National Gallery of Art - THE COLLECTION

Tour: 15th and Early 16th-Century Germany

Overview | Start Tour

image of The Death of Saint Clare image of The Crucifixion image of The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel (The Trinity)
1 2 3
image of The Ascension image of The Baptism of Christ image of Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist
4 5 6
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« back to Northern European painting of the 15th-16th centuries

Overview

The changes experienced in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries were nowhere more strongly felt than in German-speaking lands. There the revolutions of printing and the Protestant Reformation were first unleashed. And it was a German artist, Albrecht Dürer, who introduced the art of Renaissance Italy to northern Europe. As France, England, and Spain coalesced around strong dynasties into powerful nations, Germany remained a political mosaic of small, independent states under the aegis of the Holy Roman Emperor. Yet it sustained a strong sense of national identity, and this was reflected in the distinctive character of German art.

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Captions

1.
1Master of Heiligenkreuz, The Death of Saint Clare, c. 1400/1410
2Master of Saint Veronica, The Crucifixion, c. 1400/1410
3Rhenish or South Netherlandish 15th Century, The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel (The Trinity), c. 1440
4Johann Koerbecke, The Ascension, 1456/1457
5Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altar, The Baptism of Christ, c. 1485/1500
6Hans Baldung Grien, Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist, c. 1511
2.
7Bernhard Strigel, Saint Mary Salome and Her Family, c. 1520/1528
8Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of a Woman, 1522