Florence

Florence was Italy’s leading cultural center during the Renaissance. Renaissance Florence was dominated by a single family, the Medicis. The banking and wool trade created wealth that supported cultural activity in Florence.

Advances in Architecture and Engineering Architects and builders were influenced by classical ideas. They studied Greek and Roman ruins and modeled their own buildings on what they learned. Wealthy family built private townhouses known as “Palazzi” Public spaces were often influence by humanist ideas.

Advances in engineering made new kinds of architecture possible – one the most impressive architectural designs was the great cathedral.

Advances in painting The Medicis spent huge sums of money on fine palaces, paintings, and statues. They created opportunities for talented painters that made advances in style and technique. They wanted to show real people who were in lifelike ways. They wanted to include realistic backgrounds. One advance was perspective – used to create depth on a flat surface. The smaller an object in a painting, the further away it looked. The larger an object, the closer it appeared. They used shading to make objects look three-dimensional.

Science and math also made advances in which artists started to use geometry to divide space in paintings. They observed bodies and how they moved – anatomy – helped them show bodies more realistically. Painters also had new material – oil based paintings

Advances in Sculptures Renaissance sculptures were influenced by the humanist as well in realism. For first time since days of Greece and Rome, sculptures made statues that could be viewed in the round. They looked real and had emotions and symbolized humanist ideals of independence and individuality. Famous sculptors were Donatello and Michelangelo.

Advances in Literature Literature was also influenced by Humanist. The topics people wrote about changed as well as their style of writing and the language in which they wrote. In Medieval times writers usually dealt with religious topics and used a formal impersonal style. Most was in Latin and could only be read by the highly educated. In contrast, Renaissance writers were interested in individual experiences and the world around them. Writing about non religious topics (secular) became more popular.

Most Renaissance writers began to write in their own dialect instead of Latin. As a result far more people could read their work.

Advances in Science and Mathematics Scholars and others made advances in science and mathematics. People started questioning old ideas and started to observe the world around them. The began to perform experiments and analyzed results using mathematics and logic. Famous thinkers were Leonardo Da Vinci who was an artist, scientist, and inventor. Girolamo Cardano solved complex equations using Algebra. Galileo did important experiments concerning gravity. He proved that heavier objects and a lighter object fall at the same rate.