The document provides an overview of the Renaissance period in Europe, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and spreading north across the continent by the 16th century. It discusses key characteristics including the rebirth of classical Greek and Roman influences in various fields like art, literature, philosophy, and science. Specific highlights covered include the rise of humanism, important Italian city-states like Florence, the influential Medici family, and major figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli. The document also contrasts the earlier Italian Renaissance with the later Northern Renaissance and provides some examples of prominent individuals and developments in countries like England, Germany, and the Netherlands.

1. renaissance
means rebirth – rebirth of art &
learning.
The beginning of the Modern
Period - A period of
transition

2. THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD
Cultural bridge between middle ages and modern history
Began in Italy & spread through the rest of Europe by the 16th
century
It’s influence was felt in literature, philosophy, art, music,
politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual
inquiry
“Rebirth” of classical Greece and Rome
1st period to name itself and say bad things about earlier times
(Dark Ages)
Florence was the center of the Renaissance
City-states came to be ruled by wealthy and powerful
business people(not necessarily nobility)
Age of Exploration
Rise of Modern Science and Modern Nation-state
2
Florence: the birthplace of the
Renaissance

3. RENAISSANCE- ORIGINS
 Black Plague (Europe 1348-1350) – Italy was hit badly
by the plague.
- Population in Europe went from 4.2 million to 2.8 million
- As a result of this mass decimation, the working class
became more valued and the commoners came to enjoy
more freedom
- Food become cheaper
 Desire to retrieve and study Latin and Greek literary,
historical and oratorical texts
 Social and political structures in Italy – switch from
Feudalism to a society based on merchants and
commerce
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Black Plague: Pieter Bruegel’s The Triumph of
Death (c. 1562)
Merchants of the Renaissance

4. FLORENCE
Major center of trade,
banking, cloth, production
and the arts…

5. TWO MAJOR DIVISIONS OF THE
RENAISSANCE
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6. THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
 The Italian Renaissance (occurred first)
- Focused on the city-states of northern Italy and Rome
 The Italian Renaissance tended to be more worldly with a great emphasis on secular
pursuits, the humanities and the arts
 Wealth , power and Knowledge was the key
 Often called the ”Father” of Renaissance
Humanism
- The Italian poet, Petrarch
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7. THE MEDICI FAMILY OF FLORENCE
Most powerful family of the Italian Renaissance
Came to power through business dealings and banking
 Bank of the Vatican and the papacy
 Spend tremendous amounts of money supporting the arts and cultural development
(patrons)
 Medici power often involved corruption and intrigue
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8. 8
“The adoration of the Magi” depicts the Medici family
in procession- Celebration of Medici power and influence.

9. NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527)
THE PRINCE
 Machiavelli was from Florence
 Well educated in the classics
 He served as the ambassador to France
 He was tortured & imprisoned for a time when Medici rule
was reinstated after a conflict with a Spanish mercenary army
 He retired to the country and wrote THE PRINCE
-Written in Italian
- Observations and commentary on political rule and power
(Medicis)
- How to gain and maintain order and control
- Stressed the practical over the ethical or moral
- More secular and humanistic
- Political science- Politics was to be governed by its own laws
“……it is safer to be feared than to be loved….”
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10. THE NORTHERN RENAISSANCE
The Northern Renaissance occurred later
• Involved the regions of Northern Europe
• England
• Spain
• France
• Germanic regions (Holy Roman Empire)
• The Netherlands
The spread of the Renaissance was delayed in Northern Europe
• War and political unrest
- Hundred Years’ War
- War of the Roses in Britain
• Plague and famine
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11. SIR THOMAS MORE
✣ Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of Henry VIII – highest political office
in England
✣ Lawyer and scholar
✣ Wrote Utopia – explored idea of a “perfect” society
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UTOPIA

12. MARTIN LUTHER
✣ Associated with the Protestant Reformation
✣ Critical of church corruption and abuses
✣ Sought reform
✣ Wrote the first translation of the Bible in
German
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13. RENAISSANCE: CHARACTERISTICS
HUMANISM
ART
SCIENCE
MUSIC
RELIGION

14. RENAISSANCE: HUMANISM
 Humanist education: poetry, grammar, history, moral
philosophy and rhetoric
 The movement to recover, interpret and assimilate language,
literature, learning and the values of ancient Greece and
Rome
- This literature was thought to provide moral instruction and
an intensive understanding of human behavior
 Above all, humanists pushed for the genius of man – the
unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind.
 Humanists believed that it is important to transcend to the
afterlife with a perfect mind and body, which could be
attained with education
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Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man (c. 1490)
demonstrates Renaissance thinkers.

15. 15
Humanism : The School of Athens by Raphael
- A celebration of classical learning

16. RENAISSANCE: ART
✣ Realism
✣ Three-dimensional
✣ Balanced and ordered
✣ Portraits
✣ Light and motion
✣ Study of human form
✣ Emotion and drama
✣ Science and mathematics
✣ Landscapes and attention to depictions of nature
✣ Classical style
✣ Painters studied light, shadow and human anatomy
✣ Oil paint and canvas
✣ Depict themes of everyday life
Some artists are:
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello
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Donatella, David (1440s)
Michelangelo,(c. 1511) The Creation of Adam,
From the Sistine Chapel ceiling
Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci

