The Renaissance1350 - 1600

The Spirit of the Renaissance

Art and Literature

Changing Life Patterns

The Spirit of the Renaissance

• During the 1300’s as Economic distress, War, and The Black Plague spread across Europe. As Western Europe recovered from these disasters, a new creative spirit emerged.

• Renaissance is a French word meaning Re-birth. What was re-born was the Classical thoughts and ideas of the Greeks and Romans.

• It was BOTH a worldly and religious age.

• The Renaissance began in the city-states of Northern Italy and later spread to Northern Europe.

The Italian City-States• As the Medieval period

came to a close, many

Italian towns grew into

powerful city-states.

• Each city-state governed

itself and the surrounding

countryside.

• Such independence

allowed these people to

experiment in

government as well as in

larger world ideas.

• Many Italian city-states

were becoming wealthy

through trade and

industry.

• Venice, Genoa, and Pisa,

controlled most of the

valuable trade routes

• Florence became wealthy

with manufactured goods,

especially wool cloth.

• Florentine bankers also

became wealthy making

loans to Princes and Popes

for commercial ventures.

The New Middle Class• These Italian Merchants

and Bankers soon made up a powerful MIDDLE CLASS.

• Because feudalism never fully developed in Italy, Political and Economic leadership fell to this class of men rather than to the landowning nobles.

• The Renaissance reflected their concerns for education and individual achievement.

• Furthermore, These people had the time and money to become PATRONS or supporters of the Arts

• The single most powerful family in Florence in the 1400’s were the Medici’s

• For three generations, The Bank of Florence (which was owned by the Medici family) controlled the government of Florence. (Giovanni, Cosmos, and Lorenzo)

• While the Medici’s often clashed with other important families in an atmosphere of intrigue and treachery, they came to symbolize the sprit of the Renaissance

• The Medici’s were well educated and had many interest.

• They used the Medici fortune to hire local painters, sculptors, architects, and silversmiths to create works of art to beautify Florence

Study of the HumanitiesThe Italians developed a renewed interest in education. Especially in the learning of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

While most Universities taught Law, Theology, and Medicine, they began to require students be educated in grammar, rhetoric, poetry, and HISTORY, these new subjects are called “The Humanities”

Those who specifically studied these subjects were called HUMANIST

• Humanism can be defined as the movement to recover, interpret, and assimilate the language, literature, learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome".

• Above all, humanists asserted "the genius of man ... the unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind."

• Renaissance Humanist were practical people. By reading classical text they rediscovered knowledge forgotten during the Medieval period.

• Most were very involved in the political and economic life of their age.

• Most were devout Catholics.

• They believed that the only through education could a person enjoy a full rewarding life.

• Many Renaissance

Humanist recovered

classical text and

tried to restore them

to their original

condition.

• They also tried to

learn when a

document was

written.

• Their research led to

many discoveries of

forgeries and

inaccurate

assumptions.

• It was during the

Renaissance that ones

behavior became important.

• People had to interact with

others properly for

business, politics, and

spiritual reasons.

• So handbooks for proper

behavior became popular.

Two such books were:

The Prince by Machiavelli and

The Book of the Courtier by

Castiglione.

The Prince

The rulers of Italian city-states often found themselves in unstable political and social conditions.

The Prince is a realistic approach to ruler ship.

He teaches that the ENDS JUSTIFIES THE MEANS is the method one should use to achieve his goals.

He also says that rulers should use a mixture of cunning, diplomacy, and ruthlessness to achieve their goals.

Book of the Courtier Describes the qualities

that a refined, educated

Aristocrat, should

posses.

Study the Humanities.

Cultivate talents.

Appreciate music, and

play more than one

instrument.

Speak gracefully in more

than one language.

Northern Renaissance By the mid 1400’s the

Renaissance Spirit began

to move into the Northern

areas of Europe.

In Northern Europe and in

Spain, the Renaissance

took on a different form.

1. Feudalism, with its

traditions of Knighthood

and chivalry were strong

in the North, so the

Nobility were the chief

patrons of the Arts.

2. Those Humanist in the

North took a more

traditional approach to

religion. They would be

more likely to study the

writings of early

Christians rather than

Greeks or Romans.

3. Northern Humanist were

interested in uncovering

the more simple, purer

faith of early Christians.

Goals of the Renaissance

• Despite their differences, we can say Both Northern and Italian Renaissance held similar Goals.

