The Renaissance was originally centred in Italy, but in time spread throughout all of Europe. In France King Francis I imported Italian art and artists, including
Leonardo da Vinci. He built ornate palaces at great expense. Writers such as Rabelais also borrowed from the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. From France the spirit of the age spread to the Low Countries and Germany, and finally to England by the late sixteenth century. There the Elizabethan era saw writers such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe as well as great artists, composers, and architects.
The Northern Renaissance, unlike that of Italy, was marked by the centralisation of political power as potent nation states emerged throughout Western Europe. The Northern Renaissance was also closely linked to the Protestant Reformation and the long series of internal and external conflicts that resulted between individuals and congregations on the one hand and the Catholic hierarchy on the other.
Art
As Renaissance art techniques moved to Northern Europe they were changed and adapted to local circumstances. Notable painters of the period include
Albrecht Durer,
Pieter Bruegel,
Hans Holbein, Robert Campin,
Jan van Eyck and
Rogier van der Weyden. Paintings by these artists retain a Gothic influence; this is perhaps most evident in the works of Hieronymus Bosch. Northern art was more concerned with Christianity than Classical mythology, in part a reflection of the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation.
A major difference between the Northern and Italian Renaissances was that of language. While Italy's humanists turned to the past and the Latin and Greek languages, the Northerners began to write in the vernacular creating literature that was widely accessible. The greater use and respectability of the vernacular languages played an important role in the formation of the new nation states that were largely defined by language.
with help of wikipedia
