2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands (ISBN: 978-90-04-18334-6)

NORTHERN RENAISSANCE? BURGUNDY AND

NETHERLANDISH ART IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE
Hanno Wijsman*
Everyone who has studied medieval or modern history knows that the
periodisation of the eras on either side of the Renaissance provides
much food for thought. his contribution aims irst to address the usefulness of the widespread concept of the Northern Renaissance. his
will inevitably involve an examination of the more general concept
of the Renaissance, but this will be considered in the context of the
relationship between North and South in iteenth-century Europe. On
account of the massive bibliography on this topic, this article cannot
claim to be comprehensive, but will examine only key works and some
recent contributions. Second, I hope to show here that the history of
the book, of book collecting and of library formation can shed new
light on more general problems in cultural history.
In the irst pages of his 1944 article, which later became the basis
for Renaissance and Renascences, Erwin Panofsky gave two deinitions
of the Renaissance. In its more narrow sense, he calls the Renaissance
a rebirth of classical antiquity following a complete, or nearly complete, breakdown of classical traditions and, in its wider sense, the
universal elorescence of art, literature, philosophy, science and social

* his article has taken shape at the same time as two others that are closely linked:
Hanno Wijsman, Bourgogne, bourguignon . . . Un style de manuscrits enlumins?,
in La cour de Bourgogne et lEurope. Le rayonnement et les limites dun modle culturel,
ed. Torsten Hiltmann, Werner Paravicini and Franck Viltart (in press); Wijsman, Bibliothques princires entre Moyen Age et humanisme. A propos des livres de Philippe
le Bon et de Mathias Corvin et de linterprtation du XVe sicle, in De Bibliotheca
Corviniana, Mathias Corvin, les bibliothques princires et la gense de ltat moderne, ed.
Jean-Franois Maillard, Istvn Monok and Donatella Nebbiai, Suplementum Corvinianum, 2 (Budapest, 2009), 12134. he three articles form a triad concerning the problems of the conceptualisation of iteenth-century art and I intend to venture further
into this ield in the future. he writing of this article was made possible by a postdoctoral position paid for by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) and the University of Leiden. For their invaluable help and support, I am
thankful to many, and especially to Wim Blockmans, Claire Challat, Jefrey Chipps
Smith, Torsten Hiltmann, Alexander Lee, Anton van der Lem, Donatella Nebbiai, Werner Paravicini, Pit Pport, Harry Schnitker, Hugo van der Velde and Rob Wegman.

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accomplishments ater a period of decay and stagnation.1 Adding a

third quite common deinition, we come to three: the Renaissance as
a speciic revival (that is a as rebirth of classical Antiquity), as a more
general revival (as an elorescence of culture), and as a period (generally used to speak about the iteenth and sixteenth centuries). In what
follows, I will refer to these three deinitions as a rebirth, an elorescence, and a period.2
Panofsky was preoccupied with showing that the Renaissance signalled a major change in European culture. He was reacting against
historians who had put the whole concept of the Renaissance into
perspective, and who were sceptical about its actual existence. He set
out to show that the Renaissance had been a real change and that it
had been more far-reaching than earlier periods of change, which he
referred to as renascences.3
he French word Renaissance, as used in a speciic sense, with a
capital R, irst appeared around 182930.4 he idea of a period of
light and rebirth ater a dark age, however, went back to ideas from
the iteenth and sixteenth centuries themselves. In modern historiography, the whole subject is embedded in the work of three great
scholars: Jules Michelet, Jacob Burckhardt, and Johan Huizinga.5 In

1
Erwin Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences, he Kenyon Review 6 (1944):
20136, esp. 2023. See also Erwin Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western
Art (Stockholm, 1960). Peter Burke recently used a deinition very close to Panofskys
narrow one: he enthusiasm for Antiquity and the revival, reception and transformation of the classical tradition: Peter Burke, he European Renaissance. Centres and
Peripheries (Oxford, 1998), 2.
2
For the Renaissance as a movement and as a period, see Ernst Gombrich, he
RenaissancePeriod or Movement?, in Background to the English Renaissance: Introductory Lectures, ed. Joseph B. Trapp (London, 1974), 930; P. Burke, he European
Renaissance, 1; and also Robert Blacks contribution to this volume.
3
E. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences; Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences. See also Rob Wegmans clear-cut analysis of Panofskys way of arguing in his
contribution to this volume. For Panofskys view on Italy and the North in the iteenth
century, see Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting. Its Origins and Character
(Cambridge MA, 1953), 120; Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences, 162210.
4
Johan Huizinga, Het probleem der Renaissance, in his, Verzamelde werken (Haarlem 1949), vol. 4, 23175, esp. 241; Marcel Franon, Premiers exemples de lemploi
du terme Renaissance, Modern Language Notes 72 (1957): 199200; Lucien Febvre,
Michelet et la Renaissance, ed. Paule Braudel (Paris 1992), 368. Huizinga stated that
the irst use of the word Renaissance was by Honor de Balzac in 1830, but some
other uses of the word in the same period, including one by a certain H. Fortoul in
1829, were attested in M. Franon, Premiers exemples.
5
Jo Tollebeek, Renaissance and fossilization: Michelet, Burckhardt, and Huizinga, Renaissance Studies 15 (2001): 35466.

