The Italian Renaissance
-Key Conceptshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZy6XilXDZQ
Why in Italy at this Time?
Peninsula
w/large and safe ports
Perfect location for commerce w/Asia
Feudalism had less of a grip on Italy
Two competing lords for control of
Italy were losing influence
Presence of antiquity was stronger in
Italy than elsewhere in Europe
European Economic Recovery






Dramatic recovery of
European commerce
Plague created need for
labor.
Workers could charge
more.
Important industries
flourish in Northern Italy
The significance of printing
and mining as new
industries
The fifteenth-century
banking empire of the
Medici family in Florence
Renaissance Economics




Profit-making became
more important than
Church doctrine
To overcome guilt, profitmakers indulge in
philanthropy
Influence of guilds
declining
High profits led to
economic diversification
Renaissance Economics (cont)



“Cottage Industry”
Art became the way
to advertise economic
success
Intensified
commercial
competition created
the need to be
efficient
Renaissance Politics




Same pattern and
problems as those of the
Greek city-states
Inter-city warfare led to
new advances in
diplomacy
-- “balance of power”
Northern Italian
“communes”
The Peace of Lodi (1454)
Renaissance Politics (cont)




Rome, Venice, Milan,
Florence, and the
Kingdom of Naples
Renaissance Venice
Renaissance Florence
--Lorenzo the Magnificent
(1449-1492)
1300’s republicanism
became 1400’s
despotism—with the
exception of Venice
Renaissance Politics (cont)





Niccolo Machiavelli (14691527)
-- “The Prince”
The goal of the prince
must be power
Cynical view of human
nature
Fear is a better motivator
than affection
Politics as the art of
deception
Renaissance Politics (cont)





Ancient and
contemporary examples
of effective political
leaders
--Cesare Borgia
A new realism in political
thought
1400’s “Civic” humanism
Leonardo Bruni’s The
New Cicero
Henry VIII as a
Renaissance prince
Spread of Humanism to the Rest
of Europe



The significance of
Gutenberg’s printing
press
Explosion of printed
materials
--By 1500, 40,000 titles
printed and between 8-10
million copies
The impact of movabletype printing presses:
research and literacy
Spread of Humanism to the Rest
of Europe (cont)



Popular publications
in the early days of
the printing press
Thomas More
--Utopia
--Executed by Henry
VIII in 1535
Erasmus—Dutch
Christian Humanist
Art & Artists
• 1280-1400 proto-Renaissance.
Artists begin to look back at
Roman Culture
• Effort stopped by Plague
• 1400’s on Artists again start look to
past for inspiration
Art & Artists
• Artists came from all levels of Society
• Worked under a Master as apprentice
• Joined a guild
• Often worked for Patrons (wealthy
supporters)
• Painted religious pictures, as well as,
domestic themes like marriage, birth,
nature, and everyday life.
Michelangelo
1475-1564
• World famous sculptor, painter, and
architect
• Painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
• Included his own portrait in the painting
• Created the world’s most famous
sculpture, David.
• First person to publish an
autobiography
• Known for his bad temper
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html
Leonardo Da Vinci
1452-1519
• Painted two of the most famous paintings in
the world, Mona Lisa and The Last Supper
• Painter, writing, sculptor, inventor.
• Changed how painters used light and
perspective.
• Came up with idea for the helicopter,
parachute, airplane, tank, and more
• Good at everything he did. Considered the
ideal Renaissance Man.
• Created modern scientific drawing
• May have had dyslexia
Vitruvian Man
William Shakespeare
1564-1616
• Poet and Playwright
• Considered the greatest writer in the history of the English Language, if not of all
languages.
• Wrote around 38 plays and 154 Sonnets, plus other items.
• Has been translated into every living language in the world
• Plays have been performed on every Continent