The German Renaissance

In the first quarter of the sixteenth century, Germans suddenly assimilated the pictorial advances of their Southern peers Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Simultaneous with Italy's peak of artistic creativity was Germany's own High Renaissance.

Holbein. Hans Holbein is known as one of the greatest portraitists ever. Like Durer, he blended the strengths of North and South, linking the German skill with lines and precise realism to the balanced composition, chiaroscuro, sculptural form, and perspective of Italy. «The French Ambassadors» illustrates Holbein's virtuoso technique, with its linear patterning in the Oriental rug and damask curtain, accurate textures of fur and drapery, faultless perspective of the marble floor, sumptuous enameled color, and minute surface realism. He depicted faces with the same accuracy as Durer but with a neutral expression characteristic of Italy rather than the intensity of Durer's portraits. Holbein's exquisite draftsmanship set the standard for portraits, the most important form of painting in England for the next three centuries.

Durer. Albrecht Durer combined the Northern gift for realism with the breakthroughs of the Italian Renaissance. He was the first to be fascinated with his own image, leaving a series of self-portraits. In his «Self-Portrait» of 1500, he painted himself in a Christ-like pose, indicating the exalted status of the artist, not to mention his high opinion of himself. What assured Durer's reputation as the greatest artist was his graphic work. Before Durer, woodcuts were primitive studies of black and white contrasts. He adapted the form-creating hatching of engraving to the woodcut, achieving a sliding scale of light and shade. Like an engraver, he used dense lines to render differences in texture and tone as subtle as any oil painting. Durer was the first to use printmaking as a major medium for art.

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