1. Renaissance
An Awakening?

2. Where Have We Been?
Ancient
Classical
Middle Ages
Renaissance

3. When Does It Begin? Mid 1300’s (14th Century)
Some say Black Death (1347)
Or the death of Petrarch (1374)
What distinguishes this time period from the Middle Ages?

4. Let’s Define It Renaissance is a French word for rebirth
Rebirth of what?
Of philosophical and artistic movements
Renaissance people looked back and admired classical (Greek and Roman) achievements

5. Driving Force: Humanism
The study of the humanities
Grammar, rhetoric, history, and poetry, using classical texts.
They copied old Roman and Greek works, and emphasized education and the arts
A more secular outlook
All Christian teachings are maintained, but no longer the only emphasis

6. Where? Italian peninsula / Florence
Why Florence? Why not France, why not Rome?
Florence had money, banking and trade
The Medici Family – great patrons of the arts, funded this awakening

7. Key Players Petrarch - one of the first humanists
He wrote to the dead of antiquity
Castiglione – taught manners
Machiavelli – taught how to rule
Wrote The Prince
They all referenced the Greece and Rome

8. Art
Medieval Art – Religious, flat, no proportion, limited colors, little detail
Giotto is inspiration for Renaissance artists
Renaissance Art – Realistic, less religion (more secular), details, diverse colors, depth, perspective, proportion, landscapes

9. Italian artists Masaccio Donatello Botticelli Leonardo Michelangelo
Raphael
Titian
Paintings and sculptures, paid for by the wealthy, the princes, and the Church

10. Northern Renaissance
Spread to the north, Flemish region, more portraits, more common people
Jan Van Eyck
Brueghel
Holbein
Durer

11. Northern Humanism Christian Humanism (inspired the Reformation)
Erasmus – Advocated the return to the Bible and to make church more spiritual
Thomas More – Held a similar view and also supported a more equal society
Utopia - ideal place or society

12. Increase In Literacy
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1450s
Independent from China
What book was made first?
The Bible

13. Renaissance Hits England Later
William Shakespeare – (late 1500s-early 1600s) English, wrote poetic dramas surrounding familiar plots, also comedies and tragedies
Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and more

14. The Legacy of Renaissance
Birth of the vernacular language
Emphasis on the individual
Education and learning spread
People will begin to question the world around them