The Italian RenaissanceChapter 15 Section 1

Objectives: • Students will explore the changes in society and in cities that

stimulated the beginning of the Renaissance.• Students will identify the ideas that formed the foundation of the

Italian Renaissance.• Students will examine the contributions artists made to the

Renaissance.

Main IdeaIn Italy the growth of wealthy trading cities and new ways of thinking helped lead to a rebirth of the arts and learning. This era became known as the Renaissance.

The Italian Renaissance

Music ComparisonMiddle Ages and

Renaissance

AGNUS DEI XII(ENGLISH ADAPTATION)Lamb of God, * you take away the sins of the world : have mercy on us. Lamb of God, * youtake away the sins of the world : have mercy on us. Lamb of God, * you take away the sins of the world : grant us peace.

Pastime with good companyI love and shall until I diegrudge who lust but none denyso God be pleased thus live will Ifor my pastancehunt sing and dancemy heart is setall goodly sportfor my comfortwho shall me let

youth must have some dallianceof good or ill some pastanceCompany me thinks then bestall thoughts and fancies to digest.for Idlenessis chief mistressof vices allthen who can say.but mirth and playis best of all.

Company with honesty is virtue vices to flee.Company is good and ill but every man has his free will. the best ensuethe worst eschewmy mind shall be.virtue to usevice to refusethus shall I use me.

With Good Company Henry VIII(Modern English)

Michelangelo’s painting was different from the art of the Middle Ages, and only one way in which European society began changing after the 1300s.

• 1300, Black Death, starvation, warfare had overtaken Europe

• Catastrophic events, enormous loss of life may have led to changes of the 1300s

• Decrease in population led to:– Increase in food production– Decline in food prices– More money to spend– Specialization in products

Changes in Society• Urban areas specialized, particularly

in Italy• Italy divided into several large city-

states in north, various kingdoms, Papal States south

• Catholic Church, nobles, merchants, artisans dominated society in city-states

• Many sought to display new wealth with knowledge of arts

The Rise of City-States

The Beginning of the Renaissance

Milan, Florence• Milan, west of Venice, based economy on agriculture, silk, weapons• Florence, to south, famous for banking, cloth• Monarchs appealed to Florentine bankers for money to fund wars• Merchants refined raw wool into fine cloth• Bankers, merchants created city to rival any in Europe

Venice• With access to sea, Venice built economy, reputation on trade• Had long history of trading with other ports on Mediterranean Sea• Shipbuilding prospered, sailors traveled to Near East• Wealthy Venetian merchants built unique city, “work of art”

Modern Renaissance Cities…

United Arab Emirates

Shanghai, China

As the economy and society changed, new ideas began to appear. This period of interest and developments in art, literature, science and learning is known as the Renaissance, French for “rebirth.”

• Venetian ships carried goods for trade and Greek scholars seeking refuge

• Scholars brought ancient works thought to be lost

Inspiration from the Ancients • Italians who could read

looked for more information

• Read Arabic translations of original texts

• Searched libraries, found lost texts

New World of Ideas

• As they read, began to think about philosophy, art, science in different ways

• Began to believe in human capacity to create, achieve

Different Viewpoints

Renaissance Ideas

• Interest in ancient Greek, Roman culture

• Characteristics of good education• Scholastic education gave way to

classics: rhetoric, grammar, poetry, history, Latin, Greek

• Subjects came to be known as humanities, movement they inspired known as humanism

• Humanists emphasized individual accomplishment

Humanities

Humanism • Ideal Renaissance man came to be “universal man,” accomplished in classics, but also man of action, who could respond to all situations.

• Best Example Leonardo Da Vinci

Renaissance Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCfMDcTvHM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY-qwLvfxSw

Modern humanists/Renaissance people?

• Early 1500s life in Italy seemed insecure, precarious• Church no longer served as source of stability, peace• Form of humanism developed from Petrarch’s ideas; focus was secular, was worldly

rather than spiritual

• Humanists argued that individual achievement, education could be fully expressed only if people used talents, abilities in service of cities.