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271

1855, the French historian Michelet was the irst to publish a book
about the Renaissance. In his view, it was the glorious beginning of
modernity, and consequently the Middle Ages were characterised as an
inert, fossilised era.6 Five years later, Burckhardt published his Kultur
der Renaissance in Italien, which was to become even more inluential.
He developed Michelets interpretation, but transposed this glorious
era from France in the sixteenth century to Italy in the iteenth.7
Despite concentrating on the same historical period as Burckhardt,
Johan Huizingas Autumn of the Middle Ages8 presented iteenthcentury Burgundy as having experienced not the dawn of a new age,
but the dusk of an old era.9 Although a great admirer of Burckhardts
work, Huizinga was able to proclaim his liberation from the spell of
Burckhardt.10 In his book and in his two essays on the Renaissance,11
6
Jules Michelet, Histoire de la France au seizime sicle, tome VII: Renaissance
(Paris 1855) (critical edition by Robert Casanova, Paris, 1978); J. Tollebeek, Renaissance and fossilization, 3547.
7
Jacob Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. Ein Versuch (Leipzig
1860); J. Tollebeek, Renaissance and fossilization, 3548.
8
Johan Huizinga, Herfsttij der middeleeuwen. Studie over levens- en gedachtenvormen der veertiende en vijtiende eeuw in Frankrijk en de Nederlanden (Amsterdam
1997) (irst edition: Haarlem, 1919). Surprisingly, and sadly, there is no satisfactory
critical English translation available of this important work. he older edition is much
abridged and simpliied and deprived of all the notes (as authorised by the author):
Johan Huizinga, he Waning of the Middle Ages, trans. F. Hopman (London, 1924).
For the problems of the newer translation (Johan Huizinga, he Autumn of the Middle
Ages, trans. R. J. Payton and U. Mammitzsch [Chicago, 1996]), see Wessel Krul, In the
Mirror of van Eyck: Johan Huizingas Autumn of the Middle Ages, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 27 (1997): 35384, esp. 3534; the review by Walter
Simons in Speculum 72 (1997): 48891; Edward Peters and Walter Simons, he New
Huizinga and the Old Middle Ages, Speculum 74 (1997): 587620, esp. 58996.
9
For the making of and the background of Huizingas ideas, see especially Anton
van der Lem, Johan Huizinga. Leven en werk in beelden en documenten (Amsterdam,
1993), 13450; Francis Haskell, History and its Images. Art and the Interpretation of
the Past (New Haven and London, 1993), 43195; W. Krul, In the Mirror of van
Eyck; E. Peters and W. Simons, he New Huizinga; J. Tollebeek, Renaissance and
fossilization.
10
Cited by: Wessel Krul, Johan Huizinga und das Problem der Renaissance, in
Johan Huizinga, Das Problem der Renaissance. Renaissance und Realismus (Berlin
1991), 715, esp. 13; J. Tollebeek, Renaissance and fossilization, 361.
11
Johan Huizinga, Het probleem der Renaissance, irst published in 1920 in the
journal De Gids 84 (1920), vol. 4, 10733, 23155; republished in the volume Johan Huizinga, Tien Studin (Haarlem, 1926), 289344 and in the collected works: Johan Huizinga,
Verzamelde werken (Haarlem 1949), vol. 4, 23175. Johan Huizinga, Renaissance en
realisme was based on lectures in London in 1920 and in Switzerland in 1926 and irst
published in Johan Huizinga, Cultuurhistorische verkenningen (Haarlem 1929), 86116;
republished in Johan Huizinga, Verzamelde werken (Haarlem 1949), vol. 4, 27697. Several translations of these two essays have been published. In English: Johan Huizinga,

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written a short time later, Huizinga put the signiicance of the Renaissance into perspective: there was not so much newness in this era ater
all. In his eyes, the Renaissance belonged to the Middle Ages, but at
the same time, developments in Italy difered from those in France
and the Netherlands.12
here is a tendency in modern historiography, especially in English, to speak in terms of the Renaissance period, which covers the
late fourteenth, iteenth, and sixteenth centuries. his has resulted
in describing Southern Netherlandish art of the iteenth century as
Renaissance Art. his nomenclature is, however, debatable and
potentially confusing. Jo Tollebeek has recently argued that the views
of the Renaissance proposed by Michelet, Burckhardt and Huizinga
are compelling, but also complex and very personal constructions.13
he main issue considered by the present contribution is the impossibility of regarding the concept as a rebirth or an elorescence, and
as a designation of a period at the same time.
he Northern Renaissance and Burgundy
In common with Huizinga, this paper will focus on Burgundian culture in questioning the concept of a Northern Renaissance and will
take a very recent book on the same subject as a starting point: Marina
Belozerskayas 2002 study Rethinking the Renaissance. he aim of
her book is, as she puts it, to readjust the traditional perception of
[iteenth-]century Europe.14 Her study reassesses the concept of the
Renaissance. Although the Renaissance is generally accepted as having come from Italy, by focusing on the Burgundian court as another
breeding-ground of cultural developments, she attempts to show that
he Problem of the Renaissance and Renaissance and Realism, in Men and Ideas.
History, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance. Essays by Johan Huizinga (New York, 1959),
24387 & 288309. In German: Johan Huizinga, Das Problem der Renaissance, Italien. Monatschrit fr Kultur, Kunst und Literatur 1 (1928): 33749, 391404, 44459;
Huizinga, Wege der Kulturgeschichte. Studien (Munich 1930), 89139; Huizinga, Das
Problem der Renaissance. Renaissance und Realismus (Tbingen, 1953). In French:
Johan Huizinga, Le problme de la Renaissance, Revue des cours et confrences 40
(19381939): 16374, 30112, 52436, 60313.
12
W. Krul, In the Mirror of van Eyck, 355, 373; J. Tollebeek, Renaissance and
fossilization , 3612; P. Burke, he European Renaissance, 478.
13
J. Tollebeek, Renaissance and fossilization, 366.
14
Marina Belozerskaya, Rethinking the Renaissance. Burgundian Arts across Europe
(Cambridge, 2002), 46.

