Northern Renaissance: The Supreme Art

            After watching "Northern Renaissance: The Supreme Art” I noticed that one of the main themes that seemed to play a part in a majority of the art pieces was the Christian religion. Many of the art pieces in the movie showed depictions of Christian characters. One of the first shown was the “Well of Moses”, a sculpture depicting 6 characters, David, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, Zacharias and of course Moses. Not only did sculptures depict Christian characters, but many paintings done during the time did as well, such as “The Ghent Alterpiece”, painted by Jan van Eyck. Many of the paintings and sculptures of the Northern Renaissance clearly showed the importance of religion within their culture. I think that the importance of family was highly valued within their culture as well, which is showed within some of the art pieces produced. When looking at pieces such as "The Arnolfini Portrait" by Jan van Eyck, you can see that Arnolfini valued his wife very much by having this painting done. In this same painting you can also see how religion played a part in their lives as well, with the mirror in the background depicting the story of Christ. There is an endless amount of evidence within northern renaissance art that supports the importance of religion and family within their culture.

          Another thing that is shown very clearly in northern renaissance art is the fine attention to detail, shown within much of the arts naturalistic style. Many of the art pieces, sculptures and paintings alike, show very clear and precise attention to detail. I think that this precise attention to detail provides the evidence showing that realism played a large part within their culture. The paintings produced by Jan van Eyck represent this incredible style of art. These paintings show very incredible detail that had to be done through many thin layers of oil based paint. It was through these many layers of paint that he was able to produce such amazing works of art that looked as though they were part of the real world, almost ready to hop out of the painting and into the room itself. One of my favorite pieces shown in the documentary was “The Ghent Altarpiece.” This piece of art showed how Jan van Eyck used light within his painting to give it an even more realistic sense. I loved how he created the light in the painting to come from the same direction that the light comes from in the actual room it was designed for. This allowed the picture and the characters within, to become part of the room itself. It is through the naturalistic style that much of northern renaissance art is defined.

          The naturalistic style of art created by northern renaissance artists defined their cultures values. As said in the documentary “Christians sought above all to visualize the person they worshiped.”(Northern Renaissance) I believe that this is why much of northern renaissance art contains many depictions of Christian characters, such as that of Christ. This reinforces why they emphasized the naturalistic style so much. They wanted to see these biblical characters for what they would really look like in real life. It is this Christian visualization that helped drive that naturalistic style of art to becoming such a popular and important part of the northern renaissance.

Northern Renaissance: The Supreme Art. DocuWatch, Web. 11 Jan 2012. <http://art.docuwat.ch/videos/?alternative=1&channel_id=0&skip=0&subpage=video&video_id=89>.