LATER RENAISSANCE IN THE NORTH

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

ART 102 Gardners - Chapter 23Jean Thobaben

Instructor

The Age of Reformation:16th-Century Art in Northern Europe and Spain

Northern European Renaissance

A GERMAN RENAISSANCE

RENAISSANCE IN THE NETHERLANDS

A Spanish Renaissance

2

The Protestant Reformation

• The dissolution of the Burgundian Netherlands in 1477 led to a

realignment in the European geopolitical landscape in the early

16th century.

• France and the Holy Roman Empire expanded their territories,

and Spain eventually became the dominant power in Europe.

• Attempts to reform the Church led to the Reformation and the

establishment of Protestantism, which in turn prompted the

Catholic Counter-Reformation.

3

• The Reformation grew out of dissatisfaction with Church leadership and the

perception that popes and upper-level clergy were too concerned with

temporal power and material wealth.

• Dissatisfaction with the Church

led to Martin Luther

issuing his 95 Theses, in which

he listed objections to Church

practices.

• Because the Scriptures were

open to different

interpretations, differences

arose among the various

Protestant reformers.

Right: Period print of Martin Luther

4

• Northern humanists, such

as Desiderius Erasmus

and Thomas More,

attempted to reconcile

humanism with Christianity.

Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam by Quentin Massys1517, Oil on panel, transferred to canvas, 59 x 46,5 cm, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome.

5

• Catholics and Protestants differed on the role of

visual imagery in religion.

• Catholics embraced church decoration as an aid

to communicating with God, whereas

• Protestants believed such imagery could lead to

idolatry and distracted viewers from communicating directly with

God.

• Because of this, Protestant churches were relatively bare.

However, Protestants did use art, and especially prints, as a

teaching tool.

6

Matthias Grünewald (c.1470-1480 - 1528)

• Besides Dürer, Grunewald is the most important representative

of Northern painting at the turn of the 16th century.

• One of the greatest German painters of his age, whose works

on religious themes achieve a visionary expressiveness through

intense colour and agitated line.

The first view of the altar:

L: Saint

Sebastian

R. Saint

Anthony

Center: The Crucifixion

Below:The

Entombment

7

The first securely dated work

by Grünewald is the

Mocking of Christ of 1503,

seems to be that of a young

artist just become a master.

• This painting also illustrates Grunewald’sability to infuse his paintings with strong emotions.

The Mocking of Christ. c.1503.

Oil and tempera on panel

Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.

8

• His major works include the Isenheim Altarpiece, which, was

executed for the hospital chapel of Saint Anthony's Monastery in

Isenheim in Alsace and is now at the Unterlinden Museum in

Colmar, a nearby town.

• It is a carved shrine with two sets of folding wings and three

views.

9

The first, with the wings closed, is a Crucifixion showing a harrowingly

detailed, twisted, and bloody figure of Christ on the cross in the center

flanked, on the left, by the mourning Madonna being comforted by John the

Apostle, and Mary Magdalene kneeling with hands clasped in prayer, and, on

the right, by a standing John the Baptist pointing to the dying Savior.

At the feet of the Baptist is a lamb holding a cross, symbol of the "Lamb of

God" slaughtered for man's sins.

The drama of the scene, symbolizing the divine and human natures of Christ,

is heightened by the stark contrast between the vibrantly lit foreground and

the dark sky and bleak landscape of low mountains in the background.

10

Crucifixion (central section /closed

wings). 1510-1515. Oil on panel.

Musée d'Unte-rlinden, Colmar,

11

The Crucifixion. Detail.

Virgin Mary, St. John Evangelist

and St. Mary Magdalene.

12

The Crucifixion.

Detail. St. John the Baptist.

Link to a virtual reality tour of the

church and altarpiece created to

celebrate the 500th anniversary.

• First, click on the commentary at

the bottom of the page.

• Next, click on the image on the left

for the video.

13

• Another important clerical commission came from a canon in

Aschaffenburg, Heinrich Reitzmann.

• As early as 1513 he had asked Grünewald to paint an altar for

the Mariaschnee Chapel in the Church of SS. Peter and

Alexander in Aschaffenburg.

14

• This painting was the

central panel of the

Altarpiece of Our Lady of

the Snow in the Abbey

Church at Aschaffenburg,

near Bad Mergentheim.

Grunewald, Stuppach Madonna, 1517-19,

Oil on canvas mounted on wood,

186 x 150 cm

Parish Church, Stuppach

15

• This detail shows the flowers

in a bottle at the lower right

corner of the painting.

16

• The next painting was

the right panel of the

same altarpiece.

• According to tradition, Pope Liberius(pope from 352 to 366) and a patrician had the same dream at the same night.

• The Virgin appeared and expressed her wish to raise a church at the site which she will mark by snow at the middle of the summer.

• Next day the Esquiline hill was covered by snow and it became the site of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.

17

• This detail shows Pope

Liberius who, according

to tradition, established

the Santa Maria

Maggiore on the

Esquiline hill in Rome.

• This detail shows the

background of the painting.

• The palace at the left has no

wall and the dreaming pope

can be seen in his bedroom.

• At the steps of the palace the

patrician and his wife view the

Mother of God in snow-white

glory in the sky.

• On the right, in front of the

Lateran Palace people are

gathering, discussing the

miracle and forming a

procession.

18

• Grünewald worked in

the court of the Bishop

of Mainz, and he

painted this panel to the

Bishop's Fond in Halle.

• Albert, the Bishop of

Brandenburg is pictured

as St Erasm on the

painting.

Meeting of St Erasm and St

Maurice,1517-23

Oil on wood, 226 x 176 cm

Alte Pinakothek, Munich

• This work exhibits the

theme of religious

discussion or debate, so

important to this period

of German art and

history.

• Grünewald's forms

become more massive

and compact, his colours

restrained but still vivid.

19

• This detail

represents

St Erasm

20

• This detail

represents

St Maurice.

