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The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Past Exhibition

July 3 – November 27, 2022
West Building, Ground Floor, Gallery 22

The region of northern Europe today known as Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands experienced momentous social, political, and artistic transformation from 1450 through the early 1600s, a time now called the Northern Renaissance. Rare prints by Albrecht Dürer, Hendrick Goltzius, and other influential artists are shown alongside engravings, etchings, and woodcuts by other highly talented but less familiar figures, such as Erhard Schön and Jan Sadeler I.

This visual feast of works recently added to the National Gallery collection offers new perspectives on this rapidly developing region of Europe and introduces the creative genius and extraordinary skill of artists and printmakers who shaped the Northern Renaissance.

Explore Selected Works

The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Jörg Breu the Elder, The Virgin and Child with Saint Conrad and Saint Pelagius, 1504, hand-colored woodcut on laid paper, Purchased as the Gift of Ann and Matthew Nimetz, 2012.143.1
Printed with black lines on light tan paper, a balding, bearded, muscular man kneels next to a small lion in a rocky landscape in this vertical engraving. The man’s beard comes down beyond his chest, and his hair is long behind his receding hairline. His torso is bare while his lower body is wrapped in a cloth that falls in deep folds. He faces our left, gazing at a broken tree trunk with a cluster of weeds growing near its roots. A small crucifix is thrust into the broken trunk. He holds a rock in his outstretched right hand, on our left. The lion crouches next to him with his eyebrows gathered low as he looks off to our left. Beyond them, a landscape rises along either side of a path leading toward a church in the distance. On the left side are the cracked walls of a building with plants growing out the top. On the right is the craggy face of a cliff with tall, slender trees growing on its top slope. The path darkens as it passes the cliff and reaches the church to our left of center. In the far distance to the right of the cliff is a castle-like structure with square towers. Deep shadows around the man and lion and along the path are created with areas of densely spaced, black hatched lines, and unmarked areas create bright highlights. The artist signed the work with monogram made of a capital D tucked between the legs of an uppercase A.
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Albrecht Dürer, Saint Jerome Penitent in the Wilderness, c. 1496, engraving on laid paper, Joan and David Maxwell Fund, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund and The Ahmanson Foundation, 2011.22.1
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Albrecht Dürer, Georg Mack the Elder, Christ on the Mount of Olives, 1508 and 1580s, engraving hand-colored with watercolor and gouache, heightened with gold and silver, on laid paper mounted to a piece of parchment decorated with floral borders, Purchased as an Anonymous Gift, 2013.108.1
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Daniel Hopfer, Hieronymus Hopfer, Emperor Charles V, 1520 (1521?), etching (iron) with open biting and unique contemporary hand-coloring in green, red, yellow, pink and brown, Purchased as the Gift of Ladislaus and Beatrix von Hoffmann, 2011.102.1
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Urs Graf I, Standard-Bearer for the Canton of Bern, 1521, white-line woodcut on laid paper, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2012.14.1
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Hans Lützelburger, Master NH, Battle of Naked Men and Peasants, 1522, woodcut on laid paper, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Memorial Acquisition Fund, 2017.21.1
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Erhard Schön, Hans Guldenmund, Army Train and Death, c. 1532, woodcut from four blocks, on four sheets, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund and Eugene L. and Marie-Louise Garbáty Fund, 2017.16.1
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Lucas van Doetechum, Johannes van Doetechum the Elder, Hans Vredeman de Vries, Hieronymus Cock, Perspective View of a Street, 1560, etching with engraving on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2015.64.2
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Pieter van der Heyden, Hieronymus Cock, Shrove Tuesday, 1567, engraving on laid paper, Gift of Hope and Julian Edison, 2019.114.7
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Jan Sadeler I, Joos van Winghe, A Pleasure House, 1588, engraving on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2013.11.1
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Hendrick Goltzius, Raphael, The Triumph of Galatea, 1592, engraving on laid paper, The Ahmanson Foundation, 2015.9.1
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Hendrick Goltzius, Venus and Cupid, 1596, engraving on laid paper, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012.92.55
The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives

Johannes van Doetechum the Elder, Lucas van Doetechum, Cornelis Floris II, Hieronymus Cock, Grotesque with Strapwork in the Form of a Cartouche, 1557, etching with engraving on laid paper, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Memorial Acquisition Fund, 2020.130.2

All works in the exhibition are from the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

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This 16th-Century Print Made Hans Lützelburger Famous

Battle of Naked Men and Peasants is both evidence of the Renaissance printmaker’s immense skill and a statement of his career ambition.

Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

The exhibition is curated by Brooks Rich, associate curator, old master prints, National Gallery of Art.

Sponsors
The exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.

Passes
Admission is always free and passes are not required

Banner detail: Hans Lützelburger after Master NH, Battle of Naked Men and Peasants, 1522, woodcut, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Memorial Acquisition Fund, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2017.21.1