Compare and Contrast the Painting and the Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance with the Painting and Sculpture of the Northern Renaissance

Compare and Contrast Italian Renaissance Painting and Sculpture to the Northern Renaissance Painting and Sculpture European History from 800 to 1648 CE November 7, 2008 The Duchy of Burgundy encompassed a territory from present-day eastern France northward to the sea, and included parts of modern Belgium and sections of the current Netherlands. It was the only state standing amid France and the vast Holy Roman Empire at the time. The dukes of Burgundy would best fit the description as a worthy counter part to the wealthy merchants of Italy. But their wealth and patronage was their only claim to a similarity, because the type of patronage and works they funded contrasts heavily with the merchants in Italy. The Dukes’ patronage funded illuminated manuscripts, tapestries and furnishings to fill their many castles they owned. Unlike their wealthy Italian counter parts, the merchant patrons of Italy were keener on fresco paintings, sculpture and architecture. A guild can be the only true aspect of the Renaissance that the North and Italy shared as a whole. A guild was a center of learning and knowledge in a particular field of art or trade. The master or the head of the Guild and generally the best in that respective field, would apprentice out young men for the guild and teach them the “tricks of the trade.” Both regions of the Renaissance enacted the use of Guilds to help spread the knowledge. The Renaissance, in the North and Italy, was a monumental period of change, not just for the world of art and sculpture, but for religion, technology and the use of science. Under the Renaissance, human progress was making up pace. Regardless of the comparisons and contrasts, the similarities and differences in painting and sculpture, the Renaissance as whole affected Europe on a wide scale, be it in the Low Countries, Italy, France, the Duchy of Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire, or Poland. Works Cited Smiths, Jeffrey C. The Northern Renaissance. New York: Phaidon Press, 2004. Sypher, Wylie. Four Stages of Renaissance Style. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1955. Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Artists. Florence, Italy: Primary Document/Historical Text, 1558.

Cited: Smiths, Jeffrey C. The Northern Renaissance. New York: Phaidon Press, 2004. Sypher, Wylie. Four Stages of Renaissance Style. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1955. Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Artists. Florence, Italy: Primary Document/Historical Text, 1558.