The Northern Renaissance

Key Differences
● Began later than Southern Renaissance
● Took place in courts and universities
● Sought to humanize Christianity
Influence of Southern
Humanism
Meet Johann Reuchlin.

He was born in Germany in

1455.
X

Right about here.

In 1482, he visited Florence and Rome,
returning to Rome in 1490 and again in 1498.

X
In 1496, Reuchlin took a position in Heidelberg,
bringing with him the ideas of the Italian Renaissance...

...including a revival of classical education and the study

of Hebrew and Greek.
Despite facing resistance to change, Reuchlin and others
across europe transformed scholarship and education.
Prominent Humanists
Meet Sir Thomas More and his friend Erasmus.
Sir Thomas More was Lord Chancellor of the Realm and
wrote Utopia.
Erasmus was an ordained Augustinian monk and wrote The
Praise of Folly.
 Literature of the
Northern Renaissance
combined classical scholarship with Christian
concerns, but distinctly more secular in mid-16th
century
Meet William Shakespeare.
Meet Miguel Cervantes
Printing with Moveable
Type
Meet Johannes Gutenberg &
Printing with Moveable Type.
Northern Renaissance Art
Approached realism differently than in Italian
Renaissance art.

Painting used detailed textures and attention to

human form, but little dramatic use of perspective and
the subject matter was less secular than Italian
painting.
 Jan
Van
Eyck
Albrecht
Durer
 Significance of the
Renaissance to History
● Major part of transition from Medieval to Modern
● Rebirth of Classical education and ideals
● Scholars, writers, and artists were aware they were
making something new
● New emphasis on secularism rejected scholastic
Christian culture of the Middle Ages