Renaissance and Reformation throughout 16th Century Europe

Map of Europe in 16th century.

SpainDates and Places: • 1500 to 1600 • Iberian Peninsula and

the Americas

People:• Pious, Catholic • Conservative

monarchs• Expanding empire• Italian influence Juan de Herrera and Juan Bautista de Toledo, El

Escorial, 1563–1584. (Detail of an anonymous 18th century painting).

Domenikos Theotokopoulos (1541-1614)Themes:• Life of Christ, Virgin Mary

and Saints • Portraits

Forms:• Selective application of

ideas from Italian Renaissance and Mannerism

• Exaggeration to support religious content

El Greco, The Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586. Oil on canvas, 16’ x 11’10.” Santo Tomé,

Toledo, Spain. Fig. 17.3.

Domenikos Theotokopoulos “El Greco” (1541-1614)

Example: • Secular and religious image • Venetian training evident in

vestments and color• Greek artist travels to Spain

via Italy• Expressive exaggeration,

unnatural color = Mannerist style

• Spiritual and emotional, not physical, properties

• Places viewer in scene• Saints Augustine and Stephen

El Greco, The Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586. Oil on canvas, 16’ x 11’10.”

Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain. Fig. 17.3.

Domenikos Theotokopoulos “El Greco” (1541-1614)

Example: • Influence of Venetian painters

Titian and Tintoretto, and Italian masters Michelangelo, Raphael, and Mannerism

• Division of worlds—representational (earthly) and abstract (spiritual)

• Contemporary clothing and portraits

• Aligned with Roman Catholicism “good deeds” El Greco, The Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586.

Oil on canvas, 16’ x 11’10.” Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain. Fig. 17.3.

Holy Roman EmpireExample: • Altarpiece for monastery

church with hospital • Triptych • Gruesome description of

wounds• Emphasize suffering• Catholic inclusion of

Lamb, Christ’s blood, plague saints

Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, ca. 1510-1515. Oil on panel, main body 9’91/2”

x 10’9”; predella 2’51/2” x 11’2.” Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar, France.

Matthias Grünewald (1470-1528)

Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, ca. 1510-1515. Oil on panel, main body 9’91/2” x 10’9”; predella 2’51/2” x 11’2.” Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar,

France. Fig. 17.4

Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, (open) ca. 1510-1515. Oil on panel, central panel 8’ 10” x 11’2”; each wing 8’10” x 4’8.” Musée

d’Unterlinden, Colmar, France. Fig. 17.5

Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, ca. 1510-1515. Oil on panel, main body 9’91/2” x 10’9”; predella 2’51/2” x 11’2.” Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar,

France. Fig. 17.4

Holy Roman EmpireDates and Places: • 1500-1600• Germany

People:• Martin Luther• Protestant Reformation • Political change

Albrecht Dürer, The Four Apostles, 1526. Oil on panel, each 7’1” x 2’6.” Alte Pinakothek, Munich. Fig. 17-8.

Albrecht Dürer, Self Portrait, 1500. Oil on panel, 26” x 19.” Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Albrecht Dürer, Self Portrait, 1498. Oil on panel, 26” x 19.” Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

Holy Roman Empire

Example:• Woodcut, multiple prints• Not made for patron, sold on

open market• Theme reflects millennialism

of time• Two sizes available (small and

large)• War, Conquest, Feast, and

Famine from Book of Revelation

Albrecht Dürer, The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse,

1498. Woodcut, 15 ½” x 11 1/8.” Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. Fig.

17-6.

The Spread of the Printing Press

Holy Roman EmpireExample: • Engraving• Interest in Renaissance

proportion of human body combined with northern European surface description and disguised medieval symbolism (animals and the humors)

Albrecht Dürer, Fall of Man (Adam and Eve), 1504.Engraving, 9 7/8” x 7 1/8.” Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Fig. 17-7.

Holy Roman EmpireExample: • Dürer under influence of

Luther works become more austere

• Nuremberg—Lutheran • Represented are Luther’s

favorite authors of scripture• Inscriptions warn city about

behavior • Raphael-like figures

Albrecht Dürer, The Four Apostles, 1526. Oil on panel, each 7’1” x 2’6.” Alte Pinakothek, Munich. Fig. 17-8.

