Italy:Birthplace of the Renaissance

Created by Daniel Ewert, used with his permission

‘Renaissance’ means rebirth and refers to the period of about 1300-1600 that was a new period of learning and creativity in Europe.

When we talk about the Renaissance, it largely began in Italy, especially northern Italy.

Why there? Good question.• 1. Cities• 2. Wealthy Merchant Class• 3. Classical Heritage (Greece & Rome)

•Trade.•It wasn’t uncommon for the merchants to be richer than the local nobles.•Due to the power and wealth of the merchants and guilds, the feudal system broke down here.

It was primarily the northern Italian city-states that dominated the Italian Renaissance. The central and southern cities remained backwards.

Florence is the city-state in which the Renaissance was most prominent.

While there were several powerful families in Florence, the one that emerged as the leader was the Medici family.

• This is primarily due to the skill of Cosimo de Medici.

• Cosimo was a brilliant political tactician and also a brilliant businessman.

• He amassed a huge fortune and used it to buy political power as well as financing art projects in Florence.

A few years after Cosimo dies, his grandson Lorenzo takes power (Cosimo’s son Piero takes power first, but he was sickly and didn’t live long).

• Lorenzo, of course, comes to be known as Lorenzo the Magnificent

When it came to art, it had to be funded and that was done by patrons – typically local wealthy merchant families such as the Medici.

• They would sponsor art for themselves and for the city. They liked having portraits of them done, among other things.

Universal/Renaissance Man? An ideal individual who strove to master almost every area of study-a man who excelled in many fields.

• And why was Lorenzo magnificent?• One big reason is the massive effect he had on

Florentine Renaissance.• He sponsored a great deal of art and literature with

the Medici fortune.• A few of the artists who enjoyed his patronage were

Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello.• He also helped to start philosophical academies that

reexamined ancient works and philosophies.

Going back to the ancients• One aspect of the Renaissance was reading these

ancient works.• Lost knowledge of classical works.• There were several reasons for this.

• General decline in literacy and learning during Middle Ages-People could not read Greek or Latin.

This focus on the classics led to humanism.• Humanism focused on what humans could do. It was in

opposition to the divinely based thought of the day. WORLDLY!• It also advocated reason and the evidence of senses

over traditional Christian introspective values.• The humanists believed in going directly to the primary

sources instead of just looking at what people said.

• Many of the works were lost to western Europe.• Once the Renaissance was under way, people

started hunting them down.• Some found in monastery libraries..• Many others came via Muslims.

• Still others came from the conquering of Constantinople in 1453.• The Byzantine scholars escaped

Constantinople to Italy and brought with them not just the ancient works, but also the ability to read them, which they taught to others.

• Another factor that helps focus people on the ancients was observing all the ancient Roman stuff around them.• Much of it had fallen into disrepair and some had

even been used as quarries.

Focus on the good things in life• Breaking with Christianity that focused on self-denial,

the humanists liked the finer things: entertainment, art, good food, good company, etc.• This was partially due to the effect of the Black

Death. Life was seeming too short not to enjoy it if you could.

New art-Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Raphael. . .

• The Renaissance saw a flourishing of new artistic techniques.

• Medieval art tended to be very flat and nearly always had religious overtones.

• The art that started developing in the Renaissance, however, was different.• The biggest innovation was the use of perspective.• When you look at a scene, parallel lines seem to get

closer to each other the farther in the distance they go until they meet at a vanishing point. Think of standing on a railroad track and looking down them.

• The advantage: you created the illusion of a three dimensional image on a flat, two dimensional surface.

• Interestingly, perspective can also be used as to create false perspective, such as here.

• Or in M.C. Escher’s works (though he wasn’t Renaissance).

You also start to see the use of light and shade (chiaroscuro) and blurring outlines so it seems that tones imperceptibly meld in to each other (thereby creating volume: this is sfumato).

Carvaggio’s Crucifixion of St. Peter. An example of Chiaroscuro.

Close-up of Mona Lisa’s face. Notice the sfumato blurring, especially around the eyes, and how it creates a 3D illusion.

Sofonisba Anguissola-first woman artist to gain an international reputation.

“Self-Portrait”

Artemesia Gentileschi-trained with her father and helped with his work-painted pictures of strong heroic women.

“Judith Slaying Holofernes”

• You also see a renewed interest in some classical forms in sculpture that are at the same time using realism.• Examples are Donatello’s bronze David and

Michelangelo’s marble David.

• There’s also a greater plasticity and animation to the characters in the paintings. They feel like they’re in mid-movement and not just in some stone-like pose.

• Architecture changed during the Renaissance too.• It was more symmetrical and centrally planned than

Gothic architecture was.

• The dome of the basilica reaches 448 ft. The Statue of Liberty, from the ground to the tip of the torch, is 305 ft.

• There’s also the Sistine Chapel. Not much to look at from the outside:

• But inside…

Renaissance Literature• Previously, writing was done in Latin. Advantage: it

was the scholarly language that scholars knew even when their respective local languages were different.• Disadvantage: the commoners didn’t know it.

• So, authors started writing in the vernacular of their regions.