Van Eyck to Memling: Northern Renaissance Art c1430-80



Overview

The work of Northern Renaissance artists is often strikingly beautiful, with rich colours and textures conjured through innovative use of oil paint. But beyond their visual appeal, these paintings reflect a fascinating world of religious symbolism, cultural meaning and artistic innovation. 

This course explores the art of Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden and their followers artists who developed a new way of seeing and representing the world in 15th-century Flanders and the Netherlands. Their works offer striking realism, from meticulously rendered interiors to evocative landscapes, but they also pushed the boundaries of what it meant to be an artist, a patron or a viewer. 

Though often less well-known than their Italian counterparts, these Northern artists had a profound influence on the development of Western art. As you explore their techniques, ideas and context, you'll gain not only a deeper understanding of this extraordinary period, but also new tools for looking at and interpreting art across time. 

This course has no live sessions. You will study structured materials at your own pace each week. Find out more about how our short online courses are taught.

Programme details

The course is broken down into 10 units over 10 weeks, each requiring approximately 10 hours of study time. The following topics are covered:

  • Introduction and a starting point: Introductory comments will lead into a consideration of the emerging role of the artist in comparison with the medieval craftworker, including thinking about the meanings of self-portraiture.
  • Realism and the Depiction of Space: These sessions will consider how 3-D space is depicted on a 2-D surface and will consider the 'realism' of depictions of what seem to be contemporary interiors, cityscapes etc., including an investigation of the concept of 'disguised' symbolism. There will also be a discussion of the influence of manuscript illumination and sculpture on panel painting, with particular emphasis on the depiction of fictive sculpture, and the influence of drama on some specific images.
  • Production and Location: These sessions will look at how and why these images were created, thinking about the workshop method and the role of guilds. The repetition of motifs by different artists will be investigated, and the depiction of patrons and other identifiable people will be evaluated. The impact of the intended location of works will be considered, in both religious and secular contexts. There will also be a discussion of an example of inauthentic restoration which changes the apparent meaning of the work.
  • Religious Ideals and Behaviour: This session will look at affective piety, the search for a personal relationship with God, and preparations for death, and will investigate how these concepts influenced artistic production.
  • Artistic Specialisms: These sessions will look at portraiture and the emergence of landscape and genre painting. It will also consider the blending of religious and secular imagery.
  • Italy and the North: This session will consider the evidence for Italian patronage of Northern artists and the extent to which Italian artists were influenced by their Northern contemporaries.

Textbooks

To participate in the course you will need to have regular access to the Internet and will need to purchase the following book:


Nash, Susie: Northern Renaissance Art (OUP, Oxford, 2008) ISBN: 0192842692

Recommended but not required:

Harbison, Craig: Jan van Eyck. The Play of Realism (Reaktion, London, 2011). ISBN 1861898207

Please ensure you are able to access copies of any required textbooks prior to enrolling on a course but please keep in mind that courses with insufficient students enrolled will be cancelled. The Department accepts no responsibility for books bought in anticipation of a course running.

Certification

Credit Application Transfer Scheme (CATS) points 

Coursework is an integral part of all online courses and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework. All those enrolled on an online courses are registered for credit and will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard.

See more information on CATS points

Digital credentials

All students who pass their final assignment will be eligible for a digital Certificate of Completion. Upon successful completion, you will receive a link to download a University of Oxford digital certificate. Information on how to access this digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course you attended. You will be able to download your certificate or share it on social media if you choose to do so. 

Please note that assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail. 

Fees

Description Costs
Course Fee £415.00

Funding

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

Tutor

Dr Manya Pagiavla

Dr Manya Pagiavla is a Lecturer in History of Renaissance Art at the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford. She holds a PhD in history of Renaissance art/architecture. In the past, she taught at the University of Cambridge, the Victoria & Albert Museum and Christie’s Education. A High/Late Renaissance expert, her research is on architectural history in Venice (Serlio, Palladio and D. Barbaro's Vitruvius), and on the artists' library inventories/marginalia. Further teaching interests include the Northern Renaissance, the Dutch Golden Age and 19th-century art/architecture. Her latest publication is on the library of Leonardo da Vinci, co-authored with Martin Kemp, University of Oxford. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Staff and Educational Development Association Recognised Teacher.

Course aims

This course aims to introduce students to the major issues in the development of panel painting in Northern Europe during the period c.1430-1480, by:

  • Giving students the opportunity to see and discuss the work of the major artists of this period.
  • Providing critiques of these images which will enable students to engage with the context in which they were created.

Course objectives

  • To introduce students to the major artists active in Flanders and the Netherlands in the period c.1430-1480, with some reference also to France and Germany.
  • To guide students' reading about these artists, the relationships between them and the methods they employed.
  • To provide students with important background knowledge on medieval religious beliefs and practices which will help to contextualise the images.
  • To familiarise students with the key concept of disguised symbolism, and allow participants to amass a fund of knowledge about medieval iconography.
  • To enable students to decode many of the meanings of late medieval images with confidence, and to have an appreciation of the contexts of patronage and production techniques.

Teaching methods

  • Guided reading of online notes and recommended texts.
  • Group discussion of particular issues, based around questions posed in the online notes.
  • Interactive activity based on the iconography of a specific image.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course you will be able to understand:

  • The artistic, religious and social context in which the artists of the Northern Renaissance worked.
  • The types of meanings which these images seem to embody.
  • The role of patrons and audience in the formulation of these works.


You will have gained the following skills:

  • The ability to recognise common motifs used by Northern Renaissance artists and to identify their points of origin.
  • The ability to describe and debate important concepts in late medieval religious belief which influenced artistic production and reception.
  • The ability to recognise and interpret common types of symbolism in Northern Renaissance art.

Assessment methods

You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.

 

Application

Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an Enrolment form for short courses.

Level and demands

FHEQ level 4, 10 weeks, approx 10 hours per week, therefore a total of about 100 study hours.

English Language Requirements

We do not insist that applicants hold an English language certification, but warn that they may be at a disadvantage if their language skills are not of a comparable level to those qualifications listed on our website. If you are confident in your proficiency, please feel free to enrol. For more information visit our English language requirements.

IT requirements

This course is delivered online; to participate you must to be familiar with using a computer for purposes such as sending email and searching the Internet. You will also need regular access to the Internet and a computer meeting our recommended minimum computer specification.

Terms & conditions for applicants and students

Information on financial support