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Religious Symbolism In Northern Renaissance Art
The Meaning of Sacred Symbols in Paintings.
Allegory of Christianity c.1515 by Jan Provoost
An old bearded man holding keys, a snake in an apple tree, a beautiful white lamb, a colorful peacock, a hovering white dove, a clever crow, a robin, a mirror—all are charmingly decorative to the average viewer but for painters of the Gothic, Early Renaissance and High Renaissance Northern Renaissance period, symbols were part of a rich visual language. In a culture of restricted literacy symbolic imagery was vital in keeping sinners on the path to heaven.
Northern Renaissance art is rich in philosophical and Christian symbolism.William H. Hunt once wrote "When language was not transcendental enough to complete the meaning of a revelation, symbols were relied upon for heavenly teaching, and familiar images, chosen from the known, were made to mirror the unknown spiritual truth." Narrative paintings, with their layer upon layers of readily understood symbolic meaning, provided instruction to the uneducated commoners that yearned for scriptural understanding.
The Meaning of Sacred Symbols in Paintings. Most prominently featured symbols and their meaning:
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Key Words, People and Principal Phrases, Characteristics Related to the Northern Renaissance Art Movement - allegorical painting, rebirth, invention of oil painting, Hieronymus Bosch, Limbourg Brothers, Desiderius Erasmus, Robert Campin, Jan Van Eyck, Jean Fouquet, Albrecht Dürer, Johannes Gutenberg, Johann Reuchlin, Martin Luther, rise of the merchant class, world landscape, Low Countries, Protestant Reformation, Calvinisim, glazing, impasto, scriptorium, illuminator, invention of the printing press, woodcuts, engravings, Antwerp School, Guild of Saint Luke, commerce, Flemish School, Northern Europe, Antwerp School, Flanders, Bruges, renewed interest in classical learning, mythological scenes, genre painting, landscapes, portraits, moralizing overtones, human vices, lust, paradise, spirituality, piousness, living a simple life, reform, Human Reasoning, tradesmen at work, idyllic scenes of peasants, playing games, feasting, linear perspective, \Heliocentric Theory, humour, satire, spiritually significant, illuminated manuscript, idealized biblical themes, scriptorium, emotion, illuminator, iconoclast, Age of Discovery, Virgin and Child, axonometric drawing, curiosity about the natural world, realistic use of colours and light, Old Testament stories, Gospel parables, The Blackdeath, Christian symbolism
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