Northern Renaissance

The first countries to turn to the Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

ideals were Germany and the Netherlands. Then the Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

spread to France, England, Switzerland and Spain.

Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

artists

The Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

manifested itself in architecture, painting, literature, philosophy and science; however, the most outstanding achievements of this era relate to painting. Among the most notable painters are the Dutch and Flemish Jan van Eyck, Hugo van der Hus, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling, Hieronymus Bosch and Peter Brueghel. In Germany, the representatives of the Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

movement were Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein, in France, Jean and François Clouet, Jean Fouquet, and the Dumoustier dynasty.

Features of the Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

The Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

became the starting point of humanistic development, spiritual rethinking of antiquity and religious transformations. Unlike Italy, the religious renewal played a dominant role in the countries of the Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

. The paintings of the northern countries had their unique expressive features.

— In contrast to the Italian Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

, which drew inspiration from antiquity, the northern artists acquired more from the Gothic heritage, namely its archaism, symbolism

Exquisite still-lifes and marvelous plants on canvases: flowers do not only beautify the appearance, but also open secret meanings, and convey messages to the attentive researcher. Leafing through captivating Herbarium, we're examining enigmatic garden of flower symbols.

Read more

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Symbolism is an art movement that has been reflected in painting, literature and music. It emerged in the 1870s-1880s in France, later spread to Belgium, Norway, and the Russian Empire. It reached the peak of popularity at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Symbolism is characterized by sadness, introspection and understatement: as if an artist came to quiet despair, but he was too shy to talk about these feelings, so he painted them.



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and religiosity.

— The subjects were based on Christian beneficence and humility. This largely influenced the Reformation and the birth of Protestantism.

— A significant place in the Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

painting belonged to nature as the personification of the divine principle. Living and dead nature as a symbol of connection with God, harmony, finiteness and infinity of life were embodied in such genres as landscape and still life.

— The Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

is characterized by high detail that gives incredible realism

Realism (from late Latin reālis — “real”) is considered to be the beginning in the development of modern art. In a strict sense, “realism” is an art movement that faithfully and objectively reproduces reality in all its details, regardless of how beautiful are the objects in the picture. Read more

, and at the same time, some neglect of anatomical certainty.

Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck was the founder of the Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

in Holland. His largest work is the Ghent Altarpiece, begun by the artist’s elder brother Hubert and completed by Jan Van Eyck in 1432. Despite the obvious Gothic features, the Ghent Altarpiece became a landmark work of the Northern Renaissance — van Eyck managed to convey the complex religious symbolism

Exquisite still-lifes and marvelous plants on canvases: flowers do not only beautify the appearance, but also open secret meanings, and convey messages to the attentive researcher. Leafing through captivating Herbarium, we're examining enigmatic garden of flower symbols.

Read more

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Symbolism is an art movement that has been reflected in painting, literature and music. It emerged in the 1870s-1880s in France, later spread to Belgium, Norway, and the Russian Empire. It reached the peak of popularity at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Symbolism is characterized by sadness, introspection and understatement: as if an artist came to quiet despair, but he was too shy to talk about these feelings, so he painted them.



Read more

through surprisingly believable, tangible images.

Van Eyck became one of the first major portrait masters in Europe. In his portraits, rigor is combined with amazing expressiveness, as, for example, in the first European pair portrait of the merchant Giovanni Arnolfini with his wife — the image is symbolic and restrained, at the same time this portrait is full of intimacy and lyricism.
The altar compositions Madonna of Chancellor Rolin and Madonna with Canon Van der Paele demonstrate the harmonious unity invented by Van Eyck — portrait, landscape

The development of the genre from antiquity to the present day: how did religion and the invention of oil painting contribute to the development of the genre in Europe, and why was the Hudson River so important? Read more

, still life and interior complement each other, revealing the endless beauty of the universe.

As one of the first artists to master oil painting, van Eyck created Flemish multilayer painting. This method of applying thin, translucent layers of paint allowed the artist to achieve incredible depth and brightness.
Van Eyck’s work not only largely determined the development of Dutch painting in the future, but also influenced Italian masters such as Antonello da Messina.

Peter Bruegel

Peter Bruegel the Elder was an excellent artist, illustrator and draftsman. In the 1550s he visited Italy, and in 1563 he settled in Brussels. In his works, religious subjects intertwined with everyday ones, which allows us to consider the artist as the head of the democratic direction in Dutch painting development. Reflecting hidden meanings and filling his work with symbols, Bruegel turned to the cultural experience and everyday life of his people. Bosch’s grotesque and fantastic freakishness greatly influenced monumental compositions and the picture of chamber subjects from Brueghel’s peasant life. Note that the breadth of composition and tonal unity of Brueghel’s painting laid the foundation for the national Dutch landscape

The development of the genre from antiquity to the present day: how did religion and the invention of oil painting contribute to the development of the genre in Europe, and why was the Hudson River so important? Read more

.

