From Bosch to Bruegel. Favorite Paintings

The Northern Renaissance is not so much a variation of a common European process as it is a self-contained, deeply unique phenomenon. German and Dutch artists Jan van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and Matthias Grünewald did not limit themselves to copying individual forms of Italian painting, but embodied in their work their own original vision, infused with a mystical sense of the world and symbolism. In their whimsical paintings, the religious intertwines with the mundane, God manifests Himself in the harmony of nature, biblical themes penetrate earthly life, and there is reflected a desperate search for truth, anxious premonitions, and the quiet poetry of everyday life in all its details — and the ugliness, the meaninglessness of life deprived of a spiritual beginning. This illustrated edition includes lectures by art historian Paola Dmitrievna Volkova, author of the famous cycle Bridge Over the Abyss, dedicated to the artists of the Northern Renaissance, reworked and supplemented for the reader's convenience. A book for those who appreciate art and want to receive a truly valuable gift for their library.