Download The Renaissance - St. John`s College HS

The
Renaissance
A Rebirth of Greco-Roman
Humanistic Culture
Pre-Video Questions
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True or False
Q: The Renaissance was a period of cultural
rebirth
Q: The leaders of the Renaissance were
inspired by ancient cultures
Q: The study of humanism was important
during the Renaissance
Q: During the Renaissance, painting became
more three-dimensional
Q: The Renaissance began in England
Intro to the Renaissance
• Watch the following video and
answer the questions that Mr.
Camillo has handed out.
• You will have time to work on the
questions after the video is
completed.
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video 3 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Review of the Video
• Renaissance means “Re-birth” of GrecoRoman humanistic culture.
• When Rome fell in 476 AD, the Dark
Ages descended upon Europe, and
learning, art, and culture declined.
• This lasted until the 1100s, when the
High Middle Ages saw a resurgence in
interest of learning, arts and culture.
• Not until the 1300s did the High Middle
Ages end, and Europe saw a full-fledged
Renaissance of Humanistic activity
and thought.
Trade with the East
• The beginning of this re-birth was partly
due to the wealth accumulated in
Italian city-states through trade with
the East -which had accelerated due to
the contact with the East in the
Crusades.
• This contact allowed the transfer of
books, scientific knowledge, goods,
ideas, and technological innovations
into Europe.
• With its newfound wealth, Italian
patrons began commissioning works of
art, scholarship, learning, science, and
Decline in Church Influence
• Church influence in Europe waning
• The Church had been instrumental in
ensuring kings’ authority - sometimes
by annointing them Roman Emperors or
Holy Roman Emperors.
• Now these powerful states protected
their subjects, did not need the power
of the Church behind them as much.
They relied on earthly power.
• For example, by 1215 England limited
the role of the monarch to protect
his/her subjects’ and nobles’ rights by
forcing King John to sign the Magna
Carta
Secular States
• Secular governments run the show
• Feudal relationships were outdated and
problematic (see Hundred Years War) and
now strong centrally-run States looked out
for the welfare of their people.
• Especially since professional, standing
armies made up of commoners (not knights
or nobles) were most effective on the field of
battle, the common subjects of these States
became more important
• Normal - rather than noble - humans
benefited from this humanist philosophy
Individuality in the
Renaissance
• Though the Middle Ages, the Church had a
monopoly on spirituality and religion.
• During the Renaissance, though individuals
began expressing themselves in ways that
moved away from Church teachings, they
still remained Christian.
• For example, in 1534, the English King
Henry VIII outlawed the Catholic Church
and made the King of England the head of
the Church of England.
• If Medieval Europeans thought of
life on this earth as a doorway or
something to endure on the way to
Heaven or Hell, Renaissance
Europeans thought of life as more
important, something to be
celebrated and admired.
Individuals continued
• Writers and Artists used Christian
themes in their work, but they were
essentially humanists: Dante, Erasmus,
Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello,
Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas More,
Rabelais
• Many of these authors often wrote in
the vernacular - their native, speaking
tongue - rather than the traditional
Latin taught by the Church.
Dante Alighieri
• 1256-1321 in Italy
• Wrote Divine Comedy in his vernacular, the
Tuscan Dialect, assuming that Italian was
good enough to write for everyone!
• (In French, the Italian language is
nicknamed “la langue de Dante”)
• By publishing in vernacular, works can be
read by a wider audience, and this sets the
stage for greater literacy in the future.
Dante
• Dante called the poem "Comedy" ( "Divine" added
later in the 16th century) because poems in the
ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or
Low ("Comedy").
• Low poems had happy endings and were of
everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were
for more serious matters.
• Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to
write about the Redemption of man, a serious topic
in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the
Latin language as one might expect for such a
serious topic.
The Divine Comedy
• Made up of three
sections:
• The Purgatorio
<---(Purgatory)
• The Inferno
(Inferno, or Hell)
• The Paradiso
(Paradise, or
heaven)
Divine Comedy’s Paradiso
Erasmus
• 1466? - 1536
• Dutch Renaissance writer; nearly 500 learned
men corresponded with him throughout Europe
and valued his opinions.
• Criticized Church, but did not dispute doctrine
• Wrote in Latin; was a “pure scholar” who did not
take sides in doctrinal issues.
• Disputed with Luther (who urged for a reform of
the Church) when he wouldn’t take sides, as the
rest of Europe did (We will talk about the issue of
the Reformation later - remember Erasmus!)
Rabelais
• Rabelais:. 1483 or 14941553 French Renaissance
Writer
• Critical of established
authority and stressed
Individual Liberty
• Wrote a series of
interralated books entited
Gargantua and Pantagruel,
about a giant and his son
Rabelais
• His idea of a Utopian ideal and utopian
society from his stories about a giant,
Gargantua:
• “All their life was spent not in laws, statutes,
or rules, but according to their own free will
and pleasure. They rose out of their beds
when they thought good; they did eat, drink,
labour, sleep, when they had a mind to it and
were disposed for it. None did awake them,
none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink,
nor to do any other thing; for so had
Gargantua established it.
Gargantua continued
• In all their rule and strictest tie of their order there was
but this one clause to be observed, Do What Thou
Wilt; because men that are free, well-born, well-bred,
and conversant in honest companies, have naturally
an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous
actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called
honour. Those same men, when by base subjection
and constraint they are brought under and kept down,
turn aside from that noble disposition by which they
formerly were inclined to virtue, to shake off and break
that bond of servitude wherein they are so tyrannously
enslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to
long after things forbidden and to desire what is
denied us.”
Saint Thomas More
• 1478-1535
• Worked in
Parliament and with
King Henry VIII after
a stint as a Monk.
