THE RENAISSANCE
Essential Questions:
1.
What factors made Italy conducive for being the birth
place of the Renaissance?
2.
What lasting outcomes emerged as a result of the
Renaissance?
Italy: Birthplace of the Renaissance
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Renaissance- “Rebirth” of art and learning
Advantages: large cities, wealthy merchant class,
links to Greek and Roman heritage
Trade created city development and wealthy
merchants
Wealthy merchant families ruled Florence and
patronized the arts
Artists were influenced by Classical Greece and
Rome
Renaissance Values
Humanism - focused on human potential and
achievements
 YOU CAN ENJOY LIFE AND NOT OFFEND
GOD!!!!
 People became more secular (worldly)
 Concept of the “Renaissance Man” or one who
excels in many areas of study
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Renaissance Art & Architecture
Realistic style of the classics
 Greek and Roman subjects
 Perspective showing three dimensions
 Abandoned pointed arches and ornamentation
 Used columns and circular arches for classic
style
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“Marriage of the Virgin” by Masaccio
Shows Perspective and three dimensions first
painter to use this technique
“La Pieta” by
Michelangelo
Shows Realism
and glorifies the
human body
Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo
Shows the creation story of the Bible
“The Mona Lisa” by
Leonardo Da Vinci
“Last Super” by Leonardo de Vinci
Shows Jesus and his disciples the night before
his crucifixion
Florence, Italy
Shows classical architectural style
Renaissance Writers
Petrarch “Father of Humanism” studied
classical Greek and Roman texts
 Machiavelli- Wrote The Prince a guide book on
how to secure and maintain political power
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A king should do what is politically effective rather
than morally right
 “Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer”
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The Northern Renaissance Begins
Civil war in Italy caused many Italian artists
to go North bringing their ideas with them
 Northern European traditions were more
religious
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Northern Art
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Albecht Durer (German) painted religious subjects,
classical myths, landscapes, and portraits
Hans Holbein (German) painted portraits that
emphasized realism
Jan Van Eyck (Flemish) first to use the oil based
paints to create a variety of colors, realistic details
Pieter Brueghel (Flemish) painted scenes of everyday
life
Albecht Durer “Adoration of the Trinity
Pieter Brueghel “Peasant Wedding”
Northern Writers
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Northern Humanists were more critical of the church
Erasmus questioned the church wrote The Praise of
Folly, satirizing rich merchants, lovers, scholars and
pompous priests
Writers such as Rabelais (France), William
Shakespeare (English) and Cervantes (Spain) began
to write in the vernacular (common language)
Printing Press
-Johann Gutenberg- Invented the printing
press uses movable type spreads literacy