Service

Secular Writers

How to Act• Italian diplomat Baldassare Castiglione

wrote book, The Courtier• Described how perfect Renaissance

gentleman, gentlewoman should act

How to Rule• Philosopher, statesman Niccolò Machiavelli also wrote influential

book• Experiences with violent politics influenced opinions on how

governments should rule in The Prince

Machiavellian advice seemed to encourage harsh treatment of citizens, rival states

• Describes men as “ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers” • Advises rulers to separate morals from politics

• Power, ruthlessness more useful than idealism• Ruler must do whatever necessary to maintain political power,

even if cruel Machiavelli’s theory that “the end justifies the means” deviated from

accepted views of correct behaviorIdea that state an entity in itself, separate from its ruler, became

foundation for later political philosophy

“How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.” ― Niccolò Machiavelli

Do the ends justify the means – some famous examples…

Cohn, Bill. Closing Pandora's Box. Digital image. Prague Post. N.p., 23 Apr. 2009. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.praguepost.com/pictures/6-20090422-1131-682-opic.jpg>.

http://youtu.be/lb13ynu3Iac

Scientific Information• Humanists searched archives, Arab

translations for classical texts• Discovered wealth of scientific

information

Scientific Challenges• Science soon became important

avenue of inquiry• Church’s teachings about world were

challenged, particularly that Earth center of universe

Natural World• Focus of Renaissance on human

sciences, history, politics, geography• New ideas about natural world began

to be explored also

Earth, Sun• Nicholas Copernicus said Sun was

center of universe• Galileo Galilei arrested by church

officials for saying Earth orbited Sun

Science of the Renaissance

In a book called On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (that was published as Copernicus lay on his deathbed), Copernicus proposed that the Sun, not the Earth, was the center of the Solar System. Such a model is called a heliocentric system.

The ordering of the planets known to Copernicus in this new system is illustrated in the following figure, which we recognize as the modern ordering of those planets.

Renaissance artists wanted to paint the natural world as realistically as possible.

The arts a reflection of the new humanist spiritMedieval artists—idealized and symbolic representationsRenaissance artists depicted what they observed in nature

Renaissance Art

• Highly talented in all fields (renaissance man)• His paintings are still studied and admired• Wrote out ideas, filling 20,000 pages of notes• His interests, enthusiasm boundless

• Studied anatomy • Age 24, won fame with Pietà, sculpture

of Jesus’ mother Mary holding son’s dead body

• Sculpture communicates grief, love, acceptance, immortality

Michelangelo• Marble statue of David• Most famous painting, artwork on

ceiling of Sistine Chapel• Scenes from Old Testament considered

one of greatest achievements in art history

Sculpture, Painting

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo’s handwriting

Leonardo Da Vinci

• The Last Supper

• Vitruvian Man

Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks1491-1508

Mona Lisa, 1503 / 1506Leonardo da Vinci

Pietà1499

Marble, height 174 cm, width at the base

195 cmBasilica di San Pietro,

Vatican

Michelangelo

MichelangeloStatue of David

1501-1504

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

• Renaissance architecture reached height with work of Donato Bramante

• Had already achieved fame when chosen architect of Rome

• Design for St. Peter’s Basilica influenced appearance of many smaller churches

Bramante • Raffaello Sanzio, became known as

Raphael

• Renowned painter, accomplished architect

• Most famous work, The School of Athens, fresco—painting made on fresh, moist plaster

• Also well known for many paintings of the Madonna, mother of Jesus

RaphaelOther Artists

Raphael Madonna of the Meadow 1505

• Medieval times, anonymous artists who worked for church created art

• Renaissance artists worked for whoever offered them highest price

• Buyers of art, patrons, might be wealthy individuals, city governments, or church

Patrons of the Arts

• Wealthy individuals competed, displaying wealth, modernity through purchase of artworks