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273

Italy is not everything. She presents her study as one alternative to the
Italocentric perception of the Era.15
Belozerskaya wants us to reconsider our view of the iteenth century by juxtaposing diferent modes. In order to focus on these, she
stresses that we have to look at the period with a period eye. When
we learn at school that modernity was born with the Italian Renaissance and with Italian humanism, our view is blurred. he view that
the Burgundian court was rooted in a medieval cultural mindset when
elsewhere the irst seeds of modernity were being sown is a hangover
from Huizinga that must be carefully reconsidered.16 Belozerskayas
book is a complete, lively and attractive study of Burgundian court
culture and its inluence on the rest of Europe. Her study, however,
also sufers from severe problems, problems which unfortunately
weaken her argument.
Belozerskaya criticises Huizingas view of the transition from the
Middle Ages to the Renaissance for being both highly charged and
excessively simplistic.17 Unfortunately, Belozerskaya cites Huizinga in
a very biased way and it would not be unjust to suggest that her conclusions are themselves highly charged. Huizingas interpretation is
indeed susceptible to criticism: his treatment of the Renaissance problem is riddled with contradictions and a number of his assertions are
seriously problematic.18 It is nevertheless surprising that Belozerskaya
omits to analyse in any serious way Huizingas interpretations and,
moreover, does not seem to have made use of Huizingas two fundamental articles on the Renaissance problem.19 Moreover, although
she dedicates a long chapter to the historiography of the Renaissance
problem, she mainly sticks to pre-twentieth-century historiography
(ending with Huizinga). Although many of the presumptions with
which the book begins might be appropriate for the general public,
they are not merely well-known to a more specialised audience, but
known to have been superseded. In this regard, one might highlight
Belozerskayas references to the Italocentric perception of the era, her
use of the term minor arts (which were viewed as the major arts in

15

Ibid., 2.
Ibid., 667.
17
Ibid., 43.
18
For some of these problems, see W. Krul, In the Mirror of van Eyck, 3725.
19
See above, note 13. Huizingas two articles remain an excellent starting point for
relecting on the Renaissance problem.
16

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hanno wijsman

the later Middle Ages), and her unwillingness to go beyond Vasaris

teleological and anachronistic viewpoint in evaluating artists.20
Another problem is caused by her use of insuiciently deined, but
nevertheless key concepts. Although it is perhaps possible to deine
Burgundian art, any deinition would have to diferentiate it very carefully from Flemish art, and would be obliged to distinguish between
court and city culture.21 By the same token, Belozerskaya is equivocal in attaching meaning to the word Renaissance. Despite using the
Oxford English Dictionary to refer to the Renaissance as a rebirth, she
describes it diferentlyas a periodelsewhere on the page.22
On the one hand, Belozerskaya attempts to prove that Burgundian culture its into the narrow deinition of the Renaissance as a
rebirth. To this end, she looks for evidence which suggests that there
was much more classical inluence at the Burgundian court than is
usually thought. Central to her argument is the contention that the
enthusiasm for Antiquity was not simply received from Italy, but was
also an essential part of Burgundian court culture. On the other hand,
however, Belozerskaya tries to show that a Burgundian mode enjoyed
considerable inluence in iteenth-century Europe, even (or especially)
in Italy.
his Burgundian mode is evidently not classical in inspiration, in
spite of the fact that some heroes from Antiquity do appear in Burgundian stories and imagery. It is at this point that we touch upon
the heart of the problem of deining the Renaissance. In the iteenth
century, Italy was not the only breeding ground for cultural developments: Burgundy can be seen as a cultural alternative.23 But if we
accede to the idea of a multi-poled Renaissance, then we should also
accept another deinition of it not only as a rebirth, but as a more
general elorescence, or simply as a period. What then remains might

M. Belozerskaya, Rethinking the Renaissance, 107.

About the problematic deinition of Burgundy see: H. Wijsman, Bourgogne,
bourguignon. . ..
22
he great revival of art and letters, under the inluence of classical models,
which began in Italy in the fourteenth century and continued during the 15th and
the 16th, M. Belozerskaya, Rethinking the Renaissance, 3, citing: Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford, 1971). Later in her book (74) Belozerskaya also cites Peter Burkes
deinition.
23
As Belozerskaya shows very well. See also H. Wijsman, Bourgogne, bourguignon. . .; Wijsman, Bibliothques princires entre Moyen Age et humanisme,
1324.
20

21

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275

be one of Panofskys renascences, or just an alternative designation

of the early-modern period.
In attempting to prove that classical inluences were present at the
Burgundian court and that they were even exported from Burgundy
to the rest of Europe,24 Belozerskaya seems to underestimate the degree
to which classical material was present in medieval Europe, well before
the period of Burgundys ascendancy. Classical themes, classical forms,
classical subjects, and classical texts were known, used, cited and translated throughout the Middle Ages. Even if this interest was growing
during the fourteenth and iteenth centuries, we should not underestimate the degree of continuity which existed.25
his brings us back to Panofsky. In examining the Renaissance from
the perspective of the rebirth of Antiquity, Belozerskaya omits to
examine seriously Panofskys suggestion that the periods distinguishing characteristic was not merely the rediscovery, but the transformation of classical forms and themes. While earlier renascences had
readily made use of the form and content of classical art and literature,
the two had not been united. For Panofsky, the Italian Renaissance
combined both form and content. In his eyes, the Middle Ages always
retained a sense of continuity in treating classical subjects, whereas
the Italian Renaissance really proposed something new. For the irst
time there was a sense of historical distance between Antiquity and
the present.26
Now this idea applies very nicely to relationship between Italy
and Burgundy in historical constructions of the Renaissance. Duke
Philip the Good of Burgundy founded the Order of the Golden Fleece,
named ater the precious object that the Greek hero Jason brought
home; Philips son Charles the Bold listened to stories about Alexander the Great so that he might gain inspiration for his own conquests.

M. Belozerskaya, Rethinking the Renaissance, 6773.

See Erwin Panofsky and Fritz Saxl, Classical Mythology in Mediaeval Art, Metropolitan Museum Studies 4 (193233): 22880.
26
E. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences, 222, 228; Panofsky, Renaissance and
Renascences in Western Art, 10813; E. Panofsky and F. Saxl, Classical Mythology;
and the pioneering Aby Warburg, Italienische Kunst und internationale Astrologie im
Palazzo Schifanoja zu Ferrara (1912), in Aby Warburg, Die Erneuerung der heidnische Antike. Kulturwissenschatliche Beitrge zur Geschichte der europischen Renaissance, ed. Gertrud Bing (Leipzig and Berlin, 1932), 45981, 62744; or in English: Aby
Warburg, Italian Art and International Astrology in the Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara
(1912), in his he Renewal of Pagan Antiquity. Contributions to the Cultural History
of the European Renaissance (Los Angeles, 1999), 56391, 73258.
24

