In this class discussion, we talked about the differences between Northern and Italian Renaissance artists’ focuses in their art, additionally examining the disguised symbolism in the Mérode Triptych to explore the work and styles of Northern artists. In summary, we discussed how while Italian Renaissance artists were more focused on capturing scenes and the general world and scene as a whole, artists to the north were more concerned with the specific details of the scene, thus choosing to use eye-balled, rising perspective, aerial perspective, and oil paints to further achieve this goal of specific details. Using Exeter Madonna as an example, we talked about the rules of aerial perspective: as things get further away, outlines and details get blurrier, colors shift towards blue, and saturation and value contrast lessen. These are all due to the water molecules in the atmosphere. Furthermore, in our discussion of the Mérode Triptych, we defined disguised symbolism as symbolism that would not necessarily be understood with prior education on the subject. The painting, which would have been housed in a domestic setting, depicts Mary, Joseph, the patrons, and the angel Gabriel in a similar contemporary domestic house that it would have been displayed in.