The Renaissance in Europe1350-1600

Chapter 15Page 287 in the textbook

Introduction

• The Renaissance was a a time of creativity, interest in learning, and a desire to explore the human experience.

• Sparked by renewed interest in the culture of ancient Rome, the Renaissance began in the independent and prosperous cities of Italy.

• At the heart of the Renaissance was a set of ideas known as humanism.

Lesson 1: The Italian States

Bellringer

• The city of Florence was known for its wealth, its beauty, and creative geniuses that worked there.

Discuss with your partner:• What cities today are known as centers of arts

and literature?• Why do many artists and writers move to cities?

• Guiding Question: Why did the Renaissance begin in Italy?

1. Renewed interest in Ancient Rome

• The Renaissance was marked by a new interest in the culture of ancient Rome.

• Because Italy had been the center of the Roman Empire, it was the logical place for the rebirth to begin.

• Architectural remains, statues, coins, and inscriptions, were all visible reminders of Roman achievement.

2. Cities

• Italy’s cities survived the Middle Ages• In the north, city-states like Florence, Milan,

Venice and Genoa grew into centers of trade and manufacturing.

• Rome and Naples, along with a number of smaller city states, also contributed to the cultural revival.

• Thriving cities meant opportunities for education, scientific pursuits, and even…arts and leisure.

City States of Renaissance Italy

Florence, perhaps more than any other city, came to symbolize the energy and brilliance of

the Italian Renaissance.

Florence• Like the ancient city of Athens, Florence

produced a dazzling number of gifted poets, artists, architects, scholars, and scientists in a short span of time.

• Venice is a city in northeastern Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges

Venice

Satellite image of Venice, circa 2009.

Venice Gondoliers, the Rialto bridge and the Grand Canal

Venice was a very important center of commerce (especially silk, grain, and spice) and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century.

Merchants of Venice

St Mark's Basilica

3. Patronage

• A wealthy and powerful merchant class in these city-states further promoted cultural rebirth.

• A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities produced by others, in order to earn a profit.

• What kinds of commodities do you think merchants were dealing in the Renaissance?

The Merchant Hans Holbein the younger

(German)

Date: 1532

Merchants

• Many Renaissance merchants were very wealthy.

• They held political power as well.• Their attitudes and interests helped shape the

Renaissance.• They stressed education and individual

achievement. • They also spent lavishly to support the arts.• This is what we refer to as patronage

Bellringer

1. Why did the Renaissance begin in Italy?

2. What role did merchants play in the Renaissance?

*Discuss with a partner, prepare to present your response to the class.

The Medicis

• In the 1400’s, the Medici family of Florence organized a successful banking business.

• Before long, the family expanded into wool manufacturing, mining, and other ventures.

• The Medicis ranked among the wealthiest merchants and bankers in Europe.

The Medicis

• Cosimo de Medici gained control over the Florentine government in 1434, and the family continuted as uncrowned rulers of the city for many years.

The coat of arms of the Medici family

Cosimo de Medici

Lorenzo de Medici

•Cosimo’s grandson Lorenzo de Medici, known as “the magnificent”, represented the Renaissance ideal.

•Generous patron of the arts

• Under Lorenzo, poets and philosophers frequently visited the Medici Palace.

• Artists learned their craft by sketching ancient Roman statues displayed in the Medici gardens.

Medici Palace

•The palace was designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo for Cosimo de Medici, and was built between 1445 and 1460. It was well known for its stone masonry.

•What stands out to you about the architectural design of this building?

•What do you think is contained inside?

The fifteen-year-old boy of noble birth, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, was entertained in Florence in April 1459, and left a letter describing the Medici Palace

• “…Decorated on every side with gold and fine marbles, with carvings and sculptures in relief, with pictures and inlays done in perspective by the most accomplished and perfect of masters even in the very benches and floors of the house; tapestries and household ornaments of gold and silk, silverware and bookcases that are endless... then a garden done in the finest of polished marbles, with diverse plants, which seems a thing not natural but painted."

Palace Interiors

What was the Renaissance?

1. A New World View

• Unlike medieval scholars who focused on life after death, Renaissance thinkers explored the richness of the “here and now”.

• They were humanists.• New emphasis on individual achievement. • The Renaissance ideal was the person with

talent in many fields.

• Humanists studied grammar, rhetoric, poetry, science, philosophy, architecture and a variety of other fields.

• Leonardo Da Vinci was seen by those around him as a model of the humanist ideal.

Humanism

2. Humanism

• Humanists believed that it was love of learning that made men and women truly human. One phrased it this way:

• “To each species of creature has been allotted a particular and instructive gift. Galloping comes naturally to horses, flying to birds. To man only is given the desire to learn…..For learning and virtue are particular to man.”

Review Questions From This Week

• What were the conditions that were present in Italy in the late 14c and early 15c that encouraged the beginning of the Renaissance?

• Why was Florence at the heart of the Italian Renaissance?

• What role did the Medici family play in Renaissance Florence?

• What were the characteristics of humanism? How was it different from medieval thought?

3. A Spirit of Adventure

• The Renaissance supported a spirit of adventure and a curiosity that led people to explore new worlds.

• Christopher Columbus, Italian navigator who sailed to the Americas in 1492, represented that spirit.

• So did Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish scientist who revolutionized the way that people viewed the universe.

• Writers such as William Shakespeare were eager to experiment with new forms, and were also products of that adventurous spirit.

Medieval World Maps

Renaissance Era World Map

4. A Golden Age in the Arts

• Renaissance ideas were most gloriously expressed in its paintings, sculpture, and architecture.

• Wealthy patrons played a major role in this artistic growth.

• Popes, Princes, and wealthy merchants supported the work of hundreds of artists.

