Transcript Chapter 1, Section 1 Cornell Notes #Chapter 1, section 1

ITALY: BIRTHPLACE OF
THE RENAISSANCE
Chapter 1, Section 1
Pages 37-42
SETTING THE STAGE
•Black Plague and Hundred Years
War
•People want to enjoy life
•Structures of society change
•Question Church
•Reject Medieval thoughts
•Plague kills 60% of population
•Fewer laborers = demand for
higher wages
•Shrank business expansion
opportunities
•Wealthy merchants can pursue
art
THREE ADVANTAGES
•Thriving cities
• Urban Centers
• Overseas trade
• Crusades
• Urban while rest of Europe is rural
•Wealthy merchant class
• Wealthiest, most powerful class
• Earned social rank
• Individual achievement important
(See Medici Family)
•Medici family
• Ruled Florence
• Cosimo de’ Medici- wealthiest
European of his time
• Influenced members of ruling council
by giving loans
• Virtual dictator of Florence for 30
years.
• He and son greatly supported the arts
•Classical heritage
• Studied Latin manuscripts
• Byzantine scholars brought Greek
manuscripts to Rome
CLASSICAL & WORLDLY VALUES
•Humanism- focus on human potential
and achievements.
• Influenced artists and architects
• Popularized the study of history,
literature, and philosophy“Humanities”
•Secular- worldly and concerned with
the here and now
• One can enjoy life without offending
God
• Church leaders began to live worldly
lives
• Large mansions, lavish parties,
expensive clothes
•Patron- financially supporting artists
• Popes- spend large amounts of
money to beautify Rome
• Show importance by having portraits
painted or donating art
•Renaissance man- a master of all
areas of study.
• Should dance, sing, play music, write
poetry
• Should be a skilled rider, wrestler,
and swordsman
•Renaissance women- inspire art, not
make it
• Know the classics, be charming, be
educated but not a leader
REVOLUTION OF ART
Perspective- An artistic technique
that creates the appearance of
three dimensions on a flat
surface.
 An optical illusion
Horizon
Vanishing point
MICHELANGELO
•True Renaissance man
•Painter, sculptor, architect and poet
•Famous for way he portrayed the human
body
• Forceful and showed heroic grandeur
and power
•Sponsored by Medici
•Famous for:
• Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica
• David
• Sistine Chapel
LEONARDO
•True Renaissance man
•Painter, sculptor, inventor,
scientist
•Interested in how things worked
•Notebooks full of sketches and
inventions
•Known for:
•Mona Lisa
•The Last Supper
RAPHAEL
•Studied Michelangelo and
Leonardo
•Madonna and child was his
favorite subject
•Known for•School of Athens
LITERATURE
•Vernacular- Use of native language rather than classic
•Self-expression or portraying individualism
•Famous Renaissance writers:
• Francesco Petrarch- humanist; poet; wrote sonnets about women named “Laura”;
wrote in Latin to many influential friends.
• Boccaccio- Wrote Decameron; realistic and off-color; supposedly told by a group
of worldly young people stuck in a villa waiting for the plague to leave.
• Niccolo Machiavelli- The Prince; a political playbook;
• Examines how rulers can gain power and keep it in spite of his enemies
• Idea of most people being fickle, selfish, and corrupt
• Must be strong as a lion, shrewd as a fox
•Women writers
• Wrote about personal subjects, not politics