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Terms:
Humanism - subjects that focus more on the individual and humans, rather than supernatural or
religious beliefs. specifically, Renaissance Humanism emphasized practical, pre-professional and
scientific studies. This is related to secularism, and incorporated the classics. (ex: stuff like math and
science.) From the textbook: “movement focusing on Classical Greece and Rome ideas; emphasized
humanities”.
Medicis - They were a political dynasty, banking family, and royal house started under Giovanni de
Medici. They started the largest bank in Florence and quickly grew to high political power, even though
they were technically just citizens, not monarchs. They produced four popes, two regent queens of
France, and at one point became dukes. (They also helped that pirate dude become pope and totally
used that as a starting point to infiltrate the government.)
perspective - artistic technique of creating 3D pictures and views in 2D
Patron - person who practices patronage-- financial or verbal support from one group or individual to
another. In terms of art, for instance, the Medici funded and supported many artists, such as
Michelangelo, and commissioned their works. Thus, they became patrons. (people who provide
financial support)
“Renaissance Man”
 A nickname for Leonardo da Vinci
 popularised in the book “The Book of the Courtier” by Baldassare Castiglione
 A person who lives by Renaissance Ideals
 Fascination w/ human anatomy,
 Ancient Greek stuffs (architecture, mythology) [and Roman stuffs too!]
 Mastery in multiple fields
 Use of vernacular language
 Well educated
Leonardo da Vinci - Everything ist
 Paintings
 Virgin of the Rocks - Virgin Mary&Friends
 Madonna and Child with St. Anne - St. Anne + daughter; simple family portrait w/
human qualities
 Mona Lisa - appropriate human anatomy/proportion, perspective for background
 The Last Supper - painted on dry plaster, human qualities on people, Christ = vanishing
point(perspective), perspective isn’t really applied, painting can be viewed from any
angle.
 Vitruvian Man - Human anatomy/proportions
 Studied humans
 Studied skeleton, muscular forces, fetus, limbs, outspread arm = height
 Fascination with ancient civilization
 Mastery in multiple fields
 Botany, invention, math, engineering, music
 used perspective
 realistic art (observed models and nature)
 made sketches for flying machines (what now Wright brothers?) and undersea boats (what now
Germans?)
Michelangelo - painter and sculptor
 Basic Information:
 Mostly known as painter and sculptor
 Rival of Leonardo da Vinci
 he was taken into the Medici family
 HIS FULL NAME IS MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI
 Background:
 Father wanted him to study grammar, instead studied art under painter
 Studied under:
 Domenico Ghirlandaio (painting)
 Lorenzo de’ Medici (Humanist Academy)
 Bertoldo di Giovanni (sculpting)
 Throughout Life:
 Studied human anatomy (although corpses studies were banned)
 work reflects spiritual and artistic struggles
 Later Life:
 When Medici were expelled from Florence, Michelangelo left for Venice
 When he returned, Savonarola was ruling, so he did not receive commissions.
 Worked under Medicis again
 Achievements:
 The Last Judgment- painting depicts saints on Sistine Chapel
 Madonna of the Steps
 Statue of David (ideal male form; was symbol of Florence)
 Commissioned to paint part of Sistine Chapel ceiling
 The Pieta
 made dome design for St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. this pretty much inspired other
domes.
Albrecht Durer - Woodcut printer
 “Leonardo of the North” (remember that one)
 studied at Italy, then spread Italian ideas to Northern Europe
 influenced Italian artists
 innovation: engraving (etch design on metal plate with acid, then use plate for prints)
 religious upheaval theme
 Woodcuttings, print works
 Madonna and Child with a Multitude of Animals
 Watercolors for details, Oil colors for background
 Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
 Wood cutting piece
 Parallel lines = middle tone, Diagonal motion of subjects = intensity.
 Four Apostles
 Shadowing to make it darker and more serious looking
 Books
 Four Books on Measurement
 Four Books on Human Proportion
 Renaissance Ideals
 Mastery in many fields - Printed art, paintings, math, geometry, writing
 Use of vernacular language - Books written in German, not Latin.
Nicholas Copernicus - Astronomer
 Learned 5 languages - Latin, German, Polish, Greek, Italian
 Studied Greek knowledge - Aristotle, Ptolomy, Pythagoras, Plato
 Disagreed with the Church’s beliefs - didn’t think Earth = center of universe
 Geocentrism - Earth = center, followed by Aristotle, Ptolemy, Church
 Heliocentrism - Sun = center
 Led to excommunication, so he gave his work to a student before death
 70 yrs later, Galileo used telescope to prove heliocentrism was true.
