Download Renaissance

The
Renaissance
Renaissance--Some basics
Means “rebirth” (of Greek ideas, culture,
etc.)
 Where?
Italy: city-states
 When?
1330-1530
 Characteristics?

 Secular
 Humanism
 Classical ideas
 Classical Architecture & Arts
 Beauty of nature valued
 Dignity and potential of man
 Idea of individual
valued
Origins

Begins in the Italian City -States
Italy’s geographic location (Point of exchange East/West)
Thriving Economy (Wealthy Merchant Families)
 Banking and finance come to the fore in Italy (Usury)
 Capitalism usurping Feudalism
 Rich families benefited from recession in Europe
 Printing Press widely used in Italy for secular works
 Hegemony of the Papacy waning
 Northern Europe consolidating under strong Monarchies
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Major States
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Milan, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Naples, Papal States
(Think North as opposed to South)
City is the center with control of surrounding lands
Oligarchies, despots & republics
Question Time
What
might cause the end of
the Renaissance in Italy?
Class Divisions in Northern City-States

Classes
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Grandi (Nobles & Old Wealth)
Popolo Grasso (New Wealth)
Medocri (Mid-Burgher level)
Popolo Minuto
Who ruled?
 Rich merchant families
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Signori (Merchant family)
Podesta (Republic)
Condottieri (Mercenaries)
Names to know:

Medici, Borgia, Sforza
New Attributes

Individualism
 Portraiture

Secularism
 Literacy,

& biography
wealth, knowledge
From Scholasticism to Humanism
 Begins with notaries
 What makes a “good”
citizen? What makes a
“good” life?
 Petrarch as first major thinker looking closely
again at the classics
 Humanism= rhetoric, Latin, history, grammar,
poetry and moral philosophy
 Humanism is not a new philosophy replacing
Christianity
Question Time
What
might be some problems
faced by those involved with
Humanism?
New Virtues
Castiglione, in The Courtier, best
describes the new virtues of the “universal
man”
 Men: Well educated, charming polite,
witty, dance, write poetry, sing & play
music, physically strong and graceful, a
skilled rider, wrestler & swordsman
 Women: Know the classics, write well,
paint, make music, dance and be
charming (not expected to seek fame as
men did)

New Politics
Machiavelli as originator of new (real)
diplomacy & ruling
 Machiavelli the Florentine, diplomat and
advisor until removed from office.
 Advice: Better to be feared than loved
(but never hated). A good prince is crafty
& shrewd....in politics the ends justify the
means
 A despot is a transition not the ultimate

Question Time
How
did Machiavelli’s political
theory reflect the times in
Italy?
New Art
Increase in Quantity
 Technical proficiency (perspective,
chiaroscuro)
 Change in subject matter
 Religious monopoly broken
 Hierarchy of arts change (to stand alone)
 Artist is known
 Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello,
Raphael, Titian

Masaccio,
Expulsion– 1426
Botticelli, Birth of
Venus– 1485
Donatello’s David, 1430
Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, 1485
Madonna and
Child, 1500’s
Michelangelo’s, David, 1504
Da Vinci’s
Mona Lisa,
1507
Tintoretto, Christ at the Sea of Galilee, 1575
Raphael, Pope Leo X, 1518 &
The Prophet Isaiah, 1511
Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1522
Durer, Venetian Woman, 1505
Question Time
Was
the Renaissance truly an
era of rebirth?
Downfall
As Italian states stop backing each other
up when encountering foreign invaders
and continually attack each other, Spain
and France lead armies in to reoccupy or
take over
 By this time, the Renaissance has spread
outside of Italy to areas like Holland with
Erasmus and England with Thomas More

Other things going on....
Scientific inquiry and medical discoveries
 Guttenberg’s Printing Press
 Exploration

Question Time
What
are some of the legacies
of the Renaissance in our own
times?