• Florence, Lorenzo de Medici supported most talented artists

• Milan, ruling Sforza family benefactors of artists, others

Competition Among Patrons

• Religious paintings focused on personality

• Humanist interest in classical learning, human nature

• Building design reflected humanist reverence for Greek, Roman culture

• Classical architecture favored

Classical Influence• Studied perspective,

represented three-dimensional objects

• Experimented with using color to portray shapes, textures

• Subject matter changed; artists began to paint, sculpt scenes from Greek, Roman myths

Artists MethodsStyles and Techniques

1. How did society and cities change in the 1300s?

2. What were some important new ideas of the Renaissance?

3. What was the ideal of Renaissance art?

Trade, the movement of artists and scholars, and the development of printing helped spread Renaissance ideas north from Italy.

• As cities grew, vast trading network spread across northern Europe

• Network dominated by Hanseatic League, merchant organization, 1200s to 1400s

– Protected members from pirates, other hazards

– Built lighthouses, trained ship captains

Trading Goods• Northern Europeans traded ideas,

goods; spread Italian Renaissance north

• Fleeing violence, Italian artists brought humanist ideas, painting techniques north

• Northern scholars traveled to Italy, brought ideas home

• Universities started in France, Netherlands, Germany

Trading Ideas

The Renaissance Spreads North

Printing Press• Mid-1400s, Johannes Gutenberg cast letters of alphabet on metal plates, locked

metal plates on wooden press; perfected movable type printing• Result, one of most dramatic upheavals world has ever known

Italics• Gutenberg’s first publication, 1,282-page Bible• Printers soon appeared in other cities, made books quickly, inexpensively• Explosion of printed material quickly spread Renaissance ideas

Printed Word Available to More• Before only way to reproduce writing was by hand; long, painstaking process• With movable type, text quickly printed; producing books faster, cheaper• Easier access to books prompted more people to learn to read

A Book Revolution

Northern humanists expressed their own ideas Combined interests of theology, fiction and historyCreated philosophical works, novels, dramas, and poems

• Combined Christian ideas, humanism

• Wrote of pure, simple Christian life, educating children

• Fanned flames of discontent

• Roman Catholic Church censored, condemned works

Desiderius Erasmus• More’s best-known

work, Utopia, contains criticisms of English government, society

• Presents vision of perfect, non-existent society based on reason

Sir Thomas More• Italian-born writer

focused on role of women in society

• Grew up in French court of Charles V; turned to writing when widowed

• Championed equality, education for women

Christine de Pisan

Philosophers and Writers

• Use of language, choice of themes made plays appealing even to uneducated

• Plays helped spread ideas of Renaissance to mass audience

• Focused on lives of realistic characters, unlike morality plays

• By Shakespeare’s death, 1616, London scene of thriving theatre district

Spread Renaissance Ideas

• Many believe English playwright William Shakespeare greatest writer

• Plots not original, but treatments of them masterful

• Deep understanding of human nature

• Drew inspiration from ancient, contemporary literature

• Knowledge of natural science, humanist topics expressed in plays

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare and His Characters

Artists

Like literary counterparts, northern European artists influenced by Italian Renaissance

• Adopted Italian techniques

• Works reflected more realistic view of humanity– Italian artists tried to capture beauty of Greek, Roman gods in

paintings

– Northern artists tried to depict people as they really were

Johannes Vermee

• 1400s, German artist Albrecht Dürer visited Italy• On return, used Italian techniques of realism, perspective• Oil paintings exhibit features unique to northern Renaissance• Oils reproduced textures; reflection of objects, scenes outside window

• Artists of Netherlands developed own style, Flemish School

• Used technique perfected by Jan van Eyck, 1400s

• Fused the everyday with religious; lit candle represents God’s presence

Flemish School• 1500s, Pieter Brueghel the Elder used

Italian techniques• Paintings showed scenes from

everyday peasant life• Different from mythological scenes of

Italian paintings

Everyday Life

Dürer and Others