This video is about the Renaissance in Northern Europe,
and Spain, moving a little bit into the New World [Mexico], as well.
So, just a few important historical events as background, first off, of course, in
1492 Columbus lands in the West Indies.
This is part of a general age of exploration. A number
of voyages that were going on at this time that obviously changed the conception
of the world. In 1492, as well --
we are entering into a period of intense religiosity, intense Christianity,
so this is what's called the "Alhambra Decree," which was the expulsion of Jews
from Spanish regions,
so a general feeling, especially in Spain, and a few other regions,
where, you know, if you're not this kind of Christian or this kind of religion, that
you don't belong here. So there's a lot of discrimination,
and these practices of kicking out other types of
religions. Also just a reminder, in 1517 Martin Luther posts
his theses against indulgences and the corruption of the the clergy,
and then in 1527 we have the Sack of Rome, which really indicates that
Rome is no longer this sacred city that can no longer be touched,
demonstrating there are some weaknesses in the Catholic Church,
and the the Catholic
bureaucracy and system. So just a quick note -- making sure all clear on the
Reformation vs the
Counter Reformation. The Reformation is what Martin Luther is really getting
going.
It's a Protestant movement -- a protest led to the development
of new sects: Lutheranism, Calvinism. Salvation is achieved through God's grace
and faith alone, and the pope is not needed as an intermediary.
There are different conceptions of salvation in these Protestant sects,
and so there's some clear differences between Catholicism and Protestantism.
Also conceptions of how at the bread and wine work
in the liturgy or in the ritual, Christian ritual.
And then, of course, there's also the Counter Reformation, which is the attempt
by the Catholic Church to reform
to appeal the concerns of the Protestant Reformers, and the Counter Reformers
meet at the Council of Trent to pass reforms.
They invite the Protestants to come but kind of too late by the time that
happening. This begins a very dramatic split between the Catholics
and these alternative sects. And actually you had
some very intense battles that will take place,
wars, massacres, so you really have a lot
of instances where Christian individual is fighting Christian
in this period Europe. And it really divides Europe.
So, if we look at this map, you can see the green areas are pretty firmly Catholic. So,
you can see that
Spain remains very firmly Catholic. Areas of France. Of course,
Italy, where Rome is located, but you can see the other colors are where we start to see
other versions of Christianity starting to
come in. So we see things like Lutheranism up
in the area of modern-day Germany. Of course, the Anglican
faith, where Henry VIII is going to take over the church in England. So,
clearly you can see that the green is starting to change into other colors.
So just a brief review: what are some the characteristics of
Northern painting? So, focus on detail and symbolism,
emotion, focus on nature, and, of course, less interest in ancient Greece
and Rome, which we wee with a lot artists, unless these artists have been to
Italy, in which case we start to see more interest in ancient Greece and Rome.
So, starting off, looking at work by Mathias Grünewalde
called the Isenheim Altarpiece. And this is a piece that was created
before Luther posted his theses, so before the Protestant Reformation,
but this exemplifies some of the characteristics of German
art, which tends to be quite dramatic, and tries to bring out your emotion.
If we look here at this crucifixion scene, it's especially violent,
and especially vivid, with
Christ's arms kind of turning, and his fingers going outwards
and his legs looking very contorted, and his ribs sticking out.
There's an immense pain that is communicated here, and then also we see
his dead body along the bottom. His skin is kind of brownish-green in color,
and, if we zoom in, we can see that it's speckled with almost looking like
thorn along his feet. The blood is pouring off
his toes, and also we can see that
nails themselves are almost cartoonish in size. They are so
massive, and this wouldn't led viewers to really contemplate the pain that he was
going through.
The idea of sacrifice is reinforced by the lamb here,
where blood would be coming out into a chalice. Mary Magdalene and the Virgin
represented with a lot of emotion. This was actually put in a church
hospital -- or a church that was connected to a hospital --
that dealt with skin diseases and particularly
St. Anthony's fire, which was a skin infection, so we see St.
Anthony. We see that kind of infected look to his [Christ's] skin. We also see St.
Sebastian here,
who was a plague saint. So the idea that those who were afflicted with
skin diseases, by that plague, could come to this, and
pray to it, and gain some comfort in the suffering of Christ,
as well.
