Download The Northern Renaissance Chapter 17 Section 2 The Northern

The Northern Renaissance
Chapter 17 Section 2
The Northern Renaissance Begins

The population of northern Europe, which had declined due to bubonic plague, was
beginning to grow again.

Many cities grew rapidly

Urban merchants became wealth enough to sponsor artists

The first city where this happened was in Flanders

England and France were unified under strong monarchs rather than in city-states
as in Italy

Rulers often sponsored the arts

Renaissance ides were beginning to mingle with northern traditions
Artistic Ideas spread

Many Italian artists and writers left for a safer life in Northern Europe

Conflicts and wars caused them to move to a safer place

Northern European artist who went to study in Italy carried Renaissance ideas back
to their homelands
German Painters

Some of the famous painters were Durer and Holbein

Many of Durer prints portrayed religious subject, classical myths or realistic
landscapes

Holbein specialized in painting portraits that were almost photographic in detail or
very realistic
Flemish Painters

Flanders was the artistic center of northern Europe

The first great Flemish Renaissance painter was Jan van Eyck

His painting displayed unusually realistic details and reveal the personality of his
subjects

Bruegel, and another Flemish painter, captured scenes from everyday peasant life.

His rich colors, vivid details and balanced use of space gave a sense of life and
feeling
Northern Writers try to Reform Society

Italian humanists were very interested in reviving classical languages and tests

When the Italian humanist ideas reached the north, people began to examine the
traditional teaching of the Church

Northern humanists examined the Biblical teachings and felt that the Church had
failed to inspire people to live a Christian life

This produced a new movement known as Christian humanism

The focus of Christian humanism was the reform of society

The humanists promoted the education of women and founded schools for both boys
and girls
Christian Humanists

The best known of the Christian humanists was Thomas More of England

He wrote the book Utopia

Utopia has come to mean an ideal place

The book is about an imaginary land where greed, corruption, and war have been
weeded out or do not exist

More wrote in Latin, but his works has been translated into a variety of languages
Women’s Reforms

The majority of Europeans were unable to read or write

Families who could afford formal schooling usually sent only their sons

Christine de Pizan spoke out against this practice

Her goal was for children of both sexes to receive formal education
The Elizabethan Age

The Renaissance spread to England in the mid-1500s

The period the Elizabethan Age was named after Queen Elizabeth I

She was well educated and spoke French, Italian, Latin, and Greek

She wrote poetry and music and did much to support the development of English art
and literature
William Shakespeare

He was the most famous writer of the Elizabethan Age

He was the greatest playwright of all time

He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon

He lived in London writing poems and plays, he also performed at the Globe theater

He revered the classics and drew on them for inspiration and plots

His works display a masterful command of the English language and a deep
understanding of human beings.
Printing Spreads Renaissance Ideas

Chinese invented block printing

This method would prove practical for Europeans because their languages have a
very small number of letters in their alphabets
Gutenberg Improves The Printing Press

The block printed items reached Europe from China

This process was too slow to satisfy the Renaissance demand for knowledge,
information and books

Johann Gutenberg developed a printing press that incorporated a number of
technologies in a new way

It made it possible to produce books quickly and cheaply

He printed a complete Bible, the Gutenberg Bible. It was the first full-sized book
printed with movable type

The printing press enabled a printer to produce hundreds of copies of a single work
quicker

Books were now cheap enough that many people could buy them.

We could now educate the lower class of society
The Legacy of the Renaissance

It was a period of great artistic and social change

There was a gradual rese of democratic ideas

The impact of the movable-type printing press was tremendous

It was even more dramatic than the arrival of person computers
Concepts of the Renaissance to Remember

Art drew on techniques and styles of classical Greece and Rome

Paintings and sculptures became more and lifelike using nature and lifelike scenes

Works were more secular than religious

Writers began to use vernacular languages

The arts praised individual achievement which is the idea of humanism

Printing made more information available

More books prompted an increased desire for learning

There were new discoveries which led to further discoveries

Christian humanists’ attempts to reform society changed views about how life
should be lived