The
Renaissance
“Rebirth”
1300’s-1600’s
Renaissance = rebirth
• Began in Italy
– Rome and all of it’s history was there
• Characteristics:
– Revival in learning
– Urban society with a secular (worldly) viewpoint and
wealth
– Recovery from disasters like the plague and a
decline in the Church’s power
– Emphasized individual ability- “Renaissance Man”
like Leonardo da Vinci
Important Italian City-States
• Florence (Northern Italy)
– Medici family (Lorenzo Medici especially)
– Cultural center of Italy
Niccolo Machiavelli
• Wrote The Prince
– About political power in the western world
– How to get and keep power
• Leader acts on behalf of the state and can’t be
concerned with what is morally right/wrong, only
what will keep him in power
Renaissance Society
• 3 estates/classes
• Peasants/Townspeople
–
–
–
–
85-90% of the population
Mostly merchants and artisans
1300’s-1400’s feudalism ended and urban poverty rose dramatically
Urban society
• Patricians: wealth from trade, industry, and banking (dominate
community)
• Burghers: shopkeepers, artisans
• Workers: pitiful wages
• Unemployed: 30-40% of population
• Nobles
• 2-3% of population
• Held most important political posts, advisors to the king
• Clergy
Humanism
• Intellectual movement of the Renaissance
– Based on study of the classics (ancient Greeks and
Romans)
• Petrarch: father of Italian humanism, began emphasis on
using pure classical Latin
– 14th century: intellectual life of solitude (monks)
– 15th century: active life for one’s state, study of
humanities should be put to the service of the state
so they served as secretaries in the city-states and
to the princes and popes
Vernacular Literature (own
language)
• Dante: Divine Comedy – a soul’s journey to
salvation, written in Italian
• Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Talescollection of stories told by a group journeying
to the tomb of St. Thomas a Becket at
Canterbury in England, described English
society, written in English
• Christine de Pizan: French works written in
defense of women, French vernacular
Education
• Humanists believed education could
dramatically change human beings’ lives
• Liberal Studies
– Enabled people to reach full potential
– History, moral philosophy, rhetoric (public
speaking), grammar and logic, math, astronomy,
music, and physical education
– Purpose: to produce individuals who follow a path of
virtue and wisdom, a practical education to create
complete citizens
Girls’ Education
• Few went to school
• Girls studied the classics and were encouraged
to know some history, how to ride, dance, sing,
play the lute, and appreciate poetry
• NOT taught rhetoric or math
• Religion and morals should be the foremost in
educating “Christian ladies” so they could
become good wives and mothers
Artistic Renaissance in Italy
• Humans became the
focus of attention
and were portrayed
realistically
• Perspective: enabled
artists to create the
illusion of 3
dimensions so art
looks more realistic
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v407/n6801/images/407134aa.0.jpg
New Techniques in Painting
• Fresco: painting
done on wet plaster
– Masaccio very well
known for his
frescoes
• Also one of first to
master perspective
The Tribute Money
www.myeport.com/.../slideshow/2/1.28070.G.jpg
Sculpture and Architecture
• Donatello
– Sculptor
– Statue of Saint George:
realistic, freestanding
figure
Donatello: Statue of Saint George
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/d/donatello/donatello_george.jpg
Masters of the High Renaissance 14901520: Final stage of Renaissance
painting
• Leonardo da Vinci
– Realistic painting
– Goal was to create
idealized forms that
would capture the
perfection of nature
and the individual
– Dissected bodies to
see how they
naturally worked
Mona Lisa
The Last Supper
www.latifm.com/artists/image/da-vinci-leonard...
www.penwith.co.uk/artofeurope/leonardo_da_vin...
• Raphael
– One of best painters
in Italy
– Known for his
Madonnas
– Tried to achieve an
ideal of beauty far
surpassing human
standards
– Known for frescoes in
the Vatican Palace
The School of Athens
www.penwith.co.uk/artofeurope/raphael.htm
• Michelangelo
– Painter, sculptor,
architect
– Driven by desire to
create, worked with
great passion and
energy on many
projects
– Sistine Chapel ceiling
in Rome
• Ideal figures in perfect
proportions
http://www.italianvisits.com/people/michelangelo/images/michelangelosistine_chapel.jpg
Northern Artistic Renaissance
Low Countries: Belgium, Luxembourg,
the Netherlands
• Flanders: cultural and artistic center of the
Northern Renaissance
• How was the Northern Renaissance different
than in Italy? (besides happening a little later)
– Italy: Large spaces to work on, mastered technical
skills that allowed them to portray humans in
realistic settings
– North: Gothic Cathedrals (less space), no frescoes,
painted illustrations for books and wooden panels
for altar pieces, not as many learned perspective as
quickly
Artists of the Northern Renaissance
• Jan van Eyck
– Among 1st to use oil paint,
could use a variety of
colors and create fine
details with it
– Imitated nature by
observing reality and
portraying those details
the best he could
– Did NOT use perspective
The Ghent Altarpiece
www.ibiblio.org/.../auth/eyck/ghent/ghentopn.jpg
• Albrecht Dürer
– Learned perspective
during trips to Italy
– Tried to use the
details of the
Northern artists and
combine with the
Italian techniques
– Tried to achieve a
standard of ideal
beauty based on
careful examination of
the human form
The Adoration of the Maji
imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/SHD/S10