21

• Apparently because of his

sympathy with the

Peasants' Revolt of 1525,

Grünewald left Albrecht's

service in 1526.

• He spent the last two years

of his life visiting in

Frankfurt and Halle, cities

sympathetic to the newly

emerging Protestant cause.

• Grünewald's painterly

achievement remains one

of the most striking in the

history of northern

European art.

• His 10 or so paintings and

approximately 35 drawings

that survive have been

jealously guarded and

carefully scrutinized in

modern times.

22

Head of a Shouting Man

c. 1520

Black chalk on

yellow-brownish paper,

244 x 200 mm

Staatliche Museen, Berlin

23

Mary with the Sun below her

Feet

c. 1520

Black chalk on yellow-

brownish paper, partly covered

by yellow paint, 325 x 2268

mm

Museum Boymans-van

Beuningen, Rotterdam

24

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)

• Though no document

attests it, the early

meeting between

Cranach and Dürer,

whose workshop in

Nuremberg enjoyed

great fame, was

unavoidable.

• Cranach had evidently

studied Dürer’s graphic

art intensively.

25

• Cranach may have turned to designing woodcuts for the

monetary rewards involved, for they were much in demand in

Germany at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

• Even the greatest painters of the period contributed to the

illustration of books, and made single-sheet prints and series of

pictures of a religious character - often with imperial sponsorship.

• Dürer, Holbein, and Lucas van Leyden were among the more

famous painters who engaged in the production of prints.

26

• Cranach was more competent as a painter than as a printmaker.

• Apparently he did not find the medium a congenial one; perhaps he used it to satisfy financial needs, or because it was considered a worthy and lucrative profession by the best artists of his country.

• This scene of Adam and Eve in

the Garden is typical of his style -

of its virtues and defects.

• He had a tendency to overcrowd

his compositions, to overstress

secondary details, and to fail to

concentrate on the main theme.

• The central figures stand before

a huge tree, a somewhat

emaciated Adam is seated next

to a standing Eve, similar in

proportion and sexuality to Venus

and other goddesses who often

appear in Cranach's paintings.

27

Lucas Cranach's Allegory of Law and Grace is a small woodcut print

produced after the Reformation began.

It shows the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism.

28

• Cranach’s life was closely connected with

the life of the Saxon Electors.

• He accompanied Frederick the Wise on

his travels to Nuremberg, and to Trient on

the occasion of Maximilian I’s coronation.

• He carried out some delicate diplomatic

missions and took part in all important

events occurring at the court.

• He created numerous portrait of the

members of the Electors family and

members of the court.

Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Portrait of Henry the Devout of Saxony.

1514. Oil on wood.

Dresden Gallery, Dresden, Germany.

29

• Cranach ran a large workshop and worked with great speed, producing hundreds of works.

• Cranach's sons were both artists, but the only one to achieve distinction was Lucas Cranach the Younger,who was his father's pupil and often his assistant.

• Cranach painted this double portrait on the occasion of the marriage of the Viennese humanist Johannes Cuspinian and his wife Anna, daughter of an official of the Emperor.

• Cranach composed these portraits as a pair.

30

A friend of Martin Luther,

Cranach depicted him

several times.

He became the

great portraitist

of the

Reformation

without, however,

committing himself

to any particular

confession.

Portrait of Martin Luther.

1525. Tempera on wood.

Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland

31

Albrecht Dürer(1471-1528)

• The well-traveled and

widely admired German

artist and printmaker

Albrecht Dürer acheived

international celebrity.

• He wrote theoretical

treatises on a variety of

subjects.

Albrecht Durer.

Self-Portrait at 28. 1500.

Oil on panel. Alte Pinakothek,

Munich, Germany.

32

• Dürer made two trips to Italy, spending most of his time inVenice.

• Of the Venetian artists, Dürer now most admired Giovanni Bellini,the leading master of Venetian early Renaissance painting, who,in his later works, completed the transition to the HighRenaissance.

• Dürer's pictures of men and women from this Venetian periodreflect the sweet, soft portrait types especially favoured byBellini.

• One of Dürer's most impressive small paintings of this period, acompressed half-length composition of the Young Jesus withthe Doctors of 1506, harks back to Bellini's free adaptation ofMantegna's Presentation in the Temple.

33

• Dürer's work is a virtuoso performance that shows mastery and

close attention to detail.

• In the painting the inscription on the scrap of paper out of the

book held by the old man in the foreground reads, "Opus

quinque dierum" ("the work of five days").

• Dürer thus must have executed this painstaking display of

artistry, which required detailed drawings, in no more than five

days.

34

Dürer's simple and straightforward woodcut of the

Last Supper alludes to Lutheran doctrine that the

sacrament of Communion was a commemorative event.

35

• Dürer's interest in classical ideas, as transmitted through Italian Renaissance artists, is seen in his engraving The Fall of Man (Adam and Eve), for which he studied the Vitruvian theory of human proportions.

• Adam and Eve are idealized figures who otherwise stand in a carefully observed landscape with detailed foliage and animals. The animals are believed to be symbolic references to the four humors.

Adam and Eve, 1504,Albrecht DürerEngraving; 9 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.

36

• Dürer's finely detailed engraving Knight, Death, and the Devilis both idealized and naturalistic.

Albrecht Dürer

Knight, Death and Devil, 1513

engraving on laid paper

9 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.)

37

• To the same period

belongs Dürer's most

expressive portrait

drawing - one of his

mother.

• Two months before his mother's death, Dürer recorded her features in this famous drawing.

• The extreme naturalism of the portrait is a reference to the hard life the depicted woman had endured, for she had suffered from various illnesses and had given birth to 18 children, only three of which survived.

Portrait of the Artist's Mother, 1514

Charcoal drawing on paper,

421 x 303 mm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin

38

• Dürer's Lutheran

sympathies are also

apparent in his engraved

portrait of the Protestant

scholar Philipp

Melanchthon.

Durer, Philipp Melanchthon, 1526.

