The Northern Renaissance
The Lay culture in the North is different than
that found in Southern Europe
-The Catholic church is more dominant
in North European intellectual life
-The “New Learning” struck deep roots
in the North
-The New learning is often referred to
as Christian humanism
(it is less secular than Italian
humanism)
-There is still a marked interest in
studying original sources but the
original sources are now the Bible and
Church Fathers like St. Augustine
instead of Classical authors like
Aristotle (see for instance Erasmus’s
work)
John Colet, an English humanist known for
his interest in Hebrew and Greek
Josquin Desprez, composer
Gutenberg printing press
Gutenberg Bible (1456)
It is now much easier and cheaper to publish
works and spread ideas than ever before
-Compare the cost and
time involved in
publishing a book
during the
Renaissance with the
cost and time involved
in copying a
manuscript in a
medieval scriptorium in
a monastery
Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch author of
In Praise of Folly (a satire)
Sir Thomas More, English statesman, humanist,
writer (Utopia) and friend of Erasmus
William Shakespeare,
English Renaissance writer
Chateau de Clos Luce, Leonardo da
Vinci’s residence in France until his
death in 1519
Louise Labe (+1566), French
Renaissance poet
Jan van Eyck, 15th-century Flemish painter
Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait
Hieronymus Bosch,
early Flemish painter
(+1516)
Hieronymus
Bosch’s
“The Ship of
Fools”
Albrecht Duerer self-portrait at
age 13 (1484)
Albrecht Duerer’s self-portrait
at age 26
Duerer Self-Portrait (1500) as Christ figure
Albrecht Duerer’s drawing of an
African
Duerer’s Young Hare (1502)
The Four
Horsemen of
the
Apocalypse
St. Jerome in His Study
Pieter Breughel the Elder,
The Peasant Wedding (1566-9)
Peter Bruegel the Elder,
Hunters in the snow (1565)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder,
The Blind leading the Blind (1568)
The Land of Cockaigne (1567), a mythical land of plenty;
in Bruegel’s view, it’s an illusion; sloth and gluttony get you
nowhere!
Jan Kochanowski (+1584),
an important Polish Renaissance writer
Sigismund I the Old of Poland on a
200 zloty banknote
Zygmunt Chapel in Cracow by
Bartolomeo Berreci
Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) in Cracow,
rebuilt in 1555