Desiderius Erasmus - Renaissance humanist and Catholic priest who attacked the church and other
individual priests. In his book “Handbook of the Christian Knight,” he appeals on Christians to act in
accordance with the Christian faith rather than merely performing the necessary rites. He also called for
a reformation of the Church. Wrote texts and produced new Greek edition of Bible. Spread humanism.
Believed in individual’s duties: open-minded and goodwill.
 Thought society was corrupt because it lost sight of the Gospels
 The Praise of Folly was a satire to show people how corrupt they are
Andrea Palladio - Architect
 Inspired by Greek/Roman Architecture - roman themes, proportion, symmetry, three orders of
columns (ionic, doric, corinthian)
 Villa Rotunda
 Based on the Pantheon
 15:11 for smaller rooms, 26:15 for larger rooms, related to Fibonacci sequence
 Mathematical proportions found in dome, porch, other rooms
 Bilateral symmetry - four corners = four compass points, but rotated 45 degrees so each
room would receive sunlight
 Palladian Style - Represented classical principles rediscovered
 Palladian window - 3 parts, taller middle section is arched, columns between sections
 Inspired Thomas Jefferson to design the White House based off his styles
Niccolo Machiavelli - Political Scientist
 he focused on politics
 Achievements
 Age 29: Head of second chancery, secretary of Deici di Liberta e Pace
 1499-1512: Member of a council in charge of military affairs
 1503-1506: in charge of Florentine militia
 Wrote “The Prince” - “the end justifies the means”, anything is okay as long as the end
will be okay.
 Wrote the Prince to try to get back in favour of Medicis (didn’t work); and it’s about
how to be a dictator and was famous because it was the first book of practical matters in
politics
 Renaissance Ideals
 Studied politics as a science, didn’t just listen to the church
 Humanist - wanted humans to think for themselves
 Use of vernacular - The Prince was published in Italian
Pieter Brueghel (or Bruegel) the Elder - Painter
 used vibrant colours
 religious and classical themes with common people background
 Peasants/Landscapes paintings displaying everyday life, w/o religion/nobility
 “The Peasant Wedding” - shows lower class, no religion
 “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” - non religious, lower class, Greek reference
 “The Triumph of Death” - shadow/perspective techniques
Francis Petrarch - humanist
 First great humanist
 Translated stuff to vernacular
 Assembled library of Greek and Roman manuscripts in monasteries and churches
 First guy to come up with the idea of the Dark Ages being dark and stuff
 Believed people should learn how to behave properly and take action to benefit family, society,
and state
Lorenzo Valla - An Italian humanist, rhetorician, and educator. He wanted to be a priest but failed so
he went to Valla and got a professorship in eloquence, but he lost tenor when he attacked the style of
some random dude. Then he worked for Alfonso of Aragon as his private Latin secretary and defended
him against attacks on his controversial public statements on theology. And he found out that the
Donation of Constantine was a medieval forgery.
 Challenged philosophical and religious positions
 Wrote “Notes on the New Testament” to show the true meaning of St. Paul's words
Andreas Vesalius - Anatomist/Physician
 Greek Influence - Studied the work of Galen
 Mastery in multiple fields
 Anatomy/Medicine
 Dissected animals/human criminal humans
 Corrected Galen’s inaccuracies
 Blood vessels originate from the heart, not the liver
 The jaw is one bone, not two
 Assembled the Basel Skeleton <--bones of some felon
 Books
 Seven Books on the Structure of the Human Body - masterpiece
 Six Tables of the Anatomy - drawings with meticulous detail
 Institutions of Anatomy
 The Complete Works - Corrections of Galen’s work
 Letter on the China Root - medicinal values of plants
Filippo Brunelleschi - Architect/Engineer
 Built the Duomo
 Won a contest, built it himself so no one would steal his ideas
 Invented the ox-hoist system
 So the ox would only have to walk in one direction to carry bricks both up and down the
dome (during construction)
 Originally a goldsmith
Donatello - An Italian artist and sculptor well-known for his work in bas-relief. He made the first lifesize statue since ancient times.
Sandro Botticelli - An Italian painter under the patronage of Lorenzo Medici. His best known works
are the Birth of Venus and Primavera. (Birth of Venus = ideal female figure and was painted only for
the purpose of art)
Miguel de Cervantes - Writer
 1569 - traveled to Italy, Served an Italian nobleman, 1570 - Joined Spanish army, 1575 Captured on trip back to Spain by pirates, 1580 - After 5 years of imprisonment, Trinitarian
friars paid the ransom
 Don Quixote
 Realistic but fictional
 Prose instead of poetry
 War and Adventure
 Chivalry
 Courtly and Conjugal love
 Idea of “Reality”
 Nature prevails in Don Quixote and Sancho’s worlds
 Comically hinting at “reality”
 Mocks society - codes of behavior
 First “World novel”
 Renaissance Ideals:
 Breaking away for adventure
 Don Quixote - Non religious book, Comedy
 Vernacular language?
