The Renaissance
Renaissance: AD 1350-1600
I. New Values
Shaped the
Renaissance
A. Love of classical
learning
– Greek statue:
– Hermes and Dionysus
c. 340BCE
New Values
A. Classic al Learning: Greeks and Romans
B. Celebration of the individual
C. Bringing out man’s divinity;
D. _______________________
E. _______________________
D. More interest in the natural world
E. Enjoyment of worldly and secular
pleasures
humor
good food
entertainment
What was humanism??
– Scholarly study of Latin and Greek classics
– Learning/education for all (ideally)
– “Studia humanitatis”
1st humanists were orators and poets
• Used vernacular and classical languages
• Went directly to original sources…classical and
biblical (i.e. __________ sources)
– A variety of knowledge is the ideal
Left: By Donatello (bronze first full scale nude since Ancient Roman era)
1409
Right: by Michelangelo 1504
Florence’s “Il Duomo” on the Santa
Maria Del Fiore
• Palazzo Vecchio
Views Designed to Highlight City
Government
Ferrara, Italy
Lucca
• Originally Etruscan
Palmanova
Built late
1500s
Dome for St. Peter’s Basilica
As designed by Michelangelo, the
drum was completed by his death in
1564, but the dome on top was
slightly redesigned by Giacomo
della Porta afterwards.
II. Renaissance began in
Northern Italy
A. The Black Death further damaged feudal ties
B. Towns became cities
– Genoa, Venice and Florence – 100,000 each
– Pisa, Mantua, Milan
C. Banking, textiles and trade encouraged
independence
D. Byzantine scholarship enters its ports
Greek and Arab learning
Centers of trade and interaction
spur…
– intellectual
activity
– economic growth
– artistic creativity
C. The Lombard League had
Established Town Power
C. Defeat of Holy Roman Empire at Battle
of Legnano (1176)
- illustrated new cities’ growing
independence
D. Merchants depended on their
wits, not feudal ties
1. Wealthy merchants
sought beautiful
things
2. They competed over
sponsoring artists
3. Medici’s of Florence
find Ghiberti,
Michelangelo
– Cosimo il Vecchio
1389-1464
Lorenzo 1449-92
1. The MediciFamily
a) Cosimo…1389-1434
a) astute statesman
b) controlled city behind the scenes
b) Lorenzo the magnificent
a) ruled 1478-1492
b) cautious and determined
c) great patron of the arts
• “ Whoever wants to be happy,
let him be so: about tomorrow
there's no knowing.”
—Lorenzo The Magnificent
III. Early writers and artists Break
through artistic barriers
A. Giotto di Bondone paints more lifelike
figures in Padua
–
–
New expressions
And more colors
Giotto’s “Mourning of
Christ” 1305
“The AdorATion of The
MAgi” by gioTTo
Giotto’s epitaph - 1337
“I am he through whose merit the lost art of
painting was revived…But what need is there
for words? I am Giotto, and my name alone
tells more than a lengthy ode.”
III. Early important writers
B. Dante writes the Divine Comedy about a
journey into afterlife
Virgil
Beatrice
C. Petrarch writes poetry
D. Castiglione writes of the well-rounded man
Individually, then in groups …
• Read over documents
• Circle evidence of new renaissance values
• Compare and discuss your evidence
IV. Upper class women get more
education, but have less power overall
than in High Middle Ages
A. Women are revered by Dante (Beatrice),
Petrarch (Laura), and other artists
B. Ideals of feminine beauty
C. They have less economic and political power.
– Exceptions existed however..
• Isabella d’Este of Mantua, Italy
• Caterina Sforza of Milan, Italy
• In Spain, Queen Isabella of Castile
V. Florence leads in the arts
• Filippo Brunelleschi
(1337–1446) is widely
considered the first
Renaissance architect.
– Santa Maria del Fiore,
called the Duomo
• Lorenzo Ghiberti
made doors of bronze
“Gates of
Paradise”
• 17 ft tall!!
– (Requested 1401 by
wood manufacturer’s
guild
– first pair - 1422
– second pair - 1452)
– Lost wax casting
• Can you tell what the
pictures depict?