25

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hanno wijsman

Netherlandish tapestries showing these and other stories were popular Burgundian export articles. As real medieval men, the dukes and
others identiied with classical heroes and yet did not have a sense of
historical distance.
his forces us to ask whether Italian Renaissance princes like the
Medicis, the Sforzas, and the Montefeltros saw their relationship with
Antiquity so very diferently. It is quite easy to show how medieval
certain people were because they used classical examples in a very
concrete and transformed way (in Panofskys words incomplete and
distorted),27 but it is much more diicult to show how real Renaissance people were more abstract and comprehensive in their view of
Antiquity. Maybe Petrarch or Leonardo Bruni were, but whether the
iteenth-century Italian princes were remains to be seen.
In the inspiring last pages of his 1944 article, Panofsky tries very
hard to underline the revolutionary character of the Italian Renaissance. He speaks, for example, of the gap that separates pagan Antiquity from the Christian Middle Ages.28 But we should not stop asking
questions. For example, in a broad historical sense, was Christianity
not also something typical of the Roman world, very classical in origin,
very much inluenced by all kinds of Hellenistic and classical philosophical currents? A medieval European might have seen the dichotomy between Christian and pagan as something very clear cut. We,
however, should not shrink from challenging these ideas.
Some Other Recent Points of View
he inconsistencies and distortions caused by the various deinitions of
the word Renaissance are well known to modern scholarship. Many
studies published in the last few years address these problems, especially in the context of the relationship between Italian and Northern
art. he vocabulary shit in the titles of two articles that Larry Silver
dedicated to scholarship on Northern European art of the iteenth
and sixteenth centuries in 1986 and in 2006 is very telling.29 he 1986

27

E. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences, 228.

Ibid., 226.
29
Larry Silver, he State of Research: Northern European Art of the Renaissance
Era, Art Bulletin 68 (1986): 51835; Silver, Arts and minds: scholarship on early
modern art history (Northern Europe), Renaissance Quarterly 59 (2006): 35173.
28

northern renaissance?

277

title, Northern European Art of the Renaissance Era, was already

very delicately chosen. It avoids Northern Renaissance art and in
the notion Renaissance era, Renaissance is used as an adjective and,
strictly speaking, does not refer to a period, even if the use of Renaissance era does not clarify things very much. But the 2006 title has
avoided the use of Renaissance: Arts and Minds: Scholarship on Early
Modern Art History (Northern Europe). Silver has chosen to refer to
the iteenth and sixteenth centuries as Early Modern, which seems a
very enlightening choice.
A recent article by Ethan Kavaler provides us with a more detailed
example. Kavaler discusses the use of ornament in Southern Netherlandish painting, sculpture and architecture in the very late iteenth
century and in the irst half of the sixteenth century, and, in drawing
parallels with contemporary literature and music, he shows himself to
be a scholar who wishes to capture the essence of the period in a broad
cultural sense. His title contains the notion of Renaissance Gothic
and the introduction states that this is a deliberate choice intended
to emphasise the inevitable inconsistencies that result when we forget the speciic values and perspectives enshrined in our construction
of periods and our intuitive expectation of linear progression.30 his
seems to be a very clear example of the problems of deinition. he
term Renaissance Gothic denotes both a period (Renaissance) and
a style (Gothic).31 In Kavalers preliminary remarks, however, he uses
the word Renaissance to refer to a style.32 In using the same word to
mean diferent things, he seems keenly aware of the problem of deinition, but nevertheless feels obliged to indulge this lexical ambivalence
in order to draw attention to precisely this problem.
In her excellent study of the impact of Southern Netherlandish painting in Florence in the second half of the iteenth century,
Paula Nuttall begins by juxtaposing the artistic developments in Florence and in the Southern Netherlands in the period 14201440.33

30
Ethan Kavaler, Renaissance Gothic in the Netherlands. he Uses of Ornament,
he Art Bulletin 82 (2000): 22651, esp. 226.
31
Indeed, other notions than the Renaissance could be discussed in similar ways as
we do here for Renaissance. Gothic and medieval are just as ambiguous.
32
Kavaler states that he wants to call attention to discontinuities in conventional
designations of periods and does not want to interpret Late Gothic as a Renaissance
style: E. Kavaler, Renaissance Gothic, 246, n. 1 (my emphasis).
33
Paula Nuttall From Flanders to Florence. he Impact of Netherlandish Painting
14001500 (New Haven and London, 2004).

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hanno wijsman

Nuttalls study emphasises the numerous strands of cultural exchange

between Italy and the Netherlands. Working on iteenth-century
artistic exchanges between the Burgundian lands and the kingdom of
Naples, Claire Challat has recently published an overview of the historiography concerning the inluences of Southern Netherlandish art
in Southern Italy. King Alphonse of Aragons taste for Netherlandish
art has oten been interpreted as an indication of conservatism or even
of cultural backwardness, but Challat is right to point out that this
way of looking at the iteenth century is too teleological.34 It seems
that historiography has allowed itself to be inluenced too heavily by
the self-conscious constructions of the Renaissance by contemporary Italian artists. Although artists like Ghiberti, Alberti, Vasari and
Michelangelo were unequivocal in expressing a sense of their place in
the scheme of history and in comparing themselvesoten harshly
with others,35 these subjective judgements should not preclude modern scholars from adopting a more objective approach to the art and
culture of the era.36
he same relationship between Italy and the North was again considered in a volume edited by Joachim Poeschke which aimed, by way
of a series of case studies, to explore the diferent art forms of the
iteenth century, and paid particularly close attention to the inluence
of Northern Europe on Italian art.37 In juxtaposing the early Renaissance in Italy and the later Middle Ages in the North, while at the same
time describing both with the concept of the early-modern period, the
title of the volume edited by Poetschke clearly raises questions for our
conceptions of iteenth-century art and shows a high consciousness
of the problem.38

34
Claire Challat, Naples et le modle bourguignon au temps dAlphonse dAragon:
quelques considrations historiographiques, Annales de Bourgogne 78 (2006): 16992,
esp. 176.
35
For Michelangelos famous judgement of Flemish art as being it for women and
deprived from reason or art, see P. Nuttall From Flanders to Florence, 12 and 910.
36
P. Burke, he European Renaissance, 4950.
37
Joachim Poeschke, ed., Italienische Frhrenaissance und nordeuropisches Sptmittelalter. Kunst der frhen Neuzeit im europischen Zusammenhang (Munich,
1993).
38
Belozerskaya seems too ready to criticise the title of the volume edited by Poetschke as an example of the misconception that scholarship and the general public
have of iteenth-century art, especially because she does not cite the subtitle in which
Northern and Southern art are clearly stated as both belonging to early-modern times
(as does the introduction). M. Belozerskaya, Rethinking the Renaissance, 44.

northern renaissance?

