ART 208 - Jean Pucelle to Hans Holbein: The Renaissance in Northern Europe

This course will provide a detailed introduction to sculpture, painting, graphic arts, and architecture in Bohemia, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the Low Countries, between the 14th-16th centuries. Students will be able to relate individual works to patronage conditions and to pertinent social, religious, political, and philosophical movements through major artists, such as the early manuscript illuminator Jean Pucelle to the architect Claus Sluter, and from the early masters of oil paint Jan van Eyck, Roger van der Weyden, and Hans Memling to the prolific masters of the graphic arts Albrecht Dürer and Hans Baldung the Grien. The “invention” of oil painting, the concept of the “spiritual” pilgrimage, the notion of “disguised symbolism,” and the explosive break from the Roman Catholic Church known as the Protestant Reformation, are just a few of the major topics that will be addressed in this course. The globalization that occurred among Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as the cross-cultural exchange that occurred between Italy and lands north of the Alps, will also be examined.

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.