HUM 2230
Instructor: Paloma Rodriguez
www.hum2230.wordpress.com
Study Guide for Exam 1
Content:
-Chapters 14, 15 (old edition 17, 18).
-All Power Prezi and Point Presentations and all homework and class handouts.
- All the images in the presentations and in your textbook.
-All the readings (brown pages and brown squares) in your book included.
Key words
Middle Ages
Renaissance
Humanism
pendentive
Neoplatonism
Vanishing point
Scientific/linear perspective
sibyl
Trompe l’oeil
contrapposto
Atmospheric/aerial perspective
indulgences
People
Make sure that you can associate these historical characters to the city (cities) where they worked, and
that you can identify their main area of activity. You should be able to spell their names correctly.
Cosimo de’ Medici
Lorenzo de’ Medici
Ghiberti
Brunelleschi
Masaccio
Botticelli
Donatello
Mantegna
Marsilio Ficino
Castiglione
Laura Cereta
Macchiavelli
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Raphael
Julius II
Leo X
Artists and works:
Masaccio, Trinity, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, 1425
“
The Tribute Money, Florence, 1420s
Sandro Botticelli, Bith of Venus, 1480
“
Primavera, 1480s
“
Adoration of the Magi, 1470
Lorenzo Ghiberti, North Doors and Gates of Paradise, Florence Baptistery, 1425-37
Filippo Brunelleschi, Nave of San Lorenzo, Florence, 1421-69
“
Dome of Florence Cathedral (Duomo), 1420-36
Donatello, David, 1440s
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa (Gioconda), Milan, 1495-98
“
Last Supper, Milan, 1495-98
Michelangelo Buonarroti, David, 1501-1504
“
Pietà, Vatican, Rome, 1497-1500
“
Moses, Tomb of Julius II, Rome, 1513-15
“
Sistine Chapel (all panels: prophets, triangles and central panels), Vatican,
Rome, 1508-12
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Raphael, School of Athens, Stanza dell Segnatura, Vatican, Rome, 1510-11
Literature:
Boccaccio Decameron (the Plague)
Plato Allegory of the Cave
Niccolo Macchiavelli, The Prince (Il Principe)
Baldassare Castiglione The Book of the Courtier
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Architects and Sculptors
Other Buildings:
Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, 1444
Laurentian Library, 1525-71
The Pantheon, Rome, 118-125 CE
Topics for the essay questions
1. The Dark Ages. Important events from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the
Renaissance.
a. Plague, war, cultural decline. See Prezi and Boccaccio’s Decameron (the Plague).
b. Contrast between the Islamic Empire and Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The
contributions of the Islamic empire. Be ready to discuss the documentaries about the Islamic
empire.
c. Access to knowledge in the Middle Ages: monasteries as repositories of knowledge,
Christianity and censorship, attitudes towards the Classical World, attitudes toward science.
d. Be prepared to discuss the movie “The Name of the Rose”
2. From the Medieval mind to the Renaissance. Explain the changes and evolution of ideas from the
late Middle Ages into the Renaissance. Discuss the importance of the Classical World during the
Renaissance and provide specific examples of its revival during the Renaissance (themes,
iconography, religion, artistic models…).
3. Florence and the Medici. Explain who the Medici were, his family landmarks (business, dwelling,
religious/ civic representation) and his role as patrons of the arts. Name works they commissioned,
artists who worked for them, cultural achievements, views on learning and the transmission of
knowledge, and explain their personal views (philosophy…).
4. The Sistine chapel. General structure, history and use. The ceiling: author, structure, themes, and
philosophical (Neoplatonic) reading of the frescoes.
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Practice exercises
Geography
A. Situate the following cities in the map: Florence, Venice, Rome. Color their areas of influence
during the Renaissance.
B. Situate the following landmarks in the city in which they are located (some are in Venice. Study
them as well)
Piazza della Signoria
Piazza di San Marco
Piazza di San Pietro
Santa Maria del Fiore
(duomo)
Florence
Loggia della Signoria
Ponte Vecchio
Grand Canal
Ca’ d’Oro
Palazzo Medici-Ricardi
Palazzo Ducale (doge’s)
Arno River
Pantheon
Rome
Saint Peter’s Basilica
Saint Marks’s Basilica
Tiber River
Sistine Chapel
Venice
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Practice
1. Fill in the blanks. If in doubt you can look at the list of names provided above.
a. The sculptor of the Gates of Paradise in Florence Baptistery
__________________________
b. He sculpted the tomb of pope Julius II as well as a Pietà __________________________
c. He was the architect who designed the Villa la Rotunda __________________________
d. He painted Primavera and the Birth of Venus __________________________________
e. He designed the renovation of Saint Peter’s Basilica ____________________________
f. He painted a ceiling simulating an opening where people look down into a room
________________________
g. He sculpted the first freestanding nude since antiquity _______________________
h. He wrote a famous book of manners ___________________________
i. Famous patron of the arts and humanist _________________________
j. Painter of the Stanza della Segnatura _____________________________
k. Patriarch of a wealthy family of bankers from the city of Florence
__________________________________
l. He wrote a pioneering text in political science _______________________________
m. Author of a letter addressing defending the ability of women to engage in intellectual
matters. _____________________ ______
n. He preferred aerial perspective to linear perspective and focused on the psychological
traits of the people he portrayed. ____________________________________
o. He was the first painter to use scientific and aerial perspective
________________________
2. True or False
a. _____ Neoplatonic philosophers think that the human soul has the potential of
becoming divine.
b. _____ Leonardo’s Last Supper does not make use of scientific perspective.
c. _____ During the Renaissance it is not uncommon to see pagan gods depicted.
d. _____ The population of Rome was larger during the Renaissance than in Ancient times.
e. _____ The ancient buildings of Rome were in a state of disrepair during the Renaissance.
f. _____ The renovation of Saint Peter’s Basilica was financed through the sale of the
Church property and works of art.
g. _____ The ancient goddess Venus became the epitome of platonic ideals (love, truth
(knowledge) and beauty) for the artists of the Renaissance.
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