Northern Renaissance (c.1430-1580)

While the Renaissance was emerging in Italy, a similar phenomenon was occurring in the Low Countries of Flanders and Holland, and Germany. Unlike Italian artists, northern painters were not looking to rediscover the spirit of ancient Greece. Instead, they were determined to exploit the full potential of oil painting, and explore linear perspective. As in Italy, religious subjects dominated the art of the period, but in more subtle ways and always with an earthy edge. If Italian Renaissance art is dreamy and idealized, Northern art is practical, down-to-earth and dispassionate. This affected the popularity of the painting genres, and we see history painting gradually giving way to portrait art, genre-painting, and still life, especially after the Reformation (c.1520) when the Church in Rome ceased to be a major patron of the arts in Northern Europe.

Man in a Red Turban (1433) by
Jan Van Eyck, the great Dutch
Old Master and leader of the
Northern Renaissance.

Artists Of The Northern Renaissance

The great artists of the Northern Renaissance included: Jan Van Eyck (joint creator with his brother Hubert of the highly realistic Ghent altarpiece, and the first supreme master of portraits in oils, known for his luminous colours and fine detail in works like Man in a Red Turban); Hugo van der Goes, noted for his masterpiece the Portinari Altarpiece; the German Albrecht Durer (the finest painter and printmaker of the Northern Renaissance, known for his outstanding draftsmanship, self-portraits, oils, watercolours, woodcuts and engravings); Robert Campin (an elusive but brilliant painter and portrait artist who was a key founder of the Dutch School); the Belgian Roger van der Weyden (the most influential religious and narrative painter of his day, famous for compositions like The Deposition, St Luke Drawing the Virgin, and Descent from the Cross); and the Netherlands artist Hieronymus Bosch (famous for his complex fantasy paintings illustrating the sins of Man).

Note: For details of the colour pigments used by Northern Renaissance painters, see: Renaissance Colour Palette.

Adam and Eve (1491-3)
Limewood Sculpture by Tilman
Riemenschneider, the greatest
wood sculptor of the age.

EVOLUTION OF VISUAL ART
For the chronology and dates
of key events in the evolution
of visual arts around the world
see: History of Art Timeline.

Other Old Masters of the Northern Renaissance include: the German limewood sculptors Tilman Riemenschneider and Veit Stoss (renowned for their realistic reliefs, busts and freestanding wood sculptures); Lucas Cranach the Elder (one of the foremost figures in the German Renaissance, known for his unusual portraits); the Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (who painted acute observations of ordinary people as well as outstanding landscapes like Hunters in the Snow); Giuseppe Arcimboldo (known for his fantastic facial compositions in vegetables and fruits); the German Hans Holbein the Younger (one of the top portraitists of the entire Renaissance period), the German Mathias Grunewald (the religious extremist and creator of The Isenheim Altarpiece, whose non-realistic dramatic style of art influenced later schools of Expressionism); and the talented painter, etcher and engraver Albrecht Altdorfer, best known for his masterpiece Battle of Alexander at Issus (1529) - a unique fusion of history and landscape art - and his innovative etching/engraving plates.

Curiously, aside from wood-carving, sculpture was never as popular with Northern Renaissance artists, as it was in Italy, although printmaking was more prevalent. The latter was closely connected to German interest in the printing process, which culminated in the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 1450s.

• For other art movements and periods, see: History of Art.
• For styles of painting and sculpture in Ireland, see: Irish Art Encyclopedia.