
What were the causes of the Northern Renaissance? The Renaissance of ‘re-birth’ was not just confined to Italy. There was also a Northern Renaissance. This article will argue that the origins of the Northern Renaissance resulted from the spread of printing, Italy’s influence, growing wealth, and the decline of the culture associated with feudalism.
Why is it called the Northern Renaissance?
Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renaissance, this period became the German, French, English, Low Countries, Polish Renaissances and in turn other national and localized movements, each with different attributes.
How did the Renaissance spread throughout Europe?
From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe. Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renaissance, this period became the German, French, English, Low Countries, Polish Renaissances and in turn other national and localized movements, each with different attributes.
What happened during the Northern Renaissance?
The Northern Renaissance merged into the Reformation period in the early sixteenth century, which began with Martin Luther nailing his ninety-five theses calling for Catholic Church reform in 1517. The Northern Renaissance is best characterized by the genres of art, music, and especially philosophy.
How did the Renaissance change the art of Northern Europe?
As Renaissance art styles moved through northern Europe, they changed and were adapted to local customs. In England and the northern Netherlands the Reformation brought religious painting almost completely to an end.

What were the 3 causes of the Northern Renaissance?
In conclusion, historians have identified several causes of the Renaissance in Europe, including: increased interaction between different cultures, the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman texts, the emergence of humanism, different artistic and technological innovations, and the impacts of conflict and death.
What influenced the Northern Renaissance?
The Northern Renaissance was greatly influenced by the Reformation which questioned and weakened the power of the Catholic Church. New 15th and 16th-century ideas and discoveries changed the world forever.
What was the impact of the Northern Renaissance?
The impact of the Northern Renaissance The most important part of the Northern Renaissance is the printing press. As mentioned before, it led to an increase in literacy, which led to individuals beginning to question religious text and in turn, led to the demand for religious reform across northern Europe.
What was the purpose of the Northern Renaissance?
Like their Italian counterparts, Northern Renaissance artists rejected recent Medieval ideas and instead found inspiration in the age-old aesthetic of Classical antiquity. This approach culminated in an artistic revival that helped bring Europe out of its Dark Ages.
Where did Northern Renaissance began?
The Northern Renaissance occurred in northern Europe and areas outside of Italy. There was little influence from the Italian Renaissance until 1450. After 1450, ideas such as humanism began to spread around Europe and resulted in renaissance movements in Germany, France, England, the Netherlands, and Poland.
What did Northern Renaissance art Focus?
Rather than romanticized depictions of heavenly figures and saints, however, Northern Renaissance paintings focused on the divinity of everyday people and events. What is this? Portraits, landscapes, and visual narratives of everyday events like the weddings of peasants were popular subjects.
When did the Northern Renaissance begin and end?
Northern Renaissance Art (1400–1600)
What was a characteristic of the Northern Renaissance?
The Northern Renaissance was famous for its advanced oil painting techniques, realistic, expressive altarpiece art, portraiture on wooden panel paintings, as well as woodcuts and other forms of printmaking.
What made the Northern Renaissance different from the Italian Renaissance?
The Italian Renaissance writers focused on secular concerns and advancing the individual, while Northern Renaissance writers focused on reforming society based on Christian principles. Both movements were similar because they were based on humanistic studies of ancient Greek and Roman writers.
What is meant by Northern Renaissance?
The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps. From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe.
What is the difference between the northern and southern Renaissance?
The Southern Renaissance artists were known for their frescoes, and their oil and tempera paintings. The Northern Renaissance artist were known for their oil on panel paintings.
How did the Renaissance start?
The Renaissance began in Italy, the birthplace of the Roman Empire. Following the fall of the empire in the 4th century, and the subsequent dark ages, the incredible art and ideas of Roman times were temporarily lost. They were later rediscovered in Italy in around the 12th century, leading to the Renaissance.
What was a characteristic of the Northern Renaissance?
The Northern Renaissance was famous for its advanced oil painting techniques, realistic, expressive altarpiece art, portraiture on wooden panel paintings, as well as woodcuts and other forms of printmaking.