279

Many recent authors have emphasised the interdependence of the

two artistic spheres,39 andmore generallyof the urban societies of
the Southern Netherlands and Northern Italy.40 Moreover, modern
scholarship shows a steadily growing consciousness of terminological and conceptual problems. Paula Nuttall is right in wanting to go
beyond talking about inluences:41 far from being indebted only to
classical Antiquity, Italian Renaissance art was heavily inluenced by
its contact with Northern Europe, especially with respect to painting.
Huizingas characterisation of iteenth-century Netherlandish culture as having been rooted in the autumn of the Middle Ages has had
an enormous inluence. his view had been consciously formulated
in opposition to the idea of a Northern Renaissance.42 Moreover, it
has been shown that, in spite of his anti-nationalistic tendency, one of
Huizingas aims was to show the superiority of Dutch or Netherlandish
culture43 and a certain anti-Italianism was not unfamiliar to him.44 he
mere existence of an historiographical tradition in Huizingas image,
coupled with the existence of historical constructions of the Italian
Renaissance which ultimately derive from the self-aggrandisement
of Renaissance artists like Vasari, makes a fair comparison between
northern and Italian iteenth century culture very complicated. It
is therefore no surprise that recent publications struggle with such
concepts.45
Even if many scholars are very well aware of the problems, commercially-motivated book titles, especially in the English language, have

P. Burke, he European Renaissance, 502.

For this broader historic comparison, see most recently the various contributions
to Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan and Elodie Lecuppre Desjardin, eds., Villes de Flandre et
dItalie: relectures dune comparaison traditionnelle, Studies in European Urban History 11 (Turnhout, 2007).
41
P. Nuttall From Flanders to Florence, 251.
42
Johan Huizinga, Verzamelde werken (Haarlem 1948), vol. 1, 39; W. Krul, In the
Mirror of van Eyck, 35762; Wessel Krul, Realism, Renaissance, and Nationalism, in
Early Netherlandish Paintings. Rediscovery, Reception and Research, ed. Bernhard Ridderbos, Anne Van Buren and Henk van Veen (Amsterdam, 2005), 25289, esp. 283.
43
It should be noted that the clear distinction in English between Dutch and
Netherlandish does, for historical reasons, not exist in the Dutch language.
44
Anton van der Lem, Het Eeuwige verbeeld in een afgehaald bed. Huizinga en de
Nederlandse beschaving (Amsterdam, 1997), 8487.
45
Very conscious of terminology, Paula Nuttall admits in her preface that she
acceded to the title given to her book for reasons of alliteration, whereas in fact the
word Flanders should have been replaced by the more correct Southern Netherlands. P. Nuttall, From Flanders to Florence, x.
39

40

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had a huge inluence on the spread of Renaissance as a period-indicative notion.46 I am well aware that Renaissance princes sounds much
grander than iteenth-century princes. If the choice is between later
medieval and Renaissance, the second has an irresistible, loty taste
of newness.47 However, in resigning ourselves to this development we
will ultimately only confuse ourselves.
In spite of an awareness of the problems, vocabulary oten continues
to be ambivalent. It is impossible to attack the past without using the
words that it has transmitted to us, but these same words prevent us
from seeing the past clearly. Like many others, I would be inclined to
refer to Netherlandish art of the iteenth century as something new.
he term ars nova, which has been put forward with quite some success, seems a good concept.48 It emphasises the newness of the art of
Sluter, Van Eyck, and Van der Weyden, but, in avoiding the concept
of Renaissance, distinguishes Netherlandish art from contemporary
Italian art. Moreover, it detaches developments in art from more general developments in society as well.
Princes, Nobles and their Book Collections
Traditionally the pre-eminent ields of study in iteenth-century culture
concern the ine arts (especially painting), and classical philology. he
study of book collecting and library formation, however, can add a lot
to the discussion, especially when focusing on princes and nobles (men
and women). Indeed, illuminated books constitute a meeting-ground
for the visual arts and textual content. he patronage and collection

46
Established scholars have indicated to me that that titles containing Northern
Renaissance had simply been imposed on them by publishers.
47
he magniicent milestone which is the recent catalogue on Southern Netherlandish book illumination between 1467 and 1561, bears a beautiful title, but we must
assume that the word Renaissance in it refers only to a period. his is confusing,
as the catalogue deals with book illumination before and ater the introduction of
elements from the Italian Renaissance in Netherlandish Art. homas Kren and Scot
McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance. he triumph of Flemish manuscript painting in Europe (Los Angeles and London, 2003).
48
Ironically, the concept of Flemish Primitives, to refer to Early Netherlandish
painting, which now seems to have become more and more obsolete (except in Flanders), was in itself meant to emphasise the newness of the new style of Van Eyck,
Campin, and Van der Weyden. Ars nova is an alternative means of denoting this new
style, originally borrowed from musical history. See E. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish
Painting, 14950.

