AP European History Project: Reflections on the Renaissance
Sheridan
Your goal for this individual project is to assess the degree to which a single work by a
particular Renaissance artist or other individual reflects the “Spirit of the Renaissance” & all
that entails (including humanism, civic humanism, secularism, individualism, the Christian
environment, focus on city/family, etc.). You will select/be assigned a particular Renaissance
individual (from the list below; most are artists of one type or another, but a few are from
other disciplines), & you will research & select a particular work from that individual to
analyze (you may not select a work that is discussed in your textbook or any other assigned
class materials).
This is not a biographical report; your purpose is to evaluate the extent to which the
individual’s work reflects the ideals of the Renaissance as addressed in class & in your text.
You will type a maximum 2-page (double-spaced) analysis, which should include a brief
introduction which introduces the core ideals of the Renaissance as well as the individual &
his/her work, & which incorporates a clearly worded thesis regarding the work & its
relationship to Renaissance ideals. Body paragraphs should address the characteristics of the
work & the degree to which they reflect Renaissance ideals, worded so as to support your
thesis. Finish with a brief conclusion wrapping up & summarizing your argument.
You will also need to turn in a printed copy of the work selected for the artist (if it is a longer,
written work, a brief excerpt or summary is acceptable; if a musical piece, a
title/composer/description will suffice).
Renaissance Figure Options:
Giovanni Bellini
Hieronymous Bosch
Sandro Botticelli
Pieter Brueghel/Bruegel
(the Elder)
Filippo Brunelleschi
William Byrd
Michelangelo Merisi da
Caravaggio
Baldassare Castiglione
Christopher Columbus
Nicolaus Copernicus
Leonardo da Vinci
Donatello (Donato di
Niccolò di Betto
Bardi)
Duccio di Buoninsegna
Albrecht Dürer
Desiderius Erasmus
Jan van Eyck
Lorenzo Ghiberti
Giotto di Bondone
Hans Holbein (the
Younger)
Niccoló Machiavelli
Masaccio (Tommaso di
Ser Giovanni di
Simone)
Michelangelo di Lodovico
Buonarroti Simoni
Thomas More
Paracelsus (Theophrastus
Phillippus
Aureolus
Bombastus von
Hohenheim)
Petrarch (Francesco
Petrarca)
Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola
Francois Rabelais
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio
da Urbino)
Coluccio Salutati
William Shakespeare
Jacob Tintoretto
Titian (Tiziano Vecelli)
Lorenzo Valla
Andreas Vesalius
Amerigo Vespucci