7/8 World History

Week 26

The Renaissance

Tuesday Do Now

Thinking back through all the past societies you've studied, what are some of the reasons that a society enters a golden age or period of prosperity?

Objective Students will analyze the reasons for the shift in European history from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance

Renaissance Origins • Historians consider the time

around the year 1400 to be the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of a new time period called the Renaissance.

• The word renaissance is French for rebirth, and it describes the period of economic prosperity and amazing cultural achievements in Europe from about 1400 to 1600.

• Two of the most important reasons for the shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance were: 1) the positive economic impact of the Black Death, and 2) the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman art and literature.

Economic Impact of the Black Death • Although the Black Death was terrible for

the 40% of Europe's population that died, it had some positive effects for the survivors. With less competition for jobs, workers were able to demand higher pay, and landowners were forced to lower rent because there was so much empty land.

• The Black Death also opened up opportunities for social mobility - the ability to change your social status. With so many more business opportunities and vacant jobs, many poor people were able to move up to the middle or upper class.

Rediscovery of the Classics • As Europe's economy began to improve dramatically in

the years after the Black Death, trade also increased dramatically. Newly rich people were interested in buying foreign luxury goods, like spices and silk cloth.

• To get these luxury goods, a much higher number of European merchants began travelling to the Middle East, where they also discovered some unexpected items – works of ancient Greek and Roman art and literature.

• During the Dark Ages, most ancient Greek and Roman buildings and works of literature had been destroyed in Western Europe. After so many centuries, there were few examples left, and Europeans did not know much about Classical Greece and Rome (a term used to describe the Greek golden age in the 400's BCE, and the Roman golden age during the 100's CE).

• Suddenly though, merchants began bringing back many examples of classical art and literature that had been preserved for over a thousands years by Muslim scholars. These pieces of their ancient heritage inspired many Europeans to read ancient philosophy and try to recreate their intricate art.

War of the Roses • While the Renaissance was a time of economic prosperity and

great cultural achievements, it was a chaotic time politically. • At the same time that ordinary people got richer, kings also

began to get a lot richer. With this money, many of them began to pay for larger, better-equipped armies in order to conquer more land.

• But because all the different kingdoms of Europe started doing this at the same time, all it led to was a never-ending series of wars across the continent, with everyone trying to gain more land and power.

• This political chaos sometimes led to the end of old ruling families and the beginning of new ones. One of the best examples of this was the War of the Roses in England.

• At the beginning of the Renaissance, the French-speaking descendants of William the Conqueror were still ruling England, but in the 1450's one finally died without a clear heir. Two different branches of the family then erupted into war, with each side (the Yorks and the Lancasters) managing to win the throne for a few years before being overthrown - back and forth for over 30 years.

• Finally, in the late 1480's, a distant third branch of the family, the Tudors, suddenly took over both the others.

The red rose (above) was the symbol of the Lancasters, and the white rose (below) was the symbol of the Yorks

Henry VIII • The Tudor family ruled England for the rest of the

Renaissance and included two of England’s most famous rulers: Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

• Henry VIII had a larger-than-life personality; he was loud, had a bad temper, loved to throw huge parties, and was very generous with money when he was in a good mood. He was the first English king to claim the divine right of kings - the belief that God chose specific families to rule their kingdoms. As a ruler, he was constantly at war with France and Spain trying to win and defend territory.

• His personal life was just as dramatic and temperamental; he was married 6 times and had 3 of them beheaded when their relationship ended. Because the pope wouldn't allow him to divorce his first wife, he broke England away from the Catholic Church - something no Western European kingdom had done in over a thousand years.

• After he died, Henry VIII was succeeded by his only son, and then his oldest daughter, but neither of them lived very long. His second daughter, though, went on to become one of England's most famous rulers.

Elizabeth I • With an older brother and sister, no one

had ever expected Elizabeth to become queen, especially her father Henry VIII. But once she became the queen of England in 1558, she proved to be a much better ruler than her father had been.

• Under Elizabeth I, England had over 40 years of peace and prosperity, although in the beginning many people thought she wouldn't be able to rule on her own without a husband.

• She successfully defended England from foreign attacks, and avoided wasting money on pointless wars, instead trying to increase peaceful trade.

