Week Six

In Southern Europe, many artists expressed an extreme discomfort in the religious situation following the start of the Reformation. Up in the North, art was affected a little differently. Subject matter, interests, and styles expanded beyond religious conflicts for a lot of Northern Renaissance art.

Artists and patrons seemed to want to ignore or avoid the tension created by religious disagreement and political disarray, unlike in Italy as we can see in Mannerists’ artwork. While the Roman Catholics faced trying to fix their system, a lot of Europe decided to move away from the Catholic Church. This resulted in new denominations across Europe. With people realizing they did not have to act according to the pope, there was room made for new priorities in interests such as science, philosophies, landscapes, and normal people or everyday living. Artists and others traveled and achieved higher education than what used to be available to them. There was a new motivation to improve one’s self for the sake of being better instead of the traditional assumption that one needed to be focused on become more like Christ or to avoid hell. Eternal damnation used to be a bigger factor and was a major tool for Catholics’ conversion – one example being Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights,” an earlier Northern European work, and another being Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel.  There were “moralizing” artworks or images, demonstrated by many of Bruegal the Elder’s works, promoting good traits in this audience without referencing religion or the bible. This appealed to the widening population of art customers of the time. They did not want reminders of the anxieties and pressures from Christianity, especially those of the corrupt Catholic hierarchy of the time.

Another idea that benefited from the Reformation was using landscape as a more dominating element of visual composition. Works exclusively describing landscape became more popular, like the works of Albrecht Altdorfer – the Northern Renaissance Bob Ross. Landscape portraits allowed the viewer to appreciate a beautiful image with the option to attribute wonderful scenery to God or not. Religious connotation could be given or ignored, depending on the individual, which is exactly what Northern Europeans wanted. They wanted the choice to interpret and enjoy art because of their personal beliefs and interests.

Yet another area of interest that gained popularity was representations of “normal life.” Before the Reformation in the North, less wealthy patrons were already trying to commission portraits of themselves, but as the 16^th century went on, audiences and artists became interesting in having art illustration everyday and relatable activities and people. Quaint or recognizable scenes that focused on people not being pious or mythological were more desirable to look at than the figures of stiff portraits where a person’s likeness could be seen without any action or behavior.  “The Banker and His Wife” by Marinus van Reymerswaele I think is a good example of this. One could actually find this scene in town, unlike the what is depicted in something like Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” or Campin’s Triptych of the Annunciation.

A good example of all these themes is Bruegal the Elder’s “The Fall of Icarus.” It has nothing to do with the political/religious offenses of the time, first of all. Second, it references the moralizing tale of Icarus. The piece can suggest that one should not get too excited by bad ideas. The painting also includes a reference to a Flemish proverb which would appeal to the intended audience and help emphasize the insignificance of the out-of-the-ordinary. There is a focus on landscape, as well as a focus on normal people and their everyday life. There are two deaths depicted in the painting, but they are almost unobservable because the artist made the working people the dominating subjects. This piece presents the many interests that flourished at the time and would easily satisfy the growing audience in Northern Europe.