Renaissance: Revolution
The Renaissance
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“Rebirth”
14th – 17th century (1300s – 1600s)
Began in Italy in the mid-1300s
Reached its height in the 1500s
Revolution = Change: political, social, economic, & cultural
Why Italy?
• Reawakened interest in the culture of Ancient Rome
• Wealthy, powerful merchant class
• Italian city-states survived the Middle Ages
(Florence, Milan, Venice, Genoa, Rome, and Naples)
• Florence  gifted poets, artists, scholars, and
scientists
• The Medici Family
– became the richest merchants and bankers in Europe
– gained control of Florentine government in 1434
– money translated into cultural and political power
Lorenzo de Medici
• clever politician
• held Florence together
during difficult times
• generous patron
(financial supporter) of
the arts
• Poets, artists and
philosophers frequently
visited the Medici palace
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci
The Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci
Helicopter
Leonardo da Vinci
La Pieta
Michelangelo
Creation of Adam (Sistine Chapel)
Michelangelo
David
Michelangelo
David (bronze)
Donatello
School of Athens
Raphael
Isaac Newton
Galileo Galilei
Nicolaus Copernicus
Johannes Kepler
Miguel de Cervantes
William Shakespeare
Niccolo Machiavelli
Nostradamus
Martin Luther
Johannes Gutenberg
Claudio Monteverdi
Christopher Columbus
Ferdinand Magellan
Samuel de Champlain
Hernan Cortes
Francisco Pizarro
Charles V
Henry VIII
Elizabeth I