Who was the most influential humanist of the Northern Renaissance?
Desiderius ErasmusErasmus, in full Desiderius Erasmus, (born October 27, 1469 [1466?], Rotterdam, Holland [now in the Netherlands]—died July 12, 1536, Basel, Switzerland), Dutch humanist who was the greatest scholar of the northern Renaissance, the first editor of the New Testament, and also an important figure in patristics and ...
How did the Northern Renaissance differ from the Italian Renaissance?
The Northern Renaissance most differed from the Italian Renaissance in that it replaced greater importance on religious devotion. In other words we can say, the Italian Renaissance was an artistic movement unaffected by reformation. In Northern Europe Renaissance was philosphical and strongly affected by reformation.
How did Renaissance ideas influence northern Europe?
New ideas would influence the creation of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Through the influence of Italian art, the countries of Northern Europe had a cultural rebirth, which would heavily influence Christian humanism.
Why is the Northern Renaissance called the Northern Renaissance?
Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renaissance, this period became the German, French, English, Low Countries, Polish Renaissances and in turn other national and localized movements, each with different attributes.
What was the Northern Renaissance?
Northern Renaissance. The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps. From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe. Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renaissance, this period became the German, French, English, Low Countries, ...
Why did feudalism decline?
The reasons for this decline include the post- Plague environment, the increasing use of money rather than land as a medium of exchange, the growing number of serfs living as freemen, the formation of nation-states with monarchies interested in reducing the power of feudal lords, the increasing uselessness of feudal armies in the face of new military technology (such as gunpowder ), and a general increase in agricultural productivity due to improving farming technology and methods. As in Italy, the decline of feudalism opened the way for the cultural, social, and economic changes associated with the Renaissance in Europe.
What were the Northern artists known as?
Later in the 16th century Northern painters increasingly looked and travelled to Rome, becoming known as the Romanists. The High Renaissance art of Michelangelo and Raphael and the late Renaissance stylistic tendencies of Mannerism that were in vogue had a great impact on their work.
What was the most important invention of the Renaissance?
One of the most important technological development of the Renaissance was the invention of the caravel. This combination of European and North African ship building technologies for the first time made extensive trade and travel over the Atlantic feasible. While first introduced by the Italian states and the early captains, such as Giovanni Caboto, Giovanni da Verrazzano and Columbus, who were Italian explorers, the development would end Northern Italy's role as the trade crossroads of Europe, shifting wealth and power westwards to Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the Netherlands. These states all began to conduct extensive trade with Africa and Asia, and in the Americas began extensive colonisation activities. This period of exploration and expansion has become known as the Age of Discovery. Eventually European power spread around the globe.
How did the printing press affect the Renaissance?
Its power to disseminate information enhanced scientific research, spread political ideas and generally impacted the course of the Renaissance in northern Europe. As in Italy, the printing press increased the availability of books written in both vernacular languages and the publication of new and ancient classical texts in Greek and Latin. Furthermore, the Bible became widely available in translation, a factor often attributed to the spread of the Protestant Reformation.
What brought religious painting to an end?
In England and the northern Netherlands the Reformation brought religious painting almost completely to an end. Despite several very talented artists of the Tudor Court in England, portrait painting was slow to spread from the elite.
What was the significance of the French invasion of Italy?
The French invasion of Italy marked the beginning of a new phase of European politics, during which the Valois kings of France and the Habsburgs of Germany fought each other, with the Italian states as their reluctant pawns. For the next 60 years the dream of Italian conquest was pursued by every French king, none of them having learned anything from Charles VIII’s misadventure except that the road southward was open and paved with easy victories. For even longer Italy would be the keystone of the arch that the Habsburgs tried to erect across Europe from the Danube to the Strait of Gibraltar in order to link the Spanish and German inheritance of the emperor Charles V. In destroying the autonomy of Italian politics, the invasions also ended the Italian state system, which was absorbed into the larger European system that now took shape. Its members adopted the balance-of-power diplomacy first evolved by the Italians as well as the Italian practice of using resident ambassadors who combined diplomacy with the gathering of intelligence by fair means or foul. In the art of war, also, the Italians were innovators in the use of mercenary troops, cannonry, bastioned fortresses, and field fortification. French artillery was already the best in Europe by 1494, whereas the Spaniards developed the tercio, an infantry unit that combined the most effective field fortifications and weaponry of the Italians and Swiss.
