Chp. 1 pp. 34-39. of Florence. “This century like a golden age has restored to light the liberal...

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Chp. 1 pp. 34-3

Transcript of Chp. 1 pp. 34-39. of Florence. “This century like a golden age has restored to light the liberal...

Chp. 1 pp. 34-39

of Florence. “This century like a golden age has restored to light the liberal arts, which were almost extinct: grammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, music.”

The philosopher Marsilio Ficino smiled with pleasure as he watched the sun cast a golden glow over his native city

Why Did the Renaissance Begin in Italy?

The Renaissance was marked by a new interest in the culture of ancient Rome. Italy had been the center of the Roman empire.

The cities of Italy had survived the Middle Ages and grown into prosperous centers of trade and manufacturing. In the North Florence, Milan, Venice and Genoa. Rome in Central Italy, and Naples in the South.

A wealthy merchant class in the Italian city-states stressed education and individual achievement and spent lavishly on the arts.

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Renaissance Italy 15051

Florence and the Medicis

• More than any other city in Italy Florence became the symbol for the Renaissance, it produced poets, artists, architects, scholars, and scientists.

• The Medici family were bankers who expanded into wool manufacturing, mining and other business. Cosimo de Medici became the leader of Florence in 1434, and the Medici family became uncrowned rulers for many years.

• Lorenzo de’ Medici was known as the “Magnificent”. He was a clever politician and generous patron [financial supporter of the arts. Under Lorenzo poets and philosophers as well as artists frequented the Medici palace.

Assassins Creed II

What Was the Renaissance?

The Renaissance was a time of creativity and change in many

areas–political, social, economic, and cultural. Perhaps most

important, however, were the changes that took place in the way

people viewed themselves and their world.

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A New World View

• It was time for a REBIRTH after the problems and lack of learning of the Medieval time

• Renaissance Europe actually benefited from the work that monks and scholars had done during medieval times. The math of Euclid, astronomy of Ptolemy, and the works of Aristotle were all preserved as well as Latin by medieval people.

• Many new attitudes toward culture and learning. Renaissance thinkers explored the here and the after. New emphasis on individual achievement, the ideal person was talented in many different areas. Liberal Arts

A Spirit of Adventure

• People began exploring new worlds.

• Christopher Columbus sailed to America in 1492.

• Nicolaus Copernicus changed the way Europeans viewed the universe

• Writers and Artists created new forms of art.

HumanismAt the heart of the Italian Renaissance was an

intellectual movement known as humanism.

Humanism was based on the study of classical culture and focused on worldly subjects rather than on religious issues.

Humanists studied the humanities, the subjects taught in ancient Greece and Rome. They believed that education should stimulate creativity.

Francesco Petrarch’s Sonnets to Laura inspired later writers, he got his ideas from classic writers like Cicero, Homer, and Virgil.

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A Golden Age in Arts

• Most recognizable form of expression from the Renaissance is the art

• Wealthy patrons helped fund artists

• Popes and Royalty supported many artists

• Isabella d’Este of Mantua was a female patron

Humanist Concerns

• Most artists painted religious figures• As the renaissance went on artists also

painted well known people of the day, reflecting the individual achievement part of humanism.

• Artists studied ancient Greek and Roman works

• Donatello was the first to create life size sculptures, since classic times

New Techniques

• Painters studied how detailed Roman art was and learned the practice of perspective.

• Painters used shading and painters and sculptors also studied anatomy and drew from live models. This portrayed the human body more accurately.

Women Artists• Few women became artists because of the lack of education and opportunity

• Some women kept their own artistic talent secret allowing their work to passed of as their husbands

• Some women like Sofonisba Anguissola, and Italian noblewomen, became well known, Sofonisba was a painter in King Philip of Spain’s court.

Architecture

• Artists went away from the Gothic style of the Middle Ages, thinking it was cluttered and disorderly

• Renaissance architects adopted the columns, arches, and domes of the Greeks and Romans

• Filippo Brunelleschi created a dome modeled after the Pantheon.

Three Geniuses of Renaissance Art

Studied the works of Michelangelo and Leonardo

Paintings blended Christian and classical styles

Best known for paintings of the Madonna, the biblical mother of Jesus

Talented sculptor, engineer, painter, architect, and poet

Sculpted the Pieta and statue of David

Painted huge mural to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome

Designed the dome for St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome

Made sketches of nature and of models

Dissected corpses to learn how the human body worked

Masterpieces include Mona Lisa and The Last Supper

Studied botany, anatomy, optics, music, architecture, and engineering

Made sketches for flying machines and undersea boats

RAPHAELMICHELANGELOLEONARDO

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Italian Renaissance

Writers• Poets, artists, and scholars mingled with

politicians at the courts of Renaissance rulers. A literature of “how-to” books sprang up to help ambitious men and women who wanted to rise in this time period.

Catiglione’s Ideal Courtier• The Book of the Courtier was the most widely

read of the “how to” books.• Baldassare Castiglione talks about the manners,

skills, learning, and virtues that court members should have.

• The perfect courtier was a well educated, well mannered, aristocrat who was well rounded in ability from poetry to sports

• Ideal man was athletic but not overactive, good at games but not a gambler, plays instruments and knows literature and history but is does not have to prove that at every opportunity

• Ideal women is a balance to men, graceful and kind, lively but reserved, beautiful “for outer beauty is the true sign of inner goodness”

Machiavelli’s Successful Prince

• Niccolo Machiavelli wrote a handbook called “The Prince” combined his experience of politics with his knowledge of the paste to offer a guide to rulers on how to gain and keep power

• Machiavelli has served in the courts of many royals as a diplomat.

• He wrote not of high ideals for leaders but of ruthless power politics. He stressed the end justifies the means, no matter what a ruler had to do to achieve their goals. Results were more important than keeping promises.

Niccolo Machiavelli1469-1527

“How praiseworthy it is for a prince to keep his word and live with integrity

rather than craftiness, everyone understands; yet… those princes have

accomplished most who paid little heed to keeping their promises, but who knew craftily to manipulate the

minds of men.”

Machiavelli’s Successful Prince cont.

• Machiavelli saw himself as an enemy of oppression and corruption, but critics attacked his advice, some claimed he was inspired by Satan

• Machiavellian is defined as the use of deceit in politics

• Most historians today believe Machiavelli was the first to take a realistic look at politics, and his work still causes thought as it raises ethical questions about how governments use power.