RENAISSANCE ART AT THE CROSSROADS: ITALY AND THE NETHERLANDS / VAN EYCK AND THE BURGUNDIAN COURT

In studying the cultural cross-fertilisation in the 15th and 16th centuries this course draws on more recent scholarship that has caused a major re-evaluation of Renaissance art. Cutting across national boundaries and the boundaries existing in traditional art history the course tells a newly-emerging story, with even well-known art works being seen from a fresh perspective.

The impact of Netherlandish painting, founded by Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, was so profound in Italy that it changed the direction of Italian Renaissance art. From Filippo Lippi to Raphael, Italian painters switched from egg tempera to the Netherlandish technique of painting in oils, adopted the northern approach to portraiture, emulated the depiction of light, texture and other illusionistic effects, and even copied landscape backgrounds from imported northern altarpieces. In the 15th century this influence travelled almost exclusively in one direction from north to south. However, in the 16th century this direction was effectively to reverse as the works of Michelangelo and other Italian masters caught the imagination of Netherlandish artists and their patrons (from Gossaert ultimately to Rubens).

VAN EYCK AND THE BURGUNDIAN COURT

Jan van Eyck was a principal founder of the new Netherlandish school of painting that revolutionised art across Europe. As court painter he was based in Bruges, a vital crossroad for trade and international finance, where large numbers of Italian merchants and bankers began to commission paintings to send back home.

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