Italian Renaissance/Northern Renaissance

Humanist Comparison:
Italian Humanist: Francisco Petrarch
(1304-1374)
• “father of Humanism”
• Famous for love lyrics for
admiration of a married woman
• Believed in the potential of using
ones human intellectuals to the
fullest
• Was not hated by the church or
looked upon with a bad face
Similarities
• Work related to religion
• Work written in Latin
• Devoted to the Church
• Dignity of man
• Influenced other humanists
• Both idealist
Northern Humanist: Desiderius Erasmus
(1466?-1536)
• Translated the New Testament
into Greek(1516) and then into
Latin(1514)
• Unknowingly attacked church
• Made fun of pope Alexander VI
• All of his works were on the
church list of forbidden books, at
one point in time…
• Influenced the Religious
Reformation unknowingly

Italian Artist: Michelangelo Buonarotti
“The Last Judgment”
• Shows more of the saints up in the
top of the painting
• Shows Michelangelo’s face on the
skin that St. Peter is holding.
• Shows the grandness of the
Kingdom of Heaven with all the
saints and angels and archangels
and the trumpeters
• Painted on top of an alter
Artist Comparison:
Similarities
• Both have God in the Top Central
part of the painting showing his
importance
• Both have a blue circle of saints
around God and both have the
Virgin Mary next to God
• Under God and his saints there
are the human sinners in darkness
suffering in nudeness
• Both have angels
• Apostles next to Jesus and God
Northern Artist: Hieronymus Bosch
“Central Panel of the Last Judgment”
• Shows more of the suffering
humans towards the bottom of the
painting
• Shows the dark side of man and
the light side and angelic side of
God and how God is the only
goodness
• There is an extra person up with
God in white (maybe a pope?)

Conclusion:
In conclusion the Italian Renaissance was not too different from the Northern Renaissance in the sense that both tried to be
religious but the northern renaissance was leaning a bit more for a religious reformation. Artistically, the artwork was still religious
and had similar significances. The northern renaissance seems to have followed the Italian renaissance with Petrarch as the “father of
humanism”. Although Italy started the renaissance the north seems to have had a lot of contributions such as the printing press. It also
began the religious reformation and Erasmus showed that the Catholics really wanted a reformation long before Martin Luther.