Northern Renaissance at Queen's Gallery

The Queen's Gallery is part of Buckingham Palace, located at the south end of the building. Right now there is an exhibition on the Northern Renaissance happening - Durer, Cranach, Holbein, etc.  

The northern countries (present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany) experienced the effects of the Italian Renaissance (which began in the fourteenth century) a bit later, during the fifteenth and sixteenth century.

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) was born and died in Nuremberg but visited Italy in 1505. He was a prolific printmaker, concentrating on woodcuts and engravings. He exploited the new potential for print dissemination in the fifteenth century - with the new printing technologies, he was able to circulate his images quickly and cheaply, gaining international fame by the end of the 1400s. Prints he made were often used as devotional images - people would paste the religious prints up on their walls - but were also bought by many artists who copied his figures. Although famous for prints like St. Jerome in his Study or Melancholia, I was completely distracted by how he made his demons, devils, and dragons! Look at these things! 

so fun! 

Another cool part of the exhibition was the space they dedicated to old books and manuscripts. Here is a 1518 version of Thomas More's Utopia

Here is the response Henry VIII of England wrote when Luther published his 95 Theses. Luther wrote the treatise in 1517 and Henry wrote this in 1521. At this time, Henry was still a devout Catholic and for his work, Pope Leo X gave him the title Defender of the Faith, a title he (and all future English monarchs) retain despite that small issue of excommunication in 1527.

Last but not least, here is Martin  Luther's response to Henry VIII. This is a version from 1522 (the same year it was written). The woodcut on the title page, shown here, was done by Cranach the Elder...when you look closely, on the upper right is a cleric with the head of a pig. Not very subtle, was he?

Of course there was armor...always a crowd pleaser (and I never tire of looking at it)

My personal favorite was Pieter Brueghel the Elder's Masscre of the Innocents. This scene is a popular one from Roman mythology but Brueghal sets it in a Northern (Netherlandish) landscape to make a point...at this point, the Netherlands were fighting for independence from Spain and the artist means to create an allegory comparing the ones massacring innocent children to the Spanish militants that occupied the Netherlands. 

The highlight of the exhibition was this painting of Adam & Eve by Gossaert, an artist contemporary with Durer who worked in Antwerp. The figures have a clear Italianate influence (very sculptural bodies) but the faces, brushwork, and landscape in the background are all quite Netherlandish. 

Overall, it was very well done! There were many highlight paintings and it was a great lecture review.