The Northern Renaissance Essential Question: How did cultural diffusion spread the ideas of the Italian Renaissance to the rest of Europe?

The NorthernRenaissance

Essential Question: How did cultural diffusion spread the ideas of the Italian Renaissance to

the rest of Europe?

The Renaissance spread from Italy as scholars & merchants from other areas visited Italian city-states

As these ideas spread, this “Northern Renaissance”

developed its own characteristics

The Renaissance in France was most

known for its unique architecture

The Renaissance in England was most

known for literature, especially the plays of William Shakespeare

Wedding Portrait by Jan Van Eyck

The Renaissance in the Netherlands was most known for realism in art

Northern Renaissance

Renaissance ideas soon spread beyond Italy to northern Europe

1. Trade

2. Travel – people going to and from Italy

3. Printed materials

4. Universities opened

Activity: Trade in Europe

1. Using the background reading and the map of Renaissance trade routes, answer questions 1-7

2. Make sure your answers are specific – you will be turning this in!

Northern Renaissance Literature

• Writers combined religion, fiction, and history• Created philosophical works, novels, dramas, and

poems

• Many believe William Shakespeare was the greatest writer of the Northern Renaissance

• Plots not original got inspiration from ancient and contemporary literature

• Knowledge of natural science and humanism shows up in plays

Northern Renaissance Art

NOT just Italian techniques moving north!

Differences: Italy:

change inspired by humanism revival of ideas from ancient Greece and

Rome anyone with $ could be a patron

Europe change driven by religious reform princes & kings were patrons

Artists• Use many Italian techniques

• Northern art showed a more realistic view of life

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

Northern artists tried to depict people as they really were

Northern Renaissance Art Characteristics

1. Attention to details

2. Focus on realism & naturalism• Less emphasis on the “classical ideal”

3. Interest in landscapes

4. More emphasis on middle-class and peasant life

5. Details of domestic interiors

6. Great skill in portraiture

Flemish Realism

Van Eyck

The Crucifixion

&

The Last Judgment 1420-1425

Comparing Scenes of the Last Judgment

Giovanni Arnolfini and His

Wife

(Wedding Portrait)

Jan Van

Eyck

1434

Jan van Eyck - Giovanni Arnolfini & His Wife

(details)

Rogier van der Weyden (1399-1464)

The Deposition

1435

van der Weyden’s Deposition (details)

Massys’ The Moneylender & His Wife, 1514

France

Renaissance Art in France

• 1494: France invaded Italy – brought ideas back

• King Francis IEncouraged humanistic learningInvited da Vinci and others to FranceCollected paintings by the great Italian

masters

The School of Fontainebleau

• Gallery [right] by Rosso Fiorentino & Francesco Primaticcio

• 1528-1537

Germany

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Old Man with a Young Woman

Amorous Old Woman with a Young Man

Dürer

The Last Supper

Woodcut, 1510

Comparing the Last Supper

England

Holbein’s, The Ambassadors, 1533

A Skull

Multiple Perspectives

Burghley House for William Cecil

The largest & grandest house of the early Elizabethan era.

The LowCountries

Hieronymus

Bosch

The Temptatio

n of St. Anthony

1506-1507

Bruegel’s, The Beggars, 1568

Bruegel’s, The Harvesters, 1565