Painting, sculpture, and graphic art in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and England in the 15th and 16th centuries, with special emphasis on the major figures of this period, from van Eyck and van der Weyden to Grunewald, Bosch, Durer, Holbein, and Pieter Bruegel. Topics covered include the transformation of craft into art as a self-reflective and intellectual practice (Kunst); the emergence of oil painting as a transformative media; the German sculpted altarpiece and the triptych as Northern genres of art; visual culture and the Protestant Reformation; the emergence of graphic culture and the fine art print; witchcraft and mystical nature in German art; and the birth of secular art: portraiture, landscape, and scenes of everyday life.
