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The Renaissance

Unit 1

Day 2

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Europe, the Near East, and North Africa in the Renaissance

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The Renaissance– Renaissance is a French term which means

“rebirth” or “revival” ****– In European history, it is roughly a 200 year period

from 1350 and 1550 **** – The Renaissance marked a rediscovery of

ancient Greek and Roman ideas, art, culture and philosophy ****

– Urban society in Renaissance Italy– Recovery from the Black Death ****– Emphasis on individual ability– “Universal person”– Not just art but many areas including

literature****– The decline of feudalism opened the way for

the Renaissance in Western Europe ****

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Renaissance Beginnings- Italy• Why the Renaissance Began in the Italian

City-States– Italy was the initial center of the Renaissance

because the ruins and remains of the Roman Empire stimulated curiosity about this past civilization. ****

– In addition, these city-states were close to the advanced civilizations of the Byzantines, Muslim Arabs, and Ottoman Turks, with whom they were impressed and from whom they received new ideas.

– Money into city states bound for Western Europe- funded pursuit of knowledge/arts

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• The Renaissance Moves Northward– By the middle of the 16th century, Italy had

begun to decline as a center of the Renaissance. • By then, most of the important trade routes were

via the Atlantic, therefore the Mediterranean declined as an entry spot for eastern goods.

• Thus, most of the more notable advances of this movement began to be made in the Netherlands, France, and England, while Portugal and Spain took the early lead in overseas exploration.

– As the Renaissance shifted northward, its character changed, coming to differ significantly from the Italian in several respects… ****

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• Northern Renaissance – The north was less concerned with sensuality,

aesthetics, and the enjoyment of life, which had characterized the Italian Renaissance ****

– More religious in nature- concerned with purifying the Christian religion ****

– Politics• In the area of politics, the northern Renaissance

saw an increase in pomp and ceremony• The northern European Renaissance witnessed

newly powerful, independent monarchs' first attempts to gain control over the Catholic churches within their realms.

• This contest for power between the church and the state in European politics will be known as the Reformation

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Renaissance Society– Three estates: ****

• clergy (first estate)• nobility (second estates) • peasants and inhabitants of towns and cities (third

estate)

– Nobility• 2 to 3 percent of the population• Political posts• Ideals of the aristocrat, Baldassare Castiglione

(1478-1529), The Book of the Courtier ****– Impeccable character, “breeding”/dignity, military service,

standards of conduct, classical education, well-developed personality ****

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Peasants and Townspeople– Peasants and Townspeople

• Peasants 85-90 percent of the total population– Decline of manorialism and continuing erosion of serfdom– Peasants as hired workers

• Patricians at the top of the urban society (trade, industry, and banking)

• Petty burghers (shopkeepers, artisans, guildmasters, and guildsmen)

• Property less workers (30 to 40 percent of the urban population)

Family and Marriage in Renaissance Italy ****– Arranged marriages– Father-husband at the center

• Authority was absolute– Wife manages the household

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The Intellectual Renaissance• Italian Renaissance Humanism

– The intellectual and cultural movement known as humanism arose from the study of classical Greek and Roman culture. ****

– These "Humanist" scholars studied history, astronomy, physics, mathematics, chemistry, medicine, poetry, philosophy, politics, and the fine arts= human potential and achievements ****

– Renaissance individualism was characterized by the search for great heroes and great accomplishments--the person was elevated over the spirit.

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• Impact of Printing– The northern Humanists' desire to reform the Bible

and attack the abuses of the Church naturally led them to conclude that the public ought to be able to read the Bible for themselves

– Johannes Gutenberg• Movable metal type, 1445-1450 ****• Bible, 1455 or 1456- first full-sized book printed ****• Circulated widely and were printed in the vernacular--

common native languages ****

– Development of scholarly research ****– Standard textbooks were developed ****– Lay reading public- cook books, novels etc. ****

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Artistic Italian Renaissance• The Italians were very much aware of the fact

that in the distant past Italy, with Rome her capital, had been the center of the civilized world, and that her power and glory had waned since the Germanic tribes, Goths and Vandals, had invaded the country and broken up the Roman Empire

• The ideas of a revival were closely connected in the minds of the Italians with the ideas of a rebirth of ‘the grandeur that was Rome.’ ****

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The Artistic Renaissance• Early Renaissance ****

– Masaccio (1401-1428) ****• Frescos ****

• New Renaissance style– Laws of perspective and geometrical organization

of outdoor space and light– Investigation of movement and anatomical structure

• High Renaissance– Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

• Realism and idealism– Raphael (1483-1520)

• Ideal of beauty– Michelangelo (1475-1564)

• Divine beauty

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Characteristics of Renaissance Art

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Perspective ****

Perspective!Perspective!Perspective!

Perspective!Perspective!

First use of linear perspective= sense of depth created in a painting. ****

Perspective!Perspective!

� The Trinity

� Masaccio

� 1427

What you are, I once was; what I am, you will

become.

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Perspective is created

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Classicism ****

� Greco-Roman influence.

� Secularism (Worldly).

� Humanism.

� Individualism free standing figures.

� Symmetry/BalanceThe “Classical Pose”

Medici “Venus”

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Emphasis on Individualism ****

� Batista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre: The Duke & Dutchess of Urbino

� Piero della Francesca, 1465-1466.

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Isabella d’Este – da Vinci, 1499

� 1474-1539

� “First Lady of the Italian Renaissance”

� Great patroness of the arts in Mantua.

� Known during her time as “First Lady of the World”

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Geometrical Arrangement of Figures ****

� The Dreyfus Madonna with the Pomegranate

� Leonardo da Vinci

� 1469

� The figure as architecture

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Light & Shadowing ****

ChiaroscuroAn element in art, (Italian for lightdark) defined as a bold contrast between light and dark****

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Michelangelo Merisi, aka Caravaggio: Crucifixion of St. Peter

Chiaroscuro

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Softening Edges ****

Sfumato

Sfumato (from Italian sfumare, “to tone down,” or “to evaporate like smoke”), in painting or drawing, term designating fine shading that produces soft, imperceptible transitions between colors and tones.****

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Florence Under the Medici ****

Medici ChapelThe Medici Palace

•Cosmo de’ Medici controlled the Florentine oligarchy in 1434 ****

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� Filippo Brunelleschi ****

1377 - 1436

� Architect ****

� Cuppolo of St. Mariadel Fiore ****

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Filippo Brunelleschi• Commissioned to

build the cathedral dome.– Used unique

architectural concepts.• He studied the

ancient Pantheon in Rome.

• Used ribs for support.

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The Renaissance “Man”• Broad knowledge about many things in

different fields. ****• Deep knowledge/skill in one area.• Able to link information from different

areas/disciplines and create new knowledge.

• The Greek ideal of the “well-rounded man” was at the heart of Renaissance education.

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Leonardo DaVinci

1452 - 1519

The Renaissance Man ****

� Artist

� Sculptor

� Architect

� Scientist

� Engineer

� Inventor

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Mona Lisa OR da Vinci?

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The Last Supper (da Vinci) ****

Geometry

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Leonardo, the Scientist (Biology):Pages from his Notebook

� An example of the humanist desire to unlock the secrets of nature.

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Leonardo, the Scientist (Anatomy): Pages from his Notebook

35Renaissance Rome

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The Pieta ****

Michelangelo Buonarroti

1499

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The Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo Buonarroti ****

1508 - 1512

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The Liberation of St. Peter by Raphael, 1514

39Venice During the Renaissance

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TitianSt. Christopher fresco1523