The Renaissance

Jessica SergioPSYC 5060

The RenaissanceHistorical Age vs. Historical Movement

“Rebirth”Rediscovery of ancient classical texts and their applications in the arts and sciencesRevitalization of European culture in general

Beginning of the Renaissance

No set starting point or place

Happened gradually at different places at different timesDuring the 13th through 16th Centuries

Universally ascribed to Central Italy

Specifically Florence

Explanations for the Renaissance

The Medici FamilyAllowed for the advancement of artwork

The “Great Man” ArgumentArtists of the day were geniuses

Rise of IndividualismChange from collective neutrality to the “lonely genius”

Black Plague TheoryIntroduction of the Printing Press

Bubonic Plague

“Black Death”Spread by fleas on rats20 million out of 70 million Europeans diedIndiscriminateNo protection

Led more people to think about life rather than afterlife

Printing PressGutenberg (1454)

Gutenberg Bible

Moveable-type Printing PressIncreased printing volume and decreased prices

Literature experienced a massive boom

Spread of the Renaissance

FranceImported by King Charles VIII

Poland & HungaryLate 15th Century

Low Countries, Germany, England, Scandinavia, and Central Europe

Late 16th Century

Renaissance RulersItaly

Medici FamilyEstablished a hereditary monarchy in Florence

FranceKing Charles VIIILouis XI

EnglandHenry VIIElizabeth I

“Elizabethan era”

SpainFerdinand & Isabella

Italian vs. English Renaissance

1520s – 1660s

Dominant art form is literature

Influenced by the Italians themselves

1300s – 1520s

Art is driven by the visual arts (painting and sculpting)

Classical Antiquity

Renaissance ArtItalian Renaissance Artists

Focused on religious figures as well as portraits of well-known figures of the dayPut religious figures in Greek or Roman backgroundsLearned the rules of perspectiveUsed shadingStudied human anatomy

Northern Renaissance ArtistsFocused on religious drawingsLater began to paint scenes of daily lifePerfected the oil painting technique

Renaissance Artists Michelangelo Di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

(1475 – 1564)Italian sculpture, painter, architect, and poet who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art

I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint.

-- Michelangelo

Renaissance ArtistsLeonardo Da Vinci

(1452-1519)Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius epitomized the humanist ideal

Renaissance ArtistsDonatello (1386 – 1466)

Greatest sculptor of the 15th century

Masaccio (1401 – 1428)Created an illusion of three-dimensions

Raphael (1483 – 1520)Best known for Modonnas and large figure compositions in the Vatican

Caravaggio (1573 – 1610)Shadowing and details drew out emotions of the viewer

Literature and Poetry

Focus on translating and studying classic works from Latin and Greek

Attempt to integrate style into own work

Largely influenced by developing sciences and philosophy, as well as the politics of the day

Renaissance AuthorsPoets

Dante Alighieri The first poet to embody the spirit of the Renaissance

Edmund Spencer & John MiltonIncreased interest in understanding English Christian beliefs

PlaywrightsChristopher Marlowe & William Shakespeare

Represented the English take on life, death, and history

PhilosophersSir Thomas More & Sir Francis Bacon

Published ideas about humanity

Architecture

New sense of light, clarity, and spaciousnessReflects the philosophy of Humanism

Enlightenment and clarity of mind

Development of a new column order

Science and Philosophy

HumanismOptimistic philosophy

Man is rational, able to think for himselfMan is good by nature

Direct contrast to the Catholic Church

Time of Scientific “backwardness”Nature not governed by laws or mathematicsLogic and deduction secondary to intuition and emotion

The Catholic Church During the Renaissance

Influence and prestige was decliningPriests and Monks unable to keep up with growing needs of the communitiesLeaders had much less need of an alliance with the Catholic Church

Weakened by the Great SchismEvent that divided Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Renaissance WarsHundred Years War (1337 – 1453)

England vs. FranceDisrupted trade throughout northwest

War of the Roses (1455 – 1485)Series of dynastic civil wars in England

Fought by the rival houses of Lancaster and York

Italian Wars (1494 – 1527)Long-running series of wars between Florence and Milan

Positive Views of the Renaissance

Reconnection of the west with classical antiquityThe absorption of knowledge

particularly mathematics

The focus on the importance of living well in the present

Renaissance humanism

Creation of new techniques in art, poetry, and architecture

Negative Views of the Renaissance

Many Negative Social FactorsPoverty, ignorance, warfare, religious and political persecution, ect.Worse during this time than during the Middle Ages

“Early Modern”Transitional period (neither positive or negative)