Chapter 15 Section 1
The Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance
Main Idea
In Italy the growth of wealthy trading cities and new ways of thinking
helped lead to a rebirth of the arts and learning. This era became
known as the Renaissance.
Objectives:
• Students will explore the changes in society and in cities that
stimulated the beginning of the Renaissance.
• Students will identify the ideas that formed the foundation of the
Italian Renaissance.
• Students will examine the contributions artists made to the
Renaissance.
Music Comparison
Middle Ages and
Renaissance
With Good Company
Henry VIII
(Modern English)
Pastime with good company
I love and shall until I die
grudge who lust but none
deny
so God be pleased thus live
will I
for my pastance
hunt sing and dance
my heart is set
all goodly sport
for my comfort
who shall me let
AGNUS DEI XII
(ENGLISH ADAPTATION)
Lamb of God, * you take away the sins of the
world : have mercy on us. Lamb of God, * you
take away the sins of the world : have mercy
on us. Lamb of God, * you take away the sins
of the world : grant us peace.
youth must have some
dalliance
of good or ill some pastance
Company me thinks then
best
all thoughts and fancies to
digest.
for Idleness
is chief mistress
of vices all
then who can say.
but mirth and play
is best of all.
Company with honesty is
virtue vices to flee.
Company is good and ill but
every man has his free will.
the best ensue
the worst eschew
my mind shall be.
virtue to use
vice to refuse
thus shall I use me.
The Beginning of the Renaissance
Michelangelo’s painting was different from the art of the Middle Ages, and only one
way in which European society began changing after the 1300s.
Changes in Society
The Rise of City-States
• 1300, Black Death, starvation,
warfare had overtaken Europe
• Urban areas specialized, particularly
in Italy
• Catastrophic events, enormous loss
of life may have led to changes of the
1300s
• Italy divided into several large citystates in north, various kingdoms,
Papal States south
• Decrease in population led to:
• Catholic Church, nobles, merchants,
artisans dominated society in citystates
– Increase in food production
– Decline in food prices
– More money to spend
– Specialization in products
• Many sought to display new wealth
with knowledge of arts
Venice
• With access to sea, Venice built economy, reputation on trade
• Had long history of trading with other ports on Mediterranean Sea
• Shipbuilding prospered, sailors traveled to Near East
• Wealthy Venetian merchants built unique city, “work of art”
Milan, Florence
• Milan, west of Venice, based economy on agriculture, silk, weapons
• Florence, to south, famous for banking, cloth
• Monarchs appealed to Florentine bankers for money to fund wars
• Merchants refined raw wool into fine cloth
• Bankers, merchants created city to rival any in Europe
Modern Renaissance Cities…
United Arab Emirates
Shanghai,
China
Renaissance Ideas
As the economy and society changed, new ideas began to appear. This period of
interest and developments in art, literature, science and learning is known as the
Renaissance, French for “rebirth.”
Inspiration from the
Ancients
• Venetian ships carried
goods for trade and
Greek scholars seeking
refuge
• Scholars brought
ancient works thought
to be lost
New World of Ideas
• Italians who could read
looked for more
information
• Read Arabic
translations of original
texts
• Searched libraries,
found lost texts
Different Viewpoints
• As they read, began to
think about philosophy,
art, science in different
ways
• Began to believe in
human capacity to
create, achieve
Humanism
Humanities
• Interest in ancient Greek, Roman
culture
• Characteristics of good education
• Scholastic education gave way to
classics: rhetoric, grammar, poetry,
history, Latin, Greek
• Subjects came to be known as
humanities, movement they inspired
known as humanism
• Humanists emphasized individual
accomplishment
Renaissance Man
• Ideal Renaissance man came to be
“universal man,” accomplished in
classics, but also man of action, who
could respond to all situations.
• Best Example Leonardo Da Vinci
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCfMDcT
vHM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYqwLvfxSw
Modern humanists/Renaissance people?
Secular Writers
• Early 1500s life in Italy seemed insecure, precarious
• Church no longer served as source of stability, peace
• Form of humanism developed from Petrarch’s ideas; focus was secular, was worldly
rather than spiritual
Service
• Humanists argued that individual
achievement, education could be fully
expressed only if people used talents,
abilities in service of cities.
