The Renaissance
& Reformation
1300 - 1600
What institutions dominated life
in the Middle Ages?
Relief of Adam and Eve after the Fall
“Bronze Doors of Bishop Bernward” at Hildesheim Cathedral
View of the North Clerestroy Wall of the Nave
Chartres Cathedral
“October” from
“Les Tres
Riches Heures
du Duc de
Berry”
(1410)
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Bridging the Gap:
Middle Ages to Renaissance
• Conflict between Judeo-Christian and
Classical Greco-Roman values.
• Middle Ages value system was based on
absolute commandments (“Thou shalt have
no other gods before me”)
• Renaissance thinking based on morality and
ethics determined by human reasoning
• Were Renaissance people subject to absolute
rules or those of his or her own making?
Renaissance: Rebirth
• 13th century Europe in
chaos
• Plague, 100 Years War
• Feudal system crumbled
• Church, in power
struggle with Holy
Roman Empire, starts to
lose its hold on people
• National monarchies and
city-states gain power
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Evolution of Renaissance Thought
•
ought
Renaissance not a true
break from Middle Ages
• Classical learning still
preserved: Aristotle,
Plato, Ptolemy, Euclid
• BUT: New attitudes
toward culture and
learning
• Emphasis on exploring
human experience in the
present
“What is man that Thou are
mindful of him?” Psalm 8
• How does a person’s view of him or herself
change from one era to another?
• Historian Kenneth Clark: “At the end of the
tenth century in Europe. . . Man is no longer
the image of a man, but a human being, with
humanity’s impulses and fears; also
humanity’s moral sense and the belief in a
higher power.”
“Man is the measure of all things.”
-Protagoras
• In this pronouncement, unlike the
previous one, humans are the center of
life.
• Where should humans find their
identity?
• Inside themselves or from God?
• Could the Church accept both positions
within one system?
The Italian Renaissance
Why does the Renaissance start
in Italy?
• Ancient ruins visual
reminders of the “glory of
Rome”
• Italian economy built on
urban markets: center of
trade and industry
• Italy divided into 250 citystates
• Recovered from the
plague more quickly
Renaissance Italy,
c. 1494
The Medicis
• Wealthy bankers and
merchants
• Wealth = Power
• Gained control of
Florentine government in
1434
• People like Lorenzo
Medici became patrons
(financial supporters) for
artists like Michelangelo
Humanism
• Focus on worldly (secular) not religious subjects
• Education should stimulate an individual’s
creative powers
• Use wisdom of ancient scholars to understand
their own times
• Returned to studia humanitas, subjects taught in
ancient Greece and Rome (grammar, rhetoric,
poetry, HISTORY!)
Francesco Petrarch
1304-1374
• Early Renaissance
humanist
• Assembled library of
Greek and Roman texts
• Works by Cicero, Homer
and Virgil became
known in Western
Europe
• Writings influenced
others of his time
Renaissance Art
• Portrayed religious figures in context of
Greece or Rome
• Produced portraits of well-known people of
the day, reflecting individual achievement
• Studied Greek and Roman forms
Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) 1485-1576
Portrait of Doge Andrea Gritti
Michelangelo Buonaratti
“David” (1500 - 1504)
15c
(Donatello)
What
a
difference
a
century
makes!
16c 
Sandro Boticelli “The Birth of Venus”
c. 1485-1486
Renaissance Art
• Renaissance artists learned new techniques
of “realism”
• One of the most important was learning the
rules of “perspective”
• Make distant objects smaller than those
close to the viewer to gain 3D image
Perspective
“Enthroned Madonna and Child”
“The Small Cowper Madonna”
Artist unknown, Byzantine 12th century
Raphael, c. 1505
Carpaccio, “The Disputation of St Stephen”
1514
Marriage of the Virgin
Raphael, 1504
Leonardo Da Vinci
b. 1452
• Most accomplished Florentine painter and sculptor
• Both a scientific and creative mind
• Made sketches of models and nature; dissected
corpses (emphasis on realism)
• Accomplished in botany, anatomy, music,
architecture, engineering
• Made sketches of flying machines and submarines
hundreds of years before they were built
Scientific proportion study: male body
Drawing, 15-16th century
Leonardo, the Inventor:
Pages from his Notebook
Mona Lisa
ca. 1503-1506
Mona Lisa OR da Vinci??
Michelangelo Buonaratti
Sculptor, engineer, painter, architect,
poet
Pieta
The Sistine
Chapel
1508 - 1512
“Creation of Adam”
Raphael
1483 - 1520
• Studied works of Michelangelo and
Leonardo Da Vinci
• Blended Christian and Classical styles
• Best known for portrayals of Madonna
“Madonna With the Goldfinch”
c. 1507
“Madonna della Sedia”
c. 1512
“The School of Athens” (1518)
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The School of Athens – details
Plato:
looks to the
heavens [or
the IDEAL
realm].
Aristotle:
looks to this
earth [the
here and
now].
“The Artist's Sisters Playing Chess”
Sofonisba Anguissola
“Judith and the Maidservant”
Artemisia Gentileschi
Renaissance Architecture
• Rejected Gothic style: too cluttered and
disorderly
• Used forms favored by Greeks and Romans
• Many U.S. buildings copied these forms in
the period of Greek Revival in early 18th
century, i.e. U.S. Capitol Building
Filippo
Brunelleschi
1377 - 1436
Michelangelo
St. Peter’s Church, Rome
Other Famous Domes
Il Duomo
(Florence)
St. Peter’s
(Rome)
St. Paul’s
(London)
US capital
(Washington)
Humanist Writings
• “How To” books appeared so people
could learn the ideals of the
Renaissance
• Poets, artists and scholars mingled with
politicians
Baldassare Castiglione
• The Book of the
Courtier
• Describes the
ideal Renaissance
person
• Ideal different for
men and women
Benvenuto Cellini
• Autobiography
• Sculptor and
goldsmith
• Believed
autobiography was
best form of literary
expression
Niccolo Machiavelli
• Foreign ambassador
for Florence
• Politician and
Intellectual
• Roman system of
government is best
• What kind of leader
are YOU?
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The Renaissance Moves North
Differences between two cultures:
•
Italy: change inspired by:
–
Humanism
– Revival of classical learning.
•
Northern Europe: change driven by:
–
•
Religious Reform (return to Christian values, revolt
against Church authority)
Northern Renaissance art:
–
Interest in landscapes.
– More emphasis on middle-class and peasant life.
– Details of domestic interiors
– Great skill in portraiture.
Peasant Wedding
Pieter Bruegel, 1567
Peasant Dance
Pieter Bruegel, 1568
The
Ambassadors
Hans Holbein
Pieter Brueghel
(poem “Musee De Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden, read by the poet)
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus 1558
The Moneylender
and His Wife
Quentin Massys, 1514
Quentin Massys
The Ugly Dutchess
1525-1530
Jan Vermeer
The Letter (1666)
Albrecht Dürer: “The German Leonardo”
Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse
(Woodcut, 1498)
The Last Supper
(Woodcut, 1510)
In Conclusion
• Why do you think there was such a shift
from religious to humanist philosophy
during the Renaissance?
• How is this shift going to affect the future
of Europe and the Western world?