Download 29.2 The City of Florence

Florence: Cradle of the
Renaissance
29.2 The City of Florence
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Florence Italy was the leading cultural city
during the Renaissance.
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It was home to many famous artists, thinkers,
poets, and other notable people.
Its location made it a center for trade.
Hub for woolen-cloth trading in all of Europe.
 By the 14th century, it to become Europe’s
banking center
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Florence grew wealthy as a center for the wool trade
and as a banking center
The Medici Family
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The Medici family dominated Florence.
Their wealth grew from banking.
Like other rich members in Florence, the Medicis
became patrons to artists and thinkers.
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They spent large sums on art
Financed the completion of the Duomo
Artists, poets, & philosophers gathered at their home.
Michelangelo once lived at the Medici household
The Medici family dominated Florence. They became patrons to many
Renaissance painters and thinkers.
Florence, a center of learning
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Florentine works of art, innovations, & ideas, influenced
others.
People learned from one another
They sometimes competed to produce even greater
works.
Florentines were also influenced by ideas from other
places.
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Why did Florence attract so many visitors?
 Trade/commerce
 Study art with Florentine masters
 Learn at the libraries and schools
 Many brought new ideas
The visitors brought new ideas, goods, and technologies
making the city a vibrant place.
Florentines were influenced by the freedom of ideas, the
core of Humanism.
29.3 Advances in Architecture and Engineering
Classical architecture influenced
Renaissance builders.
 Studied Greek & Roman ruins
 Used rounded arches, straight columns,
domed roofs.
 Architects came up with new ideas
 Wealthy families built private palazzi
(palaces).
 The palazzi had shops on the 1st floor and
homes above. Many had courtyards for art.
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Humanists valued good citizenship & architects built
public buildings.
 Grand yet welcoming
 Built roofed porches called loggia that joined buildings
and creating outdoor plazas.
Advances in Engineering
 The Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiore was the
greatest engineering feats of the Renaissance.
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Filippo Brunelleschi solved the problem of finishing
the incomplete cathedral
Studied Roman designs
Learned the math needed to complete the dome
The dome has no internal support
8 large arches come together to make the dome
Invented hoists to lift building material & workers to
the top
Ponte Vecchio and skyline
The Duomo. Florence’s Cathedral
29.4 Advances in Painting
Patrons offered opportunities
Talented artists were able to make
advances in style and technique
 Painters were able to take a renewed
interest in classical culture and spread of
humanism
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Palazzo Medici
What the painters wanted to
express through art
Depict (show) real people posed in lifelike
ways
 Show feelings (emotion)
 Realistic backgrounds
 This style was very different from middleaged art: flat and rigid (2 dimensional)
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How were they able to depict this
new style?
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Discovery of perspective
Painters used perspective to show depth on a
flat surface
The smaller a painted object, the further away it
appeared
The larger an object, the closer it appeared
Lines come closer together as they receded into
the distance
Shading could make figures three-dimensional
(3-D)
The Last Supper by Da Vinci
shading
How did science and math contribute to
advancement in painting?
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Masaccio-used geometry to learn how to give
proper spacing to seem more realistic
Leonardo da Vinci-studied anatomy to see how
bodies moved in order to portray (show) them
more vividly (realistic)
Invention of oil-based paints: a combination of
powdered pigment with linseed oil. This allowed
artists to paint over work in order to show texture
and details
Geometry & Anatomy
29.5 Advances in Sculpture
Sculptors
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Inspired by Roman statues
Began carving figures that looked real & showed
emotion
Statues: freestanding and viewed in round
Medieval statues: relief statues (attached
against a wall…) and subjects were clothed
Symbolized humanist ideals of independence
(free) and individuality (unique)
Donatello: a Florentine
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One of the first
sculptors to show
more life-like style
Statue of David
Shows story of David
defeating Goliath
His work expressed
his mood and
personality
Michelangelo: painter, sculptor,
poet & artist
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Inspired by Donatello to create his own David
David stood 17 feet tall
David is ideal of male beauty; yet reflected
humanist ideas
David’s expression shows concentration and
tension of man entering battle
David installed in Piazza della Signoria
Michelangelo’s favorite art media was sculpting
because he liked to bring his subject to life
Michelangelo’s David
29.6 Advances in Literature
Time for change
The topics changed
 The style of writing changed
 The language changed
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Out with the old, in with the new
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Medieval times
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Literature dealt with
religious topic
Writers used formal
impersonal style
Italian writers wrote in
Latin
Result: works could
only be read by highly
educated people
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Renaissance Times
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Interested in individual
experience to express
feeling and thoughts
about life
Wrote about secular
(non-religious) topics
Writing in own dialect
(not Latin)
Result: more people
were able to read
The Divine Comedy
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Written by Dante Alighieri (Florentine Native)
Written in early 1300s
Used his native language
Long poem that took an imaginary journey to
Christian afterlife.