A website called "Inside Brueghel" was created for a grand retrospective in Vienna, which launched in 2018 to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the death of the Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

master (the date is on 2019). The Museum of Art History in Vienna owns the world’s largest collection of works by the founder of the Brueghel dynasty. The museum collection includes 12 panels. The website makes it possible to examine the masterpieces in the smallest detail, as well as view their photographs taken by means of reflectography, infrared macro photography and x-rays. The site with the images is available after the ending of the exhibition.

Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch spent his entire life in 's-Hertogenbosch in northern Flanders. His striking multi-figure compositions based on sayings, parables and proverbs combine grotesque, folk-satirical and moralizing features. Bosch’s works are both naive and sophisticated, traditional and original.

A charming sense of mystery, known only to the artist, made Bosch famous far beyond the borders of his native city — the king Philip II of Spain was also among his admirers. Bosch is an amazingly modern artist, his vision influenced expressionists and surrealists.

Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer is one of the big legends of the Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

. Influenced by Italian humanistic thought and the late Gothic, this great German painter, graphic artist and art theorist combined expressiveness, philosophical principles, glorification of man as the crown of divine creation and complex symbolism

Exquisite still-lifes and marvelous plants on canvases: flowers do not only beautify the appearance, but also open secret meanings, and convey messages to the attentive researcher. Leafing through captivating Herbarium, we're examining enigmatic garden of flower symbols.

Read more

---

Symbolism is an art movement that has been reflected in painting, literature and music. It emerged in the 1870s-1880s in France, later spread to Belgium, Norway, and the Russian Empire. It reached the peak of popularity at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Symbolism is characterized by sadness, introspection and understatement: as if an artist came to quiet despair, but he was too shy to talk about these feelings, so he painted them.



Read more

, which is clearly seen in his 1500 Self-Portrait.

Dürer worked mainly on religious subjects; he lived in Nuremberg, but the fame of him as the most skilled engraver boomed throughout Europe, especially in Italy and the Netherlands. Engravings Melancholy, Knight, Death and the Devil and Saint Jerome in His Study

A study is an exercise painting that helps the painter better understand the object he or she paints. It is simple and clear, like sample letters in a school student’s copybook. Rough and ready, not detailed, with every stroke being to the point, a study is a proven method of touching the world and making a catalogue of it. However, in art history, the status of the study is vague and open to interpretation. Despite its auxiliary role, a study is sometimes viewed as something far more significant than the finished piece. Then, within an impressive frame, it is placed on a museum wall.
So, when does a study remain a mere drill, and when can we call it an artwork in its own right, full of life and having artistic value? Read more

are the pinnacle of Dürer the draftsman.

Lucas Cranach the Elder

In his works, the German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder addressed to a variety of subjects, bizarrely combining both ancient traditions and the Gothic interpretation of the human body and landscape

The development of the genre from antiquity to the present day: how did religion and the invention of oil painting contribute to the development of the genre in Europe, and why was the Hudson River so important? Read more

. The founder of the Danube School, Cranach became famous for the harmonious combination of landscape and human figure.

The artist lived in Austria and the Netherlands, was a supporter of the Reformation and often painted portraits of his friend Martin Luther.

In all areas

The Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

affected many countries and was expressed in a variety of forms. So, François Rabelais, a great writer, humanist, doctor and botanist created his works in France. In his novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel", saturated with folklore and humour, Rabelais dealt with issues of enlightenment and humanism, which opposed dark medieval morality. Other themes of the novel are politics, social structure, war; today this novel is rightfully considered the encyclopaedia of the French Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

.
In England, the main figure of this era was the great William Shakespeare, whose tragedies, comedies and sonnets had a key influence on the development of European drama. Cervantes, the author of the famous chivalrous novel Don Quixote, was a Spaniard. As in Italy, in northern Europe, the Renaissance

The Renaissance is the period that began around the 14th century and ended at the late 16th century, traditionally associated primarily with the Italian region. The ideas and images of the Renaissance largely determined the aesthetic ideals of modern man, his sense of harmony, measure and beauty. Read more

became an era of scientific discoveries, including the heliocentric model of the Universe proposed by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.