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Renaissance
Factors that Contributed to the
Beginning of the Renaissance
• Trade and commerce increased
• Cities grew larger and wealthier
• Newly wealthy merchants and bankers supported the
growth of the arts and learning
• The Renaissance was an age of recovery from the disasters
of the 14th century, such as the plague, political instability,
and a decline of Church power
• Recovery went hand-in-hand with a rebirth of interest in
ancient culture (e.g., ancient Greece and Rome)
• A new view of human beings emerged as people in the
Italian Renaissance began to emphasize individual ability
What was the Renaissance?
The Renaissance was a cultural movement
and a time of renewal (Europe was
recovering from the Dark Ages and the
Black Death/Bubonic Plague)
Renaissance means “rebirth” of classical
knowledge and “birth” of the modern
world (new intellectual and artistic ideas
that developed during the Renaissance
marked the beginning of the modern
world)
Where did the Renaissance begin?
•Italy
•Italian Cities
•Urban Societies
•Major Trading Centers
•Secular Movement
•People lost their faith in the church and began to
put more focus on human beings and material
possessions
When did the Renaissance Take
Place?
Roughly the 14th to the 17th century
How did the Crusades contribute
to the Renaissance?
Crusades (1095 – 1291) = Religiously
sanctioned military campaigns waged by
Roman Catholics against Muslims who had
occupied the near east since the Rashidun
Caliphate (founded after Muhammad’s
death in 632, the Rashidun Caliphate was
one of the largest empires of the time
period)
Increased demand for Middle Eastern
products
Stimulated production of goods to trade in
Middle Eastern markets
Encouraged the use of credit and banking
The Black Death: Bubonic Plague
• 1330s - An outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in China
• Mainly affects rodents, but fleas can transmit the disease to people
• Once people are infected, they infect others very rapidly
• Plague causes fever, painful swelling of the lymph glands, and spots
on the skin that are red at first and then turn black = Black Death
• Since China was one of the busiest of the world's trading nations, it
was only a matter of time before the outbreak of plague in China
spread to western Asia and Europe
• In 1347, Italian merchant ships returned from a trip to the Black Sea,
one of the key links in trade with China. When the ships docked in
Sicily (Italy), many of those on board were already dying of plague.
• Within days the disease spread to the city and the surrounding
countryside
Bubonic Plague Continued
• After five years 25 million people were dead--one-third of
Europe's population.
• Even when the worst was over, smaller outbreaks
continued, not just for years, but for centuries. The
survivors lived in constant fear of the plague's return, and
the disease did not disappear until the 1600s.
• The disease took its toll on the church as well. People
throughout Christendom had prayed devoutly for
deliverance from the plague. Why hadn't those prayers
been answered? A new period of political turmoil and
philosophical questioning lay ahead.
Political Ideas of the Renaissance
Niccolò Machiavelli
(1469-1527)
An Italian Philosopher and Writer based in Florence
during the Renaissance
The Prince
(Published in 1532)
Machiavelli believed:
“One can make this generalization about
men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars,
and deceivers, they shun danger and are
greedy for profit”
Machiavelli observed city-state rulers of
his day and produced guidelines for how
to gain and maintain power.
Absolute Rule
He felt that a ruler should be willing to
do anything to maintain control without
worrying about conscience.
• Better for a ruler to be feared than to be loved
• Ruler should be quick and decisive in decision making
• Ruler keeps power by any means necessary
• The end justifies the means
• Be good when possible, and evil when necessary
Today, the term “Machiavellian”
refers to the use of deceit in
politics
Major Italian
City-States
Milan
One of the richest cities, it controls
trade through the Alps.
Venice
Located on the Adriatic Sea, it is a
major trade route between Asia &
Europe.
Florence
Controlled by the Medici Family, who
became great patrons of the arts.
Milan
Venice
Genoa
Florence
Genoa
Had Access to Trade Routes
Rome
Headquarters of the Catholic
Church
All of these cities:
• Had access to trade routes connecting
Europe with Middle Eastern markets
• Served as trading centers for the
distribution of goods to northern Europe
Rome
Italian City-States
Because Italy failed to become united during the Dark
Ages, many independent city-states emerged in Italy.
Each city-state was controlled by a powerful family and
dominated by a wealthy merchant class. Their interest
in art and emphasis on personal achievement helped to
shape the Italian Renaissance.
Example: The Medici family of Florence ranked among
the richest merchants and bankers in Europe; they
ruled Florence for over 70 years.
Centralized Power
One governing authority (ex. U.S. Federal
Government; principals) controls power
over several smaller entities (ex. State
governments; teachers)
Reminder
Renaissance means “rebirth” of interest in
ancient culture (Greece and Rome)
28.4 The Influence of Italian City-States
28.3 The Growth of Trade and Commerce
The Renaissance produced new ideas that
were reflected in the arts, philosophy, and
literature.