How to Act
• Italian diplomat Baldassare Castiglione
wrote book, The Courtier
• Described how perfect Renaissance
gentleman, gentlewoman should act
How to Rule
• Philosopher, statesman Niccolò Machiavelli also wrote influential
book
• Experiences with violent politics influenced opinions on how
governments should rule in The Prince
Machiavellian advice seemed to encourage harsh treatment of citizens,
rival states
• Describes men as “ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers”
• Advises rulers to separate morals from politics
•
•
Power, ruthlessness more useful than idealism
Ruler must do whatever necessary to maintain political power,
even if cruel
Machiavelli’s theory that “the end justifies the means” deviated from
accepted views of correct behavior
Idea that state an entity in itself, separate from its ruler, became
foundation for later political philosophy
“How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to
be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his
preservation.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli
Do the ends justify the means – some famous examples…
Cohn, Bill. Closing Pandora's Box. Digital image. Prague Post. N.p., 23
Apr. 2009. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.praguepost.com/pictures/6-20090422-1131-682opic.jpg>.
http://youtu.be/lb13ynu3Iac
Science of the Renaissance
Scientific Information
Natural World
• Humanists searched archives, Arab
translations for classical texts
• Focus of Renaissance on human
sciences, history, politics, geography
• Discovered wealth of scientific
information
• New ideas about natural world began
to be explored also
Scientific Challenges
Earth, Sun
• Science soon became important
avenue of inquiry
• Nicholas Copernicus said Sun was
center of universe
• Church’s teachings about world were
challenged, particularly that Earth
center of universe
• Galileo Galilei arrested by church
officials for saying Earth orbited Sun
In a book called On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies
(that was published as Copernicus lay on his deathbed),
Copernicus proposed that the Sun, not the Earth,
was the center of the Solar System. Such a model is called a
heliocentric system.
The ordering of the planets known to Copernicus in this new
system is illustrated in the following figure, which we recognize as
the modern ordering
of those planets.
Renaissance Art
The arts a reflection of the new humanist spirit
Medieval artists—idealized and symbolic representations
Renaissance artists depicted what they observed in nature
Renaissance artists wanted to paint the natural world as realistically as possible.
Leonardo da Vinci
• Highly talented in all fields (renaissance man)
• His paintings are still studied and admired
• Wrote out ideas, filling 20,000 pages of notes
• His interests, enthusiasm boundless
Michelangelo
Sculpture, Painting
• Studied anatomy
• Marble statue of David
• Age 24, won fame with Pietà,
sculpture of Jesus’ mother Mary
holding son’s dead body
• Most famous painting, artwork on
ceiling of Sistine Chapel
• Sculpture communicates grief, love,
acceptance, immortality
• Scenes from Old Testament considered
one of greatest achievements in art
history
Leonardo’s handwriting
Leonardo Da Vinci
• The Last Supper
• Vitruvian Man
Leonardo Da Vinci’s
The Virgin of the Rocks
1491-1508
Mona Lisa, 1503 / 1506
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Pietà
1499
Marble, height 174
cm, width at the base
195 cm
Basilica di San Pietro,
Vatican
Michelangelo
Statue of David
1501-1504
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html
Other Artists
Raphael
Bramante
• Raffaello Sanzio, became known as
Raphael
• Renaissance architecture reached
height with work of Donato Bramante
• Renowned painter, accomplished
architect
• Had already achieved fame when
chosen architect of Rome
• Most famous work, The School of
Athens, fresco—painting made on
fresh, moist plaster
• Design for St. Peter’s Basilica
influenced appearance of many
smaller churches
• Also well known for many paintings of
the Madonna, mother of Jesus
Raphael Madonna of the Meadow 1505
Patrons of the Arts
• Medieval times, anonymous artists
who worked for church created art
• Renaissance artists worked for
whoever offered them highest price
• Buyers of art, patrons, might be
wealthy individuals, city governments,
or church
Competition Among Patrons
• Wealthy individuals competed,
displaying wealth, modernity through
purchase of artworks
• Florence, Lorenzo de Medici
supported most talented artists
• Milan, ruling Sforza family benefactors
of artists, others
Styles and Techniques
Artists Methods
• Studied perspective,
represented threedimensional objects
• Experimented with using
color to portray shapes,
textures
• Subject matter changed;
artists began to paint, sculpt
scenes from Greek, Roman
myths
Classical Influence
• Religious paintings focused
on personality
• Humanist interest in classical
learning, human nature
• Building design reflected
humanist reverence for
Greek, Roman culture
• Classical architecture favored
1. How did society and cities change in the
1300s?
