The Renaissance1500s-1700

French for: Rebirth

Began in Florence, Italy in the mid 1400s as a cultural movement and

spread to the rest of Europe.

Theme “Do What You Will”

Humanists rejected organized and disciplined scholasticism of middle ages which decided by authority and not by experience.

By mid 15th Century humanism encompassed:Grammar, rhetoric, moral philosophy, poetry and history

Humanism• Commitment to the idea that ancient Greece

represented the best of human achievement and should be used as a model for Europeans

• A method of learning. Used reasoning and empirical evidence (observation and experiment instead of theory)

• Advocated “the genius of man” and the ability of the human mind.

Art Development of a highly realistic linear perspective

Trend: realism

Desire: depict beauty of nature

Leonardo da Vinci

1452-1519Archetype of the “Renaissance man”

The sense of overall harmony is achieved in the sitter's faint smile This reflects Leonardo's idea of the cosmic link connecting humanity and nature.

The Mona Lisa has no visible facial hair at all - including eyebrows and eyelashes.

The painting has been restored numerous times; X-ray examinations have shown that there are three versions of the Mona Lisa hidden under the present one.

The backing is beginning to show signs of deterioration at a higher rate than previously thought,

Multi-talented: A real “Renaissance Man: .

-Notebooks reveal a mind ahead of his time.-Drawings of helicopters, solar power and double hull.-Scientific diagrams

Vitruve Luc Viatour.“Proportions of

Man”Shows interest in blending art and science during the Renaissance. Also relates man to nature. “He believed the workings of the body were an analogy for the workings of the universe.”

In the Renaissance Old theories fell, replaced by new

insight and scientific examination

• William Harvey: Circulation of blood

Nicolaus Copernicus1473-1543

• Father of modern astronomy

• He also said the earth turned on its axis once a day and he doubted the earth lay in the middle of the universe. He claimed that the sun was the center of the universe and all the planets revolved around the sun.

Rene Descartes1569-1650

• Respected philosopher, scientist and mathematician.

• He claimed that the world was created by God and that it was made of two substances: matter and spirit. Matter was the physical universe and spirit was the human mind.

Galileo Galilei1546-1642

• The Father of modern physics• The motion of uniformly accelerated objects• “A body moving on a level surface will continue

in the same direction at constant speed unless disturbed."

• Discovered four moons of Jupiter• Advocated the Copernican theory that earth

moves and the sun stands still rather than the idea that the earth was the central object in the galaxy around which the sun rose and set.

Galileo was

ordered to stand trial on

suspicion of heresy in 1633.

House Arrest

• Sentenced to house arrest where he remained until his death in 1642.

• (about 11 years)

Age of Exploration

• Prince Henry landed in Africa

• Vasco de Gama: found route from Europe to India in 1498 after leaving Lisbon in July 1497.

Magellan sailed around the world 1519-1522

(one of his ships made it home 16 months after his death)

Secularization of English Society

• Began at end of middle ages

• Reinforced when Henry Vlll broke from the catholic church (1534)

Reigned1509-1547

Queen ElizabethDaughter of Henry’s 2nd wife

• Anne Boleyn • She married Henry in 1533 and bore him

Elizabeth who was later to become Queen Elizabeth I. When Anne miscarried a second child Henry accused her of witchcraft and had her beheaded at the Tower of London for adultery and incest.

1533-1603

• Ruled England for 45 years

• She established the Protestant Church

Elizabethan Drama

Influences from Roman theater:

• Revenge-obsessed character

• Onstage violence

• Supernatural beings

• Borrowed plot lines from Roman history

Episodic structure of Medieval theater also borrowed

• Includes a number of characters

• Series of scenes ranging through time

From place to place

The soliloquy

• Actor speaking alone on stage

• Expresses true feelings and thoughts of character

• Hamlet: “To be or not to be”

• Juliet’s night soliloquy

Characters

-Featured heroes and heroines of royalty or nobility in tragedies

-Lower-class characters in comedies

-but often mixed the two social groups

-comic scenes in tragedies

Shakespeare• Appeared on

the scene in 1590

• Fused all elements together (including dramatic verse)

1546-1616

Monarchy controlled:

• Number of companies restricted by law• 1572 ordinance: all companies had to

be sponsored by nobleman no lower than baron.

• Theaters had to be licensed• For performing for patrons companies

received money, small allowances for costumes and legal protection

Theater Companies named after Patrons

• Lord Chamberlain’s Men

(the company in which Shakespeare was a member)

Elizabethan Companies

• 25 members (approximately)• Shareholders received % of troupe’s

profit as payment for services• Hirelings were actors contracted for a

specific period of time for salary. Played minor roles

• Apprentices provided with room, board and experience

Householders

• Owners of the theaters were also organizers of the companies

• Star members were given part ownership in the theaters as an inducement to stay in organization

Famous actors of the time

• Richard Burbage: Leading actor in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men

• His brother Cuthbert Burbage built the Globe Theater

• Will Kemp: leading comic actor

James Burbage

• Father of Cuthbert and Richard Burbage

• James built the first theater called The Theater

• After the lease on the land expired his sons dismantled the theater and rebuilt it as the Globe Theater

• ▪ The crest and motto of the Globe Theatre Above the main entrance of the Globe was a crest displaying Hercules bearing the globe on his shoulders together with the motto "Totus mundus agit histrionem" (the whole world is a playhouse). This phrase was slightly re-worded in the William Shakespeare play As You Like It - "All the world’s a stage".

The Pit

• ▪ The Pit, the Yard, the Galleries - The Pit, or yard, was the area located around the stage. There was no seating - the cheapest part of the Globe Theater and the audience had to stand. The stage structure projected halfway into the ' yard ' where the commoners (groundlings) paid 1 penny to stand to watch the play. They would have crowded around the 3 sides of the stage structure.

The Pit1 p

1500-3000 people

Tiring house

5 ft. off ground

Trumpeter