ARHA 263C – Curatorial Workshop: The Northern Renaissance Print

The flourishing of the print medium in Northern Europe during the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is one of the defining hallmarks of the Northern Renaissance, as well as one of the most significant turns in the Western tradition in general. The rise of this medium rested upon the ca. 1450 development and spread of the printing press, and the printed books and pictorial prints that followed, which in turn sparked numerous episodes of historical consequence, including the Protestant Reformation, the spread of Italian humanism, and the continued rise of an increasingly literate–and increasingly image-hungry–middle class. Many of the most influential artistic personalities of the era, including Schongauer, Dürer, van Leyden, Altdorfer, Holbein, Cranach, and Bruegel, pushed this exciting new technology in multiple directions. Wesleyan is fortunate to possess one of the foremost collections of print media in the country in the collections of the Davison Art Center. This Curatorial Workshop is structured around the study and first-hand examination of the DAC collection, and it will include a class-generated installation of Northern Renaissance prints.