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Renaissance
A Rebirth of Learning
Distinctive Features
 Rediscovery of Greco-Roman culture
 Emphasized reason, a questioning
attitude, experimentation and free inquiry
 Glorified the individual and approved
worldly pleasure
 Focused on worldly matters
 Featured great achievement in literature,
art and science.
Renaissance begins in Italy
 Was center of Greco-Roman culture
 Located on the Mediterranean Sea
 Wealthy people who became patrons
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Popes in Rome
Wealthy merchants in Venice
Sforza family in Milan
d’Este family in Genoa
Medici family in Florence
Florence –
Perfect Renaissance City
 Outstanding city of Italian Renaissance
 Many Florentine painters, writers
sculptors, architects and sculptors
 People of talent from other parts of Italy
came to work in Florence
 Ruled by Medicis in 15th cen.
 Merchants/Bankers –
wool trade
 Lorenzo the Magnificent –
leading member
Renaissance Florence
Renaissance Spreads
 15th century – ideas spread from Italy to
France, the German states, Holland, and
England
 Resulted from religious, military and
commercial contacts
 Northern scholars traveled to Italy to
absorb Italian art and learning
Humanism
 Definition – literary movement that began
in the 14th century which emphasized
worldly things such as everyday human
problems rather than religious matters.
 Drew inspiration from ancient Greek and
Roman manuscripts
Early Humanists
 Petrarch – Italian; studies classics and
wrote in both Italian and Latin; wrote
sonnets that expressed romantic love and
appreciation of nature
 Erasmus – Dutch; wrote
In Praise of Folly – ridiculed
superstition, prejudice, upper
class privileges and Church
abuses; encouraged people
to think about reform
Early Humanists
 Sir Thomas More –
English; wrote
Utopia – portrayed
an ideal country,
free from war,
injustice, poverty,
ignorance; word
utopia now refers to
an ideal state
By Hans Holbein
Vernacular replaces Latin
 Definition – language of everyday speech
such as French, Italian, Spanish, German
or English
 Early great writers
 Dante – Italian
 Father of modern Italian
 Divine Comedy – long poem
about imaginary trip through
hell, purgatory and heaven
guided by Vergil
Vernacular replaces Latin
 Early Great Writers
 Chaucer – English
 Canterbury Tales –
related by
journeying
religious shrine
Canterbury
stories
pilgrims
to the
at
Invention of Printing
 Moveable Type
 Johann Gutenberg
 About 1450
 1st book - Bible
 Advantages
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Increase output and accuracy
Decreased cost
More people could own books
Encouraged people to write
Renaissance Literary
Achievements
 Machiavelli
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Italian (Florence)
Served in government
Dismissed by Medicis
Retired to country
The Prince
Ethics and Government
“end justifies the means”
Renaissance Literary
Achievements
 Cervantes
 Spanish
 Ridiculed feudal society,
especially knighthood
and chivalry
 Don Quixote
 Mad knight of La Mancha
Renaissance Literary
Achievements
 Shakespeare
 English
 Greatest poet and
playwright of all time
 Masterful command of
English language and
deep understanding
of human beings
Renaissance Literary
Achievements
 Shakespeare
 Famous Works
 Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Taming of the Shrew.
 Famous Quotations
 “at one fell swoop,” “foul play,” “good riddance,”
“high time,” “lie low,” “mum’s the word,” “vanish
into thin air,” “neither here nor there,” and “the
game is up.”
Art and Patronage
 Italians were willing to spend a lot of
money on art.
 Art communicated social, political, and
spiritual values.
 Italian banking & international trade interests
had the money.
 Public art in Florence was organized and
supported by guilds.
Therefore, the consumption of art was used as a
form of competition for social & political status!
1. Realism & Expression
 Expulsion from
the Garden
 Masaccio
 1427
 First nudes since
classical times.
2. Perspective
The Trinity
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Masaccio
1427
Perspective!
First use
of linear
perspective!
What you are,
I once was;
what I am,
you will
become.
3. Classicism
Greco-Roman
influence.
Secularism.
Humanism.
Individualism  free
standing figures.
Symmetry/Balance
The “Classical Pose”
Medici “Venus” (1c)
4. Emphasis on Individualism
 Batista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre: The
Duke & Dutchess of Urbino
 Piero della Francesca, 1465-1466.
5. Geometrical Arrangement of
Figures
 The Dreyfus
Madonna
with the
Pomegranate
 Leonardo da
Vinci
 1469
 The figure as
architecture!
Two predominant art
forms
 Madonna – Mary
with the Baby Jesus
 Pieta – Mary with the
Crucified Christ
Renaissance Artistic
Achievements
 Giotto
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1266-1337
Florence
Painter/Architect
First Renaissance
artist
Ghiberti – Gates of Paradise
Baptistry Door, Florence – 1425 - 1452
The Winner!
Donatello
 1386-1466
 Florence
 Sculptor
 Friezes
 David
 1430
 First free-form bronze
since Roman times!
Self-Portrait -- da Vinci, 1512
 Artist
 Sculptor
 Architect
 Scientist
 Engineer
 Inventor
1452 - 1519
Leonardo da Vinci Paintings
Michelangelo Buonorrati
 1475 – 1564
 He represented
the body in
three
dimensions of
sculpture.
 David
 Michelangelo
Buonarotti
 1504
 Marble
The Popes as Patrons of the Arts
The Pieta
Michelangelo
Buonarroti
Only 23 yrs
old when
completed
1499
marble
The Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo
Buonarroti
1508 - 1512
The Sistine Chapel’s Ceiling
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1508 - 1512
The Sistine Chapel Details
The
Creation
of the
Heavens
The Sistine Chapel Details
Creation of Man
The Sistine Chapel Details
The Fall
from
Grace
The Sistine Chapel Details
The Last Judgment
 15c
What
a
difference
a
century
makes!
16c 
Renaissance Artistic
Achievements
 Rembrandt
 Dutch
 Greatest painter of
Northern
Renaissance
 Contrasts of light and
shadow
Renaissance Artistic
Achievements
 Durer
 German
 Painter
 Metal and Wood
Engraver
Renaissance Artistic
Achievements
 Hans Holbein
 German
 Portrait Painter
Renaissance Musical
Achievements
 Written in vernacular
 Sung by troubadours
 Madrigal – “fa la la”
Characteristics of
Renaissance Science
 Built on work of Greeks and Romans
 Developed scientific method for observation
and experimentation
 Challenged medieval superstition and
Aristotle’s theories
 Knowledge of the physical world
 Geocentric v. heliocentric
 Improved health and controlled environment
 Foundation for modern scientific progress
Renaissance Science
 Copernicus
 Polish
astronomer
 Sun is center
of the
universe
 Galileo
 Invented scientific
method
 Telescope
 Law of falling bodies
 Supported the
Copernican theory
Renaissance Science
 Kepler
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German
Astronomer
Mathematician
Planets follow an
elliptical not a circular
orbit around the sun
 Vesalius
 Flemish
 Physician
 Founded science of
Anatomy
Renaissance Science
 Harvey
 English
 Demonstrated that
blood circulates
through the body
 Descartes
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French
Scientist
Mathematician
Philosopher
Founder of Analytical
Geometry
 “I think, therefore I
am.”
Renaissance Science
 Leeuwenhoek
 Dutch
 Microscope
 Newton
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English
Mathematician
Astronomer
Physicist
Gravity
Calculus
Laws of light and color
Laws of motion
Mathematical Principles
of Natural Philosophy