The Renaissance€¦ · The Renaissance “This century … like a golden age has restored to light...
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The Renaissance “This century … like a golden age has restored to light the liberal arts, which were almost extinct: grammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, and music.”
Transcript of The Renaissance€¦ · The Renaissance “This century … like a golden age has restored to light...
The Renaissance
“This century … like a golden age has
restored to light the liberal arts, which were
almost extinct: grammar, poetry, rhetoric,
painting, sculpture, architecture, and
music.”
Renaissance: 1300 to 1500
A rebirth of the classical arts of
Greek and Roman learning during a
brief period in European history.
Setting the Stage:
Europeans suffered from the Bubonic
Plague and the Hundred Years’ War
questioned the Church
questioned feudalism
educated people began to reject medieval
values and looked to the classical past for
ideas
Beginnings: Italy
began in northern Italy (Florence) and
spread north into Europe
3 Key Factors for Italy:
– thriving cities
• Cities = people exchange ideas
– a wealthy merchant class
– classical heritage of Greece and Rome
• studied ancient manuscripts
• drew inspiration from Roman ruins in Italy
Medici Family
merchants = wealthiest class, politics
individual achievement, not inheritance
ruled Florence, Italy (uncrowned kings)
patron of the arts (supported art)
fortune in trading, banking, mining, wool
gave loans to government officials
– ruled as a dictator despite elected government
Cosimo
de Medici (1389-1464)
Lorenzo
De Medici (1449-1492)
Classical & Worldly Values
Humanism = focused on human potential &
achievements
– understand ancient Greek and Roman values
– switched focus from religious issues
enjoyment of Life
– wealth = luxury, fine music, tasty food
– Church leaders = elaborate, expensive lives
secular (worldly) society
– concerned with here and now
Renaissance Man = Genius
desire to master or be an expert in every
area of study
“universal man” Renaissance man
Baldassare Castiglione = The Book of the
Courtier
young man = charming, witty, and well
educated in the classics; dance, sing, play
music, and write poetry; skilled rider,
wrestler, and swordsman; self-control
Artistic Styles Change
realistic style with religious subjects
(Renaissance) vs. spiritual ideas with
religious subjects (medieval)
use of shading to portray realistic people
– improved drawings of anatomy
painted prominent citizens
– reveals individual distinctions
– nude statues w/ facial expressions
Artistic Technique: Perspective
perspective = three dimensional view
– optical illusion
– distant objects look smaller
– closer objects are painted larger than objects
farther away.
used in classical times, forgotten in
medieval times, reborn during Renaissance
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Renaissance man
– excelled as a painter, sculptor, architect, poet
figures = forceful, powerful, heroic
explored human potential (humanism)
St. Peter’s Basilica (church) = dome
– model for U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C.
David & Pietà = classical sculptures
Sistine Chapel = painted ceiling
– laid on his back on scaffold to paint for 4 years
Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1508-1512)
The
Last
Judgment (1537-1541)
Sistine Chapel,
Vatican City
David (1501-1504)
commissioned by the guild of the wool merchants
he stands in contraposto, a classic Greek representation of heroes
Michelangelo was fascinated by the nude male body
Galleria dell’ Accademia, Florence
Pietà
(1499)
St. Peter’s,
Vatican City
sculpture of youthful
Mary holding dead Christ
across lap
finished before he was 25
years old
the only work of art that
Michelangelo ever signed,
which he later regretted
regarded as the greatest
work of sculpture ever
created
Pietà (1499)
Tomb of Julius II planned to be the most
magnificent of Christian
times
supposed to include
more than 40 figures out
of marble
ran out of money
ordered by the Pope to
put aside the tomb and
work on the Sistine
chapel
when he went back to
work it was created on a
much more modest scale
Leonardo da Vinci
Renaissance Man = world genius
– painter, sculptor, inventor, scientist
– Mirror writing = mysterious notebooks
• wrote backwards
– interested in how things worked
• muscle movement, veins of leaves, etc…
Mona Lisa
– What was she thinking behind that smile?
The Last Supper (religious painting)
– Christ & apostles on the night before his crucifixion
– recently restored due to decaying & use of experimental paint
The Mona Lisa (1503-1505)
Musée du Louvre, Paris
The Last Supper (1495-1498)
Santa Marie delle Grazie, Milan
Raphael Santi
learned from studying the works of Michelangelo and Leonardo
Madonna and the Child
School of Athens
– shows classical influence of the Renaissance
– combination of classical/Renaissance figures
• Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Averroës (Arab phil.)
died at the age of 37
– Romans, pope, court = mourning
The School of Athens (1511)
Apostolic Palace, Vatican City
Changes in Literature
wrote for self-expression & “how-to” ideas
Francesco Petrarch
– great humanist/poet
– wrote sonnets about Laura (died from plague)
– wrote in Italian and Latin
Balderssare Castiglione (1478-1529)
The Book of the
Courtier
– describes the
manners,
skills, learning,
& virtues
someone at
court should
possess
Il Cortegiano
The Book of
the Courtier
(1528)
Early modern English cover
William Shakespeare
Writer in Renaissance England
Greatest playwright of all time
Revealed souls of men and women through
dramatic conflict
Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet
Drew on classical, historical figures for inspiration
– Julius Caesar, Mark Antony & Cleopatra, Richard III
Do you know these words?
Bedroom
Lonely
Generous
Gloomy
Heartsick
Hurry
Sneak
All of these words and almost
1700 others were introduced to
our language by Shakespeare.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
political thinker, patriot, poet, historian
The Prince (1513)
– political guidebook
– How can a ruler gain power and keep it despite
efforts of his enemies?
– most people are selfish, fickle, and corrupt.
– prince = strong as a lion, shrewd as a fox
– trick enemies and own people for the good of
the state (end justifies the means)
– concerned with effective politics, not morals
Getting results is more important
than keeping promises.
“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 how craftily to
manipulate the minds of men.”
Printing Spreads Renaissance Ideas
Chinese technology = moveable type
– separate piece of type for each character
Renaissance= demand for knowledge/books
Johann Gutenberg (Germany)
– reinvented the moveable type (about 1440)
– invented the printing press
• paper pressed against a tray full of inked type
– Gutenberg Bible (1456)
• first complete Bible printed with movable type
movable metal type, and composing stick
Effects of the Printing Press
printers produce mass copies
books = cheaper than hand-copied editions
new ideas spread through book contents
– religious works, travel guides, medical
manuals, gardening, hobbies
desire to learn to read = rise in literacy
Bible printed in the vernacular = leads to
different interpretations of the Bible
demand for religious reforms
Results of the Renaissance
Renaissance = burst of creative activity
revived and studied classical culture
praised individual achievement
produced new works with new techniques
new ideas and artistic styles appeared
influenced European thought
gave rise to democratic ideas
