The Northern Renaissance

   When one thinks of the Renaissance, Italy is usually the first thing to come to mind. However, beginning in the early 15th century, there was a movement in the north, the Northern Renaissance.
   In the years preceding the birth of the northern Renaissance, tapestries were the dominant art form. Tapestries were reserved for the elite as they were made of luxurious fabrics and spoke to the lifestyle of whoever owned it. In the early 1400’s, the desired moved towards artwork that could be more easily accessed by the masses. This is where sculpture comes in.
    At this time, Flanders was flourishing as part of the realm of Burgundy. The Dukes of Burgundy were among the richest in Europe. They were immense patrons of the arts and honestly believed that their lavish spending would trickle down and help the entire economy and the greater good. As such, they commissioned magnificent works of art.
    The artist Claus Sluter went to Dijon and created the Well of Moses on commission from Philip the Bold. This sculpture, finished in about 1403, is a very early example of the style that came to be so popular and influential in the northern Renaissance. An element of the movement was realism. The figures of the well are three dimensional and thus have a presence that make them look like real people. The flowing garments, along with the positions of their bodies make them capable of the movement of living beings.
    As exemplified in Sluter’s sculpture, one of the style characteristics of the northern Renaissance is realism. At this time in history, religious imagery is still the dominant art form. According to the BBC documentary Northern Renaissance: The Supreme Art, one of the great desires of people was to physically see sacred persons such as the Madonna. There was a wide-held belief that an object had something of its substance, so there was thought to be a piece of the deity in each sacred image of it. Religious images were thought to be able to enter the soul through the eyes, so viewing an image of the lord would bring some of the lord into you. This could be one of the reasons that realism was so highly praised; it brought religious icons to life. It also allowed people to achieve their desire of actually viewing a deity by putting them in the painting, such as the painting of Nicolas Rolin with the Madonna.
    The veritable creator of this kind of realism is Flemish painter Jan van Eyck. His great masterpiece was created in 1432; the Ghent Altarpiece. This piece was created specifically for the church in which it now resides. Van Eyck even goes so far as to use the light in the room to influence the shadows in the piece. For example, the figure of Adam has highlights in his eyes coming from the window, while Eve, facing the opposite direction, has shadows across her face, corresponding with having her back to the window. Some of the jewels in the crowns on the angels in the piece are even reflecting the position and shape of the window in the room.
    How did van Eyck achieve this level of realism? The answer lies in his technique with both the paint and the glaze he applied to his works. According to the documentary, he built up many layers of paint to get the rich colors that we see in life. He purposefully put a lot of reflective surfaces in his pieces so he could use different glazes to reflect light. Van Eyck began doing portraits of his wealthy patrons, which began the love of having one’s portrait done. His likenesses were so real that they were equated with looking into a mirror.
    The northern Renaissance inspired many of the conventions that endured for centuries to come such as the focus on realism. According to the documentary, van Eyck created worlds that were perfectly consistent with optical reality. They allow us to see back in time to real people and real scenes of life such as the Amolfini Portrait of a man and his wife. These paintings “defeat death and time” and give viewers a “glimpse of paradise itself”.