New Techniques• Roman sculpture had been very realistic, but

painting still lacked depth. • Renaissance artists learned the rules of

perspective.

Perspective• By making distant objects smaller than those

close to the viewer, artists could paint scenes that appeared three-dimensional.

This technique is called foreshortening.

Medieval Art

• Medieval art lacked the depth and realism that Renaissance was about to achieve.

Early attempt at Perspective (fail!)

• This 15th century French painting is clearly a general attempt at foreshortening, but it was unsuccessful.

Perspective

• To add three-dimensional depth and space to their work, Renaissance artists rediscovered and greatly expanded on three important ideas:

1. linear perspective2. horizon line3. vanishing point

Linear Perspective

• Creating a painting with linear perspective is like looking through a window and painting exactly what you see on the window pane.

• Instead of every object in the picture being the same size, objects that were further away would be smaller, while those closer to you would be larger.

Horizon Line• The horizon line is a theoretical line that represents

the eye level of the observer. • The horizon line is the same as the horizon (the edge

of the land against the sky) only on a large flat plane like the ocean.

• Most of the time geographic features (hills) and other objects (trees and buildings) make the horizon above the horizon line.

Vanishing Point

• The vanishing point is the point at which parallel lines appear to converge far in the distance, often on the horizon line.

• This is the effect you can see when standing on railroad tracks and looking at the tracks recede into the distance.

Bellringer

• What new techniques were developed in Renaissance painting?

• What effect did these techniques have on Renaissance art?

Examples of Renaissance Perspective

• Masolino, ‘St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Raising of Tabitha’ (1425).

‘The Disputation of St Stephen’ by Carpaccio (1514)

‘The School of Athens’ by Raphael (1518)

Three Geniuses of Renaissance Art• Renaissance Florence was home to many outstanding painters and sculptors.• The three most celebrated Florentine masters were Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

Leonardo

• Born in 1452, Florence• Exploring mind and endless curiosity• Genius for invention• Made endless sketches from nature and from

his mind• Dissected corpses to learn how bones and

muscles work

Leonardo

• Leonardo saw himself as an artist, but his talents ranged over many areas.

• His interests extended to botany, anatomy, optics, music, architecture, and engineering.

• He made sketches for flying machines and undersea boats centuries before the first airplane or submarine was actually built.

Leonardo’s Sketches

The Genius of LeonardoPrimary Source

“Leonardo practiced not one art but all of those that are dependent upon design, and he had great talent for geometry besides being very musical, playing the lute with great ability and being excellent in the art of improvisation….In entertaining, Leonardo was so pleasant that he won everyone’s heart. Although he may well be said to have owned nothing and to have worked little, he always kept a servant as well as horses.”

-Georgio Vasari, Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.

Question: Why is Leonardo considered to be a prime example of a Renaissance Humanist?

Leonardo

• Today, people admire Leonardo’s paintings for their freshness and realism.

• Most popular is the Mona Lisa, a portrait of a woman whose mysterious smile has baffled viewers for centuries.

• The Last Supper, showing Christ and his apostles on the night before the crucifixion, is both a moving religious painting and a masterpiece of perspective.

Mona Lisa

The Last Supper

Michelangelo (1475-1564)

• Michelangelo was also a many-sided genius – sculptor, engineer, painter, architect, and poet.

• As a young man, he shaped marble into masterpieces

• The Pieta, which captures the sorrow of Mary cradling the dead Christ on her knees

• Statue of David, the biblical shepherd who killed the giant Goliath, recalls the harmony and grace of the ancient Greek tradition.

Pieta

David

Michelangelo Marbles

Sistine Ceiling

• One of Michelangelo’s greatest projects was painting a huge mural to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

• An enormous task depicting the biblical history of the world, from the Creation to the Flood.

Primary Source

• In a poem, Michelangelo later described his experience painting the ceiling:

“My Stomach is thrust toward my chinMy beard curls up toward the skyMy head leans right over onto my backThe Brush endlessly dripping onto my face”

-Michelangelo, Poems.

Sistine Ceiling

For four years, the artist lay on his

back on a wooden platform

suspended just a few inches below

the chapel ceiling.

Rafael (1483 – 1520)

• A few years younger than Leonardo and Michelangelo, Rafael studied the works of those great masters

• His paintings blend Christian and classical styles. • In The School of Athens, Rafael pictures an

imaginary gathering of great thinkers and scientists, such as Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates.

• With typical Renaissance self-confidence, Rafael included the faces of Michelangelo, Leonardo, and – himself.

Raphael The Marriage of the Virgin

(1504)

Excellent example of linear perspective!

Jan Van Eyck Arnolfini Wedding Portrait

(1434)

The inscription on the back wall translates “Jan Van Eyck was here, 1434” suggests that the artist was a witness to the wedding

The spotless mirror on the back wall alludes to purity, and the reflection of two other individuals in the room (including the painter) infers that witnesses are present

Italian Renaissance Writers

• Poets, artists, and scholars mingled with politicians at the courts of Renaissance rulers.•Some writers wrote in vernacular, the local spoken language. • Replaced classical Latin as the predominant written language. •What effect do you think vernacular literature had on Renaissance society?

Machiavelli (1469-1527)

• Published in 1513, The Prince offered a guide to rulers on how to gain and maintain power.•Urged rulers to do whatever methods were necessary to achieve their goals. • On the issue of honesty in government, for example, he taught that getting results was more important than keeping promises.

Machiavelli Quotes

“The end justifies the means”

“It is much safer to be feared than loved”

Primary Source

“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 to who knew how craftily to manipulate the minds of men.”

Machiavelli – The Prince

Discussion•Machiavelli’s work continues to spark debate because it raises important ethical questions about the nature of government and the use of power.

•Discussion Question:

•Do you agree with Machiavelli that a productive government is more important than an honest government?