{{Short description|Renaissance that occurred in the European countries north of the Alps}}
[[Image:Van Eyck - Arnolfini Portrait.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|[[Jan van Eyck]], The ''[[Arnolfini Portrait]]'', 1434, [[National Gallery]], London. An Italian merchant based in [[Bruges]] in modern [[Belgium]]]]
[[File:Pieter Brueghel, the Younger - The Adoration of the Magi in the snow.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.0|''The [[Adoration of the Magi]] in the snow'', [[Pieter Brueghel the Younger]], 1584–1638]]
{{Renaissance}}
The '''Northern Renaissance''' was the [[Renaissance]] that occurred in Europe north of the [[Alps]], developing later than the [[Italian Renaissance]], and in most respects only beginning in the last years of the 15th century. It took different forms in the various countries involved, and the [[German Renaissance|German]], [[French Renaissance|French]], [[English Renaissance|English]], [[Renaissance in the Low Countries|Low Countries]] and [[Polish Renaissance|Polish]] Renaissances often had different characteristics.

[[Early Netherlandish painting]], especially its later phases, is often classified as part of the Northern Renaissance. Rapidly expanding trade and commerce and a new class of rich merchant patrons in then [[Duchy of Burgundy|Burgundian]] cities like [[Bruges]] in the 15th century and [[Antwerp]] in the 16th increased cultural exchange between Italy and the [[Netherlands (terminology)|Low Countries]]; however in art, and especially architecture, late [[Gothic art|Gothic]] influences remained present until the arrival of [[Baroque]] even as painters increasingly drew on Italian models.<ref name="Janson">{{cite book |last=Janson |first=H.W. |author2=Anthony F. Janson  |year=1997 |title=History of Art |edition=5th, rev. |publisher=Harry N. Abrams, Inc. |location=New York |isbn=0-8109-3442-6}}</ref> 

In France, [[Francis I of France|King Francis I]] imported [[Italian Renaissance art]], and commissioned Italian artists (including [[Leonardo da Vinci]]), building grand palaces at great expense, starting the [[French Renaissance]].  In England also, the first signs of Renaissance art and architecture were the result of patronage by a small circle of patrons at the royal courts of [[Henry VII of England]] and his son [[Henry VIII]] ([[Nonsuch Palace]]), and courtiers such as Cardinal [[Thomas Wolsey]], who built [[Hampton Court Palace]].

[[University|Universities]] and the printed book helped spread the spirit of the age through France, the Low Countries and the [[Holy Roman Empire]], and then to [[Scandinavia]] and [[Early Modern Britain|Britain]] in the early 16th century. Writers and humanists such as [[Rabelais]], [[Pierre de Ronsard]] and [[Desiderius Erasmus]] were greatly influenced by the Italian Renaissance model and were part of the same intellectual movement. During the [[English Renaissance]] (which overlapped with the [[Elizabethan era]]) writers such as [[William Shakespeare]] and [[Christopher Marlowe]] composed works of lasting influence. The Renaissance was brought to Poland directly from Italy by artists from [[Florence]] and the Low Countries, starting the [[Polish Renaissance]].

In some areas the Northern Renaissance was distinct from the Italian Renaissance in its [[centralization]] of political power. While Italy and Germany were dominated by independent [[city-state]]s, most of Europe began emerging as [[nation-state]]s or even unions of countries. The Northern Renaissance was also closely linked to the [[Protestant Reformation]] with the resulting long series of internal and external conflicts between various [[Protestantism|Protestant]] groups and the [[Catholic Church]] having lasting effects.

==Overview==
[[Feudalism]] was on the decline at the beginning of the [[Renaissance]].  The reasons for this decline include the post-[[Black Death|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 [[monarchy|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.
[[File:Gutenberg.press.jpg|thumb|left|Reproduction of [[Johannes Gutenberg]]-era Press on display at the Printing History Museum in Lyon, France.]]

The velocity of transmission of the Renaissance throughout Europe can also be ascribed to the invention of the [[printing press]]. Its power to disseminate information enhanced [[research|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 language|classical texts]] in [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] and [[Latin]]. Furthermore, the [[Bible]] became widely available [[bible translations|in translation]], a factor often attributed to the spread of the Protestant Reformation.

==Age of Discovery==
{{main|Age of Discovery}}
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 [[Christopher Columbus|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 [[Portugal]], [[Spain]], [[France]], [[England]], and [[Low Countries|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.