• Elizabeth I was a great patron of the arts - a wealthy person who paid artists to produce their works. She supported a variety of poets, painters, and writers, including William Shakespeare, who went on to become one of the English language's best known writers.

Exit Ticket What were the 2 main reasons for the shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance?

Homework

• Renaissance Art reading & questions

Block Day Do Now

Historians often study the artwork of past societies in many different forms, like paintings, sculptures, architecture, clothing, etc. Do you think future historians will focus on those same types of art to study our present-day society? Or do you think things like advertisements, TV shows, or snapchats represent our art and culture too?

Objective

Students will analyze Renaissance Europe through cultural and artistic products.

Court Culture • As the economy of Europe became stronger

and more prosperous during the Renaissance, the cultures of the many European kingdoms began to change as well. Stronger and richer than ever before, kings began to expect greater luxury and more signs of respect.

• The complex fashion and lifestyles of the noblemen and servants who served kings in their palaces became known as court culture. While kings had always been treated with respect, they began to demand particular ways of being addressed, such as "Your Highness" or "Your Majesty" in English.

• Particular ways of speaking and moving (known as etiquette) became popular as well. Women were expected to curtsey and men were expected to bow when greeting someone of a higher social status. Using, or not using, particular words or phrases showed someone's social status as well.

Fashion • One of the most important ways that

people in Renaissance Europe showed their social status to the world was through fashion.

• Because only wealthy people could afford certain specialty types of cloth (like silk or cloth dyed in bright colors), that was a quick, easy way of seeing a person's social status.

• Wealthy people also could afford to pay skilled servants to make their clothes for them, resulting in styles that had a lot of decoration and folds of cloth. Ordinary or poor people didn't have the skill or time to make such clothes for themselves.

• Fads also began to come and go in Renaissance fashion, like particular styles of coats or hats, or stiff, white collars in Elizabeth England.

Music • As wealthy kings could afford to throw

more parties during the Renaissance to show off their wealth, dancing and music became more popular and complex. Like artists, full-time musicians had the time to produce better works, using a wider variety of instruments, than ever before.

• European Renaissance musicians developed the modern system of musical notation, which made it easy for songs to travel across long distances and particular styles to emerge to fit different types of dances.

• The following scene from a movie about the life of Queen Elizabeth I shows the mixture of fashion, etiquette, and dance that made up court culture during the Renaissance.

Italian Renaissance • The Italian Renaissance produced some of Europe's most famous artists and

works of art, including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Sandro Botticelli. Their works show all the elements of Renaissance art in their region of Europe, including idealism, perspective, Christian and mythological scenes, and portraits.

Two portraits by Leonardo da Vinci

One scene from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo

Two paintings by Sandro Botticelli

Northern Renaissance • The Northern Renaissance and its works of

art are slightly less famous than the Italian, but impressive in very different ways. The realism and interest in everyday life of artists like Albrecht Durer, Pieter Bruegel, and Jan van Eyck showed a very different kind of skill, but no less valuable.

Two drawings by Albrecht Durer

Two paintings by Pieter Bruegel

Two paintings by Jan van Eyck

Scientific Advancements • Aside from art, Europeans began to make

huge advancements in science and technology during the Renaissance.

• The famous painter Leonardo da Vinci also performed a wide variety of scientific experiments about light and human anatomy.

• The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus used observations of the moon and planets to prove that the Earth was not the center of the universe (as medieval Europeans had believed), but instead was just one planet orbiting the Sun, which is itself was just one star among many.

• After first learning of gunpowder from the Mongol invaders in the late 1200's, the Europeans spent the rest of the 1300's experimenting with how to create weapons based on gunpowder. The first hand-held gun was invented in the 1400's, and first used as the primary weapon of battle in Italy in 1503.

Exit Ticket

How did personal fashion during the Renaissance represent someone's social status?

Homework

• Shakespeare reading & questions

Friday Do Now

How many traits/themes of Renaissance art do you remember? Name all the Renaissance artists you can remember.

Objective

Students will use art to explore themes of Renaissance artwork.

• Renaissance Art project

Exit Ticket Do you think great artists are born with special talent, or could anyone learn to produce great works of art? How much time/dedication do you think it would take?