Download Chapter19 The Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance
The Big Idea
The growth of wealthy trading cities in Italy led to a rebirth
of the arts and learning called the Renaissance.
Main Ideas
• Increased trade with Asia brought wealth to Italian trade
cities, leading to the Renaissance.
• Italian writers and artists contributed great works during
the Renaissance.
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Main Idea 1:
Increased trade with Asia brought wealth to
Italian trade cities, leading to the
Renaissance.
After the end of the Black Death, the economy of Europe
began to grow again. Goods became available, people
bought more, and trade increased.
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Trade with Asia
• In the 1200s, the Mongols took over China. They made
roads safe again, including the Silk Road, a trade route
between Europe and China.
• Traders and travelers began to use the routes again. One
famous trader was Marco Polo, who traveled with his
family. Some of their journeys went over the Silk Road.
• When the Polos arrived in China, they met the Mongol
emperor Kublai Khan. The Polos spent 20 years in Asia.
• A writer helped Polo record his journey. Descriptions
about Asia made Europeans curious, and they desired
Asian goods.
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The Trading Cities of Italy
• Four northern Italian cities became trading centers.
– Florence
– Genoa
– Milan
– Venice
• The cities of Milan and Florence were manufacturing
centers. Venice and Genoa were port cities on the
Mediterranean Sea, where the goods and services flowed.
• Milan produced weapons and silk. Florence was a center
for weaving wool into cloth.
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Florence
• Florence stands out as an example of the great trade and wealth
coming into Italy.
• Wool trade initially created wealth, but banking increased that
wealth.
– Bankers kept money for merchants all over Europe and made money
by charging interest, a fee that lenders charge people who borrow
money from them.
• The Medici family were the greatest of the Florence bankers.
– Cosimo Medici wanted Florence to be the most beautiful city in the
world.
– He also valued education and built libraries and collected books.
• The love of art and education was a key feature of a time we call
the Renaissance, which means “rebirth.”
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Main Idea 2:
Italian writers and artists contributed great
works during the Renaissance.
• During the Middle Ages, people were devoted to religious
study. By the 1300s, scholars began to study subjects such
as history, literature, public speaking, and art.
• These subjects were called the humanities, and they led to
the thinking and learning known as humanism.
– Humanism is a way of thinking and learning that stresses the
importance of human abilities and actions.
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Rediscovering the Past
• The popularity of the humanities was due to a new
interest in ancient history.
• During the 1300s, when the Turks conquered much of the
Byzantine Empire, scholars fled to Europe and took great
works of literature with them.
• Many of the works were ancient classical writings, such as
works by Greek thinkers.
• Italian scholars wanted to revive subjects that the Greeks
and Romans had studied.
• Other sources of inspiration were Roman ruins and fine
classical statues.
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Italian Writers: Dante and Machiavelli
• Dante Alighieri was a politician and poet. Dante
wrote in Italian, the common language of the
people.
– Before Dante, most medieval writers had written in
Latin.
• Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince. He was
also a politician, and his book told leaders how
to rule.
– Told politicians to focus on the “here and
now,” not on theories
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Italian Art and Artists
• During the Renaissance, Italian artists created
some of the most beautiful paintings and
sculptures in the world.
• New techniques, like perspective, made their
work come alive.
– Perspective is a way of showing depth on a flat surface.
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Great Artists
There were several great Italian Renaissance
artists, but two stand out.
– Michelangelo was one of the great Italian artists. He
was known as a master. He not only painted portraits
but also designed buildings, wrote poetry, and painted
murals on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the
Vatican.
– Leonardo da Vinci was the true genius of the
Renaissance. He was a great painter, sculptor,
architect, inventor, and engineer. He studied anatomy,
the structure of human bodies, to make his paintings
more real. His Mona Lisa portrait is one example.
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