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281

of luxury manuscripts can help an examination of the Renaissance

problem.49 Given the limitations of space, this contribution will conine itself to a brief examination of the case of the Burgundian dukes
and their court.50
he Valois andater 1482the Habsburg dukes of Burgundy
reigned over a conglomeration of territories from the late fourteenth
to well into the sixteenth century.51 he irst and the third of these
princesPhilip the Bold (13421404) and Philip the Good (1396
1467)were important patrons of the arts. Both had a special afection
for books, especially beautiful books. he Burgundian library grew to
contain about 900 manuscripts, many of which (but by no means all)
were richly illuminated manuscripts.
Between about 1445 and his death in 1467, Philip the Good acquired
an enormous number of manuscripts. Some had been presents, others were the fruit of a carefully-considered policy of acquisition. He
acquired, for example, many chronicles of the lands he ruled. He was
also fond of stories that we would consider legendary, but which in his
eyes provided an historical explanation for the origins of the Burgundian state, and a justiication for its independence and importance.52
Philip the Good was not, however, the only collector of books in
iteenth-century Burgundy. A whole generation of nobles, born in
the 1420s and 1430s and raised in the bibliophile atmosphere of the
49
Belozerskaya does not give much attention to literature, manuscripts and illumination at the Burgundian court, as she says, for reasons of space. M. Belozerskaya,
Rethinking the Renaissance, 134.
50
See also H. Wijsman, Bourgogne, bourguignon. . .; Wijsman, Bibliothques
princires entre Moyen Age et humanisme.
51
Wim Blockmans and Walter Prevenier, he Promised Lands. he Low Countries
under Burgundian Rule, 13691530 (Philadelphia 1999); Bertrand Schnerb, LEtat
bourguignon, 13631477 (Paris 1999). Burgundian was used largely as a synonym
for what we now call Netherlandish for the whole of the sixteenth century, for which
see Johan Huizinga, Burgund. Eine Krise des romanisch-germanischen Verhltnisses,
Historische Zeitschrit 148 (1933): 128, esp. 27.
52
Yvon Lacaze, Le rle des traditions dans la gense dun sentiment national au XVe
sicle. La Bourgogne de Philippe le Bon, Bibliothque de lcole des chartes 129 (1971):
30385; Graeme Small, Les Chroniques de Hainaut et les projets dhistoriographie
rgionale en langue franaise la cour de Bourgogne, in Les chroniques de Hainaut ou
les ambitions dun Prince Bourguignon, ed. Pierre Cockshaw and Christiane Van den
Bergen-Pantens (Turnhout 2000), 1722; Hanno Wijsman, Luxury Bound. Illustrated
Manuscript Production and Noble and Princely Book Ownership in the Burgundian
Netherlands (14001550) (Turnhout, 2010), 23843. Jan Veenstra, Le prince qui se veult
faire de nouvel roy. Literature and Ideology of Burgundian Self-determination, in
he Ideology of Burgundy. he Promotion of National Consciousness 13641565, ed.
DArcy Jonathan Dacre Boulton and Jan R. Veenstra (Leiden-Boston, 2006), 195221.

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Burgundian court in the 1450s and 1460s, became bibliophilic themselves. Having a library, collecting manuscripts that contained certain
texts in vogue and that were produced in the fashionable Flemish or
Hainaut workshops of scribes and illuminators, became an absolute
must. Of course, individuals could have their own private ields of
interests, but, on the whole, we see the same features in all book collections of the second half of the iteenth century. Members of the
families of Croy, Cleves, Gruuthuse, Lalaing, Luxemburg, Lannoy, and
Nassau not only became knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece
(the lite of the lite), but also followed the dukes example in collecting books.53
Where did this wish to build up a library containing certain kinds
of texts come from? Philip the Good was a grandson of Philip the
Bold, who himself was the youngest son of King John the Good of
France. As such, Philip the Bold was a brother of King Charles V of
France (r. 13641380), and he also exerted considerable inluence over
his nephew, Charles VI (r. 13801422).
It is well known that especially Charles V, nicknamed the Wise, was
a king with a strong interest in intellectual matters. He employed several translators to produce French versions of classical Latin texts. It
was also Charles V who founded the irst French royal library, which,
by his sons reign, had expanded to hold almost a thousand manuscripts. In France he is oten seen as having been responsible for the
transformation of French into an intellectual language. Charles Vs
brothersparticularly Jean de Berry and Philip the Boldwere, of
course, also very much interested in books.54
Looking back, it is not diicult to see how Philip the Good found his
inspiration in the French court of Charles the Wise. It becomes even
clearer if we recall that, ater the death of Charles VI in 1422 and the
English occupation of Paris and most of France, the manuscripts of
53
H. Wijsman, Luxury Bound, 50329; Wijsman, La Librairie des ducs de Bourgogne et les bibliothques de la noblesse dans les Pays-Bas (14001550), in La Librairie des ducs de Bourgogne. Manuscrits conservs la Bibliothque Royale de Belgique.
Vol. 2: Textes didactiques, ed. Bernard Bousmanne, Frdrique Johan, and Cline Van
Hoorebeeck (Turnhout 2003), 1937.
54
Lopold Delisle, Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V (Paris 1907); Franois
Avril and Jean Lafaurie, La librairie de Charles V, exhibition catalogue (Paris, 1968);
Patrick De Winter, La bibliothque de Philippe le Hardi, duc de Bourgogne (1364
1404): tude sur les manuscrits peintures dune collection princire a lpoque du style
gothique international (Paris, 1985); Franoise Autrand, La culture dun roi: livres et
amis de Charles V, Perspectives Mdivales 21 (1995): 99106.

