THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
sacred history on a secular plane, though without losing the magic of religious feeling, and his example was followed by his son, Filippino Lippi (d.
1504), and Sandro Botticelli (d. 1510).
i. The Re- The early Renaissance in Florence
naissance; closed with Domenico Ghirlandajo (d.
Florence 1494), though tradition again found at
and Rome, least a partial defender in Giovanni da
Fiesole, or Fra Angelico (d. 1455). Umbria also followed, though with more adherence to medieval ideals. Here the great names are Piero dei Franceschi (d. 1492) and his pupil, the dramatist Luca Signorelli (d. 1523; eschatological paintings at Orvieto), and the more independent Pietro Perugino (d. 1524), the teacher of Raphael. In upper Italy, finally, mention must be made of the Milanese Andrea Mantegna (d. 1506) and the Venetian Giovanni Bellini (d. 1516). The way was now prepared for the High Renaissance, wherein Florence gave place to Rome, while an art was developed which aimed at the monumental and massive, in which composition and modeling were deemed more important than coloring. Artists thought themselves the leaders of mankind, and princes and prelates were rivals. The High Renaissance, which, though exalting the present over the past, yet recognized its kinship with the antique, finds its culmination in three artists: Leonardo da Vinci (d. 1519), Raphael Santi (d. 1520), and Michelangelo Buonarrotti (d. 1564), whose influence was felt throughout Italy, with the exception of Venice, where Bellini still remained supreme. Venice, indeed, was realistic rather than classical, but its fine coloring attained a higher perfection through this very limitation, as is shown by the productions of the masters of the Venetian school, Giorgione (d. 1510), Palma Vecchio (d. 1528), Titian (d. 1576), and Paolo Veronese (d. 1588). Apart from the Venetians stood the great Correggio (d. 1534), belonging to the school of Ferrara and Bologna. The Renaissance presented to its artists enormous tasks in fresco painting, and in this branch the greatest results were achieved. But at the same time canvases now became widely popular, and herein the Renaissance marks the beginning of a new epoch.
In the course of the fifteenth century the Netherlands developed, independent of Italy, a genre which, though inferior to Italian art in modeling,
was superior both in realism and in
2. The Neth- coloring, exceptionally aided by high
erlands. technic in the use of oils. The initial
stages are unknown, but the painting of the Netherlands appears in fine development in the work of the brothers Hubert (d. 1426) and Jan van Eyck of Maaseyck (d. 1440), exemplified in the Ghent altar, completed in 1432 and preserved in Ghent, Brussels, and Berlin. This Flanders school was surpassed by the Brabant school, highly developed by Roger van der Weiden (d. 1464), who influenced the German Hans Mending (d. 1495), the painter of the dramatic Last Judgment at Danzig. Together with paintings on canvas, miniature painting reached a high degree of perfection in the Netherlands, and though in the sixteenth century Italian influence became increasingly powerful, the old traditions were worthily main-
tained by a native school which included Quinten Massys, Pieter Brueghel the elder, and Lucas van Leyden. The influence of the Netherlands spread to Germany, Cologne first of all. It was also potent in the Upper Rhine school centered in Kolmar, though the leader here, Martin Schongauer (d. 1491), proved his independence by a charming devotion to nature. The Swabian school reached its climax in Bartholome Zeitblom of Ulm (d. after 1517), the elder Hans Holbein of Augsburg (d. 1524), and Hans Burgkmair (d. 1531); but the Frankish school, with Nuremberg as a center, took only mediocre rank in painting with Michel Wolgemut (d. 1519), though in sculpture it stood preeminent.
In the first half of the sixteenth century German painting reached its zenith, not only in the German invention of copper-plate and in wood-cuts, but in painting proper. Here an epoch was marked by
Albrecht Diirer (b. at Nuremberg May
3. Germany; 21, 1471; d. there Apr. 6, 1528), whose
Diirer. wide travels gave him the inspiration
that made him the real creator of the landscape, which had hitherto been a mere accessory. His first great work, fifteen wood-cuts in the Heimliche Offeribarung Johannis (in 1498), revealed him already a master, while his artistic perception was further evinced by his twenty pictures of the life of the Virgin, which he began to issue in 1504. For a long time he was also engaged on the Passion. The " Great Passion " (12 wood-cuts completed in 1511) is prevented from attaining full dignity by the coarseness of popular taste, and the artist is frequently balked by the wood-cutter, although the dramatic force is still powerful. The " Little Passion " (37 small cuts completed in 1511) aims at simplicity, as the " copper-plate Passion " (16 small plates, 1507-13) and the " Green Passion " (12 drawings in chiaroscuro on a green ground, done in 1504 and now in Vienna) successfully attain a mild and harmonious tone. Diirer attained his highest effect by a union of shading and realism. Among his best works are The Prodigal Son, The Madonna with the Ape, St. Eustache, Adam and Eve, Christ on the Cross, The Knight with Death and the Devil, Jerome in his Cell, Melancholy, and The Meditation of St. Anthony. He was also the founder of the copper-plate portrait (Melanchthon, Pirkheimer, Frederick the Wise, etc.); and the truth and care here displayed also characterize his paintings of Adam and Eve (at Madrid), The Adoration of the Trinity by all the Saints (in Vienna), The Adoration of the Three Kings (at Florence), and the greatest of all, The Four Temperaments.
Diirer inspired the far coarser painters Georg Pencz, Hans Sebald Beham, Barthel Beham, as well as such representatives of the Upper Rhein school as Matthias Grtinewald (d. about 1529). The latter, an uncompromising realist, found a follower in Hans Baldung, commonly called Grien (d. 1545), while both Diirer and Grunewald influenced Albrecht Altdorfer (d. 1538), the head of the Regensburg school and the representative of a romantic movement. The bond between the Swabian school and the Italian Renaissance and the creation of a German Renaissance were effected by Hans Holbein