Cranach, Dürer, and Holbein—and all other artists after 1517—lived in a world forever changed by the Protestant Reformation.
1500 - 1600
videos + essays
We're adding new content all the time!
Albrecht Dürer, The Triumphal Arch or Arch of Honor
The Arch of Honor praises Maximilian I as the ideal emperor, a paragon of modern rulership, guided by traditional chivalric values but also aggressively modern in both diplomacy and warfare.
Conserving the Wolsey Angels
After their recent rediscovery, the Wolsey Angels go through extensive conservation and preservation after being exposed to the elements on the gateposts of a stately home in England, perhaps for centuries
Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, Saint Maurice
Saint Maurice was an important Black saint during the Renaissance, especially as the patron of the Holy Roman Empire
The carpet and the globe: Holbein’s The Ambassadors reframed
Everything seems so perfect... Hang on, what’s that in the foreground? And why is that lute string broken?
Portraits of Elizabeth I: Fashioning the Virgin Queen
Queen Elizabeth I rarely commissioned portraits of herself, but her courtiers certainly did of the Virgin Queen
Inventing “America” for Europe: Theodore de Bry
De Bry's images of the Americas affirm and assert a sense of European superiority.
Decoding art: Dürer’s Melencolia I
Explore Dürer's masterful "psychological self-portrait" and the hidden meanings of the various objects in it.
The conservator’s eye: a stained glass Adoration of the Magi
Flashed or stained? Discover the historical techniques required to produce—and restore—this vibrant glass painting.
About Hans Holbein the Younger
Care to waltz? In Holbein’s time, death was a visible part of life—the dance partner from which no one could hide.
Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve
What detail! Dürer studied the human body obsessively and spent four years working on this print. It shows.
Albrecht Dürer, Self-portrait, Study of a Hand and a Pillow (recto); Six Studies of Pillows (verso)
It takes talent to turn an ordinary object into a work of art, but Dürer’s hand was up to the task.
Albrecht Dürer’s woodcuts and engravings
Have print, will travel. New technologies of mechanical reproduction allowed Dürer to circulate his artistic ideas.
Browse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning!
