3. The Italian Renaissance
The Big Idea
The growth of wealthy trading cities in Italy led to a rebirth of the arts and learning
called the Renaissance.
Objectives
Describe the characteristics of the Renaissance and understand why it began in Italy.
Identify Renaissance artists and explain how new ideas affected the arts of the period.
Understand how writers of the time addressed Renaissance themes.
4. Renaissance
I. Renaissance
A. Renaissance is a French word that means, "rebirth" or "revival."
B. The Renaissance marked the transition from medieval times to the early modern
world.
1. This period began around 1300 AD and continued to 1600 AD.
C. The Renaissance began in northern Italy.
1. Many European scholars and artists, especially in Italy, studied the knowledge
and art of ancient Greece and Rome.
5. Europe in 1500Europe in 1500Europe in 1500Europe in 1500
Italy’s central location helped make it a center for the trade of goods and ideas.
The Italian city-states dominated trade and provided a link between Asia and Europe.
Trade routes carried new ideas from Asia and from Muslim scholars who had preserved
Greek and Latin learning.
Banking, manufacturing, and a merchant network provided the wealth that fueled the
Renaissance.
6. Italy’s City-States
I. Italy’s City-States
A. Four northern Italian cities became trading centers.
1. Florence was an Italian city-state that produced many gifted artists, scholars,
scientists, and architects.
2. Venice and Genoa were port cities on the Mediterranean Sea, where the goods
and services flowed.
Each city was dominated by a
wealthy and powerful merchant
family.
7. Patrons of the Arts
I. Renaissance Patrons
A. Patrons are people who support the arts by using their money and influence to
encourage the artists.
1. Renaissance artists had the support of wealthy families and merchants who
ran the Italian cities.
B. Church leaders spend money on artworks to beautify cities.
During the Renaissance, Italian artists created some of the most beautiful paintings and
sculptures in the world. New techniques, like perspective, made their work come alive.
Today, when you buy cds
or go to a concert you
would be considered a
patron.
8. Medici FamilyI. Medici Family
A. The Medici family of merchants and bankers controlled Florence after 1434 and
became one of the most influential Renaissance patrons.
1. Lorenzo de' Medici (lo REN zo MED i che) invited poets, philosophers, and
artists to Florence, Italy.
2. Florence became a leader, with numerous gifted artists, poets, architects, and
scientists.
B. Ordinary people began to appreciate art outside of the Church.
The artists who worked
under Medici’s patronage
created some of the most
beautiful and best-known art
in the world.
9. Classical and Worldly Values
I. The heart of the Italian Renaissance was humanism.
A. Humanism is a deep interest in what people have already achieved as well as
what they could achieve in the future.
B. Although most Renaissance humanists were devoutly religious, they focused on
worldly issues rather than religion.
1. They believed education should stimulate creativity.
2. They emphasized study of the humanities, such as grammar, rhetoric, poetry,
and history.
10. The Renaissance Revolutionizes Art
I. How did art change during the Renaissance?
A. Renaissance artists sometimes used new methods.
1. Sculptors made figures more realistic than the Middle Ages.
2. Painters used perspective to create the illusion that their paintings were three-
dimensional.
B. The subject of artwork changed also.
1. Art in the Middle Ages was mostly religious.
2. Renaissance artists reproduced other views of life.
11. Michelangelo: Sculptor & Artist
I. Michelangelo
A. Michelangelo was both an artist and a sculptor and is best known for his beautiful
paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
B. He is also known for his magnificent marble sculptures called Pieta (pee AY tah)
and David.
Pieta
David
In 1991, a man attacked the
statue with a hammer he had
concealed beneath his jacket, in
the process damaging the toes
of the left foot, before being
restrained.
Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel in
4 years while lying on his back.
12. Leonardo Da Vinci: The Futuristic Inventor
I. Leonardo da Vinci
A. Leonardo da Vinci was the true genius of the Renaissance.
B. He was a great painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, and engineer.
C. Made famous sketches of flying machines, engines, and human anatomy.
Da Vinci was a grave robber. He dug up graves
at night to steal corpses, using them to study
human anatomy and attempt to find out where
the soul was kept in the body. Leonardo had a
mean streak when it came to his art: He often
left paintings unfinished and destroyed most of
his work.
13. Leonardo Da Vinci: The Futuristic Inventor
Model of Leonardo da
Vinci's Carro Armato (Tank)
Leonardo Da Vinci Multiple Barrel
Gun
Leonardo da Vinci’s
helicopter.
Leonardo Da Vinci Parabolic Swing Bridge
Leonardo Da Vinci Giant Crossbow
Leonardo Da Vinci
Parachute
Leonardo da Vinci's
diving suit design
One of Leonardo's famous flying
machines, a glider that recreates the
movement of birds.
14. Leonardo Da Vinci: The Artist
I. Mona Lisa
A. The Mona Lisa, a painting of a young
woman who is said to glow with an
internal light.
