Full Description
This book evokes the art of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Northern Europe in all its richness and splendour. The works of Van Eyck, Bosch, Bruegel, Durer and other masters are considered within the larger context of a changing society in which church and state, Protestant and Catholic, man and woman, artist and patron, independent mercantile city and noble chivalric court all played a part.Craig Harbison considers these and many other facets of the Renaissance world, drawing them together into a unified narrative that illuminates the complexity and brilliance of the art and its times.
Contents
INTRODUCTION The Self-Conscious Pragmatic Artist 7 Church and State 8 Artist and Patron 11 Individualism and Self-Awareness 17 Hallmarks of the Northern Renaissance 21 ONE Realism 25 Fact, Symbol, and Ideal 26 Manuscript Illumination 27 Style, Technique, and Scale of Panel Painting 31 Space, Perspective, and Architecture 34 Fragmentary Realism 38 Sculpture 42 Realism and Social Class 47 The Vocabulary of Bourgeois Realism 50 The Portinari Triptych 53 Sixteenth-century Developments 60 TWO Physical Production and Original Location 63 The Power of the Guilds 64 Commissions and Contracts 66 The Open Market 68 The Production of a Panel Painting 70 Printmaking 75 Function and Content 76 The Isenheim Altarpiece 86 THREE Religious Behaviour and Ideals 91 Controversy and Corruption 92 Personal Religion 94 The Pilgrimage 98 Stereotypes and Originals 101 The Sixteenth-century Reformation 105 Propaganda through Art 113 The Transformation of Religious Imagery 118 FOUR Artistic Specialities and Social Developments 123 Portrait Imagery 124 Landscape Imagery 134 Still-life and Genre Imagery 144 Dogma and Dialogue 152 CONCLUSION Italy and the North 155 Northern Artists' Travels to Italy 156 The Revival of Ancient Art and Subject Matter 161 The Naked Body 165