Next, we are going to look at Albrecht Dürer, and Albrecht Dürer is really seen as the High
Renaissance man
of Germany. He is working as the
Reformation is building, so we'll see an example here of two prints,
before the Reformation, and then a painting after the Reformation
has really taken hold. So this is the "Fall of Man," and it has some nice
Italian elements, in the fact that he's been to Italy and we see this nice
classicizing
anatomy on display. But we also see that kind of Northern detail. We have animals
that represent
different symbolic elements or
they symbolize different things. So here theses animals
symbolize the humors. So
these are, of course, the liquids that were in he body that were believed to influence
the personalities of individuals, so everything
in the medieval period into the Renaissance was about keeping these humors in balance.
So the cat symbolizes yellow bile, or being choleric, the idea being aggressive.
The elk is melancholic -- too much black bile or is
moody. The ox is phlegmatic or easygoing,
lazy in a way, too much phlegm. And the rabbit is sanguine -- the idea of having
too much blood and being outgoing. We, of course, also have the snake, symbolic
of sin, that's opposed by the parrot that's supposed to symbolize virtue.
So a lot of Art Historians have gone through and identified
what these different elements would symbolize, and this is very much
in that Northern tradition of imbuing these different
animals and different parts of the image with symbolic meaning.
Albrecht Dürer also created this engraving -- so these are two different types of prints
that could be made into multiples. The previous work was a
woodcut, so carved into wood, and then you ink the ridges.
This is an engraving where you carve into metals and then ink the grove to create an
impression.
And this is a scene, probably based on Psalm 23, "Though I walk through valley of the shadow of
death,
I will fear no evil". So you have the idea of a rider, who
looks very serious, on a beautiful horse, close attention to the
proportion of the horse here, with his dog running along.
With a figure representing death, reminding him how much time his has
left
with hourglass. His horses is tired and exhausted, appropriate for
death.
And then then the devil off to the side. So the idea that you have these figures
trying to distract this very noble knight, and the knight doesn't
seem to be able to be distracted by these figures. Beautiful detail with the
engraving, with the dimensional quality of the horse here.
Obviously, Albrecht Dürer was a very, very accomplished
printmaker, and, in fact, we can see "AD" [standing for Albrect Dürer] and the date [1504]
included on this engraving. Probably the audience for this would be
a man of arms, or a man of the upper classes, because these
prints, why less expensive than a painting, were still fairly expensive,
and also, of course, you have a man of arms as the main subject.
And, finally, we have a work by Albrecht Dürer called "The Four Apostles."
This really emphasizes how your own personal interaction with the word, with
the Gospels, was so important.
We see here John the Evangelist featured at the front,
holding his gospel, and the idea of emphasizing
the word, which we see the inscription here. Then we have St. Peter, who
is often connected to the papacy, with his keys, his head down
so the idea that the papacy is looking down or not doing so well at this time
of the Reformation. Then we have St. Mark, so St. Mark
of course was also a gospel writer: so, [gospels of] Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
And then Paul who of course had his letters, and he's holding onto a
sword here. Moving onto
England. We actually an artists who came from
the area of central Europe [Germany]
Hans Holbein, who comes to England with the hope
of making it there and making it as an artist.
He clearly is a very accomplished artist, which we can see by the detail at the center,
almost like a still-life in the center, where we see an emphasis
on celestial elements, then more terrestrial
elements. And then we see a skull here -- a skull that's been stretched.
and there's some different possibilities for what this could symbolize. It definitely is
showing Hans Holbein
ability as an artist, so he's kind of showing off here.
Some people have suggested that his names means hollow
bone, like a leg bone -- "hohl - bein" -- "bein" being
the [leg] bone. Maybe it's kind of like a signature.
Then also, of course, it could function as a memento mori, or a reminder of
mortality. You also see a little crucifixion sticking out here,
so the idea of salvation, of the importance of
religion, and but you also get the sense of the strife that's going through the
church.
There's actually a string on the lute here that's broken, hinting at
discord. Then a book of hymns written by Martin Luther.