I. The Last Supper
A. Some people consider Leonardo da
Vinci’s, The Last Supper, one of the
greatest paintings in the world.
B. The Last Supper was the final meal
that Jesus shared with His twelve
disciples.
•It took da Vinci about ten years to paint Mona Lisa’s
lips.
•There is a hypothesis that the Mona Lisa could be a
self-portrait of Leonardo as a woman.
Leonardo da Vinci finished painting the scene on
a monastery wall about 1497. The picture began
to peel soon after he completed it and is in poor
condition to today.
16. The Scientific Revolution
The Big Idea
Europeans developed a new way of gaining knowledge, leading to a Scientific
Revolution that changed the way people thought about the world.
Objectives:
Explain how new discoveries in astronomy changed the way people viewed the
universe.
Understand the new scientific method and how it developed.
Analyze the contributions that Newton and other scientists made to the Scientific
Revolution.
17. I. Geocentric theory
A. Ptolemy taught that the Earth was the center of the universe.
B. People felt this was common sense, and the geocentric theory was supported by
the Church.
Astronomy Before the Scientific Revolution…
Ptolemy (87-140 A.D.)
Until the mid 1500’s, European scholars accepted and believed
the teachings of Ptolemy, an ancient Greek astronomer that the
Earth was the center of the universe. By the Renaissance, it had
become official Church doctrine.
18. Advances in Astronomy: Nicolaus Copernicus
I. Copernicus
A. Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who studied in Italy.
B. In 1543 Copernicus published, “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.”
1. In his book, Copernicus made two conclusions:
a. The universe is heliocentric, or planets revolve around the sun.
b. The Earth is one of several planets revolving around the sun.
C. This marked the start of modern science and astronomy.
19. Advances in Astronomy: Tycho Brahe
I. Tycho Brahe
A. Late in the 1500s, a Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, built an observatory to
study the stars and planets.
B. The telescope had not yet been invented.
C. Brahe used his own eyesight every night for years to carefully observe the sky
D. Brahe accumulated data about the movement and the positions of the stars and
planets.
1. His observations were far more precise than those of any earlier astronomer.
20. Advances in Astronomy: Johannes Kepler
I. Johannes Kepler
A. German astronomer and mathematician used Brahe's information to prove the
theories of Copernicus.
B. Kepler's Laws
1. Every planet follows an oval-shaped path, or orbit, around the sun, called an
eclipse.
a. The sun is located at one focus of the elliptical orbit.
2. Planets move faster when they are closer to the sun.
3. The time taken by a planet to make one complete trip around the sun is its orbit.
21. Conflicts Between Science and the Church
I. Copernicus’s theory is rejected.
A. Copernicus’s revolutionary theory was rejected by Church officials.
1. Church officials believed that such a theory contradicted the teachings of the
church.
2. The Church feared that people might start to doubt the key elements of their
faith and would weaken the Church.
Do not
contradict the
teachings of
the church.
22. Advances in Astronomy: Galileo Galilei
I. Galileo Galilei (gal uh LAY oh)
A. Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who began to experiment with a
magnifying instrument called the telescope.
1. The telescope allowed him to see mountains on the moon and fiery spots on the
sun.
B. Galileo made detailed observations of the stars and planets.
1. He discovered that the surface of the moon had mountains and craters.
2. Galileo saw spots on the sun and made observations of Venus.
3. He noted that the planet progresses through phases similar to those of the moon.
4. Galileo also discovered the four moons of Jupiter.
In 1613, Galileo announced his
discoveries and wrote a letter in
which he stated that the
Copernican theory was correct.
23. Galileo vs. the Catholic Church
I. Galileo vs. the Catholic Church
A. Church officials were offended and prohibited Galileo to publish his ideas, but
Galileo refused to obey.
B. In 1633, the Church brought Galileo before the Inquisition in Rome, to be tried
as a heretic, a person who has different beliefs than those normally accepted by
the Church.
C. Under threat of torture and death, he was forced to renounce all belief in the
Copernican theories, though he knew the earth does move around the sun.
.
Although he was cleared of the charges of heresy, Galileo was
sentenced under house arrest. He died in 1642, but the charges
against him stood for another 350 years.
24. Strange… But True
In 1600 after a 7-year trial before the
Inquisition, Giordano Bruno, who
had the audacity to suggest that
space was boundless and that the sun
and its planets were not unique, was
condemned and burned at the stake.
25. Sir Isaac Newton
I. Sir Isaac Newton
A. Sir Isaac Newton was an English scholar who’s most influential work proved the
existence of gravity.
1. Newton theorized that gravity was the force that controls the movements of the
planets, and also caused objects to fall towards the earth.