==Painting and sculpture==
{{see also|Early Netherlandish painting|Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting|Northern Mannerism}}
[[File:Ghent Altarpiece Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|The ''[[Ghent Altarpiece]]'' (interior view) by [[Hubert van Eyck|Hubert]] and [[Jan van Eyck]], completed 1432. [[Saint Bavo Cathedral]], [[Ghent]], [[Belgium]].]] Early Netherlandish painting often included complicated [[iconography]], and art historians have debated the "hidden symbolism" of works by artists like Hubert and [[Jan van Eyck]].

The detailed realism of [[Early Netherlandish painting]], led by [[Robert Campin]] and Jan van Eyck in the 1420s and 1430s, is today generally considered to be the beginning of the early Northern Renaissance in painting.  This detailed realism was greatly respected in Italy, but there was little reciprocal influence on the North until nearly the end of the 15th century.<ref>  Although the notion of a north to south-only direction of influence arose in the scholarship of [[Max Jakob Friedländer]] and was continued by [[Erwin Panofsky]], art historians are increasingly questioning its validity: Lisa Deam, "Flemish versus Netherlandish: A Discourse of Nationalism," in Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 51, no. 1 (Spring, 1998), pp. 28–29.</ref> Despite frequent cultural and artistic exchange, the [[Antwerp Mannerism|Antwerp Mannerists]] (1500–1530)—chronologically overlapping with but unrelated to Italian [[Mannerism]]—were among the first artists in the Low Countries to clearly reflect Italian formal developments.  

Around the same time, [[Albrecht Dürer]] made his two trips to Italy, where he was greatly admired for his [[old master print|prints]]. Dürer, in turn, was influenced by the art he saw there and is agreed to be one of the first Northern High Renaissance painters. Other notable northern painters such as [[Hans Holbein the Elder]] and [[Jean Fouquet]], retained a [[Gothic art|Gothic]] influence that was still popular in the north, while highly individualistic artists such as [[Hieronymus Bosch]] and [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]] developed styles that were imitated by many subsequent generations. Later in the 16th century Northern painters increasingly looked and travelled to Rome, becoming known as the [[Romanism (painting)|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.

[[Renaissance humanism]] and the large number of surviving classical artworks and monuments encouraged many Italian painters to explore Greco-Roman themes more prominently than northern artists, and likewise the famous 15th-century German and Dutch paintings tend to be religious. In the 16th century, [[mythological]] and other themes from history became more uniform amongst northern and Italian artists. Northern Renaissance painters, however, had new subject matter, such as [[landscape painting|landscape]] and [[genre painting]]. 
 
As [[Renaissance art]] styles moved through northern Europe, they changed and were adapted to local customs. In England and the northern Netherlands the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] [[iconoclasm#Reformation iconoclasm|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. In France the [[School of Fontainebleau]] was begun by Italians such as [[Rosso Fiorentino]] in the latest Mannerist style, but succeeded in establishing a durable national style. By the end of the 16th century, artists such as [[Karel van Mander]] and [[Hendrik Goltzius]] collected in [[Haarlem]] in a brief but intense phase of [[Northern Mannerism]] that also spread to [[Flanders]].

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last= Chipps Smith|first= Jeffrey|date= 2004|title= The Northern Renaissance|publisher= Phaidon Press |isbn= 978-0-7148-3867-0}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last= Campbell|editor1-first=Gordon|date= 2009|title= The Grove Encyclopedia of Northern Renaissance Art|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-533466-1}}

===Further reading===
*{{cite book |editor=O'Neill, J| title= The Renaissance in the North | location=New York | publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art | year=1987 | url=http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/113542}}
* {{cite book |last= Bezrucka|first= Yvonne|date= 2017|title= The Invention of Northern Aesthetics in 18th-Century English Literature|url=http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-invention-of-northern-aesthetics-in-18th-century-english-literature |publisher= Cambridge Scholars Press|isbn= 978-1-5275-0302-1}}
*[[James Snyder (art historian)|Snyder, James]]. ''Northern Renaissance Art'', 1985, Harry N. Abrams, {{ISBN|0136235964}}
*[[James Snyder (art historian)|Snyder, James]], ''Introduction'' to ''[https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art_Vol_5_The_Renaissance_in_the_North The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 5, The Renaissance in the North]'', 1987.

==External links==
{{Commonscat-multi|Northern Renaissance paintings|Renaissance by country}}

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