Transcript Italy: The Birthplace of the Renaissance

Italy: The Birthplace of the
Renaissance
History
• After the war & plague, the people who survived
wanted to celebrate life
▫ Started questioning life
▫ Started questioning the church
Italy’s Advantages
• Started in Italy
• Explosion of creativity in art, writing and
thought
• Lasted from 1300-1600
• THE RENAISSANCE
▫ REBIRTH!!
▫ The revival of art and learning
▫ Wanted to bring back Greece and Rome
• The Renaissance spread started in Northern
Italy then to the rest of Europe
• 3 Advantages making Italy the birthplace of the
Renaissance
▫ 1. thriving cities
▫ 2. a wealthy merchant class
▫ 3. classical heritage of Greece and Rome
City States
• Overseas trade
• Italy was urban – most of Europe still rural
• Cities were a place to exchange ideas, they were
an ideal breeding ground for an intellectual
revolution
• Bubonic plague – killed 60% of people
▫ Fewer people to work – could demand more $$
▫ No more business – expand interests in art
Merchants and the Medici
• Merchants dominated politics
• Unlike nobles, merchants did not inherit social
rank – so to succeed they had to use their wit
• Believed they deserved power and wealth
because of their individual merit
• VERY IMPORTANT
• Florence, Italy
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Was democratic until Renaissance
One powerful banking family the MEDICI
Cosimo Medici – wealthiest European & dictator
Died in 1464 but family continued to control
Florence
▫ Lorenzo de Medici – Lorenzo the Magnificent
Greece & Rome
• Looked down on the art of the Middle Ages
• Wanted to return to the learning of Greece &
Rome
• First, artists and scholars from Italy were
inspired by the ruins of Rome that surrounded
them
• Second, Western scholars studied ancient Latin
manuscripts that had been preserved
• Third, Christian scholars in Constantinople fled
to Rome with Greek manuscripts
• When they studied the manuscripts, they
became more influenced by classical ideas
• Helped them create a new outlook on life and art
Classics lead to Humanism
• Humanism – an intellectual movement that
focused on human potential and achievements
• Instead of trying to make classical; texts agree
with Christian teaching as medieval scholars
had, humanists studied them to understand
Greek values.
• Humanists influenced artists and architects to
carry on classical traditions
• Popularized the study of subjects common to
classical education, such as history, philosophy
and literature. HUMANITIES
Worldly Pleasures
• Middle Ages – people demostrated their piety by
wearing rough clothing and eating plain foods
• Humanists – suggested a person enjoy their life
without offending God
• The wealthy enjoyed material luxuries, good
music and fine foods.
• Basic spirit of Renaissance society was
SECULAR – worldly rather than spiritual, cared
about their “here and now”
Patrons of the Arts
• Beautified Rome
• Financially supporting artists
• Wealthy families – having their pictures painted
by artists
• Donating art
• The wealthy demonstrated their own importance
The Renaissance Man
• The ideal individual strove to master almost
every area of study
• “Universal Man”
• Baldassare Castiglione – wrote “The Courtier”
that taught how to become this man
• “A young man should be charming, witty, and
well educated in the classics. He should dance,
sing, play music, and write poetry. In addition,
he should be a skilled rider, wrestler and
swordsman.
The Renaissance Woman
• According to “The Courtier” upper-class women
also should know the classics and be charming,
yet they were not expected to seek fame. They
were expected to inspire art but rarely create it.
▫ Better educated
▫ Little influence in politics
Isabella d’Este
• Born into the ruling family of the city-state
Ferrara, she married the ruler of another citystate Mantua.
• Brought many Renaissance artists to her court
and built a famous art collection
• Skilled in politics
Renaissances Revolutionizes Art
• Medieval Art – religious subjects to convey
spiritual ideal
• Renaissance Art – portrayed religious subjects
but used a realistic style copied from classical
models
• Technique of perspective – which shows three
dimensions of a flat surface
Michelangelo
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Artists
Sculptor
Poet
Architect
Painter
Used a realistic style when depicting the human
body
Donatello
• Made sculpture more realistic by carving natural
poses and expressions to show personality
• Statue of David
Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance Man
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Painter, sculptor, inventor, scientist
Interested in how things worked
Mona Lisa – so real
The Last Supper
Raphael
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Learned from Leonardo and Michelangelo
Favorite was Madonna and the Child
Portrayed expressions as gentle and calm
Famous for perspective
Filled the walls of Pope Julius II’s library with
paintings
▫ School of Athens
Renaissance Writers Change Literature
• Reflected their time
• Medieval time writer – Dante
• Vernacular – native language
Petrarch
• Francesco Petrarch – earliest and most
influential humanists
• Father of Renaissance Humanism
• Great poet
• Wrote in Italian and Latin
• Sonnets – 14 line poems, mostly about Laura
Boccaccio
• Known for the Decameron
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Series of realistic sometimes “off-color” stories
Tragic and comic views of life
Used humor to illustrate human condition
Presents characters individually
Niccolo Machiavelli
• “The Prince” 1513
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Examines the imperfect conduct of humans
Political guidebook
How a ruler can gain power and keep it
Most people are selfish, fickle and corrupt
To succeed in a wicked world, a prince “must be strong
as a lion and as shrewd as a fox”
▫ Not morally right, but politically effective
▫ To accomplish great things “he must be crafty enough
to not only overcome the suspicions of others but also
gain the trust of others”