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283

the Royal Library were dispersed ater the death, in 1435, of John of
Lancaster, who had bought them in 1424. Philip the Good saw himself
as the true heir of the Valois dynasty. Even if he was not the king of
France, he was for quite a while much wealthier and more powerful.
Importantly for our purpose, this power and wealth gave Philip the
ability to commission lavishly illustrated manuscripts.55
Was it so unique for a king to found a library in the fourteenth
century? Well, yes, in a way. Medieval princes and noblemen usually had some books. his, however, is not the same as founding a
library, which involved the conscious acquisition of books and the
employment of writers, translators and illustrators. Although it was
not entirely without precedence, the idea that the noble (or non-noble)
lite should gain their education through reading was quite a new idea
in the time of Charles the Wise. It was this idea that Philip the Good
took over and continued.
In the iteenth century, however, collecting books became more
commonplace. Bibliophile kings and princes reigned in Italy, Spain,
England, the German territories and Central Europe. A famous example of these royal bibliophiles, a generation younger than Philip the
Good, is Matthias Corvinus (14431490), the Hungarian nobleman
who was elected king of Hungary when only iteen years old, in 1458.
A somewhat unexpected monarch, despite his fathers having been
regent of Hungary during the reign of Ladislaus the Posthumous,
Corvinus build up an enormous library which was later completely
dispersed and, for the most part, lost. Profoundly inluenced by Italian culture, Corvinus library was dominated by Latin texts. He went
to Italy to get the authors and the artists working for him and also to
buy manuscripts and works of art.56
Another famous bibliophile is Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
(13901447), fourth son of King Henry IV and brother of Henry V.
He acquired hundreds of manuscripts and was in frequent contact
with Italian humanists, several of whom came to his court, brought
him books from Italy or wrote texts especially for him. Humphrey is
55
Philip the Good even managed to acquire several of the manuscripts that had
been made for Charles V of France and that came from the dispersed library. hey
were somewhat older, but had this special royal lavour.
56
Csaba Csapodi and Klra Csapodi-Grdonyi, Bibliotheca corviniana. La bibliothque du roi mathias Corvin de Hongrie (Budapest, 1967). For more comparative
information about Matthias Corvinus library and the one of the Burgundian dukes,
see H. Wijsman, Bibliothques princires entre Moyen Age et humanisme.

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well known for his taste for Italian humanism and for Latin texts,57 but
it is worth noting that, of the surviving manuscripts bearing evidence
of his ownership, about one third are written in French or in English.
Among those written in French, there were several manuscripts formerly in the French Royal Library that Humphrey must have acquired
through his brother, John of Lancaster. Humphrey, a prince who presented himself as an intellectual with humanist interests, was also
closely linked to the French royal tradition.
he inluence of Italian humanism was little felt in the libraries of
the high nobility in the Burgundian Netherlands. Far from seeking
inspiration in Italy, the Burgundian nobility looked to the duke, who
in turn looked to his French roots. Ater 1477, Habsburg rule did not
introduce any profoundly new inluences. Mary of Burgundy lived for
too short a time; Maximilian of Austria was too distant; Philip the
Fair and even Charles V were raised very much in the Burgundian
tradition.58 Arjo Vanderjagt has pointed out that the term humanism
cannot be applied generally to the courtly circles of Burgundy, but
that that does not mean that they werent intellectual.59
In noble libraries, the inluence of Italian humanism was only introduced in some very speciic cases: nobles like Raphael de Mercatellis
(14371508), abbot of Saint Baafs Abbey in Gent, Philip of Burgundy
(14651524), who became bishop of Utrecht, Charles II de Lalaing
(15061558), who in his youth had been destined for an ecclesiastical career, and Joris van Halewijn (Georgius Haloinus; c.14701536/7)
had book collections showing strong humanist tendencies.60 What

57
For Duke Humphrys library, see Alfonso Sammut, Unfredo duca di Gloucester e
gli umanisti italiani, Medioevo e umanesimo, 41 (Padova, 1980); David Rundle, Two
unnoticed manuscripts from the collection of Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, Bodleian Library Record 16 (1998): 21124, 299313; and the forthcoming book by David
Rundle on the library of Duke Humphrey.
58
Hanno Wijsman, Lotage de Gand. La formation dun jeune prince and
Litinraire dun esthte. Les lectures dun prince clair, in Philippe le Beau (1478
1506). Les trsors du dernier duc de Bourgogne, ed. Bernard Bousmanne, Sandrine
hiefry and Hanno Wijsman (exhibition catalogue) (Brussels, 2006), 2330, 5160.
59
Arjo Vanderjagt, Classical Learning and the Building of Power at the Fiteenthcentury Burgundian Court, in Centres of Learning. Learning and Location in PreModern Europe and the Near East, Brills Studies in Intellectual History 61, ed. Jan
Willem Drijvers and Alasdair A. MacDonald (Leiden, 1995), 26777, esp. 2689; see
also H. Wijsman, Les princes et leurs livres.
60
H. Wijsman, Luxury Bound, 27781, 36971, 38692, 5079; Wijsman, La
Librairie des ducs de Bourgogne et les bibliothques de la noblesse, 245; Jozef Sterk,
Philips van Bourgondi (14651524), bisschop van Utrecht, als protagonist van de

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285

these four have in common is, irst, that that they all went to university and, second, that (with the exception of van Halewijn) they were
bastards or younger sons who had received an education suitable for
an ecclesiastical career. hey also assembled their libraries at the very
end of the iteenth century or in the sixteenth century.
he other noblemen of their rank that belong to the generations
born in the 1450s or later and that lived well into the sixteenth century adhered to more old-fashioned tastes when it came to collecting books. his is all the more striking because some of themlike
Philip of Cleves and Henry III of Nassaudid show an interest in art
inspired by the Italian Renaissance: they commissioned paintings with
classical subjects from artists like Jan Gossaert, whose style betrays a
strong Italian inluence, and built palaces in a style incorporating Italian Renaissance inluences.61 But until well into the 1520s and 1530s,
these same noblemen acquired very few modern books: they had few,
if any, printed books, very few modern texts, had little interest in reading Latin, and because the production of beautiful manuscripts had
dried up in the 1490s, they mostly acquired older, second-hand manuscripts, sometimes with a prestigious provenance.
his does not mean, however, that there was practically no Italian
Renaissance or humanist inluence in libraries in the Netherlands in
the iteenth century. It just did not spread into the leading princely
and noble circles. We have to look for it among intellectuals in the
towns. hese town-dwellers, however, constituted a social group that
was quite diferent to the courtly lite. he court-city dichotomy

