European Renaissance
The Renaissance
The rebirth of learning
in Europe
 Began in Italy around
1300 CE. Why?
 Italy was the center
of trade & economic
growth
 Roman and Greek
influences were
abundant
Factors that helped start the
Renaissance


Patronage: rich merchants, bankers had
money to spend on artists
Towns: drew people with artistic talents
together
Factors that helped start the
Renaissance


Economic
independence: people
with money had time
to read, learn,
experiment, create
Moveable print:
printing press created
by Johann Gutenberg
helped spread
knowledge; most
important invention of
Renaissance
Factors that helped start the
Renaissance

As a result, the attitude of
common people towards life
changed

Humanism developed
– dignity and worth of all
people

People concerned
themselves with enjoying life,
solving problem, questioning
everything
Medieval Man vs Renaissance Man

Religious-minded
(concerned with
afterlife)
 Men felt like a
member of a group
 People accepted
authority (king &
pope)

Concerned with life
on Earth
 Man as an individual
was important
 Man begins to
question and
investigate

Art
–
–
–
–

Renaissance art is
more life-like
use of perspective
(depth)
use of light and
shadows
more secular (nonreligious) topics
Education: still mainly
for the sons of the rich;
new philosophy:
respect for individual
differences in students
Society
Renaissance or Medieval? Why?
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4
3
1
Renaissance or Medieval? Why?
What influences do you see?
Society


Women: peasant &
middle class women
still lived harsh life
with little or no
education
Upper class women
had private tutors;
fathers arranged
marriages for
daughters; men
received a dowry
(land or cash) from
family of the bride
Spread of Renaissance
The Renaissance spread to the rest of Europe
by students who studied in Italy.
 France
 Spain
 Netherlands
 England
Spread of Renaissance
France: King Francis I brought the Renaissance
to France:
– brought artists to France (da Vinci)
– Built the College of France
– Built the palace of the Louvre
Spread of Renaissance
Spain:
 Painters: El Greco: View of Toledo;
Velazquez: Four Maidens
 Miguel de Cervantes: wrote Don Quixote
de La Mancha
Spread of Renaissance
Netherlands:
 Rembrandt: painted Man with Golden Helmet,
Night Watch
 Erasmus: wrote In Praise of Folly which
criticized the Catholic Church for its greed,
corruption, & superstitions
Spread of Renaissance
England: supported by Queen Elizabeth
 Thomas More: wrote Utopia which criticized
society by creating a utopia, perfect society
 Shakespeare: humanist playwright who dealt
with love, tragedy, hate, desire; greatest writer of
the English language of all time
Scholars
Petrarch: the “Father of Humanism”
 wrote sonnets about love, nature, enjoyment of
life
 writing caused a change in the direction of
education; teachers started to teach students to
seek answers not just to memorize the classical
works of the past
 stressed history, grammar, philosophy
To be able to say how much you
love is to love but little.
Rarely do great beauty and great
virtue dwell together
Scholars
Machiavelli: humanist writer who served as a
diplomat for Florence; wanted to unify Italy
 wrote The Prince: a lesson on how to gain &
hold power without moral concern for justice
or honesty
Artists
Leonardo da Vinci: painter, sculptor, architect,
scientist, inventor
 Painted Mona Lisa, The Last Supper
 Inventor: parachute, aqualung, canons,
pumps
 Drawings of human anatomy still used today
Artists
Michelangelo: painted ceiling of Sistine Chapel
(Vatican); sculpted 9 foot statue David & La
Pieta