Engraving, 6 7/8" x 5 1/16”

British Museum, London.

39

• During his final years Dürer endeavored to support practice with theory.

• Since his first stay in Venice, Dürer had worked on the theory of the ideal human proportions.

• Dürer linked the depiction of body types with differing proportions to the teaching of the four humors, and as such was the first to indicate the connection between build and character.

• The insights regarding

measure and numbers which

Dürer had gained from his

lifelong study of the ideal

proportions of the human

body was summarized in his

Four Books on Human

Proportions.

• The head was used as the

comparative yardstick for

measuring the other parts of

the body.

Side and frontal view of the female head

type 7, 1528

Woodcut, Staatsbibliothek, Bamberg

40

• Dürer's precise

watercolor study of a

piece of turf is

scientifically accurate.

Durer, Albrecht

The Large Turf, 1503

Watercolor and gouache on paper

41 x 32 cm

Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna.

41

The Four Humors and “temperments”

• The humors are our ruling passions, derived from the original Latin meaning of the word, which signified "liquid." In the 1600s, physicians understood the four humors to signify patterns of speech, behavior and other qualities that predominate in a human being.

• The physical attributes are: Choleric (ego/blood), sanguine (nervous system/astral body), phlegmatic (etheric or life body), and melancholic(physical body).

• The personalities associated with these life forces are: Sanguine,themost common. temperament Today, they would be prized for their extroverted and seemingly "happy go lucky" approach, but their lack of depth can be a weakness in spirituality.

42

• The phlegmatic can be extraordinary scholars with the unique ability to be something approaching purely cognitive. Neither passion nor the need for attention will cloud their judgment and speculation.

• The choleric's strength is zeal, his weakness anger. How he channels his great personal conviction and power will be key to his spiritual life. The choleric approach is never in half measure, and what he embraces as most important in his life can make him the greatest of saints or the most picturesque of sinners.

• The idealism of the melancholic, so centered in an awareness of divine power, makes him the likely target for the devious. However great his intelligence, the melancholic can be prey because if, for example, he encounters deceit when he himself is focused on truth and honesty, it will not occur to him that others do not have similar ideals.

43

•Dürer conveyed Lutheran ideas

in his painting Four Apostles by

giving prominence to John the

Evangelist and by showing Peter

and John both reading from the

Bible.

•The personalities of the four men

are also meant to correspond with

the four temperments.

• Dürer also included

quotations from each of the

Four Apostles' books in the

German of Luther's

translation of the New

Testament on the frames

of each panel.

The Four Holy Men, 1526, Oil on panel,

Each panel 215 x 76 cm,

Alte Pinakothe, Munich

44

The Four Holy Men (John

the Evangelist and Peter)

1526

Oil on panel, 215 x 76 cm

Alte Pinakothek, Munich

• This work marks his final

and certainly highest

achievement as a

painter.

• His delight in his own

virtuosity no longer

stifled the ideal of a

spaciousness that is

simple, yet deeply

expressive.

• The next detail shows

the head of St. Peter.

45

• The next detail

shows the head of

St Mark.

The Four Holy Men (Mark

and Paul)

1526

Oil on panel, 215 x 76 cm

Alte Pinakothek, Munich

46

Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538)

• A German painter, engraver, architect and leading member of the ‘Danube School’ of German painting.

• His most outstanding works are biblical and historical subjects set against highly imaginative and atmospheric landscape backgrounds.

Albrecht Altdorfer

The Rest on the Flight into Egypt 1510.

Oil on panel

StaatlicheMuseen

Berlin, Germany

47

• He was the first European artist to paint a ‘pure’ landscape, and in many of his other paintings figure and landscape merge in such a way that the scenic becomes the background.

Albrecht Altdorfer

St. George, 1510

Oil on wood.

Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

48

• With a sentimental feel

and an intuitive

understanding of light

and color, Altdorfer

gave free rein to lyricism

in mythologies and

religious scenes, in

which the landscape

acquires an importance

never before equalled.

• Altdorfer lived in Regensburg.

• This steeply wooded stretch of

the Danube below the city,

with the castle of Worth,

appears in several Altdorfer

paintings.

Danubian Landscape, 1520-25

Parchment on wood,

30 x 22 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich

49

• He was also the first to paint a major battle picture.

• The Battle of Issusshows the defeat of Darius in 333 B.C. by Alexander the Great at Arbela on the Issus River.

• Seen from a bird's eye view, the battle takes place within a vast panoramic landscape.

Alexander's Victory (The Battle at the

Issus). 1529. Oil tempera on wood. Alte

Pinakothek,

Munich, Germany

50

• Next are close up

details of the painting.

The Battle of Alexander(detail) 1529

Wood, 158,4 x 120,3 cm

Alte Pinakothek, Munich

51

Hans Holbeinthe Younger (1497- 1543)

• Hans Holbein the Younger, son of the painter Hans Holbein the Elder, was both in education and career, a cosmopolitan.

• He worked in Basel, Lucerne, and Zurich from 1515 to 1526.

• From 1526 to 1528 he was in London, but returned to Basel for the next four years.

• From 1532 he was again in London and died there of the plague in 1543.

Self Portrait, c. 1542 , color chalk, pen and

gold , 32 cm (12.6 in). Width: 26 cm (10.2 in).

Ufizzi Galleria, Florence

52

• Religious paintings form a significant part of the work Holbein

produced in Basel.

• From modest, private commissions in the period 1519-20

(e.g. the Man of Sorrows), through

The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb (1521).

Hans Holbein. The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb. 1521.

Oil on wood. Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

53

• In his beautiful Meyer Madonna, Holbein incorporates portraits of the Meyer family into the foreground of the painting.

• Holbein began the painting from sketches he made before he left for England in 1526.

Hans Holbein.

Meyer Madonna. 1526.

Oil on wood.

Schlossmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany.

54

• The presentation of the Madonna and Child is a triumph of illusionism that ranks with the achievements of Van Eyck in Flanders a century before.

