The two hundred and thirty year period from the 1430s to the 1660s in Europe was marked by great changes in arts and culture, spanning the Renaissance, Reformation, and Baroque periods. The focus of this exhibition is on portrayals of life (in the first room) and portrayals of death (in the second room). In these two rooms, you will encounter paintings from the Northern Renaissance period in Germany and the Low Countries, the High Italian Renaissance, Italian Mannerism, Italian Baroque painting and sculpture, and Northern Baroque paintings from the Dutch Republic. Much of the art from this time period was Christian in subject matter, as this was a deeply religious period in Europe, although there was an increasing interest in non-religious art, and scenes from everyday life, known as genre paintings. Oil painting on wood panel and canvas was explored and perfected during this time, and printmaking became more widely used as an affordable way for people to own copies of famous art, as a cheap way to illustrate books (now cheaper and more widely available than ever before in history, due to Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the moveable-type printing press around 1439), as well as expanding as an art form in its own right. The Renaissance emphasis on humanism and the arts, combined with a growing middle class and shift to a booming mercantile economy in northern Europe, created an environment in which more people had access to literacy, leisure time, and money to spend on art. In 1517, Martin Luther published his Ninety-five Theses, sparking the Protestant Reformation, which had a profound impact on politics, power, religion, and art. In the new Protestant regions, religious art was no longer welcome in churches, and therefore artists had to turn to other patrons and other subject matter to make their livings. Life was changing, but death does not change much. Depictions of death seen here are biblical in nature, with the special exception of a group portrait of Dutch surgeons observing a human dissection.
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