Download Renaissance and Reformation Section 2

Renaissance and Reformation
Section 2
“The past is malleable and flexible,
changing as our recollection interprets
and re-explains what has happened.”
- Peter Berger
In the average lifetime, a person will walk
the equivalent of five times around the
equator.
Renaissance and Reformation
Section 2
Renaissance and Reformation
Section 2
The Northern Renaissance
Main Idea
Renaissance ideas soon spread beyond Italy to
northern Europe by means of trade, travel, and
printed material, influencing the art and ideas of
the north.
Renaissance and Reformation
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The Renaissance Spreads North
Trade, the movement of artists and scholars, and the development of printing
helped spread Renaissance ideas north from Italy.
Trading Goods
• As cities grew, vast trading network
spread across northern Europe
• Network dominated by Hanseatic
League, merchant organization,
1200s to 1400s
Trading Ideas
• Northern Europeans traded ideas,
goods; spread Italian Renaissance
north
• Fleeing violence, Italian artists
brought humanist ideas, painting
techniques north
– Protected members from pirates,
other hazards
• Northern scholars traveled to Italy,
brought ideas home
– Built lighthouses, trained ship
captains
• Universities started in France,
Netherlands, Germany
Renaissance and Reformation
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Renaissance and Reformation
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Renaissance and Reformation
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Renaissance and Reformation
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A Book Revolution
Printing Press
• Mid-1400s, Johannes Gutenberg cast letters of alphabet on metal plates,
locked metal plates on wooden press; perfected movable type printing
• Result, one of most dramatic upheavals world has ever known
Printed Word Available to More
• Before only way to reproduce writing was by hand; long, painstaking process
• With movable type, text quickly printed; producing books faster, cheaper
• Easier access to books prompted more people to learn to read
Italics
• Gutenberg’s first publication, 1,282-page Bible
• Printers soon appeared in other cities, made books quickly, inexpensively
• Explosion of printed material quickly spread Renaissance ideas
Renaissance and Reformation
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Renaissance and Reformation
Section 2
Renaissance and Reformation
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Renaissance and Reformation
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Renaissance and Reformation
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Question:
How did Renaissance ideas spread to
northern Europe?
Answer(s): Ideas were exchanged through trade;
artists and scholars traveled between Italy and the
north; printing press allowed easier bookmaking;
ideas spread with printed material.
Renaissance and Reformation
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Philosophers and Writers
Northern humanists expressed their own ideas
Combined interests of theology, fiction and history
Created philosophical works, novels, dramas, and poems
Desiderius Erasmus
• Combined Christian
ideas, humanism
• Wrote of pure, simple
Christian life, educating
children
• Fanned flames of
discontent
• Roman Catholic Church
censored, condemned
works
Sir Thomas More
Christine de Pisan
• Italian-born writer
• More’s best-known
focused on role of
work, Utopia, contains
women in society
criticisms of English
government, society
• Presents vision of
perfect, non-existent
society based on
reason
• Grew up in French court
of Charles V; turned to
writing when widowed
• Championed equality,
education for women
Renaissance and Reformation
Desiderius Erasmus
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Renaissance and Reformation
Sir Thomas More
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Renaissance and Reformation
Christine de Pisan
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Shakespeare and His Characters
William Shakespeare
• Many believe English playwright
William Shakespeare greatest
writer
Spread Renaissance Ideas
• Use of language, choice of
themes made plays appealing
even to uneducated
• Plots not original, but treatments of • Plays helped spread ideas of
them masterful
Renaissance to mass audience
• Drew inspiration from ancient,
contemporary literature
• Focused on lives of realistic
characters, unlike morality plays
• Knowledge of natural science,
• By Shakespeare’s death, 1616,
humanist topics expressed in plays
London scene of thriving theatre
district
Renaissance and Reformation
William Shakespeare
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Renaissance and Reformation
William Shakespeare
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Renaissance and Reformation
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Renaissance and Reformation
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Question:
What are some characteristics of
Renaissance writers’ work?
Answer(s): expressed humanist ideas, scientific
knowledge, realistic experiences, and social
conditions
Renaissance and Reformation
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Artists
Like literary counterparts, northern
European artists influenced by Italian
Renaissance
• Adopted Italian techniques
• Works reflected more realistic view of
humanity
– Italian artists tried to capture beauty of Greek, Roman
gods in paintings
– Northern artists tried to depict people as they really
were
Renaissance and Reformation
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Renaissance and Reformation
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Renaissance and Reformation
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Renaissance and Reformation
Dürer and Others
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1400s, German artist Albrecht Dürer visited Italy
On return, used Italian techniques of realism, perspective
Oil paintings exhibit features unique to northern Renaissance
Oils reproduced textures; reflection of objects, scenes outside window
Flemish School
Everyday Life
• Artists of Netherlands developed own
style, Flemish School
• 1500s, Pieter Brueghel the Elder used
Italian techniques
• Used technique perfected by Jan van
Eyck, 1400s
• Paintings showed scenes from
everyday peasant life
• Fused the everyday with religious; lit
candle represents God’s presence
• Different from mythological scenes of
Italian paintings
Renaissance and Reformation
Albrecht Dürer
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Renaissance and Reformation
Jan van Eyck?
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Renaissance and Reformation
Pieter Brueghel the Elder
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Renaissance and Reformation
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Question:
How did northern Renaissance artwork differ
from that of Italian artists?
Answer(s): depicted everyday objects, people as
they actually were