• The play of light over the fluting of the architectural shell behind the two figures carves out the space into which the delicately shadowed crown, hair and face of the Madonna are set.

• The twisting of the child's body emphasizes the weight the Madonna's arms must carry, and Christ's projecting feet and the foreshortening of his own and his mother's arms stress the space his torso occupies.

• The combination of warm green and gold also brings the Madonna forward against the neutral tone of the stonework.

55

• In the portrait study, Anna Meyer is shown seated, whereas here she is kneeling.

• In the drawing she cannot be older than 13-15, and given that the parents were married in 1513, Holbein must have been given the commission for the Madonna panel before he left for England in 1526.

• On his return, he revised the picture, putting Anna's hair up and tucking most of it under her chaplet. Smaller changes were made to the outline of her face, particularly to make the girl look somewhat older.

56

• Jakob Meyer's unusual

stipulation that the

artist include his

deceased first wife

Magdalene in the

painting was the result

of the death of Meyer's

two sons during

Holbein's first English

absence: he decided to

include all members of

his family, living and

dead, rather than

omit any individual.

57

• Unlike Anna Meyer, the

figures of the boys are not

portraits, since they lack

any individual features.

• In his elegant face and

hands, the squatting youth

bears striking resemblance

to the Mary figure, which, in

contrast to the Solothurn

Madonna, is idealized in the

manner of the Raphael

model.

• The naked boy and the

Child Jesus also

correspond to figure types

found in Italian

Renaissance paintings, and

it is conceivable that

Holbein was inspired by

compositions by Raphael

and Leonardo that he had

seen on his trip to France.

58

59

• From 1528, he concentrated solely on portrait painting.

• In London he executed the Portrait of Georg Gisze of Danzig(1532), and soon came to the notice of Henry VIII and members of his court.

Hans Holbein.

Portrait of Georg Gisze of Danzig.

1532. Oil on wood.

Staatliche Museen,

Berlin, Germany.

60

• Holbein’s observation of detail, psychological penetration of his sitters and superb handling of color made him the greatest portrait painter of German art.

Hans Holbein.Portrait of Sir Thomas More. 1527. Oil on wood. The Frick Collection, New York.

61

Hans Holbein.

The Ambassadors.

1533. Oil on wood.

National Gallery,

London.

Holbein’s

meticulously

painted double

portrait of the

humanist

French

Ambassadors

to England,

Jean de

Dinteville and

Georges de

Selve.

62

• On our left stands Jean

de Dinteville, a French

nobleman posted to

London as ambassador.

• The globe on the bottom

shelf shows Polisy,

where he had his

château; the ornate

sheath of the dagger in

his right hand gives his

age as 29.

• The green backdrop and the pink slashed shirt of the diplomat add a zest which is further enhanced by the juxtaposition of different textures of silk and woven cloth.

• Like Titian, Holbein was an assured painter of fur and the contrast between the soft ermine and the glistening metal chain serves as a rich textural counterbalance.

63

• On the upper shelf of the 'étagère' lie various astronomical

instruments.

• Behind Jean de Dinteville's arm is an astronomical globe, and

beside it are numerous instruments with which the date and time

can be determined: a cylindrical calendar, two quadrants (allowing

the height of the sun and their angle to the horizon to be

calculated), a ten-sided sun clock, and a torquetum, the most

valuable and complex clock among the items displayed.

64

• As is often the case in Holbein's

portraits,the objects on the

shelves refer to the intellectual

interests and professional and

practical activities of the sitters.

• The instruments and books

displayed reflect the design of the

cupboard itself in that those on

the upper shelf would be used for

the study of the heavens and

heavenly bodies while the objects

on the lower shelf have more to

do with everyday worldly matters.

• The cumulative effect of the

objects is to demonstrate the

ambassadors' close

association to the scientific

and educational community

of the Renaissance, a

movement considered highly

"progressive" at the time.

• Although religious motifs are

present here, they are given

secondary status.

65

• Besides this are two opened books, plus dividers, a lute

with a broken string, and a bag with wooden flutes.

• The arithmetical book has been identified as Peter

Apian's (1495-1552) book (A new and thorough

instruction in all mercantile calculations), published

1527, while the hymnal contains two songs from

Johannes Walther's (1496-1570) Lutheran hymnal

published in Wittenberg in 1524.

66

67

• Holbein painted images of prospective

brides for Henry VIII.

• Christina of Denmark rejected Henry in

favor of becoming a nun.

Christina of Denmark, 1538,

oil on Oak, 179 x 82.5 cm.

National Gallery, London.

68

Anne of Cleves, 1538-9Parchment glued on canvas, 65 x 48 cmMusee du Louvre, Paris.

• In 1539, Holbein was sent to

to paint Anne of Cleves as a

possible candidate for

marriage.

• The point of the picture was

to give Henry as close an

idea of the woman's

appearance as possible.

• This would explain the frontal

position, in which every detail

of the face can be examined.

69

• Jane Seymour (1509-1537) was the third wife of King Henry VIII of England and mother of King Edward VI. She succeeded - where Henry's previous wives had failed - in providing a legitimate male heir to the throne.

• The simplicity of the shadowed background the artist's skill in creating the sheen and lustre of the precious stones.

• Great attention has been paid to the realism of the silver thread in the queen's dress, and this new opulence was to be echoed in the portrait of Henry himself.

70

• Holbein painted portraits of

all the members of the royal

family.

• Holbein depicts the King at

`face value', without flattery,

emphasizing the small,

humorless eyes and mouth,

the curiously flat cheeks and

chin. Henry's bulky and

capricious authority haunts

the work despite its small

size.

Hans Holbein

Henry VIII, c. 1536

Oak, 27.5 x 17.5 cm

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection,

Madrid.

71

• Edward VI (1537-1553),

king of England and

Ireland from 1547 to

1553, was King Henry

VIII's only legitimate son.

• He died in 1553 at the

age of 15.

