World History The Renaissance and Exploration (15:1)

Leonardo da Vinci  The journals of Leonardo  Obsessed with learning and new ideas  Knew man was not restricted to the ground  You can never bring back the past, you can only channel it to make going forward easier

The Renaissance  The “rebirth”  A time of creativity  A new view of the world  On the cusp of achieving great things  Art and intellectualism flourished

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…  Where is the world coming from?  What is still going on?  100 Years War  Just coming out of the Middle Ages  Black Death  Political Revolution  New Weaponry

Italy Offered New Opportunities  The Renaissance began in northern Italy  Why?

New Opportunities  Reason #1:  Economically thriving urban centers  Genoa, Venice, Florence  Northern Italy was ahead of its time (urban)

New Opportunities  Reason #2  Northern Italy was dominated by merchants and wealth  The city-states ran their own affairs  Merchants were the wealthiest and most powerful people  Merchants did not inherit their social rank  Most importantly, their support for the arts

New Opportunities  Merchants fought for sponsorships  They wanted to sponsor the most skilled artists, writers, etc.  This enabled artists and intellectuals to concentrate on their craft

3 of the early geniuses:  Giotto – painted frescoes  Painting on wet plaster  Commissioned to paint  Giotto began a revolution in art  Had a grasp on emotion, not anatomy  People interacted in his paintings  Short and homely

Giotto  “The Mourning of Christ”  Best known for his works depicting Saint Francis of Assissi  Known for the marks of stigmata

Giotto:  “I am he through whose merit the lost art of painting was revived…but what need is there for words? I am Giotto, and my name alone tells more than a lengthy ode.”  Commonplace Renaissance imaging in the celebration of the individual

Early Genius #2  Dante Alighieri  Met his muse at age 9 (Beatrice) – then didn’t see her again for 10 years  “From that time forward, love quite governed my soul” Dante, speaking of his meeting with Beatrice  She died at 24 – Dante’s infatuation continued

The Divine Comedy  Part 1 – Gets a tour of Hell from Virgil  Dante’s Inferno  Part 2 – Dante and Virgil visit purgatory  What is purgatory?  Part 3 – Guided through paradise by St. Bernard, a medieval monk, and meets Beatrice  What happens to Virgil?

The Divine Comedy  A running commentary on the events of his friends and politics  A philosophic bridge between Europe’s past and its future  Didn’t write in Latin  Wrote it in vernacular  The everyday language of ones homeland, considered now to be the father of modern Italian and greatly influenced others to write in vernacular

Early Genius #3  Petrarch  A great poet  Had a muse named Laura  Very mysterious lady who died of the plague  Wrote many letters as well to influential people, friends, and a combination of the two

Petrarch  Often imitated Cicero (Ancient Roman Senator) – a personal literary hero of Petrarch  Crossed Dante’s bridge of old to new  Left the classical, complex styling  A contemporary of his time

Petrarch  Laura  Married to another man  Petrarch was denied each time he pursued her  Wrote prolifically about her, letters and poems showing his intense feelings  Slipped into a depression when she died  Fathered the Renaissance  Combined religion and humanism

New Values  Celebration of the individual  Artists and intellectuals were now noted, and remembered for their works  They used to do it solely to glorify God  Fame became the final reward for superior talent  Still true today? Right or wrong?

New Values  Two new art forms evolved  Portrait paintings  Wealthy patrons wanted to be remembered  Autobiographies  Written equivalents of self-portraits  It seems the Renaissance, rightfully or wrongfully, went hand in hand with the development of the ego.

Classical Learning  Scholars despised Renaissance works  Petrarch coined the phrase “Dark Ages”  Since the fall of Rome in 476 people had been living in “Darkness”  Scholars and many Renaissance figures were humanists  Studying what every human should know, Greek and Roman writing  The carrying on of tradition (evolution)

Worldly Pleasures  Almost everyone enjoyed the “better things” in life in Renaissance Italy  Clothing became so decorative it was gaudy  Perfumes  No longer did devout people have to dress the part  It was okay to worship God, and have the better things in life as well

Differing Ideals  Striving to master every art  “Universal men” / “Renaissance men”  The Courtier – How to be successful

The Ideal Man  The ideal man has a responsibility to be many things according to Castiglione  Strong, polite, witty, a good dancer, sing, etc.  Many men during the Renaissance claimed to be well skilled in all these things  Alberti’s third person account

The Ideal Woman  The same as the ideal men except:  They were not supposed to seek fame or create art, only inspire it.  Although some made an attempt at greatness  Isabella d’Este  Caterina Sforza  Very few achieved it  Women were however far better educated than in the Middle Ages