The Renaissance

How it all began: Renaissance = Rebirth People started to change the way they saw things There was a rebirth in ideas & thinking A new interest in the old writings of the Greeks and the Romans People looked back at how fantastic the ancient world was Saw things in a more ‘human’ way, this was called humanism In the middle ages people believed life after death was more important, people during the Renaissance were not all Christian, they lived life to the full.

Why did the Renaissance begin in Italy? Florence: was the centre at the beginning of the Renaissance Old Roman Empire Italians remembered past achievements Old Roman manuscripts written in Latin, easy for Italians to read & study.

2) Influence of Greek Scholars: Constantinople was captured by the Turks (1453) & many Greeks fled to Italy. They brought with them scripts & ideas from Greek philosophers & writers. 3) Influence of New ideas: Italian merchants travelled a lot & met new ideas along the way. The Chinese & Arab cultures were more civilised than Europe. This made merchants rethink the ways of Medieval Europe.

4) Wealthy Italian Merchants: Wealthy merchants had money to spend on fine art & buildings. They began to show their wealth by asking artists to paint & sculpt many pieces of art. They became known as Patrons.

5) Independent city states: Italy had no king (unlike the rest of Europe) Each city sate ran its own affairs The cities were independent & wealthy. Each city was ruled by wealthy families: The Pope ruled Rome The Medici’s ruled Florence The Sforza (a military family) ruled Milan 500 rich families ruled Venice

6) Competition between cities: Italians were competitive. They wished to make their city the finest, they spent a lot of money decorating it Architecture, statues & fine art were to be seen all over Italy.

The human like detail in the statue shows the humanism influence of the artist. Can you see the difference to Medieval art?

Florence was the richest city in Italy in 1400. Many Florentine merchants were Patrons, They paid artists to produce artwork