• Edward stands behind a parapet and against a monochrome background of bright blue that has turned greeny-brown over the centuries.

• The conventional design is enlivened by the shadow and the rich red, brown and gold color combination gives a mellow impression of childhood.

• The skill in the foreshortening of the right hand's extended fingers distracts somewhat from the flat facial features -a characteristic of Holbein's royal portraiture.

72

• Like most northern artists

of the time Holbein

contributed his skills to

the growing graphics

industry.

• He was commissioned

for many illustration jobs

of both religious and

secular texts.

The Plowman from Dance of Death, 1524-26,

Woodcut, 65 x 48 mm, Kupferstichkabinett,

Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basle

Holbein and the

Graphic Arts

• The Dance of Death was first

published as a book in 1538 by

the brothers Melchior and

Gaspar Trechsel in Lyons.

• The book contains 41 woodcuts

carved by Hans Lützelburger

from drawings by Holbein.

• The Plowman is one of these

masterpieces.

73

• Holbein worked as a

designer of woodcuts from

the beginning of his career,

and a common commission

was to design title pages of

books.

• A space for the title would

be left empty in the middle

so that the text could be

changed at will, a single

woodcut usually being used

for several books.

• This composition, in which

putti hold a large unrolled

sheet, was first used by the

celebrated Basle printer

Jonathan Froben in 1516.

• His printer's mark, a

caduceus held by a hand, is

integrated into the lower part

of the composition.

Title page in the form of a Renaissance

niche, 1516. Woodcut, 18 x 12 cm

Kupferstichkabinett,

Öffentliche Kunstsarnmlung, Basle

74

• The subject matter of the next picture is typical of the Reformation. In the

center of the picture is a candelabra supported by the symbols of the

Evangelists. The light from the candle illuminates the entire picture.

Christ draws the attention of His flock, which includes people of modest

rank, to the flame of the Gospels.

•On the right, ecclesiastical dignitaries and scholars follow the philosophers

of antiquity Plato and Aristotle, who represent humanist and scholastic

attempts to explain the world, and they are seen stumbling blindly towards

the abyss.

Christ as the True Light, c 1526, Woodcut, 8,4 x 27,7 cm,

Kupferstichkabinett, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basle

75

The Netherlands

• At the beginning of the 16th century, the Netherlands consisted of

17 provinces under Spanish control.

• The seven northern provinces were predominantly Germanic in

culture, Dutch speaking, and Calvinist, while the southern

provinces were largely French and Flemish speaking, Catholic,

and culturally linked to France.

• In the 16th century, the Netherlands became commercially

advanced and prosperous through overseas trade and

shipbuilding.

76

Jan Gossaert(1462/70-1533/41)

• Gossaert shows an

interest in classicism

in Neptune and

Amphitrite.

Neptune and Amphitrite.

1516. Oil on panel.

Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

77

• This theme occurs at least

nine times in Gossaert’s

painted and graphic oeuvre,

but none of these renderings

is dated.

• On grounds of style, however,

the present painting would

seem to have been

undertaken after the Neptune

and Amphitrite of 1516.

• In general terms, as his career developed, Gossaert evolved compositions of greater complexity characterized by contorted poses with exaggerated anatomy and a vivid treatment of chiaroscuro.

• At the same time his technique became altogether freer. The Adam and Eve in the Royal Collection may date from around 1520.

Adam and Eve, c. 1520, Oil on panel,

168,9 x 111,4 cm,

Royal Collection, Windsor

78

The Money-changer and his Wife is an

early example of the genre painting which

would flourish in Flanders and the northern

Netherlands over the course of the 16th

century.

Quentin Massys (c.1464/65-1530)

• The painting

shows a man

holding scales

and checking the

weight of coins

on the table.

• His wife interrupts

her reading of a

prayer book to

watch him.

• The painting

includes numerous

references to the

importance of a

moral, righteous,

and spiritual life.

79

• Full of their own life, on the other hand, are the still-life details - the

lavishly illuminated codex through which the wife is leafing, the angled

mirror, which reflects the outer world into the picture in masterly

foreshortening, and the glass, accessories and coins gleaming on the

table and on the shelves against the far wall.

• In the dominant role which it grants to these objects, the painting marks

an important step along the path towards the pure still life.

• By inserting his own likeness into the painting - reflected in the convex

mirror Massys recalls the use of this device by Jan van Eyck in The

Arnolfini Marriage of 1434.

80

81

By inserting his own likeness into the painting - reflected in

the convex mirror Massys recalls the use of this device by

Jan van Eyck in The Arnolfini Marriage of 1434.

82

• In this next painting Massys

demonstrates his confident

abilities as a portrait painter.

• The canon calmly surveys the

outside world, but his thoughts

seem to be turned inwards.

• In his composition, the half length

figure is contained within the

approximate volume of a

pyramid, dominating the pictorial

field.

• Massys avoids any rigidity

by slightly offsetting the

sitter to the left of the

central axis and by

showing his head slightly

turned.

• There is harmony in the

relationship between figure

and landscape.

• From a slightly elevated

standpoint, we look out

across a broad expanse of

hills and meadows towards

the hazy distant

mountains. Portrait of a Canon, 1510s, Oil

on wood, 60 x 73 cm, Collection

of the Prince of Lichtenstein

83

Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575)

• A pioneer of still life and genre painting, he is best known for

scenes that at first glance look like pure examples of these types,

but which in fact have a religious scene incorporated in them.

Butcher's Stall, 1551, Oil on panel, 123 x 167 cm, Museum Gustavianum, Uppsala

84

• Aertsen's painting appears to be a genre scene, it is embedded with

strategically placed religious images which allude to salvation through Christ.

• In the 16th and 17th centuries it was quite common for theologians to see a

slaughtered animal as symbolizing the death of a believer. Allusions to the

'weak flesh' (cf.Matthew 16:41) may well have been associated with

Aertsen's Butcher's Stall where - like on his fruit and vegetable stalls - a

seemingly infinite abundance of meat has been spread out.