Patrons, wealthy from newly expanded
trade, sponsored works which glorified
city-states in northern Italy. Education
became increasingly secular.
Classical art showed the importance of people
and leaders, as well as gods and goddesses
Medieval art and literature focused on the
Church and salvation
Renaissance art and literature focused on the
importance of people and nature, along with
religion
Classical Art
History Alive! Pg. 316 ‘Discobolus’
• Figures were lifelike but often idealized (more
perfect than in real life)
• Figures were nude or draped in togas (robes)
• Bodies looked active, and motion was believable
• Faces were calm and without emotion
• Scenes showed either heroic figures or real people
doing tasks from daily life
Medieval Art
History Alive! Pg. 317 ‘Narthex Tympanum'
• Most art was religious, showing Jesus, saints,
people from the Bible, and so on
• Important figures in paintings were shown as
larger than others around them
• Figures looked stiff, with little sense of movement
• Figures were fully dressed in stiff-looking clothing
• Faces were serious and showed little feeling
• Paint colors were bright
Renaissance Art
History Alive! Pg. 317 ‘The School of Athens’
• Artists showed religious and nonreligious scenes
• Art reflected a great interest in nature
• Figures were lifelike and three-dimensional, reflecting an
increasing knowledge of anatomy
• Bodies looked active and were shown moving
• Figures were either nude or clothed
• Scenes showed real people doing everyday tasks
• Faces expressed what people were thinking
• Paintings were often symmetrical (balanced, with the right
and left sides having similar or identical elements)
Renaissance artists embraced some of the ideals
of ancient Greece and Rome in their art.
The purpose of art would no longer be to glorify
God, as it had been in Medieval Europe. Artists
wanted their subjects to be realistic and focused
on humanity and emotion.
New Techniques also emerged.
Art and Patronage
Italians patrons (financial supporters) were willing to spend a
lot of money on art
– Art communicated social, political, and spiritual values
and therefore, the consumption of art was used as a
form of competition for social & political status.
What was different in the Renaissance?
Realism
Perspective
Emphasis on individualism
Geometrical arrangement of figures
Light and shadowing
Softening of edges
Artist able to live from commissions
Characteristics of Renaissance Art
1. Realism &
Expression
Expulsion from the Garden
Masaccio
1427
First nudes since classical times.
2. Perspective
The Trinity
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Masaccio
1427
Perspective!
Perspective!
First use
of linear
perspective!
What you are, I
once was; what I
am, you will
become.
4. Emphasis on Individualism
Batista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre:
The Duke & Dutchess of Urbino
Piero della Francesca, 1465-1466.
5. Geometrical Arrangement of Figures
Leonardo da Vinci
1469
The figure as
architecture!
The Dreyfus Madonna
with the
Pomegranate
6. Light & Shadowing/Softening Edges
Sfumato:
Chiaroscuro:
use of light
and shade
Ginevra de' Benci, a
young Florentine
noblewoman who, at
the age of sixteen,
married Luigi
Niccolini in 1474.
gradual
blending of
one area of
color into
another
without a sharp
outline
Born in 1475 in a small town near Florence, is
considered to be one of the most inspired men
who ever lived; he was a sculptor, painter,
engineer, architect, and poet.
David
Michelangelo
created his
masterpiece
David in
1504.
The Biblical
shepherd,
David (who
killed Goliath)
recalls the
harmony and
grace of
ancient Greek
tradition
 15c
What
a
difference
a
century
makes!
16c 
Sistine Chapel
About a year after creating
David, Pope Julius II
summoned Michelangelo to
Rome to work on his most
famous project, the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel.
Depicts the biblical history of
the world from the Creation to
the Flood
Creation of Eve
Separation of Light and Darkness
Creation of Adam
The Last Judgment
Pieta 1499
Marble Sculpture
Captures the sorrow of the Virgin
Mary as she cradles her dead son,
Jesus on her knees
Moses
1452-1519
Painter, Sculptor,
Architect,
Mathematician,
Engineer
Mona Lisa
(1503-1506)
The Last Supper
(1495-1498)
Jesus and his apostles on the night
before the crucifixion
Notebooks
Leonardo da Vinci dissected corpses
to learn how bones and muscles work
Raphael
Painter
1483-1520
Perspective
The School of Athens
Subjects are mainly
secular, but can be
religious
Figures look idealized,
but can also look like
everyday ordinary people
Bodies are active
Clothed or unclothed
1510 Fresco
Vatican City
Faces are expressive
Detail
An imaginary gathering of great thinkers
and scientists
Pythagoras
Plato and Aristotle
Socrates
Raphael (back)
Euclid
Zoroaster & Ptolemy
Northern Renaissance
The Renaissance in northern Europe (outside Italy)
• There was increased cultural exchange between
European countries
• Printed materials helped to spread ideas
• Centralization of political power made the
northern Renaissance distinct from the Italian
Renaissance (e.g., nation-states instead of Italian
city-states)
• Growing wealth in Northern Europe supported Renaissance ideas.
