The Intellectual and Artistic
Renaissance
Main Ideas
• The most important intellectual movement
associated with the Renaissance was
humanism. 
• The Renaissance produced many great artists
and sculptors such as Michelangelo, Raphael,
and Leonardo da Vinci. 
Key Terms
• humanism 
• fresco
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The Intellectual and Artistic
Renaissance
People to Identify
• Petrarch 
• Jan van Eyck 
• Dante 
• Albrecht Dürer 
• Michelangelo 
Places to Locate
• Canterbury 
• Flanders
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The Intellectual and Artistic
Renaissance
Preview Questions
• What were the characteristics of Italian
Renaissance humanism? 
• What were the chief achievements of European
Renaissance painters?
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The Intellectual and Artistic
Renaissance
Preview of Events
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The first recorded patent for an industrial
invention was granted in 1421 in Florence
to the architect Filippo Brunelleschi. The
patent gave him a three-year monopoly on
the manufacture of a barge with hoisting
gear used to transport marble.
Italian Renaissance Humanism
• The changes of the Renaissance was most
apparent in its intellectual & artistic movements.
• One intellectual movement was humanism.
• Humanism was based on the classics,
the literary works of ancient Greece and Rome.
• Humanists studied the subjects that are now
known as the humanities - poetry, philosophy,
& history.
• Petrarch generated a movement of finding
forgotten Latin manuscripts, especially in
monastic libraries.
• He emphasized using pure classical Latin
(Roman Latin, not medieval Latin).
(pages 164–165)
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Italian Renaissance Humanism (cont.)
• 14th cent humanists emphasized that the
intellectual life was solitary, rejecting
family & community.
• Humanists of the early 1400s believed
that the humanities and humanists should
serve the state.
(pages 164–165)
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Italian Renaissance Humanism (cont.)
What might have been the effect on
many people of the new study of the
classics and the humanities?
People felt freed from the constrictions
of medieval life and felt a new sense of
discovery and self-reliance.
(pages 164–165)
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Vernacular Literature
• Some writers wrote in the language of their
regions, such as Italian, English, or French.
• In the 14th cent, the Italian works of Dante and
the English works of Geoffrey Chaucer helped
make such vernacular literature more popular.
• Dante’s vernacular masterpiece is the Divine
Comedy.
• The poem’s three parts follow Dante on an
imaginary journey Hell, Purgatory, and
Heaven
• Chaucer’s most famous vernacular work is The
Canterbury Tales.
• This collection of stories is told by a group of
29 pilgrims going to Canterbury.
(page 165)
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The Artistic Renaissance in Italy
• Renaissance artists tried to imitate nature in their
works.
• Many of the artistic breakthroughs occurred in
Florence.
• Masaccio’s 15th cent frescoes are considered the
first masterpieces of early Renaissance art
(1400–1490).
• A fresco is a painting done on wet plaster
with water-based paints.
• Unlike the flat figures of medieval painting,
Masaccio’s figures have depth because he used
the laws of perspective to create the illusion of
three dimensions
(pages 166–168)
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The Artistic Renaissance in Italy (cont.)
• The realism of perspective became a signature
of Renaissance painting.
• The realistic portrayal of individual persons,
especially the human nude, became one of the
chief aims of Italian Renaissance art.
• There were similar stunning advances in
sculpture.
• Donatello modeled his figures on Greek and
Roman statues.
• Among his most famous works is the
realistic, freestanding figure of Saint
George.
(pages 166–168)
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The Artistic Renaissance in Italy
(cont.)
• The last stage of Renaissance painting is
called the High Renaissance (1490–1520).
• The artistic giants Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael,
and Michelangelo dominated this period.
• Leonardo mastered realistic painting, but his goal
was to create idealized forms to capture the
perfection of nature and the individual.
• By age 25, Raphael was recognized
as one of Italy’s greatest painters.
• His madonnas were especially admired.
• His famous fresco, School of Athens, reveals
a world of balance, harmony, and order - the
underlying principles of classical art.
(pages 166–168)
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The Artistic Renaissance in Italy
(cont.)
• Michelangelo was an accomplished
painter, sculptor, and architect known
for his great passion and energy.
• His paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel in Rome show the beauty of an
idealized human being who reflects divine
beauty.
• The more beautiful the body, the more
godlike the figure.
(pages 166–168)
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Checking for Understanding
Define Match each definition in the left column with the
appropriate term in the right column.
__
A. humanism
B 1. a painting done on fresh,
wet plaster with water-based B. fresco
paints
__
A 2. an intellectual movement of the Renaissance
based on the study of the humanities, which
included grammar, rhetoric, poetry, moral
philosophy, and history
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Checking for Understanding
Compare the underlying principles of
both classical Greek and Roman art
with Italian Renaissance art. How are
the principles similar? How are they
different?
Like Renaissance art, both classical
Greek and Roman art display balance,
harmony, and order; unlike Greek and
Roman art, Renaissance art portrays a
human reflection of the divine.
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Critical Thinking
Compare and Contrast How do the
humanist goals and philosophy of
education developed during the
Renaissance compare with the goals
of your high school education?
Analyzing Visuals
Compare the paintings of Raphael
and Dürer, shown on page 168 and
169 of your textbook. What themes
does each artist explore? How does
each painting reflect the history of the
culture in which it was produced?
Raphael’s painting shows philosophy
and antiquity. It also reflects the
Renaissance interest in antiquity.
Dürer’s painting is religious.
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Close
Recognize the impact of the art
masterpieces that were created during
this time and that it was wealthy Italian
families and the Catholic Church who
were the primary sponsors of
Renaissance Art.