17. 17
THE SISTINE CHAPEL
- MICHELANGELO
PIETA - MICHELANGELO

18. 18
ALBRETCH DURER
NORTHERN
RENAISSANCE ART

19. RENAISSANCE: SCIENCE
 The rediscovery of ancient texts and
the invention of printing press
- 1455, moveable type printing,
developed in Germany, associated
with Gutenberg
 The Clock
- the idea of quantification developed
- measurable terms
-
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20. MUSIC
•The development of printing made
distribution of music possible
•Music for entertainment
RENAISSANCE:
RELIGION
•Desire to reform churches
•Martin Luther published the 95
Theses, which criticized the
church and exposed its corruption
– this led to reformation
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21. RENAISSANCE
CLOTHING
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22. RENAISSANCE CLOTHING HISTORY
✣ Around 1490's new dress for Renaissance began.
✣ This was the period of clothing when excessiveness in all areas of costume began.
✣ Different countries took the news styles differently.
⨳ The northern European countries were distorting the natural figure by
padding sleeves, doublets and stockings.
⨳ England and France followed Italy's lead while they stuck to more medieval
influenced styles.
⨳ Germans make “improvements” on the natural silhouette. They put large
puffs at the head, shoulders, thighs; small puffs, like boils, over chest, back,
arms, legs and feet. They put feathers on many on everything from wide-
brimmed hats to the knees.
⨳ Clothing at this time followed suit with all other types of creative expression
at this time—it went over the top into new discoveries.
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23. CHARACTERISTICS
Rico heavy materials
Large sleeves
Close body garments
Large hip-clothing
Wide-toed
Heelless shoes
Covered heads (masculine and
feminine)

24. COLORS
✣ Are strong, often dark colors.
⨳ Black velvet was a staple fabric of the period, especially in headdresses.
⨳ White linen was another accent against colors of gold and burgundy for
collars and wrist ruffles.
⨳ Colors of Renaissance clothing were given meanings:
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25. MEN’S CLOTHING
✣ A man's outfit would start with a shirt, with lace collars and cuffs.
✣ Over this would go a doublet, or fitted top, and finally over that a
jerkin, a close-fitting jacket.
✣ Men of the working class dressed for utility and might simply
wear the shirt alone.
✣ Instead of trousers, men would wear hose on their legs.
✣ The upper hose were (often poufy) knee-length trousers which
were met by the neither hose, or stockings, on the lower leg. In
the reign of Henry VIII, doublets became shorter, creating a
space between the upper hose and the doublet.
✣ The cod piece was a cloth or animal skin pocket in the form of
hose or trouser, but were now made from various materials, and
often padded or used for storage - Henry VIII used his codpiece
to store money.
✣ Once more, these additions to the outfit would be more common
in an upper class individual or person at court than the average
Englishman.
25 Henry Wriothesley

26. MEN’S HAIR
✣ Most men's hair was bobbed but the length of hair was chosen by individual taste.
✣ The could be straight or curled according to the nature of the wearer. As the sixteenth
century advanced men wore their hair shorter almost like modern hair.
✣ The men wore variations of the low-crowned, brimmed cap and was often turned up
all around or with just one side turned up
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27. WOMEN’S CLOTHING
✣ Women of the lower classes wore much less restrictive styles, both for
freedom of movement, and because they did not have servants to help
them dress.
✣ In dressing, a lower class women would wear a much looser corset, or none
at all, and would possibly eschew other underpinnings such as bum rolls
(crescent-shaped cushions worn around the hips) or farthingales (hoop
skirts used to hold the skirts out) for added comfort.
✣ All women's outfits started with a shift (a loose, linen smock worn to
protect the gown), and stockings, which were normally knee-high.
Petticoats were added both to fill out a gown and to keep the wearer warm.
✣ The styles of the gowns worn by women in Renaissance England changed
from year to year, but the basic styles remained the same.
✣ Women wore gowns comprised of a tight-fitting bodice and a fuller skirt
that would hang down to the ankles.
✣ Dresses cut to expose much of the neckline were acceptable and
fashionable.
✣ Clothing of the upper classes was heavy and cumbersome, and restricted
movement for the wearer. 27 Lady Jane

28. WOMEN’S HAIR
✣ Women wore the low-crowned hat in the same fashion as the men.
✣ Women either wore their hair with elaborate structures in their hair like the Germans or with just a
handkerchief.
✣ They had the hair covered with some kind of headdress. Some names of headdresses are: crescent,
kennel, gable, transparent half-dome bonnet, or the gorget and wimple.
✣ Peasant women wore the cote of the earlier period and handkerchiefs or collars around their neck.
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29. Women’s cosmetics
✣ Among the very wealthy, cosmetics were popular, especially
in age when small pox would badly scar a woman's
complexion.
✣ After her own bout with the deadly disease, Elizabeth I wore
ceruse, a smooth white powder made from lead.
✣ Vermillion was used as rouge and on cheeks and lips, and
elderberries and marigolds were used to color hair. At the
court of Elizabeth I, it became fashionable to dye ones hair
auburn, after the queen's own tresses.
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30. Maps
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Italy

31. RENAISSANCE: SPREAD TO ENGLAND
The 15th century marked the beginning of the
English renaissance
In Britain, 15th, 16th, 17th century
Renaissance style and ideas were slow to penetrate
England and the Elizabethan Era in the second half of
the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the
English Renaissance.
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32. ENGLISH RENAISSANCE
 Literature – Increased, English Renaissance
Theatre became popular
- William Shakespeare
- Christopher Marlowe
 Music – new creativity including a change to
flowery, light compositions
- William Byrd
 Art - Iconoclastic
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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
WILLIAM BYRD

33. ELIZABETHAN ERA 1558-1603
✣ Marked by the reign of Queen Elizabeth I
✣ Historians often depict it as the “Golden Age” in English
history as it represented the highest point of the English
Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music and
literature
✣ The era is most famous for theatre, as William Shakespeare
and many others composed plays that broke free of
England’s past style of theatre
✣ The Elizabethan Age may be viewed so highly because of the
failings that the country experienced before and after her
reign
✣ A time of piece and prosperity
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ELIZABETH 1

34. THANK YOU
KAREENA MONGA
FASHION DESIGN
2018008898
SU