 Depicts Middles Ages as old-fashioned
William Shakespeare - Writer, poet, and playwright
 Humanism - plays loosely tied to historical figures
 Human potential - People capable of achieving great things
 Influenced English language - invented ~300 words
 expressed universal themes in everyday realistic settings
 work explores new ideas
Sir Thomas More - political scientist
 Background:
 Lawyer, philosopher, author
 Entered Parliament, later left politics until King Henry VII’s death
 Studied in schools such as Oxford
 Works:
 Developed concept of “utopia” in his work, Utopia
 Ideal and imaginary island nation
 Describes a perfect political system, religious and social customs
 Private property does not exist
 Men and women are treated equally
 Translated Latin biography of the Italian humanist Pico della Mirandola
 How He Represented Renaissance:
 Wanted social reform
 Everyone lives in harmony and peace
 Stressed education (human capability)
 Encouraged political, social and economic improvements
 Interest in Latin & Rome learning (translate)
 Greek eu-topos [good place & no place]
 Great discovery & discovery of mind
 Set a path in philosophy
Baldassare Castiglione - Italian soldier and author. Castiglione did stuff like write a book called “The
Book of the Courtier” and it’s intended for courtiers and aristocrats. It popularized the ideal of the
“Renaissance Man”.
 One of the first people to suggest that women don't have to stay in the kitchen and can have a
life independent of the home
Francois Rabelais - This French scholar/writer/monk dude. Wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel which
was a seemingly comic tale, but it was really about religion.
 Originally a monk but left the monastery to study medicine.
 Wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel, which are five volumes of chronicles
 Very down-to-earth French with vulgarities (so vernacular)
 Glorifies humans and humanity
Girolamo Savonarola - Dominican monk who predicted plagiarism is going to destroy Florence. He
believed Lorenzo was leading Florence to sin and opposed the pagan arts. And believed Medicis were
going against God (via art). This led to the Burning of the Vanities, a public burning of all accessories
(jewelry, books, etc.), which Savonarola had ordered. (Boticelli burned some of his own paintings too.)
Took charge after Lorenzo died.
Raphael - Italian artist who did some work with the Vatican. Blended Christian and classical styles.
Drew picture called “School of Athens” which depicts a harmony between the Platonist and
Aristotelian philosophies (Greek philosophies) so he’s a humanist.
 Portrayed humans as temperate and dignified.
Johann Gutenburg - inventor of mechanical movable type which sparked the Printing Revolution and
was key to the spread of ideas during the Renaissance. He’s German and from the North.
Concepts:
1. Where had the Greek and Roman knowledge been preserved? Why did the Renaissance
begin in Italy?
Greek and Roman Knowledge survived in Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire and Arab Countries
(knowledge was translated into Arabic). And the Christian monks did manual labor like writing so they
could preserve stuff .
The Renaissance began in Italy because Italy was a rich city that prospered by trade (because there’s
this really big sea near them), and had good connections with Muslim and Byzantine traders. They also
financed wars for nobles. Oh, and the Italians got a lot of money from the crusades. And they’re rich
because of: in Milan, metal goods and armor; in Florence, banking and textiles; in Venice, luxury goods
from Asia (mark-up: reselling stuff). And the Renaissance was there because the Greek and Roman
ruins were nearby. And the Italians can pay for artists/scholars. So, basically, Florence has trade,
banking and textiles (wool). Italy was also the most advanced urban city at the time.
2. What were the ideals of the Renaissance?
The Renaissance people liked a focus on humanism, secularism, the Classics (Greek/Roman stuff),
advanced techniques, learning, education, and curiosity. There were stronger interests in the sciences
and art.
3. What was some of the differences between the Italian and Northern Renaissances?
The Italian Renaissance focused more on secularism and art (music, visual art, and literature). They had
a very wealthy merchant class that spent a lot of money funding art. Italian artists tended to focus on
the scientific aspects behind art, looking at anatomy, perspective, etc. They emphasized pagan and
Greco-Roman ideals. They also shifted from an agricultural to an urban society. And they emphasised
individual achievement. And didn’t really emphasise religion and spirituality. Increased exploration:
sailed across ocean, science, new writing and art techniques. Rejected Gothic style architecture;
readopted columns, arches, and domes of Greek and Roman stuff. Began in Florence.
