Browse Items (202 total)

During the early 17th Century Europe underwent a large-scale currency crisis due in large part to the near constant state of war during the century. In no place was this more apparent than in Spain where the real had undergone tremendous inflation as…

While Charles V may have been the Holy Roman Emperor in the 1500s, the German princes were nearly completely autonomous with regards to rule over their own holdings. This political structure left the peasants and serfs essentially no opportunity to…

Menasseh ben Israel, a Sephardic Jewish rabbi from Amsterdam, embodies aspects of the religious environment of the Dutch Republic during the 17th century. Throughout the 17th century, Jewish communities from both Iberia (Sephardic) and Germany…

The triptych is a significant art-piece of the Northern Renaissance that stresses the ideas of Northern Humanism, specifically individual and personal study of the Bible. Campin achieves this message through targeted imagery and symbolism,…

During the 18th century, another example of the phenomenon of chinoiserie, the European interpretation or imitation of Chinese art or other traditions from East Asia, was this vase. The Yuan dynasty experienced technological developments in the…

This painting by Rembrandt highlights the emerging class of city elites in the Netherlands during the early modern period, and the social mobility which characterized the economic climate of the Netherlands at this time. The main subject of the…

“The School of Athens” is considered by many as one of Raphael’s greatest artistic creations. Raphael was drawing on the rebirth of the analytical questioning of the classics and the works of the “ancient” peoples. In this image, Raphael paints some…

This painting of Desiderius Erasmus captures the character of the Dutch humanist writer and demonstrates the strong humanist presence in the Low Countries. Erasmus situated himself in a central position in the intellectual world of the Renaissance.…

Hernán Cortes was a prominent Spanish Conquistador who went on an expedition against the Aztec empire. The attached image is of the armor he used during the trip. It was placed in a Spanish museum to honor his legacy and represents some of the mythos…

During the Renaissance period, countless outstanding architects, sculptors and artists emerged; however, “all of the most famous and most prolific Renaissance artists were male” (Wiesner-hanks, 158). Properzia de’ Rossi (1490-1530) is the only female…

In the face of a proliferation of Protestant books and other writings across the European continent, the papacy created the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, “the Index of Banned Books.” By outlawing the ownership and reading of works that expressed…

Almost three years after Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses set off a religious wildfire, Pope Leo X issued this papal bull, named after the first two words in the Latin text, “Arise, O Lord.” The document lists forty-one purported errors of Luther.…