Download Socials8_Introduction to the Rennaisance_notes

A Glimpse of the Rennaisance
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The Renaissance - An Introduction
Italian City States
Renaissance Thought
Renaissance Artists
The Northern Renaissance
I. The Renaissance - An Introduction
The Renaissance was the period approximately between 1450 and 1600 B.C.
It was a period where “ideas were reborn”.
Ideas such as:
1. what is meant by “nationhood”
2. artistry and architecture
3. revolutionary ideas
It was a period where great leaps forward in European culture and knowledge
where made, especially in the arts and sciences.
The renaissance started in Italy because
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Most of Italy still used Roman Law (which encouraged trade)
There were many Roman ruins for inspiration
Geography (Italy was a central location in Europe and the Mediterranean)
SS8 – Renais01
- The Renaissance – An Intro
Italy Map - About 1500 AD
Directions: Color and Label the following city states of Italy (see Pathways, 2nd Ed.,Ch.9, p. 277)
(10 pts for quality of work and attention to detail)
Republic of Venice
Republic of Genoa
Republic of Florence
Ferrara
States (Color and Label)
Duchy of Savoy
Duchy of Milan
Corsica
Modena
Rome
Florence
Milan
Pisa
Siena
Genoa
Papal States
Lucca
Mantua
Major Cities (Label)
2. Florence
5. Siena
8
Assisi
Mantua
6. Pisa
II. Italian City States
The Renaissance came about as a
result of the individuality of the
Italian city-states.
III. Renaissance Thought
The Renaissance promoted new and
different viewpoints.
These city-states were often at war
and paid mercenaries to fight for
them.
Artists, writers, scientists and even
priests began to focus on the goals of
human beings and the truth instead of
the teaching of the church.
Florence was one of the most
successful Italian city states because
of its wool trade and its banking
industry
These people were called Humanists
and they believed that each person
had the ability to choose and create
his or her own destiny.
Florentine bankers spread out over all
of Europe and helped introduce the
idea of a single currency or money.
It soon became “trendy” to read good
books, see great works of art and
travel widely.
Soon the Florentine florin and the
Venetian ducat became the standard
currency throughout Europe.
Writers like Machiavelli wrote about
the troubled politics of the 15th and
16th centuries.
With a standard currency in Europe,
trade in goods, services and even
ideas spread rapidly.
Machiavelli disagreed with many
humanists and believed that people
were incapable of doing what was
right as a population and therefore
had to be ruled by a harsh and
manipulating ruler.
Venice was another great city state
who quickly gained control of the
Mediterranean sea trade.
Others like Sovonarola, a preacher
who fought for social equality,
addressed the problems associated
with a church that was becoming
exceptionally wealthy while many were
still very poor.
IV. Renaissance Artists
Renaissance artists are known for
their realism, or their ability to
create incredibly lifelike drawings,
paintings and sculptures.
The key to this realism was the
innovation
of
proportion
and
perspective.
Two of the most famous renaissance
artists were Leonardo Da Vinci,
Michelangelo
and
the
painter
Artemisia Gentileschi.
Da Vinci was an inventor as well as an
artist. Da Vinci was the first to
design a parachute, a helicopter, a
tank and a flying machine.
Some of Da Vinci’s most famous work
includes the Mona Lisa and the Last
Supper
Michelangelo was a sculptor first then
a painter. Some of his most famous
works include the 5 m high statue of
David and the ceiling paintings of the
Sistine Chapel.
Artemisia Gentileschi is one of the
worlds most famous women artists,
who’s paintings such as Judith Slaying
Holofernes is known worldwide.
V. The Northern Renaissance
The ideas and practices of the
Renaissance quickly spread to the rest
of western and northern Europe.
An important German contribution to
the
Renaissance
was
Johann
Gutenberg’s printing press
The Gutenberg press allowed printers
to make thousands of copies of books
in the same time it used to take to
make one.
This new technology spread the ideas
and even the art of the Renaissance
all over Europe.
The humanist idea of seeking the
truth through reason lead to a
scientific revolution, lead by those in
Northern Europe, that has changed
how we look at ourselves and the
universe.
A Poland mathematician name Nicholas
Copernicus proved that the old
religious belief that the Earth was
the centre of the universe was wrong
and that in fact the Earth circle one
of countless stars in the universe.
The Church was often at odds with
these new scientists because often
what they proved through scientific
investigation went against what was
being taught by the Church.
Scientists like Galileo were often
summoned to a Church court and
threatened with torture to say that
their new scientific discoveries were
wrong.
European
Renaissance
The period from the late fifteenth century to
the end of the seventeenth century marks the
end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of
modern history: Nineteenth-century historians
labelled this period the Renaissance. Culture,
including art, architecture, literature, and
drama, all flourished during this period,
representing
perhaps
the
greatest
accumulation of artistic talent humankind
has seen. The pessimism of the "Dark Ages"
gave way to a new period in which artists,
supported by wealthy patrons ( often the
Church), revisited the classical age of Greece
and Rome and brought the period back to lif
e (in a 11renaissance" or "rebirth") in their
many masterpieces.
The Renaissance had its beginnings in
the city states of Italy, where a combination
of geography, history, and economics created
the conditions for a reawakening of artistic
endeavour. The location and geography of
Italy in the Mediterranean basin favoured the
growth of trade and vibrant urban centres
where both commerce and ideas flourished.
Its history provided ancient Roman ruins and
works of art. Its economy was based on the
wealth of a number of city states that
competed with one another for the rich trade
of the area. Cities such as Venice, Florence,
Naples, and Genoa played much the same
role as the trading centres of Hong Kong and
Singapore today. Powerful family dynasties
domi­ nated political, economic, and religious
life.
The family was the centre of lif e in
Renaissance Italy. Arranged marriages were
a fact of life and sumptuary laws controlled
consumption (or how people spent their
money governing much of the economic and
social life of everyday people. The Medicis
were the most famous and powerful family in
Renaissance Italy.
Their patronage
encouraged great works of art and their
influence ex­ tended to having a family
member appointed as Pope.
The Renaissance saw a shift from
religious themes to more humanistic
themes. Reason, rather than adherence to
religious dogma, became the basis of
seeking truth. Artists found inspiration in
the works of Roman times and writers
sought answers in the manuscripts of great
Greek and Roman scholars. Petrarch, for
example, resurrected some of the ancient
writings and was in­ spired to produce new
writings with a humanist focus. He influenced
Machiavelli's
advice
to
rulers
and
Savonarola's attempts to reform the Church.
Proportion and perspective were two
innovations fostered by Renaissance artists
such as Giotto; Brunelleschi; Michelangelo;
Gentileschi;
and the
epitome of the
"Renaissance Man," Leonardo da Vinci.
Although the Renaissance began
and flourished on the Italian peninsula, it
later spread northwards. Trade between
Italian citystates and the cities of the
Hanseatic League allowed for the spread of
new ideas as well as new goods. The spread
of knowledge was greatly enhanced by the
development of the movable­ type printing
press.
Northern art differed from Italian
art, in that religious themes were still
strongly represented and a more sombre
tone pervaded the work of artists such as
Bruegel, Durer, van Eyck, and others.
Scientific thought also underwent a
transformation during this period. No
longer was the Church the font of all
knowledge. Investigation of ancient
manuscripts convinced a new generation of
thinkers to question some of the established
dogma, presenting a challenge to the
Church's pre-eminent position and a danger
to those who put forward new and different
interpretations. Copernicus and Galileo were
but two of the many scientists who
confronted established thinking on the
universe and humanity's position within it.
Source: Pathways TG/ Cranny