1. Renaissance & Reformation 1300-1600
Chapter 1

2. I. Italy: Birthplace of the Renaissance
Setting the Stage
Europe suffered from both war and plague.
a) wanted to celebrate life and the human spirit
began to question institutions of the Middle Ages
2. Church taught to endure suffering while await rewards in heaven

3. B. Italy’s Advantages
thriving cities
a wealthy merchant class
The classical heritage of Greece and Rome
a) Had access to Roman ruins
b) Ancient manuscripts from Constantinople

4. 1. The Renaissance
Term means “rebirth”
Refers to a revival of art and learning
b) led to innovative styles of art & literature
c) led to new values
1) the importance of the individual

5. 2. City- States
Overseas trade was spurred by the Crusades
led to the growth of large city-states in northern Italy
1300s, bubonic plague struck these cities, killing up to 60 percent of the population
1) This brought economic changes.
2) fewer laborers could demand higher wages.

6. 3. Merchants & the Medici
a) A wealthy merchant class developed in each Italian city-state
b) Merchants dominated politics
did not inherit social rank
believed they deserved power & wealth because of individual merit
Florence came under the rule of the Medici
Lorenzo de Medici, came to power in 1469
ruled as a dictator yet kept up the appearance of having an elected government.
Famous for being rules & supporters of the arts

7. 4. Looking to Greece & Rome
artists & scholars drew inspiration from the ruins of Rome
b) studied ancient Latin manuscripts that had been preserved in monasteries
c) Scholars fled to Rome with Greek manuscripts when the Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453

8. C. Classical & Worldly Values
Classics Lead to Humanism
an intellectual movement that focused on human potential & achievements
Worldly Pleasures
the basic spirit of Renaissance society was secular
worldly rather than spiritual
concerned with the here and now

9. 3. Patrons of the Arts
a) financially supported artists
b) merchants and wealthy families demonstrated their own importance
1) had their portraits painted
2) donating art to the city to place in public
Renaissance Man
Individual who excelled in many fields
1) Baldassare Castiglione wrote The Courtier (1528)
a) taught how a young man should behave

10. 5. The Renaissance Woman
a) upper-class women also should know the classics and be charming.
1) better educated than medieval women.
2) little influence in politics
b) Isabella d’Este
1) Born into the ruling family
built a famous art collection
skilled in politics

11. The Renaissance Revolutionizes Art
Perspective
technique which shows three dimensions on a flat surface
2. Realistic Painting & Sculpture
Michelangelo Buonarroti used a realistic style when depicting the human body
sculptor
poet
architect
painter

12. b) Donatello
made sculpture more realistic by carving natural postures & expressions that reveal personality
3. Leonardo da Vinci
a) A true “Renaissance man,”
b) painter, sculptor, inventor & scientist
c) studied how a muscle moves
how veins are arranged in a leaf
His drawings are an expression of humanistic ideals
He portrayed human hands realistically

13. 4. Raphael Advances Realism
favorite subject was Madonna & child
famous for his use of perspective
filled the walls of Pope Julius II’s library with paintings
School of Athens, conveys the classical influence on the Renaissance.
Anguissola & Gentileschi
Sofonisba Anguissola was the first woman artist to gain an international reputation.
Portrait of King Philip II of Spain.
b) Artemisia Gentileschi
trained with her painter father & helped with his work.
painted pictures of strong, heroic women

14. Renaissance writers Change Literature
Vernacular – native language
Dante wrote in his native language, Italian instead of Latin
b) Boccaccio wrote the Decameron
a series of realistic, sometimes off-color stories
presents both tragic & comic views of life
Petrarch & Boccaccio
Francesco Petrarch
wrote Sonnets to Laura
14-line poems

15. 3. Machiavelli advises Rulers
Wrote The Prince (1513)
the form of a political guidebook
not concerned with what was morally right, but with what was politically effective
3) A prince must sometimes mislead the people & lie to his opponents
4) It is best to be both loved & feared but these rarely come together