The “Gates” on the Baptistry
• “Battistero di
San Giovanni”
• Built 1059-1128
Close-up of the “Gates of Paradise”
Masaccio 1401-1428
father of perspective
Massaccio perfects Perspective
• 1420s
• On foundation of
Giotto’s work on
creating roundness and
depth…
• Discovers vanishing
point…
– Parallel lines come
together in the distance
1426
New technique:
foreshortening
•Paolo Ucello
Leonardo…self portrait
Leonardo da Vinci 1452- 15
• Inventor:
– Making metal screws
• Experimenter/scientist
– Hydraulics, bicycle, flippers
• Designer:
– Planes, submarines
• Drawer and Painter
– Mona Lisa
– The Last Supper
a man of many talents…Leonardo’s
notebooks…
Da Vinci: Mona
Lisa (1503-5)38
Da Vinci: The Last Supper
(1490)
One of these men is Judas…
A Modern Reproduction…
Who was Niccolo Machiavelli?
1469-1527
Machiavelli’s POLITICS
• Outraged by Lorenzo Medici’s successor
• Spanish and French attack Italian citystates
– For Pope Julius’ aggression
• The Prince (1513)
– The LION and the FOX
“…for the lion cannot protect himself from the traps, and the fox cannot
defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize
traps, and a lion to fight wolves.”
Aggressive Pope Julius II Remakes
Rome
• Aggressive foreign policy
• Builds up Rome
• Courted, bullied artists into
coming to Rome
• Michelangelo and Raphael
• 1508 Michelangelo begins the
Sistine Chapel; Finishes 1512
• Raphael paints the Library
Portrait by Raphael
Done earlier
for the Pope,
by
Michelangelo:
Pieta
(1498-99)
Video:
Carving the Pieta
Michelangelo:
The Sistine
Chapel
( c.1508-1512)
The Creation of Man
Link to Sistine Chapel
Trailer: The Agony and Ecstasy
Michelangelo:
The Last
Judgment
( c.1534-41)
Sistine Chapel
Controversy
A Close
up…
Dome for St. Peter’s Basilica
As designed by Michelangelo, the
drum was completed by his death in
1564, but the dome on top was
slightly redesigned by Giacomo
della Porta afterwards.
Botticelli: The Birth of Venus
(about 1480)
Botticelli: Primavera
(c.1478)
Bellini:
St.
Francis in
Ecstasy
(c. 1485)
Titian
– Madonna with Child
and Members of
Pesaro Family
(1526)
Compare and
Contrast this with
another painting ….
• German Artist
Hans Holbein
the Younger
“The Virgin and
Child with the
Family of
Burgomaster
Meyer” (1528)
Burghers with money
Renaissance Spreads North
• Netherlands (Dutch), “Germany”
(still many smaller states), & Belgium
(Flanders)
• More writing and printing:
philosophy and religious ideas
• Gutenberg’s printing
– first use of moveable type : 1440
– Bible printed 1452
• Art
–
–
–
–
Fewer Greek/Roman references
More depictions of everyday events
More photographic-like
Less flesh and muscle, more clothing!
Van Eyck:
“Giovanni and
His Bride”
(1434)
Netherlands
Van Eyck: The Last
Judgment
(c. 1420-1425)
• Limbourg brothers
(Paul, Hermann and
Jean)
– Les Très Riches
Heures du Duc de
Berry
• (The Medieval
Book of Hours)
– Dutch
Albrecht Durer: German Artist
1471-1528
Self portrait
Durer’s portrait of his
Father
Wood cuts and block printing
By Albrecht Durer
Renaissance Explorers
• Stories of Marco Polo (1295) of Eastern Trade
• Portuguese…Busting a monopoly!
– Prince Henry
– Caravels, compasses and astrolabes
– Vasco De Gama to India
The astrolabe
• Invented by Greeks
• Perfected by Islamic
scholars, 12th c.
Ferdinand and Isabella and CC
• Final end of long
Reconquista War in
Spain allowed F and I
to give Columbus
money
• Setting sail August 3,
1492- Oct 12
Exploring For Spain
– Columbus 1492 – Go West to bypass others!
– Assumed world circumference was much smaller
• Promised 10% of finds, and Admiralty
• F and I didn’t expect him to return
– Later:Balboa – the Pacific Ocean!
– Magellan around the world 1519
• 5 ships, 230 men; 18 on 1 ship return
• Line of Demarcation Treaty