Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance Renaissance - “rebirth” From 1350 - 1550 there was a rebirth of interest in art and learning. After the years of the Black Death, Europe wanted to look back to the past to make their society better. Believing people could change the world, the importance of the individual arose.

Why begin in Italy? Italy was surrounded by ruins of the Roman Empire and this sparked their interest to make their own art just as good. Italy was also very wealthy and could afford to pay painters, sculptors, architects, and other artists to produce new works. The region was still divided into small city-states. This created a competition for nobles to have artists produce works to increase the fame of their cities.

Renaissance Humanism Humanism - belief that the individual and human society were important. Humanists wanted a balance between faith and reason. Scholars studied the Greeks and Romans to increase their knowledge of many topics. They were curious about everything (plants, animals, human anatomy/medicine, and stars/planets). Leonardo da Vinci - A Renaissance scientist & artist. Johannes Gutenberg - Developed a printing press that used movable metal type.

Artists in Renaissance Italy Artists were paid to create paintings, sculptures, and buildings for display by many wealthy Italian families and church leaders. The major difference in medieval and Renaissance art: people appeared as they would in real life. They also used perspective (method to look three- dimensional). Three most famous artists - Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Sanzio, and Michelangelo.

Renaissance Spreads Thanks to the invention of the printing press, the humanist ideas spread to northern Europe and England. In England, the Renaissance took place more in writing and theater than in art. The greatest English writer of the era was Williams Shakespeare. In his tragedies, the characters’ flaws cause their downfall.

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Reformation

Calls for Church Reform In 1517, Martin Luther challenged the power of the Roman Catholic Church. He argued the pope could not decide what a person had to do to get into heaven. The Reformation began the movement of Protestantism.

Leading Ideas Humanism in the Renaissance led to a movement called Christian humanism. He wrote that human beings could use reason to become better Christians and improve the church. He also wrote that what mattered most was being good in everyday lives, not just go to church on Sunday.

Church upsets Reformers The church began selling indulgences (reduced the Church’s punishment for a sin) which outraged Martin Luther.

Martin Luther Luther wrote his 95 Theses, a list of 95 arguments against indulgences in the Roman Catholic Church. Thousands of copies were printed and read all across the German kingdoms.

Revolt leads to new churches The Church feared what would happen if Luther was believed. Luther was excommunicated (kicked out) of the Church. Luther’s ideas led to a new denomination of Christianity called Lutheranism and became the first Protestant denomination. It had three main ideas. Faith in Jesus brings salvation, the Bible is the final source for truth about God, and the church was made up of all its believers.

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