So, again, a direct reference to the Reformation. And we're in the court of
Herny VIII at this point. Henry VII has broken with the Catholic Church,
and this is the French ambassador and this is a
Bishop here. So what we see here is
too men who are having these full body portrait, along with a number
symbolic elements incorporated into the image.
Another unusual work is Hieronymus Bosch. This is a triptych,
and it's a work that has puzzled scholars for a very long time. So,
the two side panels are pretty straightforward. We have a scene of
Adam and Eve -- the introduction of Eve to Adam,
this moment hinting towards the moment of original sin, which is impending,
and then over here, you have a scene of hell. A very frightening scenes of devilish
figures, figures being
eaten, figures being punished for their sins. The central
scenes is a scene of indulgence in
pleasures of the flesh. We see figures
embracing. We see figures scenes hinting
at erotic subject matter. And so the central scenes maybe
that's the idea of a kind of a pleasure garden -- what might have been
if Adam and Eve hadn't committed their original sin or perhaps more likely
the kind of sin
that humans engage in and therefore lead to the eventual
destination of hell.
So, the idea of the original sin, then humankind,
in this constant state state of sinning
and then eventually the arrival
in hell. So not necessarily the most positive image, but an extremely inventive
image with really unexpected large fruit
in the central image of the sinning subject matter.
So, you can see these large strawberries and these figures cavorting
with one another,
scenes of intense pleasure, and then moving onto the Hell
scenes, you see fire. You see a frozen lake,
and you see these frightening figures. And these figures by Hieronymus
have remained very much influential.
Pieter Bruegel [the Elder] also had very interesting work that invites you to
look into all the details.
These are actually just a variety of Netherlandish proverbs -- many of which
don't translate very well --
but the idea of going "paycheck to paycheck" -- stretching from one loaf
to another.
"You can't cry over spilled milk" -- but here it is spilled portage.
The idea of driving your head into a brick wall --
doing something that's futile.
Covering your roof in pies -- you shouldn't waste your money,
you shouldn't spend your money on something that's unnecessary, so
just a very fun and very interesting painting.
Ending with Spain, thinking about how we have a "plateresque" style in Spain,
very ornamented style in Spain. and Spanish architecture is going to come into the new
world
to demonstrate the dominance of Spain over
that the people that they are conquering. So this is the work called the "Casa de
Montejo" in Mérida in the Yucatán of Mexico.
It's taking a plateresque style,
almost looking like silver design, and appropriating for the New World,
so you can see that you have the conquerors here. You see the ornamented,
really decorative style at the top here. Classicizing architecture down below.
You can see the conquers looking very strong, and then more of the indigenous people,
perhaps indicating the indigenous people that are being conquered,
and the idea that maybe the Spanish are thinking that they're bringing
civilizations to these individuals with
this architecture that's being introduced, and
also you heads down below, which some have interpreted
as the head that those that have been conquered, so there
you can see just the heads down below, as well, and then the coat of arms of the Montejo.
Another form of architecture was more of an un-ornamented in style
in a massive size. This is a painting of the Escorial, which was
a large structure, a large palace built by
the Spanish royal family, which really emphasizes how wealthy Spain
had become with all the gold coming in from the New World. And so what we see here is
a massive structure
that emphasizes the wealth, but also the strong Catholic beliefs of
the Spanish royal family -- the fact that they are really sticking with
the Catholic religion
through the Counter Reformation. So it includes a church. It includes a
monastery. It includes a palace so definitely indicating that they remaining
very firmly Catholic. And it is this un- ornamented
style [Estilo desornamentado] where you just have vast areas of granite --
un-ornamented granite. You have a little bit of a classicizing façade,
and then just vasts areas of overwhelming
plain granite, hinting at the very austere style
Spain. This was the patron of the Escorial,
Philip II. And as we move on, our final work
will be El Greco's painting. El Greco had a very unique style all his own,
but it hints at the austerity and the religious nature of Spain at this time.
We see here a group of men dressed in black, very simple garments.
They're all gathering overall the Burial of Count Orgaz, was a count,
who died much earlier than this painting was created,
but it was said that St. Stephen and St. Augustine came to bury
him, and we see this moment where Christ is it here, and John the Baptist
is appearing, and the soul of Count Orgaz is going up to heaven!