XVI century art German art of the XVI century The development of German art

At the beginning of the new century, and over Germany, the dawn of a new, more complete content of existence began. On the merchant's wheels, welfare penetrated the Alps, without which the arts withered, and on the wings of the word humanism penetrated, reviving in its time the spiritual life of the ancient Greeks and Romans. From the depths of the German national consciousness broke through the rapid movement that led to the liberation of minds from the spiritual tutelage of Rome: crafts and handicraft work took root on the local soil, and the visual arts in Germany were closely intertwined with the gold soil. German art of the first flourishing third of the 16th century, German in soul and body, could not, and did not want to resist, the penetration of the Italian Renaissance not only into its ornamental motifs, but blinded by the brilliance of the southern forms, it diligently assimilated from them what suited it natural forces, outwardly coarse and sharp, and inside very soulful and alive. The development of German art of the whole XVI century was a struggle for the assimilation or rejection of italism. Unfortunately, this struggle ended in a temporary defeat of German art, and how much weaker his responses were by the end of the century, how much stronger their rise was at the beginning of it.

The circumstances of the time in Germany were not particularly favorable for art. Religious struggle diverted the greatest part of the spiritual forces of the people - and the German emperors had neither the power nor the means to distinguish themselves in the field of promoting the arts. Do not forget everything that Emperor Maximilian (1493–1519) did for the best artists of his time, who provided Dürer with a pension, creating his large series of woodcuts, orders for portrait painters and staging his huge tombstone in Innsbruck. With his heirs, there were no artists of equal importance. When Rudolf II (1576 to 1612) in the course of the last decades of the century tried to promote the arts in Prague, he could achieve this mainly by attracting foreign artists and their works. In the first half of the century, Luther’s friend in Wittenberg, the Elector of Saxon, Frederick the Wise, was at the head of individual sovereigns located in the arts, as the studies of Gurlitt and Bruck confirmed in the first half of the century. From the side of the Catholics he was competed by Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg in Halle, Mainz and Aschaffenburg. Later, the electors Frederick II and Otto-Heinrich Palatinate belonged to the most determined friends of art in Germany. Georg Friedrich, a Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, was a reasonable promoter of art among the Protestants of the second half of the century, and in the Catholic world - the Bavarian dukes Albrecht V and William V. The imperial cities remained the main focus of the visual arts, and Nuremberg and Augsburg remained the main focus of the visual arts, and Nurnberg and Augsburg were still the main focus of the visual arts, and there is no way for all Nürnberg and Augsburg where all of the fine arts remained, and there is no way for all of Nürnberg and Augsburg to go to the center of the visual arts, and there is no way for all of Nürnberg and Augsburg to go to the main focus of the visual arts, and there is no way for all of Nürnberg and Augsburg to go to the main focus of the visual arts, and all of the Nürnberg and Augsburg are still the main focus of the visual arts, and there is no way for all of Nürnberg and Augsburg to go, and there is no way for worldly fine arts to go to Nuremberg; partnerships were, of course, less able to spend money for the arts than wealthy citizens. Of these, the Fuggers in Augsburg more than others showed their interest in art purely princely. However, the greatest German masters did not have big orders, even Dürer himself did not have it. Some, like Holbein, the painter, and Mate, the sculptor, found work abroad. Those who stayed at home were forced to turn to small art and to the production of reproductions, for which it was possible to find sales and recoup the costs of the enterprise; and it was precisely these branches of art, which were so well met by home habits in the life of the German people, namely wood engraving and copper engraving, earned the main glory of German art of the 16th century. Even the Italians and Spaniards themselves call his main masters, Dürer and Holbein, directly after the great masters of Italy, who laid new paths.