Opyion 2 Art and Protestantism

Week Six, 16^th Century Art in Northern Europe:   Protestant and Catholic

The major difference between Protestant and Catholic Art in Northern Europe was the subject matter.   Before the Reformation traditional altarpieces were produced by art workshops with the certainty that they would sell eventually to a Catholic congregation in a new church or to an established church in the mood to redecorate or embellish.  Protestant churches were usually left pretty plain by comparison.  Protestants believed that possession of glorious images of Mary, Jesus and the saints was akin to the worship of idols and so they frowned upon, banned from places of worship or, occasionally, destroyed such images.  Artists had to either change the subject of their art from religious to secular or relocate to an area that stayed with the Catholic tradition of Christianity.   Albrecht Dürer is a good example of an individual artist who changed his subject matter when the Reformation became a reality.  His early work in woodcut prints such as in The Apocalypse (1497-98) and the engraving Adam and Eve (1504) were made on speculation and certainly became popular as printed works but he came out as a Protestant Lutheran  as soon as it was safe (and profitable) to do so.  His promotional self-portraits reflect strong humanist inclinations as he as he looks for and finds the divinity within himself, then later religious works such as Four Apostles (1526) show a Protestant sensibility which puts John in front of Peter and Mark behind Paul.  He made himself famous with traditional Catholic subject matter and he lived during the right time to be able to change his themes and even used his vast talent to promote the new religion when the time was right.  

Mannerism is said to be the Southern European (especially Italian) reaction to the unease caused by the threat of Protestantism.  The sense of impending doom and the dreamlike or even nightmarish qualities of much of this work from around 1540 may have been a reflection of images coming from the North.  There has been discussion of Northern artists travelling to Italy and gaining Classical and Mannerist influences but there must have been some influence in the other direction as well.  Images of the Apocalypse and the dire consequences of a sinful life were popular in the Northern, Protestant inclined regions.   The Garden of Earthly Delights (c. 1505-1515) by Hieronymus Bosch predates both the Reformation and Mannerism.  This work was done for a secular patron, Count Hendrick III of Nassau, in the configuration of a triptych and was certainly painted by a devout Catholic.   It could, however, work well as a Protestant piece since it is unconventional and imaginative enough to present its message of the consequences of sin to any Christian, though the more Puritanical would object at the nudity.  It shows the bright and harmonious world before the entrance of sin, the busy occupations of a world given over to sin and the dark dreadful hell full of torments for those leaving such a world.  The lighting and landscape as portrayed in each panel sets the scene for the details and their enigmatic, symbolic meanings.

Painting of portraits continued to be popular in the Northern areas, at least for the wealthy, but there started to be an interest in the beauty of nature and in the occupations of peasants.  Landscapes, which had formerly only been painted as a setting for figures, became an acceptable subject.  A landscape could contain peasants going about their seasonal routine but not dominating the frame such as depicted in The Harvesters  and Return of the Hunters by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565).  Plants and animals also became subjects in their own right, not only for their symbolic meanings in iconography.  These themes show a shift away from the dominance of overtly religious art, though it was argued that any art which  depicted nature or mankind or any part of creation glorified God- even if only indirectly.