1. Achievement of the individual

2. Stimulate creative spirit

3. Achieve worldly success

GutenberG’s printinG press and His Bible

Art and Literature

1455 – Johann Gutenberginvents the printing press.

During this time period there is a huge outpouring of literature which both shaped and reflected renaissance ideas.

Artist and Sculptors also found a place in Renaissance Europe.

They decorated many of the cities and cathedrals of Europe, but received little of the credit. That went to the powerful patrons.

First Part is Dante’s Inferno. Dante is

rescued from wild animals by the roman

Poet Virgil.

Together they go on an adventure into

the 7 rings of Hell.

It is through Dante’s Inferno that the

world religions develop the modern idea of

Hell, with a devil that has horns and a

pointed tail.

Allegorically, the Divine Comedy

represents the journey of the soul

towards God,

With the Inferno describing the

recognition and rejection of sin. The

Epic Poem is divided into 3 Parts.

Divine Comedy

Renaissance Art

Artist returned to the Classical principles of the Greeks and Romans.

Both stressed harmony and balance in nature, as well as realism.

The use of Chiaroscuro, The use of light and dark to create the illusion of depth.

Also Perspective, by making objects smaller in the back of the painting and larger in the front they were able to create the illusion of depth.

In Sculpture

• The use of

Contrapposto, a

spiral twist,

where the head

and shoulder

face a different

direction than

hips and legs.

Used to create

the illusion of

motion.

Classical Influence

• 4 major Italian Renaissance artist are:

1. Michelangelo

2. Donatello

3. Leonardo da Vinci

4. Raphael

p.s. Yes this is where the teenage mutant ninja turtles get their names!!!

Michelangelo Sistine Chapel1508-1512

David Pieta

1501-1504 1499

Donatello David1440s

Leonardo da VinciMona Lisa 1506

da VinciMadonna Litta 1490 glider 1480

RaphaelSchool of Athens

1510

Artist from the Northern Renaissance are:

1. Jan van Eyck

2. Pieter Bruegel

Jan van EyckBlue Turbine 1433 Madonna of Canon 1436

Arnolfini and Wife 1434

Pieter Bruegel Tower of Babel 1563

Peasant Wedding Peasant Dance

1568

Women of the Renaissance

Women of the renaissance were responsible for the home. They raised children and took care of the family.

Farm women helped at harvest time and some city women worked out-side the home as domestic help or they helped in the family business.

Some of the more affluent families believed that it was socially appropriate to educate their daughters, so many of the women from the merchant class were well educated.

Women of the Renaissance

Catherine

Medici

Isabella

d’Esta

Lucrezia

Borgia

Catherine de’Medici Catherine de Medici was born in Florence, Italy, 1519. She had a very troubled childhood. At only the young age of one, both of Catherine's parents died from a disease. The nuns where she lived, trained and disciplined her and as she grew older she became very well-educated. Catherine filled her library with numerous rare manuscripts.

In 1533 her uncle, Pope Clement VII, arranged her marriage to Henry of Orleans, the French Kings second son. For the first ten years of her marriage, Catherine was unable to produce children but finally she was able to. In 1560, at the age of ten, one of her sons became the King of France so she became the King's Regent, which enabled her to be Queen Regent. In January of 1589, Catherine died at the age of seventy.

Isabella d’Esta Isabella d'Este was born in 1474 into the ruling family of Ferra. At the age of sixteen Isabella married Francesco Gonzaga, who was the Prince of Mantua and She became the Marchioness of Mantua, a small but wealthy Italian city-state.

After the death of her husband, Isabella ruled Mantua alone. She so impressed the people that the called her “ la prima donna del mondo” “First lady of the world.”

Isabella's father believed in the equality of men and women and so Isabella and her siblings were very well-educated. Isabella died at the age of sixty-four in 1539.

Lucrezia Borgia

Born in 1480. The Daughter of

Rodrigo Borgia (Spanish Pope

Alexander VI) and his mistress

Vanozza Catanei.

Her life would be set in the

ruthless Machiavellian politics

and sexual corruption that was

characteristic of the

Renaissance church in Rome.

She becomes the pawn of both

her power hungry father and

brother.

Married successively to:

Giovanni Sforza, Alfonso de

Aragon and Alfonse d’Este,

duke of Ferrara.

She died in 1519 as Duchess of

Ferrara.

The End !!!!!!

• At Least Until Next Time # * @ $ :)