The Early Modern Commons

Earlier this week I discovered a new(ish) Smarthistory video about Karel Van Mander, an early 17th-century biographer of painters who is sometimes referred to as the “Northern Vasari.” The video spends some time featuring a print which depicts the...

Editor’s Note: Nicholas Bielby contacted me after coming across  my post “Parrots in Art.” Below is his essay on parrots in poetry and religious art, which adds new ideas to consider in tandem with  the...

I recently finished reading Noah Charney’s new book The Museum of Lost Art. I have an academic crush on Charney’s work – he always manages to write about fascinating topics that I wish I had thought to write about myself. I’m...

Jan Van Eyck, “Arnolfini Portrait, 1434. Oil on panel, 2′ 8″ x 2′ 0″. National Gallery of Art (London) I am really sad that I am unable to see the exhibition Reflections: Van Eyck and the Pre-Raphaelites that is going...

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), Adam and Eve, 1526. The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London I have been combing through dozens of paintings of Adam and Eve this morning by Lucas Cranach the Elder. I knew he painted several...

The University of Leeds will be hosting a Northern Renaissance Seminar on 12-13th May 2016. We are now inviting submissions from a range of disciplines, including history, literature, art history, archaeology, languages, and drama. It is a commonplace...

Albrecht Dürer, detail of parrot from “Adam and Eve,” 1504. Engraving Last week, while driving to work, I was thinking about Dürer’s engraving Adam and Eve, which includes a parrot in the upper left quadrant of the print....

The Journal of the Northern Renaissance is seeking new recruits to its editorial team. Established in 2009, JNR is a peer-reviewed, open-access online journal dedicated to the study of both the cultural productions and the concept of the Northern Renaissance....

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, detail of “Netherlandish Proverbs,” 1559. Image courtesy Wikipedia. This afternoon my students and I were discussing some of the proverbs that are referenced in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s complex painting Netherlandish...

Odilon Redon, Smiling Spider, 1887, Courtesy British Museum Happy Halloween! Tonight I’ve been perusing through an interactive website hosted by the MoMA about the artist Odilon Redon. Given this Halloween season, I’ve particularly enjoyed...

Sat 10th May 2014 - York Minster Old Palace Library Run jointly by the universities of Lancaster and York, this seminar will look at ‘time’ in the renaissance. We will consider this broadly, but papers would be welcome, for example, on any of the...

Earlier this week, I was researching something on Barbara Kruger when I happened upon some posters that she made in 1991 for bus shelters, as part of a project created through the Public Arts Fund. These posters, which had the word “HELP!”...

Pope John VII, mosaic detail, 705-06 CE, Vatican Museums Last year, in two different classes, I had students ask me about the history of the halo in art. It is an interesting topic to consider, especially since there isn’t a reference to Jesus having...

Hans Holbein, Portrait of Anne of Cleves c. 1539. Parchment mounted on canvas, 65 x 48 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris I’ve chucked a few times today about the post “Anne of Cleves Gables,” which is especially if amusing if you are familiar...

Masaccio, The Expulsion of Adam and Eve, 1424-25. Image on right shows the fresco after its restoration in the 1980s, which removed the fig leaves that were added in the 17th century. Image courtesy Wikipedia A few weeks ago I was contacted by an art...

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed my burst of activity when I began to live-tweet while attending sessions at CAA (and that THATCamp session which preceded the conference). There are a lot of things that I learned and explored...

Baptiste Debombourg, Triumphal Arch, 2001. Cardboard boxes, glue, strings, scotch tape. Height 5.3 m (approx 17.38 feet) This morning one of my students shared with me a Tumblr page with images of Debombourg’s Triumphal Arch, which is largely comprised...

Rogier van der Weyden, "Descent from the Cross," detail of Mary Magdalene, c. 1435 Whenever I want to “wow” my students with the extreme detail of Northern Renaissance painting, I take a few moments to show students some of the amazing details...

Jan van Eyck, detail of Eve from the Ghent Altarpiece, 1432 How I have missed blogging over the past several weeks! This school quarter is one of the busiest that I have experienced in my career, and I am rarely left with free time to blog or research....

A new exhibit in England:The Northern Renaissance: Dürer to HolbeinThe Queen's Gallery, Buckingham PalaceFriday, 02 November 2012 to Sunday, 14 April 2013 The 15th and 16th centuries were a time of dramatic change in Northern Europe. Monarchs vied for...