Transcript Renaissance: Education and the Arts

Renaissance: Education
and the Arts
I. Leonardo da Vinci
A. Known as the “Renaissance Man”
B. Da Vinci was a scientist, inventor,
and an artist
C. Famous works of art include The
Last Supper, Mona Lisa, and the
Virgin of the Rocks
D. Da Vinci’s sketches included things
that would not be invented for
centuries such as the helicopter, the
tank, and the parachute
E. Da Vinci would also dissect human
corpses to learn about anatomy
II. Dante Alighieri
A. Poet from Florence in the 1300s
B. Dante and other writers in the
Renaissance would start to write in
the vernacular
1. Vernacular-Everyday language
people speak in a Region
(French, Spanish, English etc.)
2. Revolutionary since most writing
was in Latin, so this allowed
more people to read in their
spoken language
C. After turmoil in Florence, Dante left
and wrote a 14,000 line poem called
The Divine Comedy (A man’s
journey through the levels of hell to
heaven)
III. Northern Renaissance
A. Renaissance would spread
from the Italian peninsula into
Western Europe in the late
1400s into the 1500s.
B. Merchants and artists would
visit Italy and bring ideas and
art back to their countries
C. Kings and Queens would
commission famous Italian
Artists for artwork
D. Albrecht Durer and Jan van
Eyck were new emerging
artists in Western Europe
E. New ideas developed
like Christian Humanism
= applying the ideas of
Humanism to religious
thinking
F. Focused on the study of
Christianity rather than
Greek and Roman texts
G. Erasmus was a Catholic
priest that mocked some
of the practices of the
Church
H. He felt they had little to
do with true faith and
were often used to cover
up corruption in the
Church
I. Sir Thomas More
1. Lawyer who was influenced by
Greek philosophers Plato and
Aristotle
2. Wrote utopia = perfect society
based on Greek philosophy
3. Wrote about perfect society in
order to highlight problems in his
own world
4. Examples: divisions between
politically weak from politically
powerful people, social and
economic inequalities, corruption
in society
IV. Printing Press
A. Only a select number of books
were copied as it was done by
hand
1. Bible was traditionally the
only book copied and it was
done by Monks since it was in
Latin
B. Johannes Gutenberg was a
German Blacksmith that made a
huge impact
C. Gutenberg would develop a
printing press that used
moveable type= wooden blocks
with a raised surface that can be
smeared with ink and arranged
and rearranged quickly
D. Gutenberg’s invention was
important for 3 major reasons:
1. Books could be printed
much more quickly at a low
cost which allowed for
more books for all people
2. Humanists and scholarly
works were published and
circulated which caused
more debate and free
thought beyond the Church
3. Helped to allow more
books printed in the
Vernacular (Gutenberg’s
Bible)
V. William Shakespeare
A. The major draw of the English
Renaissance was theatre and
writing
B. William Shakespeare (15641616) is considered the
greatest playwright of all time
C. He would write comedies,
tragedies, and historical plays
which showed human nature
D. Reinvented the Greek tragedy
and comedy
E. Today his plays are still
performed and many are
adapted into major motion
pictures
F. Universal Truths
1.
Found within Shakespeare’s
literary works
2.
Fact that is true for all time
a. The truth is always true even if
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
no one believes it
Things always seem like a good
idea at the time
The highest compliment
someone can give is to say you
made them think
Someone, somewhere will
always be offended
No matter how much you dumb
something down, someone will
be dumber
If you pee into the wind, you are
going to get wet