1. Northern European Renaissance
16th CENTURY
HIGH RENAISSANCE IN
NORTHERN EUROPE
1500--1599

2. Guiding Question…
GIVEN FREE WILL, WHAT WILL MAN CHOOSE
TO QUESTION?
IDEALIZATION
THE CHURCH
ONE’S BEING (AN EXISTENTIAL QUESTION)

3. Geography of Focus

4. Guiding Events and Figures
These may be political, scientific, literary, philosophical, religious
 Ca. 1455, Gutenberg develops the printing press
 Luther nails his 95 Theses to Wittenberg Cathedral
in 1517
 Leads to the Protestant Reformation
 Pope Leo X excommunicates Luther in 1520; Diet of
Worms condemns him in 1521
 Henry VIII takes control of Church of England in
1534
 In 1609, Galileo adapts telescope for astronomy
 His scientific beliefs will lead to his excommunication

5. Reflections of the Age
SCIENCE LITERATURE
 Francis Bacon  William Shakespeare
 Established scientific method  Author of 37 plays and 154
sonnets
 Privileges observation and
 He is ―not for an age, but for
experimentation
all time.‖—Ben Johnson
 Rene Descartes  Michel de Montaigne
 Emphasizes deductive  Establishes the essai as an
reasoning in answering attempt to answer ―What do I
philosophical questions know?‖
 ―I think; therefore, I am.‖  Assumes that we can find our
own answers

6. Guiding Question…
GIVEN FREE WILL, WHAT WILL MAN CHOOSE
TO QUESTION?
IDEALIZATION
THE CHURCH
ONE’S BEING (AN EXISTENTIAL QUESTION)

7. Idealization
IN THE VISUAL ARTS, THE GENRE SCENE IS
PREFERRED
IN MUSIC, MADRIGALS ARE POPULAR
Given free will, what will man choose to question?

8.  My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; A
Coral is far more red than her lips' red: B
Shakespeare’s
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; A
Sonnet 130
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. B
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, C
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; D
And in some perfumes is there more delight C
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. D
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know E
FORM
That music hath a far more pleasing sound. F
14 lines
I grant I never saw a goddess go: E
3 quatrains
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. F
1 couplet
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare G
Iambic pentameter
As any she belied with false compare. G
Unstress/stress

9. Pieter Bruegel
the Elder’s
Harvesters, 15
65
Shows daily life
Presents moral
tales without overt
religious symbols
Presents the
Protestant Work
Ethic

10. The Catholic Church
THE WEALTHY WILL SUPPORT THE SPLIT AS
THEY WILL NOT BE REQUIRED TO :
a. PAY TAXES TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
b. ADOPT THE RELIGIOUS APPOINTMENTS OF
THE PAPACY IN NORTHERN EUROPE
LANDS
Given free will, what will man choose to question?

11. Author of the 95
Theses, which
argue that faith, not
works, brings
salvation
Angry that Catholic
Church is charging
for indulgences and
the forgiveness of
sins
German monk
teaching at
Wittenberg
University
Lucas Cranach’s Portrait of Martin Luther, ca. 1526

12. Scientific Discovery questions Church Authority
 Copernicus (1473-1543) argues that the Earth
revolves around the sun
 Based on a Greek geographer and astronomer, Ptolemy
 In 1533, Gemma Fisius explained triangulation in
mapmaking and surveying, and in 1553, the principle
of longitude
 In 1609, Galileo adapts telescope to astronomy

13. One’s Being
WHAT IS OUR NATURE? OUR PURPOSE?
WHY ARE WE HERE?
Given free will, what will man choose to question?

14. Hieronymous
Bosch’s
Haywain, ca.
1495--1500
Based on Flemish
Proverbs
Message: Man’s
nature is avaracious
(greedy)

15. To be, or not to be, that is the question:
From Hamlet’s Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Soliloquy Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
Internal thoughts That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
spoken out loud Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
Existential in When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
nature Must give us pause – there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office…
But that the dread of something after death…
makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?

16. In subsequent presentations, you will learn more about:
 Middle-class preferences in the Visual Arts
 Distinctions between Northern European
and Italian styles
These presentations will prepare you to incorporate
the information in the assignments and assessments
for the week