• Northern Renaissance thinkers merged humanist ideas with
Christianity.
• The movable type printing press and the production and sale of
books (Gutenberg Bible) helped disseminate ideas and allowed more
people to become educated.
•Cultural and educational reform
•The study of classical culture (ancient Greece and Rome),
in contrast with the study of things related to the church
and religion
• Celebrated the individual
•Was supported by wealthy patrons (financial supporters)
Literature flourished during the Renaissance and
spread Renaissance ideas, which can be greatly
attributed to Johannes Gutenberg.
In 1455 Gutenberg printed the first book produced
by using moveable type, The Bible, and started a
printing revolution that would transform Europe.
Literacy rates
increased
Petrarch
Poet, Humanist
scholar
Francesco Petrarch
1304-1374
Assembled Greek and
Roman writings
Wrote:
Sonnets to Laura
(Love poems in the
Vernacular)
Influenced William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
1564-1616
• English poet and playwright
• Well-known plays include:
Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet
• Influence and Impact on the Renaissance:
He expanded the dramatic potential of characterization (his
characters were very complex), plot, language (creative), and genre
Erasmus
(1466-1536)
Dutch humanist
Pushed for a Vernacular form of the
Bible
“I disagree very much with those who
are unwilling that Holy Scripture,
translated into the vernacular, be
read by the uneducated . . . As if the
strength of the Christian religion
consisted in the ignorance of it”
Wanted to reform the Catholic Church
Wrote: The Praise of Folly
Used humor to show the immoral and
ignorant behavior of people, including
the clergy. He felt people would be
open minded and be kind to others.
Sir Thomas More
(1478-1535)
English Humanist
Wrote: Utopia
A book about a perfect society in
which men and women live in
harmony, there is no private
property, no one is lazy, all people
are educated and the justice
system is used to end crime instead
of executing criminals
Important to Remember
• Accomplishments in the visual arts –
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael
• Accomplishments in literature (sonnets,
plays, essays) – Petrarch, Shakespeare
• Accomplishments in intellectual ideas
(humanism) – Erasmus
The Protestant Reformation
(1450-1565)
Key Concepts
• End of Religious Unity and Universality in
the West
• Attack on the medieval church—its
institutions, doctrine, practices and
personnel
• Not the first attempt at reform, but very
unique
• Word “Protestant” is first used for
dissenting German princes who met at the
Diet of Speyer in 1529
I. The Church’s Problems
• Charges of greed
• Worldly political
power challenged
• Weariness of
dependence on the
Church and the
constraints it enforced
• Growing human
confidence vs.
“original sin”
• Catholic church
becomes defensive in
the face of criticism
• The confusing nature
I. The Church’s Problems (cont)
• The corruption of the
Renaissance Papacy
--Rodrigo Borgia
• European population
was increasingly anticlerical
• Absenteeism of
church leaders
--Antoine de Prat
• The controversy over
the sale of indulgences
II. Convergence of Unique
Circumstances
A. Cultural
• Better educated, urban
populace was more
critical of the Church
than rural peasantry
• Renaissance monarchs
were growing
impatient with the
power of the Church
• Society was more
humanistic and
secular
• Growing
individualism
B. Technological: Printing Press
• Invention of movable
type was invented in
1450 by Johann
Gutenberg
• Manufacture of paper
becomes easier and
cheaper
• Helped spread ideas
before Catholics could
squash them
• Intensified intellectual
criticism of the
Church
• Protestant ideals
C. Political
(1) England
• Notion of the
Renaissance Prince
• Recent War of the
Roses created a sense
of political instability
for the Tudor dynasty
--Henry VIII
• The significance of a
male heir to the
Tudors
(2) The Holy Roman Empire
• Decentralized politics
• Pope successfully
challenged the
monarch here
• New HRE, Charles V,
is young, politically
insecure and
attempting to govern a
huge realm during the
critical years of
Luther’s protest
• Charles V faced
outside attacks from
France and the Turks
D. Spiritual
• Growing piety,
mysticism and
religious zeal among
European masses
• Dutch Christian
humanist Erasmus
inadvertently
undermines the
Church from within
--In Praise of Folly
(1510)
• Call for a translation
of the New Testament
into Greek
• Call for a return to the
simplicity of the early
III. The Emergence of Protestantism in
Europe
A. Germany (Northern)
