Class Resources
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ART 231: Northern Renaissance Art
Internet Resources
ICONOGRAPHY
Who are those saints? What do those symbols mean? Is this a Bible text? Pelletier Library has some good print resources, but many of these are also online.
- The Catholic Encyclopedia Online
- Enormous amount of info on religious history, theology, popes, and saints. Beware that the online text is from the 1917 edition. Some things have changed!
- Yahoo maintains a List of Patron Saints.
BIBLE
All Bibles are not alike. Closest to the Bible of the Middle Ages is the Douay-Rheims, but the Renaissance was a time when scholars were trying to go back to the original linguistic sources, and translators wanted to make the sacred text available to people in their own languages.
CITING THE BIBLE
Books or versions of the Bible are not underlined, italicized or put in quotation marks. In MLA Style, your first Biblical reference should include the name of the version you are citing, followed by a comma. Separate chapter and verse with a period. Example: (Douay-Rheims version, Apoc. 3.15)
- Douay-Rheims Bible
- 1582 English translation very faithful to the Latin Vulgate in standard use throughout the Middle Ages. When in doubt, use this translation.
- King James Version
- Historically significant translation, published in 1611, reflecting the latest research as well as embodying the beautiful language of Shakespeare's age. Often quoted, but not the best for research, since Art 231 covers an earlier period.Widely available online, including the Oxford Text archive.
- Bible Gateway
- Online versions of many modern translations, including King James and New American Standard
IMAGES
Not only can you find pictures online, but the best sites include good "metadata", or identifying information. Don't automatically trust everything you find online, especially in a field like this where dates and artists are disputed. Remember, names can be variously spelled and titles are usually not original, but given to works centuries later, and translated. Museums are usually the experts on their own images.
- Luna/Insight Image Database
- This is a subscription image database available to Allegheny College users. Information on how to use this database will be provided in a class training session. For more info, look at the Digital Asset Management site
- Museums with major Northern Renaissance holdings.
- Search their collections for detailed information on specific images.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.
- The Timeline of Art History puts a massive amount of info into context; key for this class is the Low Countries 1400-1600
- Highlights: Petrus Christus, and Bruegel's Harvesters
- London National Gallery
- Highlights: Jan van Eyck, particularly the Arnolfini Portrait, or Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors.
- Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum
- Major holdings, especially Bruegel, but the full catalogue is not online. See Picture Gallery highlights from Netherlands of the 15th and 16th century.
