{The Northern Renaissance [continued (11)] – Northern Complexity and Simplicity}[5th May 1991]

[Redbook9:264-265][19910505:1200k]{The Northern Renaissance [continued (11)] – Northern Complexity and Simplicity}[5th May 1991]

19910505.1200

[continued]

‘In the course of the following three decades* a sudden and dramatic upsurge of interest in Italian art swept away many of the artistic forms that had dominated Northern art for most of the 15^th century. The reasons behind this phenomenon have yet to be satisfactorily explained. While it is true that the intervention of France and the Empire in Italian political affairs brought the aristocracy of both states into increased contact with the culture of the Italian Renaissance, the precise significance of this development for Northern artists is far from clear. As we have already seen, a number of Northern painters visited Italy during the 15^th century and were content to appropriate certain elements of Italian art while retaining an overall affiliation to their native style. Their successors had a much more thoroughgoing interest in the classicizing art of the South, which parallels the growth of Humanist studies in Northern literary circles during the same period. Whilst earlier borrowings had been occasional and haphazard, those of the 16^th century were part of a general infiltration of Italian ideas into Northern culture.’

**

*[following the end of the 15^th century – see last previous ts journal extract]

** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Art 4:] 671

[Immediately following in source text paragraph & in ms the extract in the last previous ts entry]

[continued]

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