THE NORTHERN RENAISSANCE — DURER TO HOLBEIN
Venue: The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London
Until April 14 2013
Over the winter months, the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace is showing works from the Royal Collection by European artists of the Northern Renaissance. This beautiful exhibition includes paintings, prints, tapestries and metalwork, covering the period between 1450-1600 in the Netherlands, Germany, France and England.
This was a time of profound change throughout Northern Europe. Central to the art of Germany and the Netherlands — unlike the context of Renaissance art in Italy — was the impact of Luther’s challenge to the teachings of the Catholic church. Four of the most important painters represented here — Pieter Breughel, working in the Netherlands, Lucas Cranach and Albrecht Durer in Germany, and Hans Holbein from Basel who came to work in England — were deeply affected both by the developments and conflicts of the Reformation.
The celebrated humanist scholar Erasmus had already made calls for reform from within the Catholic church — although he never went as far as Luther in challenging the authority of the church itself. Erasmus had made several visits to England, including five years as professor of theology at Cambridge from 1509-14. His ground-breaking Greek edition of the New Testament, first published in Basel in 1516, was a return to the language of the original text instead of the Latin Vulgate, and was to become the basis for Luther’s German translation. Appropriately, the exhibition opens with Quentin Massys’ portrait of Erasmus, painted in Antwerp in 1517, and originally commissioned as a gift to his friend Sir Thomas More. The timing suggests that this may also have been a celebration of the publication of his New Testament.
Apocalypse and Reformation
In Germany, Durer and Cranach were both contemporaries of Luther. Cranach, who was based in Wittenburg as court painter to Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, was a close personal friend — a witness at Luther’s wedding in 1525, and godfather to two of his six children. Sadly, the Royal Collection does not hold any of his portraits of the great Reformer — but the exhibition includes the famous series of woodcuts by Durer, completed in 1498, of the Apocalypse. Hans Rookmaaker wrote that, even at this early date, the Apocalypse ‘already testified to a true reformational spirit — his deep interest in, and obedient submission to the Bible text, his being moved and consoled by its message and wanting to share it with others’ (Complete Works, Vol. 3, p.242). These scenes from the Book of Revelation also reflect the widespread belief that the world was about to end in 1500. Durer includes figures in contemporary dress as a reminder that none would escape the final judgment. The engravings were later copied and used for Luther’s 1522 German publication of the New Testament, but with more overtly anti-papal symbols.
Unlike Cranach, who was protected by Frederick the Wise, many other European artists and craftsmen suffered considerable hardship. In medieval times they had been employed primarily by the Catholic church. Now, as church interiors were whitewashed and religious images destroyed, there was little demand for their skills and many were forced to move from city to city seeking alternative means of patronage. The exhibition shows how many painters turned to secular portraiture, which became one of the most important developments of this period.
New technology
In addition, Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1450 — so crucial to the spread of printed Bibles and gospel literature — heralded the beginnings of what we would now call graphic design. The rapid spread of the new technology opened up many opportunities for artists. Early publications, such as the famous Gutenburg Bible of 1455, were beautifully decorated to compete with precious medieval manuscripts. From this time printers used woodcuts — and later metal engravings — which were inserted into the text as illustrations, or for frontispieces.
These developments are brought together in Holbein’s wonderfully sensitive portrait of Hans Froben, the most successful printer in Basel — another close friend of Erasmus, who became his publisher from 1514. This connection meant that Froben became a key figure in the spread of humanist ideas. He often employed the young Holbein, a citizen of Basel, to provide frontispieces and decorations for his books. The exhibition has several examples, including Holbein’s frontispiece to More’s Utopia, edited by Erasmus, and published in 1518. It was through Froben that Holbein first met Erasmus, who supplied him with letters of introduction to Sir Thomas More on the artist’s first visit to England in 1526.
Heavenly astonishment
Holbein’s work in England clearly demonstrates the shift of emphasis in painting during the Reformation period. During his first visit, More was his most important patron. The Noli Me Tangere, Holbein’s last major painting of a religious subject, was probably commissioned for More’s private chapel at his house in Chelsea. It was first recorded in the Royal Collection as early as 1540, probably part of More’s property which was forfeit to the Crown following his execution in 1535. John Evelyn, having seen it in Charles II’s apartments in 1670, famously wrote: ‘I never saw so much reverence and a kind of heavenly astonishment expressed in a picture’.
Holbein’s earliest portrait painted in England was that of Sir Thomas More (now in the Frick Collection, New York), but growing contacts in royal circles quickly brought him portrait commissions, the first of which was of Sir Henry Guildford, Controller of the King’s Household and a powerful figure and a great favourite with Henry VIII. He was an influential patron, and his portrait marks the beginning of Holbein’s distinguished career as a portraitist at the English court. The incisiveness of his drawing and his search for truth of character tell us much about the man himself.
Holbein is a prime example of an artist whose career was shaped by the events surrounding the Reformation. He also suffered many disappointments. Having travelled home to Basel in 1529, he found that, under Zwingli’s reforms, opportunities for artists were now extremely restricted. Although Holbein is recorded as agreeing to attend the Lord’s table in the Reformed church, professionally there was little future for him. In 1532 he decided to resume his career in England — only to find More, his most important patron, in prison. Initially he was able to obtain new commissions from among the German merchants of the Hanseatic League, many of whom had been active in importing Bibles and Lutheran books. A very fine portrait from 1533 is that of the youngest of the merchants, Derich Born, then aged 23.
However, following the Act of Supremacy of 1534, Thomas Cromwell, who had succeeded Wolsey, realised that Holbein’s prestige as an artist of European reputation could be used to promote Henry VIII’s role as head of the new Church of England. Holbein’s small watercolour of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba is a flattering reference to the King receiving homage from a grateful people. The success of his ambitious double portrait, The Ambassadors (now in the National Gallery), led to Holbein’s appointment as painter to the king in 1536. Yet, sadly, within five years, when Cromwell himself fell from favour and was executed, Holbein was again at the mercy of events. Without a powerful patron to represent him to the king, his career faltered, and he died in London in 1543.
Setting artists free
Despite the uncertainties of the times, it is true that the Reformation set artists free from ecclesiastical domination. It was a break with the past in terms of understanding — statues, altars, saints and madonnas had lost their meaning. Artists were able to turn to all kinds of new subject matter, because the Bible had transformed their understanding of the world in relation to God. Yet, for many, their daily experience remained one of anxiety and upheaval. It was not until the next century that the new ideas were consolidated — culminating in the achievement of artists such as Rembrandt in Holland.
Nevertheless these works from the Royal Collection give us a very rich picture of Northern European art both in relation to the rise of humanism and the Reformation itself. This exhibition is well worth a visit.
Anne Roberts,
Snettisham Christian Fellowship, Norfolk