B. Newton published his scientific ideas in his book Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy.
C. He invented calculus, a method of calculation that he used to prove his theories.
Newton is also said to have wondered
why, when an apple fell from a tree and
hit him in the head, the apple did not fall
in another direction or fly into the air
instead of dropping to the ground. These
thoughts led him to devise the law of
gravity which helped develop a new
view of the universe. He saw the
universe as a huge well-regulated
machine that worked according to the
laws of nature.
27. The Northern Renaissance
The Big Idea
As the Renaissance began to flower in Italy, northern Europe was still recovering from
the ravages of the Black Death.
But by the 1400s, the cities of the north began to enjoy economic growth and the
wealth needed to develop their own Renaissance.
Objectives:
•Explain how the printing revolution shaped European society.
•Describe the themes that northern European artists and writers explored.
•Analyze the ideas of northern humanist thinkers.
28. The Northern Renaissance Begins
I. Why was the time right for the northern Renaissance to begin?
A. By 1450, the bubonic plague had ended in northern Europe.
B. Also, the Hundred Years’ War between France and England was ending.
1. This allowed new ideas from Italy to spread to northern Europe.
a. They were quickly adopted.
C. Here, too, rulers and merchants used their money to sponsor artists.
D. But the northern Renaissance had a difference.
1. Educated people combined classical learning with interest in religious ideas.
29. Gutenberg and the Printing Press
I. Johannes Gutenberg
A. A German who developed a printing press with movable type.
B. He printed the Bible in 1456.
1. Prior to Gutenberg’s invention of the Printing Press, monks painstakingly
printed books, maps, and other documents by hand.
C. More people learned to read as books became more readily available.
It took three years of constant printing to complete
Johann Gutenberg's famous Bible, which appeared in
1455 in two volumes, and had 1,284 pages. He
reportedly printed 200 Bibles, of which 47 still exist.
30. Renaissance Writers Change Literature
I. How did literature change during the Renaissance?
A. Several Renaissance writers achieved greatness by writing in the vernacular,
which means they wrote in their native languages.
1. It was a change from the Middle Ages, when most writing was done in Latin.
B. Writers also changed their subject matter.
1. They began to express their own thoughts and feelings.
2. Sometimes they gave a detailed look at an individual.
31. Northern Writers Try to Reform Society
I. What did northern writers write?
A. Writers of the northern Renaissance combined humanism with a deep Christian
faith.
B. They urged reforms in the Church.
C. They tried to make people more devoted to God.
D. They also wanted society to be more fair.
32. Thomas More vs. Machiavelli
I. Thomas More wrote a book about
Utopia
1. An imaginary ideal society where
greed, war, and conflict do not exist.
I. Niccoló Machiavelli, an Italian writer
best known for writing, “The Prince.”
A. A handbook or code of conduct for
unscrupulous politicians
B. He focused on telling rulers how to
expand their power, even if it was
not morally right.
Iron-Fisted Rule
33. Miguel de Cervantes
I. Miguel de Cervantes
A. A Spanish writer who wrote Don Quixote.
1. “Don Quixote”- tells about a simple man searching for chivalry
when chivalry appears to be dead.
Miguel de Cervantes
34. William Shakespeare
I. William Shakespeare
A. The most famous writer of the Elizabethan [English] Age
B. Shakespeare’s works display a masterful command of the English language and
revealed the souls of men and women through scenes of dramatic conflict.
2. Many of these plays examine human flaws.
C. Mac Beth, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet. To Be…To Be…To Be…To Be…
or Not To Beor Not To Beor Not To Beor Not To Be
35. Artistic Ideas Spread
I. What ideas about art developed in northern Europe?
A. The new ideas of Italian art moved to the north, where artists began to use them.
B. Major artists appeared in parts of Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
1. Dürer painted religious subjects and realistic landscapes.
2. Holbein, Van Eyck, and Bruegel painted lifelike portraits and scenes of peasant
life.
3. They began to use oil-based paints.
a. Oils became very popular, and their use spread to Italy.
DürerDürerDürerDürer HolbeinHolbeinHolbeinHolbein Van EyckVan EyckVan EyckVan Eyck
36. Albrecht Dürer
I. Albrecht Dürer (DYUR•uhr)
A. The most famous German artist.
1. Dürer produced woodcuts and engravings.
2. Many of his prints portray religious subjects.
3. Others portray classical myths or realistic landscapes.
4. The popularity of Dürer’s work helped to spread Renaissance styles.
Albrecht DürerAlbrecht DürerAlbrecht DürerAlbrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer
Saint Philip Engraving
Dürer is called “the Leonardo of
the North” because of his varied
interests and his role in
spreading Renaissance ideas in
the late 1400s.
37. Jan van Eyck
I. Jan van Eyck
A. Flemish Renaissance painter who developed techniques with oil-based paints.
1. Oil paintings became popular and spread to Italy and are still used today.
B. Van Eyck’s paintings display unusually realistic details and reveal the personality
of their subjects.