renaissance. Zijn leven en mecenaat (Zutphen, 1980); Albert Derolez, A survey of the
Mercatel library on the basis of the early catalogues and the surviving manuscripts,
in Als ich Can. Liber amicorum in memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers. Corpus
of Illuminated Manuscripts 112, ed. Bert Cardon, Jan Van der Stock and Dominique
Vanwijnsberghe (Louvain, 2002), vol. 1, 54564; Jacques Monfrin, La connaissance de
lAntiquit et le problme de lHumanisme en langue vulgaire dans la France du XVe
sicle, in he Late Middle Ages and the Dawn of Humanism outside Italy. Proceedings
of the International Conference, Louvain May 1113, 1970, ed. Grard Verbeke and
Jozef Ijsewijn (Louvain and he Hague 1972), 13170.
61
J. Sterk, Philips van Bourgondi, 97147; Dagmar Eichberger, Leben mit Kunst
Wirken durch Kunst. Sammelwesen und Hokunst unter Margarete von sterreich,
Regentin der Niederlande, Burgundica 5 (Turnhout, 2002); Elyne Olivier, Philippe de
Clves, le got et les particularismes artistiques dun noble bourguignon travers le
Recueil de mandements, dinventaires et de pices diverses concernant la succession de
Philippe de Clves, in Entre la ville, la noblesse et ltat. Philippe de Clves (14561528),
homme politique et bibliophile, Burgundica 13, ed. Jelle Haemers, Cline Van Hoorebeeck and Hanno Wijsman (Turnhout 2007), 14359.

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deserves close study. Again taking painting as an example, it is worth

noting that, far from being a relection of court culture, early Netherlandish art was an emanation of the rich culture of the towns.62 Large
altarpiecesa new form of artwere typical of the modes encouraged
by commissions from town dwellers and were soon exported abroad.
Despite this, there is very little evidence for either the ducal family or
the high nobility having commissioned painted altarpieces. hey stuck
to tapestries and manuscripts. Some evidence that court culture was
imitated can be found in the book collections of townsmen, but most
urban collectors adhered to scholarly traditions at some remove from
that inluenced by Italian humanism.
he history of manuscript patronage and of book collections
draws our attention to several oten overlooked cultural diferences:
between Italy and the North, between the inspiration sought by diferent princes, and between court culture and city culture. he relations
between court and city, between towns and ruling dynasties were different in Italy and in the Netherlands, the two most urbanised areas
in Europe. his seems to be the key direction for further research.
Conclusion
It seems to me that the generally widespread term Northern Renaissance as used to apply to the ars nova of Jan van Eyck, Rogier van
der Weyden and others (i.e. the paintings that were used to be known
as Flemish Primitives) came into being because people tended to use
the word Renaissance in its wider sense, to refer to a period. However, this habit induces a lot of confusion. Words can have diferent
meanings, but if this process goes too far, scholars are no longer able
to understand each other properly. Marina Belozerskayas Rethinking
the Renaissance seems to be a victim of this problem: in this inspiring study, several key ideas sufer from the problem of deinition. he
introduction of the notion of a Burgundian mode as opposed to an
Italian mode is very useful, but it cannot be done without clarifying what we mean by Burgundian, by Italian, as well as by Renais-

62

Hanno Wijsman, Patterns in Patronage. Distinction and Imitation in the Patronage of Painted Art by Burgundian Courtiers in the Fiteenth and Early Sixteenth Century, in he Court as a Stage. England and the Low Countries in the Later Middle Ages,
ed. Steven Gunn and Antheun Janse (Oxford, 2006), 5369.

northern renaissance?

287

sance. Diferences between court and town, and in general between

diferent social groups are at least as important as diferences between
Italy and the North. hus, comparing Burgundian princely court
culture with Italian city culture or with humanistic Latin culture is
not comparing like with like. We have to consider that in iteenthcentury Europe there were other modes of learning than avant-garde
humanism and old-fashioned medieval learning. Diferent modes of
scholarship co-existed, each based on a diferent source of inspiration.
In the intellectual circles of iteenth-century Europe, the language
for real intellectual reading was Latin, and the renewing inluences
of humanism came from Italy. At the French court in the fourteenth
century, however, another strong mode of learning was born which
was taken up by the Burgundian dukes in the iteenth century. It
functioned as another model. It also had some inluence elsewhere (for
example at the English court of Edward IV and Henry VII). In the longer
runin the iteenth and sixteenth centuriesLatin remained the
primary intellectual language on the international stage. he position
of Latin was not new: it played the same role from late Antiquity right
through the Middle Ages into the modern era, playing a dominant role
even during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Maybe one of the
reasons why Italian inluences won out over Burgundian inluences
around 1500 was that the composition of texts in Latin made Italian
ideas more exportable.
If Renaissance is primarily used to signify a rebirth of antique culture, then the concept of a Northern Renaissance makes no sense
and should be abandoned. If Renaissance is primarily used to denote
a general elorescence or even a mere period, then the concept of a
Northern Renaissance might be more acceptable. In that it deprives
Renaissance of all its original sense, however, this seems a very unsatisfactory solution. If scholars accept the word Renaissance as a general term used to designate a period, we should, in my opinion, draw
the conclusion that it should be detached from the narrow deinition
of a rebirth of classical Antiquity, which is, however, a pity, if only
because this meaning is ingrained in the word because of the irst two
letters and thus also ingrained in the concept. Simply for the sake of
clarity, therefore, it seems preferable not to refer to iteenth-century
Netherlandish art as belonging to a Northern Renaissance.
Some classical inluences, such as translated texts and references to
heroes, can indeed be seen at the Burgundian court. But this does not
necessarily mean that the North was participating in a Renaissance

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(in the sense of a rebirth) independently from Italy. In indulging

this classicism, the Burgundian dukes participated in a long medieval
tradition.
Every interpretation of history contains elements of exaggeration,
because interpretation usually relies on the identiication of diferences. I think that the problems that are induced by the dichotomy
between an autumn of the Middle Ages in the North and an Italian
Renaissance are not at all solved by the replacement of this dichotomy
by another between a Northern and a Southern Renaissance. Using
the term Renaissance merely to designate a period or even vaguely
to denote an elorescence only leads us further away from an understanding of the era.
he answer to the question does a Northern Renaissance exist?
could be airmative if we accept a very general use of the word Renaissance. But in this way we will shoot ourselves in the foot, because we
will end up confusing key concepts containing very little meaning. So
if we want to keep a clear notion of the Renaissance, as a rebirth or as
an elorescence, then we should not yield to the idea of a Northern
Renaissance, but ind another means of approaching and describing
the Netherlandish ars nova and Burgundian court culture.