2. What were some important new ideas of the
Renaissance?
3. What was the ideal of Renaissance art?
The Renaissance Spreads North
Trade, the movement of artists and scholars, and the development of printing
helped spread Renaissance ideas north from Italy.
Trading Goods
• As cities grew, vast trading network
spread across northern Europe
• Network dominated by Hanseatic
League, merchant organization,
1200s to 1400s
– Protected members from
pirates, other hazards
– Built lighthouses, trained ship
captains
Trading Ideas
• Northern Europeans traded ideas,
goods; spread Italian Renaissance
north
• Fleeing violence, Italian artists
brought humanist ideas, painting
techniques north
• Northern scholars traveled to Italy,
brought ideas home
• Universities started in France,
Netherlands, Germany
A Book Revolution
Printing Press
• Mid-1400s, Johannes Gutenberg cast letters of alphabet on metal plates, locked
metal plates on wooden press; perfected movable type printing
• Result, one of most dramatic upheavals world has ever known
Printed Word Available to More
• Before only way to reproduce writing was by hand; long, painstaking process
• With movable type, text quickly printed; producing books faster, cheaper
• Easier access to books prompted more people to learn to read
Italics
• Gutenberg’s first publication, 1,282-page Bible
• Printers soon appeared in other cities, made books quickly, inexpensively
• Explosion of printed material quickly spread Renaissance ideas
Philosophers and Writers
Northern humanists expressed their own ideas
Combined interests of theology, fiction and history
Created philosophical works, novels, dramas, and poems
Desiderius Erasmus
• Combined Christian
ideas, humanism
• Wrote of pure, simple
Christian life, educating
children
• Fanned flames of
discontent
• Roman Catholic Church
censored, condemned
works
Sir Thomas More
• More’s best-known
work, Utopia, contains
criticisms of English
government, society
• Presents vision of
perfect, non-existent
society based on
reason
Christine de Pisan
• Italian-born writer
focused on role of
women in society
• Grew up in French
court of Charles V;
turned to writing when
widowed
• Championed equality,
education for women
Shakespeare and His Characters
William Shakespeare
• Many believe English playwright
William Shakespeare greatest writer
• Plots not original, but treatments of
them masterful
Spread Renaissance Ideas
• Use of language, choice of themes
made plays appealing even to
uneducated
• Plays helped spread ideas of
Renaissance to mass audience
• Deep understanding of human nature
• Drew inspiration from ancient,
contemporary literature
• Knowledge of natural science,
humanist topics expressed in plays
• Focused on lives of realistic characters,
unlike morality plays
• By Shakespeare’s death, 1616, London
scene of thriving theatre district
Artists
Like literary counterparts, northern European artists
influenced by Italian Renaissance
• Adopted Italian techniques
• Works reflected more realistic view of humanity
– Italian artists tried to capture beauty of Greek, Roman gods in
paintings
– Northern artists tried to depict people as they really were
Johannes Vermee
Dürer and Others
•
•
•
•
1400s, German artist Albrecht Dürer visited Italy
On return, used Italian techniques of realism, perspective
Oil paintings exhibit features unique to northern Renaissance
Oils reproduced textures; reflection of objects, scenes outside window
Flemish School
Everyday Life
• Artists of Netherlands developed own
style, Flemish School
• 1500s, Pieter Brueghel the Elder used
Italian techniques
• Used technique perfected by Jan van
Eyck, 1400s
• Paintings showed scenes from
everyday peasant life
• Fused the everyday with religious; lit
candle represents God’s presence
• Different from mythological scenes of
Italian paintings