Why was Savonarola burned?
In 1498 Savonarola was tortured, hanged, and burned as a false prophet for predicting that Charles would complete his mission. Conceived amid dreams of chivalric glory and crusade, the Italian expedition of Charles VIII was the venture of a medieval king—romantic, poorly planned, and totally irrelevant to the real needs of his subjects.
What was the growth of the monarchy?
The growth of centralized monarchy claiming absolute sovereignty over its subjects may be observed in other places, from the England of Henry VIII on the extreme west of Europe to the Muscovite tsardom of Ivan III (the Great) on its eastern edge, for the New Monarchy was one aspect of a more general phenomenon—a great recovery that surged through Europe in the 15th century. No single cause can be adduced to explain it. Some historians believe it was simply the upturn in the natural cycle of growth: the great medieval population boom had overextended Europe’s productive capacities; the depression of the 14th and early 15th centuries had corrected this condition through famines and epidemics, leading to depopulation; now the cycle of growth was beginning again.
Who was the king of France in 1494?
Political, economic, and social background. In 1494 King Charles VIII of France led an army southward over the Alps, seeking the Neapolitan crown and glory. Many believed that this barely literate gnome of a man, hunched over his horse, was the Second Charlemagne, whose coming had been long predicted by French and Italian prophets.
Why were the rulers able to command vast quantities of men and resources?
Rulers were now able to command vast quantities of men and resources because they were becoming masters of their own domains.
What were the major changes that emerged as a result of the Renaissance?
The most significant changes that emerged as a result of the Renaissance can be seen in European architecture, art, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, politics, religion and science. Historians have identified several causes for the emergence of the Renaissance following the Middle Ages, such as: increased interaction between different ...
Why was the Renaissance important?
In historical terms the Renaissance is important because it led to a major shift in European thought and worldview. While the Renaissance is considered to have begun in the city-states of the Italian peninsula in the 14th century, the main ideas of the movement eventually spread to all of Europe by the 16th century.
What was the goal of the Renaissance Humanists?
In general, Renaissance Humanism was the study of ancient Greek and Roman texts with the goal of promoting new norms and values in society. These norms and views varied from those at the time because they focused less heavily on a religious worldview. Instead, Renaissance humanists such as Petrarch use ancient texts to promote a worldview based on logic and reason. This was to be accomplished through the study of the ‘studia humanitatis’, which today is known as the humanities and includes topics such as: grammar, history, poetry, and philosophy. Renaissance humanists such as Petrarch (and others including
What was the second main interaction that occurred before the start of the Renaissance?
The second main interaction that occurred before that start of the Renaissance was the crusades . They were a series of religious wars carried out by Christian crusaders from Europe during the timeframe of the Middle Ages. Beginning in 1095 CE, the crusades saw European knights and noblemen travel to the Middle East in an attempt to capture the Holy Land away from Muslim people that had controlled the region for the previous centuries. In reality, there were many different crusades . Historians disagree on the exact number but in general, there were nine main crusades and many other smaller ones which occurred over a period of two centuries.
What was the essence of the Renaissance?
However, the essence of the Renaissance was that Europe experienced a shift in worldview and perspective.
What does the term Renaissance mean?
For example, the term ‘renaissance’ in French means ‘rebirth’ . This is in relation to the idea that the intellectual culture of the Renaissance was sparked by the rediscovery of these ancient philosophies and ideas which had largely been ignored in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
What is the Renaissance known for?
Today, the Renaissance is perhaps best known for the famous artists and their famous works of art. Previous to the Renaissance, in the Middle Ages, art was much more stylized and focused on religious themes.