• Luther troubled by the
sale of indulgences
• Dominican friar
Tetzel was selling
indulgences in
Wittenberg in 1517
• Luther posts his 95
theses on the door of
the castle church in
Wittenberg on
October 31, 1517
• Some of Luther’s
complaints
• Luther slowly but
A. Germany (Northern)
• Pope pays little
attention to the Luther
at first
• Luther attacks the
Pope and his bull of
excommunication
• Luther goes into
hiding in 1521
-- “A Mighty Fortress
is our God”
• Constraints against the
spread of Luther’s
ideas
• The Peace of
B. England
• Henry VIII’s marriage
to Catherine of
Aragon
• Henry seeks an
annulment
• Henry creates the
Church of England
and establishes his
own supremacy over
it
• A “political
reformation” only at
first
B. England (cont)
• The brief reign of
Edward VI
• The rule of “Bloody”
Mary
• Return of the Marian
exiles to England
from Geneva
-- “Puritans”
• Queen Elizabeth I and
the “Via Media”
• The attack of the
Spanish Armada in
1588
-- “The Protestant
C. Switzerland
(1) Zurich
• Very urban,
cosmopolitan setting
• Reformer Ulrich
Zwingli and his Old
Testament persona
• “Memorialist” view of
the Mass
• Zwingli also opposed
purgatory, clerical
celibacy, intercession
of the saints, and
salvation by works
• The death of Zwingli
(2) Geneva (French-speaking)
• John Calvin’s
leadership in Geneva
from 1541-1564
• Geneva became the
model Protestant
training center
• Stress on order and
rigorous adherence to
God’s law
• A “Quasi-theocracy”
• Very austere religion
practiced in Geneva
• Self-discipline and the
D. France
• King Francis I was
initially sympathetic
to Luther as long as
his ideas stayed in
Germany
• Protestantism made
illegal in France in
1534
• Persecution of the
Huguenots
• St. Bartholomew’s
Day Massacre
• King Henry and the
E. Other Parts of Western Europe
• No Protestant inroads
into Spain or Italy
• Protestantism
succeeded only where
it was urban and
supported initially by
the nobility
• After 1540, no new
Protestant territories
outside of the
Netherlands
• Most powerful
European nations
IV. Reformation Ideas
A. Martin Luther (1483-1546)
(1) Background
• Luther’s early life
• Luther’s sense of
unworthiness and his
fear of God
• Luther’s
understanding of
“passive
righteousness”
• Luther’s confrontation
with the Church
• Luther’s marriage to
Katherine von Bora
(2) Luther’s Teachings
• “Sola Fidei”
(Salvation by Faith
Alone)
• “Sola Scriptura”
(Authority of the
Scriptures Alone)
--Luther’s German
Translation of the
New Testament
• The Priesthood of All
Believers
--Peasant Revolt of
1525
• All Vocations are
pleasing to God
• Predestination
B. John Calvin (1509-1564)
(1) Background
• More of a scholar than
Luther
• More of a systematic
thinker than Luther
• Calvin’s Institutes
(1536)
• Early legal training
• Clear-cut moral
directives for living
• Relied on Scripture
and Augustine
primarily for his ideas
(2) Teaching
• Predestination
• The right of rebellion
--English Civil War
• More of a stress on
works than Luther
• Divine calling to all
sorts of vocations
• The “invisibility” of
the True Church
• Government serves
the Church
--Michael Servetus
• Just war position
• Calvin’s positions on
communion and
C. Radical Reformers
(1) Background
• Desire to return to the
primitive, first-century
Church
• High standard of
morality valued and
pursued
• Bitterly persecuted by
both Catholics and
other Protestants
• The descendants of
the “Anabaptists”
• Ardent missionaries
who were harassed for
(2) Teaching
• Free will—all can be
saved
• Adult, “believer”
baptism
• Social and economic
equality
• Pacifism
• Separation of Church
and State
• Unity of the “visible”
and “invisible”
Church
• Stressed role of the
Holy Spirit in the life
of the believer—
“inner light”
V. The Counter-Reformation:
The Catholic Response
Ingredients
• Reformation shaped
the form and rapidity
of the Catholic
response
• Council of Trent
(1545-1563)
• The Society of Jesus
(“Jesuits”)—1534
--Ignatius Loyola
• The Inquisition
• The Index
• Renewed religious
emotionalism
--Baroque Art
• Religious warfare and
VI. Results of the Reformation
• Germany was
politically weakened
and fragmented
• Christian Church was
splintered in the West
• 100 Years of
Religious Warfare
• Right of Rebellion
introduced by both
Jesuits and Calvinists
• Pope’s power
increased
• Furthered societal
individualism and
VI. Results of Reformation (cont)
• Political stability
valued over religious
truth
• Calvinism boosted the
commercial revolution
• Witch craze swept
Europe in the 1600’s
--Between 1561-1670,
3000 people in
Germany, 9000
people in Switzerland
and 1000 people in
England were
executed as witches