Northern Renaissance
Art movement of the Renaissance in Northern Europe
Northern Renaissance — an era of art of the 15th-16th centuries in Germany, the Netherlands, and France. Unlike the Italian Renaissance, it preserved medieval traditions, but there was more realism and interest in details. Masters — Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein — were famous for their precise rendering of surfaces: you can see the fabric of a dress or the reflection of light on silver.
Artists often depicted biblical scenes, but moved the setting to contemporary cities or homes. The Northern Renaissance was renowned for its mastery of oil painting — allowing experimentation with colors, light, and microscopic detail. To this day, many works of this period are considered "photographs" of their era, so precise and vivid are they.