Holy Roman EmpireThemes:• Life of Christ, Virgin Mary,

Saints • Portraits• Momento mori

Forms:• Renaissance illusionism (

anamorphosis)• Surface description• Naturalism

Hans Holbein, The French Ambassadors, 1533. Oil on panel, 81” 82 ½.” National

Gallery, London.

EnglandExample:• Tudor court emphasizes

portraiture• Dürer major influence• Combines Italian

composition with Netherlandish realism

• Self-confidence of by then an old, ill, and overweight monarch

• Public image conveyed, not truthful

Hans Holbein, Henry VIII, 1540. Oil on panel, 32 ½” x 29.” Galleria Nazionalw

d’Arte, Rome. Fig. 17.11.

The NetherlandsDates and Places: • 1500 to 1600 • Holland, Belgium,

Luxembourg• Northern Netherlands

declares independence 1579

People:• Protestants• Merchant class and peasants• Seek independence from

Spain• Center for international trade• Developing art market

Pieter Aersten, The Meat Stall/Butcher’s Stall, 1551. Oil on panel, 48 ½” x 59.” University Art

Collection, Uppsala University, Sweden. Fig. 17-13.

The NetherlandsExample: • Protestant scene • Moralizing lesson for

greedy • Subtle religious symbols• Study of domestic interiors

and daily life• Replaces art in churches to

instruct faithfulQuinten Massys,The Moneylender and His Wife, 1514. Oil on panel, 28” x 27.” Musée

du Louvre, Paris.

Quinten Massys, details The Moneylender and His Wife, 1514. Oil on panel, 28” x 27.” Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Pieter Aersten (1507/08-1575)Themes:• Scenes of everyday

with subtle religious content

• Peasant life• Fewer altarpieces• Genre

Forms:• Naturalism • Surface description• Illusionistic space

Pieter Aersten, The Meat Stall/Butcher’s Stall, 1551. Oil on panel, 48 ½” x 59.” University Art

Collection, Uppsala University, Sweden. Fig. 17-13.

The Netherlands

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow, 1565. Oil on panel, 46 ½” x 63 ¾.” Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Fig. 17-14.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569)

Example: • Secular subject• Netherlandish tradition

despite Italian introduction

• Especially influenced by Bosch

• Artist interested in relation of man and nature

• Illusionistic rendering of genre scene from daily life

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow, 1565. Oil on panel, 46 ½” x 63 ¾.”

Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Fig. 17-14.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569)

Example: • Clients were educated,

wealthy class• Series of landscapes

symbolizing the months

• Dynamic designs often with secretive criticism of Phillip II

• People in communion with nature

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow, 1565. Oil on panel, 46 ½” x 63 ¾.”

Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Fig. 17-14.

Limbourg Brothers, Les Trés Riches Heires du Duc de Berry, calendar miniature for

July, 1413-1416. Illumination on vellum, 8 7/8” x 5 3/8.” Musée Condé, Chantilly,

France. Fig. 13.2

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow, 1565. Oil on panel, 46 ½” x 63 ¾.” Kunsthistoriches

Museum, Vienna, Austria. Fig. 17-14.

The Netherlands

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, details Hunters in the Snow, 1565. Oil on panel, 46 ½” x 63 ¾.” Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Fig. 17-14.

The NetherlandsExample: • Focus on simple

people—barn wedding• All walks represented

with dignity, all men important

• Interest in folk customs and humility

• Mastery of Italian linear perspective and detail of Flemish precursors

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Peasant Wedding, 1568. Oil on panel, 44 7/8” x 64.” Kunsthistoriches Museum,

Vienna, Austria. Fig. 17-15.

The NetherlandsExample: • Dutch proverbs– Popular in Flemish

“Books of Hours”• Original title The Blue

Cloak or The Folly of the World– Aim is to capture

human behavior– “world turned upside

down”Pieter Bruegel the Elder,

Netherlandish/Dutch Proverbs, 1559. Oil on oak, 46” x 64.” Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.