Renaissance

Means Rebirth

Time of creativity and change in political,

social, economic, and cultural

Reawakened interest in classical learning, the

culture of ancient Rome, creative minds

transformed their age

Explored new attitudes toward culture and

learning

New emphasis on individual achievement

Spirit of adventure and wide-ranging curiosity

that led people to explore new worlds

Secular thought was more prominent. Secular:

Worldly rather than spiritual

Italian Beginnings

Began in Italy, specifically, Florence in the mid 1300s (a number of small city-states)

Spread North to the rest of Europe

Reached its height in the 1500s

Italy was the center of ancient Roman history and there was a new interest in ancient Rome

Served as trading centers for the distribution of goods to Northern Europe

Wealthy and powerful merchant class promoted the cultural rebirth – Patrons: financial supporters of the arts.

Medieval art and literature focused on the Church and salvation; Renaissance art and literature focused on individuals and worldly matters, along with Christianity

Jan Van Eyck-

Northern Renaissance

Medieval

Italian portrait

of the

Madonna.

Renaissance

Italian

portrait of the

Madonna.

Renaissance vs. Medieval Art

Differences

Medieval Style

Byzantine Influence

Conservative with

Human body

Flat, two

dimensional

Renaissance Style

Greek and Roman

Influence

Celebration of the

Human body

Three dimensional -

depth

Humanism

Based on the study of classical culture, focuses on worldly subjects rather than on religious issues

Believed that education should stimulate the individual’s creative powers

Main areas of study were grammar, rhetoric, poetry, and history

Studied the ancients to increase their understanding of their own times

Humanism

Celebrated the Individual

Stimulated the study of Greek and Roman

literature and culture

Was supported by wealthy patrons

Lorenzo Di Medici

1400s Florence, the Medici family organized a

banking business

Held cultural and political power

Lorenzo di Medici-politician and generous

Patron (financial supporter) of the arts

Francesco Petrarch

Francesco Petrarch

Florence, early Renaissance Humanist- Father

of Renaissance Humanism

Assembled a library of Greek and Roman

manuscripts

Sonnets, humanist scholarship

A Golden Age in the Arts

Renaissance reached its most glorious

expression in its paintings, sculpture, and

architecture

Portrayed religious figures, set against Greek

or Roman backgrounds, portraits of well

known figures of the day

Golden Age of the Arts

Perspective-making distant objects smaller

than those close to the viewer

Made pictures three dimensional

Used shading to make objects look round and

real

Studied human anatomy and drew from live

models

Could portray the human body more accurately

Leonardo DaVinci

Florence

Paintings regarded for their freshness and

realism

Most popular –Mona Lisa and Last Supper

Made sketches of nature, models, dissected

corpses to learn how bones and muscle work

Art, botany, engineering anatomy, optics,

music, architecture

Sketches of flying machines and undersea

boats

Michelangelo

Sculptor, engineer, painter, architect, poet

Pieta-sorrow of Mary cradling Christ

David-statue of the Shepherd shows harmony

and grace of ancient Greek tradition

Sistine Chapel

Raphael

Paintings blend Christian and classical styles

School of Athens-imaginary gathering of great

thinkers and scientists

Best known for his Madonnas

1: Zeno of Citium or Zeno of Elea? – 2: Epicurus – 3: Frederik II of Mantua? – 4: Anicius

Manlius Severinus Boethius or Anaximander or Empedocles? – 5: Averroes – 6:

Pythagoras – 7: Alcibiades or Alexander the Great? – 8: Antisthenes or Xenophon? – 9:

Hypatia or the young Francesco Maria della Rovere? – 10: Aeschines or Xenophon? – 11:

Parmenides? – 12: Socrates – 13: Heraclitus (painted as Michelangelo) – 14: Plato holding

the Timaeus (painted as Leonardo da Vinci) – 15: Aristotle holding the Ethics – 16:

Diogenes of Sinope – 17: Plotinus? – 18: Euclid or Archimedes with students (painted as

Bramante)? – 19: Strabo or Zoroaster? – 20: Ptolemy – R: Raphael as Apelles – 21: Il

Sodoma as Protogenes – taken from Wikipedia

Architecture

Adopted columns, arches, and domes that were

favored by the Greeks and Romans

Rejected Gothic style

Filippo Brunelleschi created a dome modeled

on the Pantheon in Rome

Writers

How to books on how to rise in the

Renaissance world will be popular

Northern Renaissance- the moveable type

printing press and the production and sale of

books (Gutenberg Bible) helped disseminate

ideas.

Machiavelli

The Prince-1513-guide to rulers on how to gain and

maintain power – absolute power of the ruler

An early modern treatise on government

Advises that one should do good if possible, but do

evil when necessary

The end justifies the means

Saw himself as an enemy of oppression and

corruption raised important ethical questions about

the nature of government

The Northern Renaissance

1400s-France, Belgium, the Netherlands

Growing wealth in Northern Europe supported

Renaissance ideas

Northern Renaissance thinkers merged with

humanist ideas with Christianity

Jan Van Eyck

Painted townspeople/religious scenes

Developed oil paint-produced strong colors

Bruegel

Leading Flemish artist

Vibrant colors/lively scenes of peasant life

Rich colors, vivid details

Northern Humanists

Stressed education and revival of classical

learning

Emphasized religious themes

Christian Humanists: Very popular in Northern

Renaissance because they believed you could

still be inspired by Christian ideals.

Erasmus

Produced a new Greek edition of the New

Testament, Latin translation also

Called for reforms in the church

The Praise of Folly-used humor to expose the

ignorant and immoral behavior of many people

of his day, including clergy

He believed in a Christianity of the heart rather

than of ceremonies and rulers.

Sir Thomas More

Utopia-describes an ideal society, where men

and women live in peace and harmony, no one

is idle, all are educated, justice is used to end

crime rather than to eliminate the criminal

Literature of the Northern

Renaissance

Rabelais-French

Gargantua and Pantagruel-offered his opinions on

a wide variety of subjects

Shakespeare

English, wrote 37 plays

Cervantes

Spain

Don Quixote-mocks romantic notions of chivalry

The Printing Revolution

1456-Johann Gutenberg developed the printing

press

By 1500-20 million volumes had been printed

Books were cheaper and easier to produce

People learned to read and write

People gained access to knowledge

Influenced religious and secular thought

Castiglione

The Book of the Courtier-artistocrat who

mastered many fields from poetry to music to

sports

Men-athletic, good at games, music, literature,

history, not arrogant

Women-graceful, king, lively, pure, outer

beauty is the true sign of inner goodness

Albrecht Durer

Nicknamed the German Leonardo due to his

diverse interests and talents

Helped to spread the ideas in his homeland