• Was friends with
Erasmus
• Died a Catholic
Martyr
Saint Thomas More
• Wrote in Greek and Latin, but also produced
English translations of books
• More worked with King Henry VIII 1491-1547
(ruled 1509 -), but was executed for treason
when he disagreed with Henry on some
matters of state. His last words were: “The
King’s good servant, but God’s first.”
• Wrote a book called Utopia a name he gave
to an ideal, imaginary island nation whose
political system he described in a book
published in 1516
Sir Thomas More, Utopia
• An imagined place or thing where
everything is perfect. First coined by
Thomas More.
• The opposite is a dystopia, where
everything is unpleasant or bad.
Usually depicted as a totalitarian
government or environmentally spoiled
place
• More and Rabelais both wrote about
places where there is no oppression and
thus total justice and peace.
• PD 7, 3, 5, 8, 2
Firenze
(Florence)
and the
Medici
• Intellectual, financial, and artistic
center of Renaissance Italy
• Called the "New Athens,” since the Medici family
were bankers who were patrons of the arts and
Classical ideals
• The Medici were probably the wealthiest family in
Europe for a time
Donatello
• Born in Florence 1386 -1466
• He became well recognized for his creation
of the shallow relief style of sculpting,
which made the sculpture seem much
deeper and realistic than it actually was.
• One of the first masters of the Italian
Renaissance, excelling in sculpture in
marble and bronze as well as painting.
Habucuc
or
Zucone
Donatello
Donatello
• St. George in a
niche; shallow
relief
• Gives the
sculpture a
realistic
perspective
St. George (right)
St. George slaying the
Dragon (below)
Leonardo da Vinci
• 1452-1519
• Leonardo has been described as the
archetype of the "Renaissance man”
• What are some characteristics of a
“Renaissance Man?”
• He had a seemingly infinite curiosity in all
things, advancing work in geology, astronomy,
civil engineering, optics, hydrodynamics, flight,
physics, and anatomy.
Mona Lisa
• As well as a
thinker and an
inventor, he was a
painter
• His most famous
work is arguably
Mona Lisa…
The Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci
• As an engineer,
Leonardo conceived
ideas vastly ahead of
his own time.
• He conceptually
invented a tank,
helicopter, the use of
concentrated solar
power, a calculator, a
rudimentary theory of
plate tectonics, the
double hull, and many
others.
Leonardo’s Works
• Here is a sample
of his study of how
water circles, or
eddies, around
obstacles.
The Annuciation
Leonardo and Anatomy
Leonardo’s
Vitruvian
Man
Where he studied
the proportions
of the range of
human motion
and body parts
Golden Mean
• This is the ideal ratio
or proportion that has
been found between
two objects, showing
the symmetry of the
human body, other
natural creatures and
objects, and in the
growth of plants and
other organic matter.
Michelangelo
• 1475 – 1564
• Most well-known works include
the David and the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel.
• Worked in Florence, sculpting
the David to reflect the power
and determination of Republican
Florence that was under
constant attack from supporters
of the usurped Medicis.
• Now resides, since the 19th
century, in the Accademia in
Firenze
Michelangelo’s David
• Sculpted out
of marble, it is
gigantic,
standing 14’
13” tall.
• It was started
in 1501 and
completed in
1504
Sistine Chapel
• Michelangelo also
worked on the
ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel, in
Vatican City.
• This chapel, in
the official palace
of the Pope, is
where the College
of Cardinals meet
to elect a new
Pope
Church as a Patron
• In 1508 Michelangelo was commissioned by
Pope Julius II to paint the vault, or ceiling of
the chapel. It took him until 1512 to complete.
• The Church was thus a patron of the arts.
• Raphael (we will talk about him next) was also
commissioned to produce tapestries to cover
the walls for certain occasions. These
tapestries were looted from the Vatican by
French armies.
• The painting was done in
fresco - a style of
painting used in Roman
times and brought back
during the Renaissance.
• It is done rapidly in
watercolor on wet plaster
on a wall or a ceiling so
that when the plaster
dries, the color becomes
part of the plaster.
Raphael
• 1483-1520
• Born in Urbino
he underwent
an apprenticeship
in Perugia.
Raphael
• In 1504, moved to Florence, where he
studied da Vinci and Michelangelo
• Known for the grace and perfection of his
paintings, he also worked with Fresco, like this
work:
Sybils
• At the age of 25 he
moved to Rome, where
he was nearly
constantly
commissioned by
Popes Julius II and Leo
X to produce for the
Vatican, including the
tapestries depicting
the lives of Peter and
Paul
• Portrait of Julius II
Madonna With the Fish
Saint George and the Dragon
Gutenberg and Books
• Many new authors took advantage of the
Gutenberg Printing Press (1439-1450) -named
after Johann Gutenberg - which used movable
type, making the production of books much
easier and much faster.
• The first book to
be printed was
the Bible - called
the Gutenberg
Bible.
• By 1500, 220
printing presses
had printed over
8 million books.
• …Of course, the
Chinese had
invented movable
type in the 11th
Century, but the
technology was
changing the way
Europe
transmitted
information
Niccolo Machiavelli
• In 1513 Italy, Machiavelli wrote a book
called “The Prince,” describing how
secular government leaders should
expand their power.
• His model “Prince” was one who was
ruthless, just, and totally in control (not
sharing it with Church, of course)
• He sought to explain politics from a
realistic perspective. A Realist!
• Ideas like his were spread throughout
Europe much quicker than before especially since they were now being
written in the vernacular.
This Weekend
• Read the selection from this book,
published posthumously in 1532,
and prepare for a discussion in
class on how Machiavelli urged his
“Prince” to gain renown.