85

• In the next slide, we find a cook, firmly positioned in front of the imposing chimney-piece, the cook stands surrounded by the food she is preparing to cook: voluminous cabbages in a basket, and fowls and a leg of meat skewered on a spit which she holds firmly in one hand, whilst with the other she grabs a skimming ladle.

• The absence of religious subject

matter, which still underlay all genre

scenes at the time, is another stroke

of daring by the painter, even if 16th

century viewers would have

immediately recognized, in the

cook, the Martha of the gospel

narrative, who is busy preparing the

meal whilst her sister Mary is

listening to Christ's words.

• This image also has a moralizing

content and should be read as a

warning against the dangers of the

pleasures of the flesh.

Cook in front of the Stove, 1559

Oil on wood, 172,5 x 82 cm

Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

86

• Caterina van Hemessen's

Self-portrait is purportedly

the first known northern

European self-portrait by a

woman.

• She was highly successful;

her main patron was Queen

Mary of Hungary. When she

married in 1554 her career

ended. Most historians think

this is true because there

are no paintings by her after

this date and because it was

customary for a woman to

give up painting after she

was married.

Self-Portrait, 1548, 12 1/4" x 9 7/8".

Kunstmuseum, Öffentiliche

Kunstsammlung Basel.

87

• Joachim Patenier 's Landscape with Saint Jerome, which

shows the saint removing a thorn from a lion's paw in the

foreground, subordinates the biblical scene to the exotic and

detailed landscape.

• The sense of an expansive landscape is amplified by using color

to enhance the visual effect of recession and advance.

Land-

scape

with

Saint

Jerome

1520 -

1524

Oil on

panel,

2' 51/8"

x 2'

117/8".

Prado,

Madrid.

88

• Patenier, working in Antwerp, was a landscape specialist, oftenproviding the backgrounds to the figures of other masters suchas Massys.

• In his own work the landscape becomes the dominant element,so that the figure subject which justifies it becomes sometimesno more than a tiny incident in the foreground.

• The impression is sought of vast panoramic vistas, which areseen not from a natural but from an artificially high viewpoint.

• Typically the landscape is enlivened by dramatic effects ofwhether or the outbreak of fire, in a manner influenced by Bosch.

Charon, Oil on panel, 64 x 103 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid

89

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569)

• Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was probably the most significant

and exciting painter in the Northern Europe during the middle

part of the sixteenth century.

• His nickname “Peasant Bruegel” indicates to his subjects:

peasant life, proverbs and genre scenes, the New Testament

topics set among common folks of contemporary Flanders.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Big Fish Eat Little Fish. 1556. Ink on paper. Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, Austria.

90

• Between 1556 and 1559, at the request of Hieronymus Cock, the

well-known publisher of prints, Pieter Bruegel made the initial

drawings for two series of engravings dedicated to the Seven

Mortal Sins and the Seven Virtues respectively.

• In the next drawing, which represents the cardinal virtue of

Prudence, the figures are making all kinds of provident

preparations for the future, following the recommendations of the

Latin caption. "If you wish to be prudent, set your eyes on the

future and make provision for everything that can happen".

91

• Pieter Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow, which is one of five

surviving paintings of a series of six illustrating seasonal

changes in the year, shows a winter scene with human figures

in a snowy landscape.

• Bruegel rendered the landscape in an optically accurate

manner.

Hunters in the Snow, 1565. Oil on panel, 3' 10" x 5' 4". Kunsthistorisches Museum,

Vienna.

92

• Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs depicts in a bird's eye view

a typical Netherlandish village populated by a wide range of

people (nobility, peasants, and clerics) in order to illustrate over

one hundred proverbs.

Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559. Oil on panel, 3' 10" x 5' 41/8". Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

93Detail- Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559. Oil on panel, 3' 10" x 5' 41/8".

94

• Bruehgel’s Tower of Babel is infused with the architectural

influence of his trip to Italy where he was impressed by the

coliseum and other Roman ruins.

• He filled the painting with hundreds of tiny figures that contrast

with the massive tower structure.

The Tower of Babel, 1563, Oil on oak panel, 114 x 155 cm;Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna

95

Spain

• Spain emerged as the dominant European power at the end of

the 16th century, with territory extending over part of Europe, the

western Mediterranean, part of North Africa, and large portions of

the New World.

• Spain vigorously defended and promoted the interests of the

Catholic Church in Europe and the New World.

96

• A Late Gothic style of architecture in Spain is known as

Plateresque, a term derived from the Spanish word for

silversmith.

• The lofty sculptured stone screen of the entrance to the

Colegio de San Gregorio in Valladolid exemplifies the

Plateresque manner.

97

• In this style Spain found the very essence of its genius in the art of relief.

• The sculpture spreads over the architectural forms and in fact engulfs them, so that the whole façade appears to be a large relief, rather than a structure.

Portal and detail, Colegio de San Gregorio,

Valladolid, Spain, ca. 1498.

University of Salamanca, Spain San Marcos, Leon 98

Other examples of the plateresque style

99

• In his simple and clear design for the palace of Charles V in the Alhambra in Granada,Pedro Machuca used superposed Doric and Ionic orders to support continuous horizontal entablatures to create a pure Italianate classicism.

Pedro Machuca

Courtyard of the palace of Charles V,

ca. 1526–1568.

Alhambra, Granada, Spain,

100Pedro Machuca, Palace of Charles V, Granada, Spain, exterior view.

101

• The huge, austere complex of the Escorial, built for Philip II by

Juan de Herrera, includes a royal mausoleum, a church, a

monastery, and a palace.

• The gridlike plan symbolizes the gridiron upon which Saint

Lawrence, patron of the Escorial, was martyred.

• The severely plain walls are broken only at the three entrances,

where superposed orders frame the central portal topped by a

pediment in the Italian fashion.

Escorial, built for Philip II by Juan de Herrera

102

103

104

105

106

Luis de Morales1510-1576

• Morales learned his refined techniques from his teacher, the Flemish artist, Pedro de Compaña.

