The Northern Renaissance I Respect

Judging by the documentary I would say that the types of ideas that were valued in the Northern Renaissance were religion and status based. In the second half of the documentary it is mentioned that religious images had the ability to enter the soul through the portal of the eye. I never knew this before, and now I understand why so many religious paintings were created and why they were so important for the culture of the time.

I always understood religious paintings as a way for people to view religious figures from history, but I never knew that when people gazed upon them they believed that part of the figure would enter them, and that they would then experience the figure as a real person and not as a work of art. And now I also understand how much these paintings must have meant to the people that commissioned them. Especially if they themselves were included in the painting, along with the historical religious figure that they connect themselves to.

Along with religious purposes paintings became a way to show status. Courts originally commissioned tapestries to be made for them, but when Jan van Eyck started a painting revolution in Northern Europe paintings became a way to show status and value. If you were able to have a portrait done of yourself, or of you with some saint or religious figure then that would count towards you, and increase your court value.

And since in Flanders it was believed that courtly expenditure trickled down and improved the lives of common people then paintings were a great, and cheaper, way to do this. Even people with lower incomes could afford some of these paintings, and with them they could improve their reputation and status by being able to say that Jan van Eyck did a painting of them, just as he did with the Duke of the area. (These paintings were cheaper than gold and jewels).

Despite this though, paintings weren't always considered to be a very respectable craft. And in fact were first considered to be along the same lines as a what a tanner would make. Sculpture was considered to be the most valuable and respected craft of the time. Altarpieces were sculpted, rather than painted on the inside, while just their doors and casings were painted. Jan van Eyck changed all of this though when he finished his brother's painting The Ghent Altarpiece. This started the Northern Renaissance, and Jan van Eyck's style of painting became highly valued. With it's remarkable realism and attention to detail.

This realism, or naturalism, was the style for the Northern Renaissance. Figures and scenes were painted in a way that made them look, in some cases, as if they could step out of their frames and join us in the real world. Jan van Eyck was the master of this style and put a tremendous amount of time and effort into each of his paintings. With using layers upon layers of oil paint and washes that he made himself. These layers caused his paintings to be illuminated, and when light shines upon them in a certain (but specific way) then they reflect light, and create shadow, as if the painting were an actual part of the room, and as if the figures were real. Even to the tiny details put into jewelry that show a reflection of a nearby window that would be shinning onto the painting.

Jan van Eyck is one of the few artists in history that I truly respect, and I hope that one day I'll be able to paint just one small miniscule object the same way that he did, with the same amount of luminosity and detail.