The Northern Renaissance people were more focused on combining the old times with the new times,
and explored science and math more. They also weren’t as intent on eliminating every religious aspect
of their lives, and that’s why people like John Calvin and Thomas More originated from there; they
were very concerned with religious reform. They were very big on the power of humans to control
physical nature. Furthermore, their artwork and architecture remained similar to the Middle Ages
Gothic-y stuff for longer than the Italians. They also had more education and such going on. Began in
Flanders (region that includes parts of present-day Northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands).
Northern Renaissance then spread to Spain, France, Germany, and England. Christian Humanism.
Rarely showed nude figures.
The North also focuses more on peasantry and everyday life, whereas the Italians were more of an
aristocratic kind of society.
4. What were the achievements of the Renaissance personalities we studied in class and in
the video? How did each of them represent Renaissance ideals?
VIDEO STUFFS
Giovanni Medeci
 Sponsored the pirate dude
 Died in the first video
Cosimo
 wore a cool hat
 sponsored brunelleschi
 used the church’s power to regain control when the albizzi’s kicked him out
 treated his artists like humans/let them do whatever they wanted in their free time (huge patron
of the arts)
 named “father of the fatherhood” when he died (aka Godfather of the Renaissance)
 found guilty of treason by the Albizzi family, but he bribed his way out
 his friends and family were banned and Bunelleschi was jailed
 and the economy went down because Florence ran on Medici bank
 but Cosimo waited (following his father’s advice) before returning until the people like begged
for him to return
 Pope’s friends come in to help Medicis
 he modestly accepted all the power of Florence(?) (...yes...?)
 everything went back to normal
Brunelleschi
 got kicked out of the room where he stumbled and all his papers went flying
 sponsored by the Medecis
 Made the gigantic dome (Il Duomo: which was in Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore)
 Invented the ox thingy
 fed his workers while they were on top of the dome, so they won’t have to come down for
lunch/risk dying
 Fed them quality wine so they would be happy, but diluted the wine so they wouldn’t get drunk
 invented perspective, 3D art (gothic art=2D)
Donatello diBetto Bardi
 created the David, the first free standing bronze sculpture of a man since the Roman times
 friend of Cosimo
 smashed unwanted artwork during occasional rages
Abizzi Family
 political rivals of Medicis
Pope Julius II
 lent support of his Papal Army to Giovanni and Giulio Medici
Giovanni Medici
 = Pope Leo X
 threw lavish parties and wasted money
 so he sold indulgences
 And Martin Luther criticised him
 spreads entire papal treasury within 2 years of becoming pope
 spent money on women *awkward*
 became a cardinal at 15/16 years old
 died of a cold
Giulio Medici
 his cousin died so he became Pope Clement VII
 Fled during Sack of Rome
 married off his niece, Catherine, to the son of the French King Henry II (son of Francis I)
Catherine Medici
 invented high heels
 married French King’s son
 Became queen of France
5. Why were the Medicis interested in supporting a former pirate in his quest to become
Pope? How could it benefit them?
because if the pirate became a Pope, he would “pay” the Medicis back. Like, the Medicis would be “in”
with the government. And they’d get money and stuff because the Pope would use the Medici banking
system. also Cosimo used the government to get back into power after the Al Bizzi kicked him out. and
they also used the power of the church to threaten excommunication upon people who didn’t pay back
to the Medici bank on time. Oh, and the pirate’s name is Baldassare Cossa, or Pope John XXIII.
6. How did artists benefit from Medici patronage? Why did the Medici patronize the artists?
The artists got money so they could do their art. And so they wouldn’t starve. And so they’d have a
place to live. The Medicis patronised them because they wanted loyalty and connections. And their
name was being spread (power). Like in the Adoration of the Magi. Medicis also want to impress
people with their power.
7. What was the motivation behind the Medici desire to become the leaders of the Catholic
Church?
they wanted to have political power. (this question seems a bit too obvious/easy). Pope = power over
church so you can excommunicate your enemies. And that way to be against the Medicis is the same
thing as being against God.
OTHER REVIEW SHEET:
1. What was Machiavelli’s book, “The Prince” about? How did it reflect the political climate in
Italy at the time? Why do you think Machiavelli’s work is one of the widely read books in
history?
 Talked about how to be a dictator
 Read because it is the first dystopian book about politics (how to rule effectively)
1. Why was the sale of indulgences reprehensible from the point of view of devout Christians?
 Shortcut around atonement
 Faith → what you are supposed to be doing
 Pope seems to be promoting poor, but is now focusing on rich with indulgences