The document summarizes conditions in Italy from 1300-1600 CE. During this period, major Italian cities like Florence, Rome, and Venice thrived as centers of wealth and art patronage for the wealthy merchant class. Classical influences from Greece and Rome experienced a rebirth or "Renaissance" in areas like literature, science, and visual art. Notable figures included Dante, Machiavelli, Da Vinci and Michelangelo who helped establish the Italian Renaissance.
2. •
Conditions in Italy
Thriving cities
✦ Milan, Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice,
Genoa, and Pisa
• Wealthy merchant class
✦ Patrons of the arts, caused major demand for
art
✦ the Medici
• Classical heritage of Greece and Rome
✦ Ruins of Rome
✦ Latin manuscripts from Constantinople, 1453
3. Literature
✦ Dante
✦ Divine Comedy
✦ Vernacular: used the Italian language,
the common language of the people
✦ Machiavelli
✦ The Prince...”be both loved and feared”
4. ✦ Renaissance: “rebirth” (re: Latin for again),
“reborn” interest in Greek and Roman
writings, followed what we call the Middle
Ages.
✦ humanism: the study of humanities, no more
or less religious, a rediscovered interest in
ancient history due to scholars that escaped
Turks in the Byzantine Empire. Belief in
human perfectibility.
✦ Christian humanism: combination of
humanism and religious ideas, a focus in
northern Europe on the history of Christianity.
6. ✦ England and France, after the 100 Years
War, have strong central governments that
sponsor the arts
✦ War in northern Italy drives artists out of Italy,
north
✦ Northern Renaissance artists are more
religious and more politically active than
Italian artists
7. ✦ Belgium: northeast of France
✦ Germany: east of Belgium
✦ Switzerland: east of France
8. ✦ Rome: mid-left center of “the boot”
✦ Florence: about 143 miles NW of Rome
9. Astronomy
✦ Learned the Earth moves around the sun.
10. Miguel de Cervantes
and François Rabelais
✦ Used their writings to mock romantic tales of
the Middle Ages, thought their own times
were better.
11. Great Artists
✦ Reflected the value of every human being
through painting clear personalities.
✦ Leonardo Da Vinci, Mona Lisa
12. Leonardo
✦ Born in Vinci (da Vinci = of Vinci),
a small town near Florence, Italy
13. Northern Renaissance
Writers
✦ Erasmus, wrote The Praise of
Folly
✦ Shakespeare
✦ The Elizabethan Age:
named for Queen Elizabeth
(1558–1603) of the Tudor
dynasty. She oversaw the
British expansion into North
America.
✦ wrote Romeo and Juliet
14. Church Reform
✦ Many northern scholars, like Erasmus spoke
out against the corruption and break from the
spirit of Jesus’ teachings within some of their
churches. Wanted to get rid of rituals and
emphasize devotion to God and the teachings
of Jesus.
15. Shakespeare
✦ “All the world is a stage” (As You Like It)
reflects the theme that each human being is
important and should be watched with great
interest.
16. Petrarch’s letter to
Boccaccio
✦ Moral: You will be “plunged in darkness and
delusion” if you are ignorant of history.
18. Duomo
✦ City leaders in Florence hired architects and
artists, such as Brunelleschi, to create this
beautiful church.
19. Artistic Features
✦ Middle Ages: “flat”, 2D, illuminated
✦ Ancient/Classical and Renaissance:
realistic, perspective, considered the male
figure as ideal.
21. European
Renaissance
(1300s A.D. to
1600s A.D.):
rebirth of
ancient/classical
(753 B.C. to 476
A.D.) Greek and ✦ Medusa ancient Roman Mosaic
Roman ideas ✦ The Last Supper, da Vinci
and features.
✦ Discobolus
of Myron
("discu
s thrower"
)ancient
Greece