September 15, 2014

• Objective: Students will be able to describe the characteristics of the Renaissance and identify and analyze why it began in Italy.

• Do Now: What were the characteristics of the Renaissance?

• Agenda: • Introduction to the Renaissance• Renaissance PowerPoint• Group Work• Homework: Finish Classwork

Renaissance

• “Means rebirth

• Refers to explosion of art and intellectual creativity

• 1300-1600-peak around 1500

• Time of great change-politically, socially, economically, and societal.

• Shifts from agricultural to urban society

Shift to Renaissance…

• Rebirth after the medieval world• Renewed interest in classical learning of Greece

and Rome• Continued use of Latin• Shift from religious beliefs to “human experience”

and the “here and now”• Renaissance-sparked interest in the unknown-led

to many explorers.

•

Renaissance Man

• Renaissance Men-were well rounded-talented in numerous areas.

• Renaissance Women-were expected to inspire art yet not create it

Expressing Humanism• Renaissance fueled an intellectual

movement-humanism.• Studied classical culture of Greece and

Rome to understand the world then.• Shifted from religion to world affairs.• Emphasized the humanities-grammar,

rhetoric, poetry, history etc.• Petrarch-assembled a library of Greek and

Roman manuscripts in monasteries and churches.

Italy as Birthplace of the Renaissance...Why?

• Survival of Roman artistic and architectural heritage

• Use of Latin kept memories of classical civilization alive

• Islamic and Byzantine influences

• Tradeled to wealth-created an affluent middle/upper class with the leisure for education and a sense of political responsibility

• Competition amongst city-states

Artists

• Renaissance painters, sculptors, and architects drew inspiration from the classical Greek and Roman artists rather than their medieval predecessors

• Artists used the technique of linear perspective to represent the three dimensions of real life on flat, two dimensional surfaces

Difference in Painting

Medieval Renaissance (The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne by da Vinci, 1510)

Difference in Painting

Renaissance (Pope Julius II by Raphael)

Medieval

The School at Athens by Raphael

The School at Athens, with lines to show perspective

Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337)

“The Mourning of Christ,” painted c.1305

Masaccio (Tomassco Guidi) (1401-1428)

Trinity 1425-28 Fresco

Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520)

St. George Fighting the Dragon, 1505

Raphael is famous for his warm, pious, and graceful Madonnas such as The

Small Cowper Madonna, c. 1505

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

• A great artist, but more than any other person of his age, personified the idea of the “Renaissance man”– Someone of broad

interests who is accomplished in both the arts and sciences

Mona Lisa uses light and shadow and perspective to make the figures fully human, enigmatic, and mysterious

The Last Supper captures the emotions of each of Jesus’ disciples at the exact moment of their learning one will betray

Him

Leonardo da Vinci

da Vinci’s study of the proportions of the human

body

da Vinci’s plans for a helicopter

Sculptors

• Sculptors depicted their subjects in natural poses

• Reflected working of human muscles

• Strays from awkward and rigid poses

Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564)

Michelangelo’s David and Moses show dramatic and emotional postures and expressions

Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo’s frescos covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican are perhaps the single

greatest achievement in Renaissance art

Donatello

Donatello’s David was the first nude statue of the Renaissance and is known for its grace,

proportionality, and balance

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446)

• Architecture in Renaissance:

• Simple and elegant classical style

• Perfected domes-open and airy

Brunelleschi is famous for his dome atop the

cathedral in Florence

Humanism

• Focused on:• Learning• Here and Now• Worldly Affairs

Famous Renaissance Authors

• Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)– Canterbury Tales

• Thomas More (1478-1535)– Utopia

• Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)– Don Quixote

• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)– Known for his use of language and analysis of

character which reflected a deep understanding of the good and evil in man

Movable Type

• Johannes Gutenberg’s use of movable type to print books accelerated the spread of classical learning

• Allowed for the mass production of texts that spread the cultural heritage of the classical world throughout Europe