• He then moved to Portugal and Italy, where the influence of the European painters, Leonardo da Vinci, Bellini and Raphael among others, filtered into his works.

• This painting reflects the

adaptation of descriptive forms

of the early Renaissance, and

also the Spanish mysticism of

the era.

• Examples are the expressions,

and the technique of

contrasting dark and light.

• This painting also reveals a

profound religious feeling,

incorporating mannerism.

Luis De Morales

Virgin with the Child

1570, 33" X 25.6“,

Prado, Madrid, Spain

107

Juan De Juanes (1516-1580)

• Jaunes to Italy where he was heavily influenced by the

masters of the Italian school, especially Raphael.

• His work is a great example of the reflection of religion

and the spirit of Catholicism in art, using the techniques of

mannerism .

• His sensitive use and combination of richness of colour

lead us to believe that Juanes also admired the Dutch

painters and was able to improve his own techniques by

copying them.

The Last Supper, (La Ultima Cena), 1560s .45.6" x 75.1“, Prado

108

El Greco(c.1541 - 1614)

• Born Domenikos Theotocopoulos

in Crete, El Greco spent his adult

life in Spain.

• Here we see his distinctive style

in St. Martin and the Beggar.

St. Martin and the Beggar

1597-99, Oil on canvas

193.5 x 103 cm (76 1/8 x 40 1/2 in)

National Gallery of Art, Washington

109

• The most unusual painter in 16th-century Europe,

El Greco combined the strict Byzantine style of his

homeland, Greece, with influences received during his

studies in Venice and the medieval tradition of the country

where he worked, Spain.

• About 1566, El Greco went to Venice, where he remained

until 1570. He was employed in the workshop of Titian and

was also strongly influenced by Tintoretto.

110

• Such early Venetian paintings as his Christ Healing the Blind Man (1566-1567) demonstrate El Greco’sassimilation of Titianesque color and of Tintoretto's figural compositions and use of deep spatial recesses.

• Three versions of this subject are known, all basically the same in composition, but differing in treatment.

• The earliest, an unsigned panel in Dresden, is looser in composition, smaller in conception, and introduces genre motifs of a dog, sack and pitcher in the foreground, eliminated in subsequent versions.

• This painting was executed under the influence of Venetian painting, in the 17th century it was previously attributed to Paolo Veronese, later to Jacopo Bassano.

111

• Painted for the central panel of the High Altarpiece of the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo, Toledo, this commission brought El Greco to Spain.

• This, the first work executed in Spain, is the only painting by El Greco bearing the date of its execution.

• It is the first large-scale painting by his hand.

In Assumption of the Virgin

there is a clear reminiscence of

Venetian paintings of the

subject, and specifically of

Titian's early masterpiece in the

church of the Frari in Venice,

but the treatment is his own.

Assumption of the Virgin, 1577

Oil on canvas, 401 x 229 cm,

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

112

• El Greco spent in Rome,

from 1570 to 1576.

• The sculptural qualities of

the work of Italian artist

Michelangelo inspired him,

as is evident in his Pietà.

The Pietà (The Lamentation of Christ)

1571-76, Tempera on panel.

29 x 20 cm,

Philadelphia Museum of Art,

113

• These same sculptural

qualities appear in

The Resurrection.

El Greco. The Resurrection. 1584-1594. Oil on canvas. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

114

• In 1586 El Grecopainted one of his greatest masterpieces, The Burial of Count Orgaz, for the Church of Santo Tomé in Toledo.

• This work, still in place, portrays a 14th-century Toledo nobleman laid in his grave (in actuality situated just below the painting) by Saints Stephen and Augustine.

El Greco, Burial of Count Orgaz

1586 , Oil on canvas

460 cm × 360 cm (180 in × 140 in)

Church of Santo Tomé, Toledo,

Spain

115

• Above, the count's soul rises to a heaven

densely populated with angels,

saints, and contemporary

political figures.

116

• Below, El Greco is concerned with expressing the emotion and religious

fervor of his figures and developed a highly personal style to convey

intense spiritual visions.

117

Agony in the Garden,1595oil on canvas, Toledo Museumof Art, Ohio.

118

View of Toledo, c. 1597Oil on canvas47 3/4 x 42 3/4 in. (121.3 x 108.6 cm)The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

119

• In Portrait of a Cardinal, the

sitter is usually identified as

Cardinal Don Fernando Niño de

Guevera (1541-1609), Grand

Inquisitor and, from 1601,

Archbishop of Seville.

• The painting was executed c.

1600, when Inquisitor-General,

and certainly before he became

Archbishop of Seville.

• He is one of a number of eminent ecclesiastics of Toledo portrayed by El Greco, and it is one of his finest portraits.

• The splendor and richness of color is appropriate to the character and rank of the sitter.

El Greco

Portrait of a Cardinal, c. 1600

Oil on canvas, 194 x 130 cm,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

120

• There are several assumed self-portraits of El Greco included in his compositions from the early Healing of the Blind to the Burial of Count Orgaz.

• This picture shows an independent self-portrait of his old age.

El Greco, Self-Portrait

c. 1604, Oil on canvas

59 x 46 cm

Metropolitan Museum of Art,

New York

121

Jean Fouquet (c. 1415/20 - c.1480)

• Jean Fouquet was the most famous French painter of his day

• probably received instruction in the illumination of manuscripts under Flemish-Burgundian masters, possibly the Limbourg brothers.

• In the 1440s, Fouquet was in Rome, recognized as the royal portraitist of France, and commissioned to paint Pope Eugenius IV and his nephews.

• Fouquet succeeded in combining the diverse influences of Italian and French art of the Early Renaissance to achieve a courtly classicism, marked by a certain detachment and severe construction, which is unique in the art of the 15th century.

122

Jean Fouquet

Visitation. c. 1453-1456.

Miniature from the Book of

Hours of Etienne Chevalier.

Body color on parchment.

