The Northern Renaissance

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Renaissance literally means ‘rebirth’ and is the name for a great cultural movement that had its inception in Italy during the early 1300s. It had a large focus on classical antiquity, which is reflected in the visual arts and architecture made under this period. The two primary renaissances were the Italian renaissance, the ‘original’ renaissance, and the Northern renaissance, the renaissance that formed through cultural diffusion from Italy. The Northern renaissance occurred in Europe north of Italy; France, Germany, the Netherlands, England and Spain. Due to the cultural and geographical differences between these two areas, the Northern renaissance evolved into quite a different movement. This paper is intended to explore and reflect upon …show more content…

The few who survived the black death had fewer competitors and could quickly reach a higher status, which was essential for stimulating the economy. This meant that the art of the Northern renaissance had a larger focus on everyday life, even the life of peasants. Christian figures were however still what was most often depicted in their art. Initially the art was made to be easy on the eyes by having appropriate colours and being extremely detailed, rather than being anatomically correct like the Italian art, however this changed slightly when more artists travelled to Italy and took influence from Italian art. Due to the differences in climate, they never could imitate the Italian art very well. This led to the development of oil techniques and wooden sculptures, which the north actually had resources …show more content…

It is an inspiring example of how people have used knowledge from and of the past to learn and progress forward. Italy certainly created the renaissance but when it reached the north, it was given many important contributions that led to the whole of Europe moving forward. It went on up until the 1600s meaning there was plenty of time for the societies to find similarities between them and interconnect, up until the protestant reformation, when Europe was split up according to christian