Late Gothic Painting

Hieronymus Bosch - Last Judgment (detail - fragment of Hell) - 1504-08 - Oil on panel - Private collection (click photo for larger image)Albrecht Dürer - Heller Altar (detail) - 1508-09 - Tempera and oil on wood, 189 x 138 cm (central element) - Historisches Museum, Frankfurt (click photo for larger image)Gerard David, Hieronymus Bosch, and Matthias Grünewald were all early 16th-century artists. and contemporaries of the other Northern artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, and Hans Holbein. However, the paintings of the former artists maintain connections with the Gothic tradition, while the latter were strongly influenced by the Italian Renaissance. So the two strands of Gothic and Renaissance art coexisted in Northern Europe in the first half of the 16th century. Hieronymus Bosch most definitely had a firm grip on the art of the fantastic associated with the medieval tradition. Albrecht Dürer was much more steeped in the experiments of the Renaissance. Notice the different between the two details featured here—created in the same year. Whereas Dürer is clearly preoccupied with a representation of humanity that is—literally—more down to earth!