MO3029 The Northern Renaissance
   
Lecturer TBC
   
Credits 30
   
Availability  
   
Class Hour TBC
   
Description The Black Death, the Great Schism, and Hundred Years' War transformed Northern Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. New and dynamic political communities emerged - such as the Low countries, the Holy Roman Empire, Burgundy, France, and England - which, although connected to the Mediterranean world by trade and culture, expressed their relationship to the Classical world in very different terms. This module will explore the distinctive nature of Northern Euorpe through themes such as the rise of universities, lay religious movements, court and civic patronage, Christian humanism and the Reformation. Students will read texts by Erasmus and Thomas More and examine the art of van Eyck, Durer, Holbein and Cranach.
   
Basic Reading C. Augustijn, Erasmus: His Life, Works and Influence (1991)
Jeffrey Chips Smith, The Northern Renaissance (2004)
Charles Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaisance Europe (1995)
R Porter and M Teich, The Renaissance in national context (1992)
   

Course Structure
  1. Introduction
  2. The Emergence of Burgundy
  3. Thomas à Kempis and the Devotio Moderna
  4. Jan Van Eyck and his contemporaries
  5. Erasmus and Christian humanism
  6. German humanism
  7. Albrecht Dürer
  8. Thomas More and Utopia
  9. Hans Holbein
  10. Rabelais, Bruegel and popular culture
  11. Piter Brueghel
   
Assessment 60% examination - 3-hour paper
40% coursework
   

Learning Outcomes
  • To gain understanding of themes of continuity and change from late Middle Ages to Early Modern World
  • Explore range of cultural sources (text, image) for the period
  • Study the interrelationship between politics, arts, economics, and religion
   
Restrictions None