From Life: Representing Nature in Northern European Art, 1500-1750

Dr Thomas Balfe

10 pre-recorded lectures and 5 live Zoom seminars at 18:30 [London time], over 5 weeks from Thursday 3 October to Thursday 31 October 2024, with an optional course visit on Saturday 2 November 2024

£395 or £445 with visit

Course description

By the sixteenth century, the depiction of landscapes, plants, animals, and other subjects drawn from nature was widely recognized as a strength of northern European artists – one admired by patrons and collectors on both sides of the Alps. Nature is a vital presence in the work of celebrated figures such as Dürer, Bruegel, Albrecht Altdorfer, Rubens, and Rembrandt, and features strongly in the work of innovative female artists, such as the intrepid German traveller and watercolourist Maria Sibylla Merian.

This course explores the interwoven empirical, political, and symbolic meanings conveyed by early modern images of nature. A fundamental question is why lifelike depictions of natural entities were so highly valued in the period, and how artists sought to convey to their audiences the impression that their works were truthful, reliable, or made ‘from life’. This was a particularly pressing issue for depictions of the plants, animals and geographies of Asia, the Americas, and the Arctic – all places that were still relatively unfamiliar to Europeans at this date. The course will discuss several of the artistic genres associated with nature, including landscape, seascape, animal painting and still life. Additionally, it will consider artefacts such as maps, travel books, anatomical and ethnographic images, and ornamental and functional objects that fall outside traditional definitions of fine art and that often challenge the modern distinction between artistic and scientific images. The Zoom meetings will allow us to look in more detail at selected case studies that relate to the topics discussed in the recorded talks.