Western Europe
Renaissance
en.wikipedia.org
Presentation created by Robert Martinez
Primary Content Source: Prentice Hall World History
Images as cited.
shake-speares-bible.com
The northern Renaissance began in the prosperous
cities of Flanders, a region that included parts of
present-day northern France, Belgium, and the
Netherlands. Spain, France, Germany, and England
enjoyed their great cultural rebirth 100 years later, in
the 1500s.
www.getty.edu
Albrecht Durer
traveled from
Germany to Italy in
1494 to study the
techniques of the
Italian masters.
Returning home, he
employed these
methods in
paintings and,
especially, in
engravings.
www.artble.com
In this form of art, an
artist etches a design
on a metal plate with
acid. The artist then
uses the plate to make
prints. Many of
Durer’s engravings
portray the religious
upheaval of his age.
www.umich.edu
Through his art, as
well as through his
essays, Durer helped
to spread Italian
Renaissance ideas in
his homeland.
Because of his wideranging interests,
which extended far
beyond art, he is
sometimes called the
“German Leonardo.”
Among the many
artists of Flanders in
the 1400s, Jan and
Hubert van Eyck
stand out. Their
portrayals of
townspeople as well
as religious scenes
abound in rich,
realistic details.
www.myartprints.com
The van Eyck's also
developed oil paint.
Northern artists used
this new medium to
produce strong colors
and a hard surface
that could survive for
centuries.
www.myartprints.co.uk
In the 1500s, Peter Paul
Rubens blended the
realistic tradition of
Flemish painters like
Bruegel with the
classical themes and
artistic freedom of the
Italian Renaissance.
Many of the enormous
paintings portray pagan
figures from the classical
past.
commons.wikimedia.org
Like Italian humanists, northern European humanist
scholars stressed education and classical learning. At
the same time, they emphasized religious themes. They
believed that the revival of ancient learning should be
used to bring about religious and moral reform.
www.dudziak.com
The Dutch priest and
humanist Desiderius
Erasmus used his
knowledge of classical
languages to produce a
new Greek edition of the
New Testament. He
called for a translation of
the Bible into the
vernacular, or everyday
language of ordinary
people.
en.wikipedia.org
Erasmus scorned,
“those who are
unwilling that Holy
Scripture, translated
into the vernacular,
be read by the
uneducated … as if
the strength of the
Christian religion
consisted in the
ignorance of it.”
fr.wikipedia.org
To Erasmus, an individual’s
chief duties were to be
open-minded and of good
will toward others. As a
priest, he was disturbed by
corruption in the Church
and called for reform. In
The Praise of Folly,
Erasmus uses humor to
expose the ignorant and
immoral behavior of many
people of his day, including
the clergy.
yalepress.yale.edu
Erasmus’s friend, the English humanist Thomas More,
pressed for social reform. In Utopia, More describes an
ideal society in which men and women live in peace
and harmony. No one is idle, all are educated, and
justice is used to end crime rather than to eliminate the
criminal.
schoolworkhelper.net
socialhistory.org
Scholars like More and Erasmus wrote mostly
in Latin. In northern towns and cities, the
growing middle class demanded new works in
the vernacular. This audience particularly
enjoyed dramatic tales and earthly comedies.
education14.blogspot.com
The French humanist Francois Rabelais had a varied
career as a monk, physician, Greek scholar, and
author. In Gargantua and Pantagruel, he chronicles
the adventures of two gentle giants. On the surface,
the novel is a comic tale of travel and war. But
Rabelais uses his characters to offer opinions on
religion, education, and other serious subjects.
www.lookandlearn.com
The towering figure of
Renaissance literature
was the English poet
and playwright
William Shakespeare.
Between 1590 and
1613, he wrote 37 plays
that are still performed
around the world.
Shakespeare’s comedies, such as Twelfth Night, laugh
at the follies of young people in love. His history plays,
such as Richard III, depict the power struggles of
English kings. His tragedies show people crushed by
powerful forces or their own weaknesses. In Romeo and
Juliet, two teenagers fall victim to an old family feud.
treasuredpasts.hubpages.com
Shakespeare’s love of
words vastly enriched
the English
language. More than
1,700 words appeared
for the first time in
his works, including
bedroom, lonely,
generous, gloomy,
heartsick, hurry, and
sneak.
jessicamozao.blogspot.com
The Renaissance in Spain in the early 1600s led to the
production of great works. Best known is Don
Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, an entertaining
tale that mocks romantic notions of medieval
chivalry. The novel follows the adventures of Don
Quixote, a foolish but idealistic knight, and Sancho
Panza, his faithful servant.
www.digimediaapps.com
mamolmar.wikispaces.com
In 1456, Johann Gutenberg of Mainz,
Germany, printed the first complete edition of
the Bible using the first printing press, and
printing inks in the West. Within twenty years,
the development of movable type made book
production even easier.
www.seanongley.com
A printing
revolution had
begun that
would transform
Europe. By 1500,
more than 20
million volumes
had been
printed.
www.unc.edu
Guttenberg and his successors
built on earlier advances.
Methods of making paper had
reached Europe from China
about 1300. The Chinese and
Koreans had been using
movable metal type for
centuries, although
Europeans may have
developed their technology
independently.
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