In poem, Dante describes:
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Inferno (hell): Roman poet Virgil shows Dante a place
for tormented souls
Purgatory: Virgil also shows Dante a waiting place for
heaven and hell; souls await entry into heaven
Paradise (heaven): beautiful woman, Beatrice, shows
him
How can this literature piece be
linked to humanist art?
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Highlights strong
emotion
Highlights the
experiences of
individuals
Filled with social
commentary (people
are talking-dialogue)
Real people
Who did Dante influence?
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Influenced Petrarch
and Boccaccio
They described
people’s lives with
new intensity and
feeling
Used local dialect;
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Remember Petrarch?
Father of Humanism
29.7 Advances in Science & Math
Humanists were not satisfied with just
following Greek & Roman ideas about
math & science
 They questioned, made observations, and
preformed experiments.
 They used math and logic to analyze their
ideas.
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Leonardo Di Vinci
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One of the most creative thinkers.
He was an artist, scientist, and inventor
Study under Florentine masters. Lived and
worked there.
He never accepted something true until he
proved it himself
Wrote about geometry, engineering, sound,
motion, & architecture.
Studied anatomy and described blood circulation
and how the eye works.
Understood tides were effected by the Moon
1st to draw maps from a birds eye view (above
the ground)
Michelangelo’s
Drawings of muscles
Andreas Vesalius
wrote a groundbreaking
book on anatomy
Andreas Vesalius’
sketch of internal
organs
The Academy of Baccio Bandinelli, 1550
Enea Vico (Italian, 1523–1567)
Sketches by Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo’s inventions
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Designed bridges, weapons, machines, and
even a diving suit!
Other Italian scientists and mathematicians
 Girolamo Cardano: solved complex algebra
problems, and pioneered work in probability
(science of chance)
 Galileo Galilei: experimented with gravity.
Proved that all objects fall at the same rate.
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He also built the 1st telescope that could look into
space.
Discovered sunspots, & the moons of Jupiter
As the story goes, Galileo dropped two
objects with different weights and observed
that they fall at the same rate.
Galileo’s telescope
29.8 Florentine Politics
Florence ruled by governing boards from the Palazzo
Veccio
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Boards were controlled by rich families
Powerful Medici family control Florence for 3 centuries
Medici Family
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They kept their power in many ways
Built palaces
 Kept a strong military
 Involved in all aspects of city life
 Supported artists, writers and musicians
 They defeated enemies who threatened the
family
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Lorenzo the Magnificent
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Lorenzo was one of the
most powerful members
of Medici Family
Leading patron of art &
scholarship
Ruled Florence for more
than 20 years from 1469
until his death in 1492
A revolution forces the
Medicis into temporary
exile
1512 the family regains
power
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Florentine statesman
Florentine historian
He observed how there
were struggles for power
During the Medici exile he
reorganized the city’s
defenses
He was a diplomat and
he observed other Italian
rulers
He wrote a book about all
of this called The Prince.
The Prince
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An account about how
politics/government worked
Advised rulers to do what
worked best not what was right
or good
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Rulers should lie if it helped
them to rule
Believed rulers should be
feared not loved
His book and beliefs contradict
humanist ideals
In other ways his book shows
the influence of humanism
It separated the ideas of
government from religion (e.g.
separation of church and state)
29.9 Florentine Commerce & Trade
Florence was the center of wealth and trade
 It was a cultural center
 The economy of Florence was unusually
flexible
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$$Show me the Money$$
Flexible economy
 Money makers
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Woolen-cloth making
 People worked in many types of businesses
 A cloth factory owner might also be a banker
or realtor
 A grain dealer might also be a lawyer
 People often belonged to several guilds at
once
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Florence Banking
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Florence had a thriving banking industry
Shift to money economy
Over time Florence becomes banking hub
Medicis become one of Italy’s wealthiest families
because of this
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Started out as merchants and money lenders
Florence becomes richer than most of Europe’s
largest kingdoms
Had 80 banks
Let’s go shopping!
Mercato Veccio
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Florence Markets
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Mercato Veccio (old)
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Everyday items
Vegetables, fruits, bread, fish,
meat, medicine and shoes
Crowded, noisy and smelly
People from all over Europe
came
Mercato Nuovo (new)
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Built in mid 1500s
Center of cloth and banking
Food and weapons were
banned
Wanted it to be clean and
orderly
Largest financial market in
Europe
Mercato Nuovo