1523

• Henry VIII was his patron from 1536.

• Great portraitist noted for:– Objectivity & detachment.

– Doesn’t conceal the weaknesses of his subjects.

Renaissance and Reformation Section 2Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569)

• One of the greatest artistic geniuses of his age.

• Worked in Antwerp and then moved to Brussels.

• In touch with a circle of Erasmian humanists.

• Was deeply concerned with human vice and follies.

• A master of landscapes; not a portraitist.– People in his works often have round, blank, heavy faces.– They are expressionless, mindless, and sometimes

malicious.– They are types, rather than individuals.– Their purpose is to convey a message.

Renaissance and Reformation Section 2Bruegel’s, Tower of Babel, 1563

Renaissance and Reformation Section 2Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco)

• The most important Spanish artist of this period was Greek.

• 1541 – 1614.• He deliberately distorts & elongates his figures,

and seats them in a lurid, unearthly atmosphere.• He uses an agitated, flickering light.• He ignores the rules of perspective, and

heightens the effect by areas of brilliant color.• His works were a fitting expression of the

Spanish Counter-Reformation.


El Greco

Christ in Agony on the

Cross

1600s


Contrast

How did northern Renaissance artwork differ from that of Italian artists?

Answer(s): depicted everyday objects, people as they actually were

preview main idea / reading focus the renaissance spreads north philosophers and writers artists

Documents