Musée Condé,

Chantilly, France.

123

Jean Fouquet.

Diptych de Moulin.

Etienne Chavalier

Presented by St.

Stephen. Right

panel. c.1450.

Tempera on wood.

Gemaldegalerie,

Berlin, Germany.

124

Jean Fouquet.

Diptych de Moulin.

Madonna and

Child. Left panel. c.

1450. Tempera on

wood. Koninklijk

Museum voor

Schone Kunsten,

Antwerp, Belgium.

125

The king is painted between drawn curtains. His thin, ascetic face, melancholy eyes and puritan simplicity are evidence of the profound psychological penetration of the painter and the economy of the means used to express it.

Portrait of Charles VII of France

c. 1445,Wood, 86 x 72 cm

Musée du Louvre,Paris

126

Jean Clouet(c.1485?-1540)

• Clouet came to France as court

painter to the Duke of Burgundy and

rose to the position of court painter to

King Francis I.

• The works attributed to him show an

undeniably Netherlandish influence,

particularly in the rendering of detail.

Jean Clouet. Portrait of Claude

of Lorraine, Duke of Guise.

Oil on wood. Palazzo Pitti,

Galleria Palatina,

Florence, Italy.

127

• The court painter Jean Clouet's royal child belongs to the tradition of courtly painting. It is a little stiff, and rather idealizes its subject with a great deal of attention to external decoration.

• A chalk study for this little portrait, in its fine, antique style frame in imitation marble, is now kept in the museum at Chantilly.

The Dauphin François, Son of François

I, Oil on panel, 16 x 13 cm

Koninklijk Museum

voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

128

• Rosso Fiorentino and Francesco Primaticcio decorated the Gallery of King Francis I at Fontainebleau with a combination of painting, fresco, imitation mosaic, and stucco sculpture in relief.

– The elongated grace and stylized poses of the figures,

– the compressed space, and

– the abrupt changes in scale and texture of the figurative elements are typically Mannerist.

Rosso Fiorintino and Francesco Primiticcio, ensemble of architecture, sculpture, and painting,

Gallery of King Francis I, Fontainebleau, France, ca. 1530–1540.

129

This work was painted after an engraving of a composition by

Rosso Fiorentino (1494–1540) intended for the decoration of

the Galerie François I in the château at Fontainebleau.

130

• The Château de Chambord served as country house and

hunting lodge for Francis I.

• Chambord's plan, comprised of a central square block with

four corridors in the shape of a cross, imposes Italian

concepts of symmetry and balance on the irregularity of the

old French fortress.

Château de Chambord, Chambord, France, begun 1519.

131

• The palace at Fontainebleau was has architectural elements

from the 16th to the 19th century.

• In the 16th century, Henry II and Catherine de Medici

commissioned architects Philibert Delorme and Jean Bullant to

build a new palace on the site.

• Italian Mannerist artists Rosso Fiorentino and Primaticcio came

to assist in the interior decoration, helping to found the School of

Fontainebleau..

132

• Pierre Lescot's (c. 1510- 1578) An early architect to apply

pure classical orders in France.

• His design for the west façade of the Square Court of the

Louvre in Paris incorporates Italian architectural ideas to

produce a modified classicism.

• The sculptural decoration is the work of Jean Goujon.

Pierre Lescot and Jean Gougon, west façade of the

Square Court of the Louvre, Paris, France, begun 1546.

133

134

135

• Jean Goujon's reliefs of slender Nymphs carrying or

standing next to vases of flowing water originally

decorated two façades of the Fountain of the

Innocents in Paris.

• Their figura serpentinata poses are Mannerist.

Jean Goujon, Nymphs, from the dismantled Fountain of the Innocents, Paris,

France, 1548–1549. Marble reliefs. Louvre, Paris. Each 6' 4" x 2' 4".

136

SUMMARY:• Attempts to reform the Church led to the Reformation and the

establishment of Protestantism, which in turn prompted the Catholic

Counter-Reformation. Catholics and Protestants differed on the role of

visual imagery in religion.

• Matthias Grunewald’s complex Isenheim Altarpiece consists of a

wooden shrine with gilded and polychromed statues and two pairs of

movable wings that open at the center.

• The well-traveled and widely admired German artist and printmaker

Albrecht Dürer achieved international celebrity with prints like his

engraving The Fall of Man (Adam and Eve), for which he studied the

Vitruvian theory of human proportions.

137

• Hans Holbein the Younger's painted meticulous portraits of

important Renaissance people as well as court portraits for Henry

VIII.

• In the early 16th century, French kings attempted to reorganize

France and to secure the country's recognition as a political power.

Francis I invited Leonardo da Vinci and other esteemed Italian

artists to his court.

• In the early 16th century, French kings attempted to reorganize

France and to secure the country's recognition as a political power.

Francis I invited Italian artists to his court.

138

• Pierre Lescot's design for the west façade of the Square Court of

the Louvre in Paris incorporates Italian architectural ideas to

produce a modified classicism.

• In the 16th century, the Netherlands became commercially

advanced and prosperous through overseas trade and shipbuilding.

• A new secular art developed available to the prosperous middle

class.

• Pieter Bruegel the Elder was known as “Peasant Brueghal” for

his many secenes of Dutch peasant life.

139

• Spain emerged as the dominant European power at the

end of the 16th century.

• In his simple and clear design for the palace of Charles

V in the Alhambra in Granada,Pedro Machuca used

superposed Doric and Ionic orders to support

continuous horizontal entablatures to create a pure

Italianate classicism.

• Domenikos Theotocoupolous known as El Greco

expresses emotion and religious fervor in his figures

and develops a highly personal style to convey intense

spiritual visions.

140

Links:

• Isenheim Altarpiece (Web Museum)

• Hans Holbein (National Gallery-London)

• Albrecht Dürer – 4 prints

• Jean Fouquet (Web Gallery of Art)

• Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum

• Great Buildings Online (The Alhambra)

• El Greco at the Prado