Renaissance
Approximately 1350-1600
 Rinascita
 “Rebirth”

 Greece, Rome

Revolution in:
 Literature, art, philosophy, moral and political
philosophy

Individualism
Italian City-States
Why Italy?
Geography
 Trade
 Competition between “old” and “new”
rich

Medici Family
Cosimo de Medici
Portrait by Bronzino
Lorenzo de Medici
Portrait by Bronzino
Major Features of the
Renaissance
Humanism
 Art
 Architecture
 Literature
 Philosophy


Began in Italy; will spread to Northern
Europe
Humanism
Encouraged the scholarly study of works
from classical Greece and Rome
 Education highly valued
 Study of the “Humanities”

 Grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, politics,
moral philosophy, art, etc.

Emphasis on the human experience and
human nature
Humanism
Francesco Petrarch
“Father of Humanism”
Statue of Petrarch
Florence, Italy
Humanism

“Civic Humanists”
 Inspired by Petrarch
 Goal: Use classical education for public
good

Positive view of human nature
 “Platonism” or “Platonic”: based on ideas of
Plato
 Focus on the great potential of human
nature
Humanism
Pico della Mirandola
Oration on the Dignity of Man
Baldassare Castiglione
Book of the Courtier
Portrait by Raphael
Humanism
Lorenzo Valla
Christine de Pisan
Renaissance Art
Art used to glorify people as well as God
 New techniques

 More naturalistic and realistic
 Frescoes: paintings done on wet plaster




using water-based paint
Chiaroscuro: use of contrast between light
and dark to show depth
Three-dimensional images
Single-point perspective
Oil paint
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
The Last Supper
(1498)
Mona Lisa
Early 1500’s
Leonardo da Vinci
The Vitruvian Man
1485
Sketches: human arm
c. 1510
Raphael (1483-1520)
Raphael Sanzio da Urbino
Madonna of the Meadow
1506
Raphael
Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Images from
the Sistine Chapel
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)
Sandro Botticelli
Renaissance Architecture
Gothic Architecture
Used in Middle Ages
Cathedral of Florence
Renaissance Literature


Various themes:
religious, secular
(non-religious),
politics, etc.
Vernacular:
Language spoken
by the people
 Ex: Italian in Italy,
French in France, etc

Printing press
 Gutenberg
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Northern Renaissance
Goeffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)
Northern Renaissance

Christian Humanists
 Erasmus
 Sir Thomas Moore
Desiderius Erasmus
(1466?-1536)
Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)
William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)
Impact of the Renaissance
Gave rise to a more modern Europe
 Humanism
 Individualism
