The Renaissance

When The Renaissance began in 1300 and ended around Dante wrote in Shakespeare wrote in 1600

What The Renaissance was a great cultural and intellectual movement. Beyond that, it was a watershed in world history. It was a transition from medieval to modern times.

The Middle Ages was the “Age of Faith.” Everything revolved around religion and the church. Everyone was deeply religious. Peasants were consumed by religion, they worried about going to heaven. The nobility was the dominant class.

Artists created only religious art and musicians only religious music, that glorified God. Architects built cathedrals at Canterbury, Chartres and Notre Dame. Scholars only wrote about religion.

Canterbury

Notre Dame

Life on Earth Peasants began to focus on life on earth, rather than wait for heaven. Merchants became the dominant class – And financed the Renaissance. Artists and architects began to create art that celebrated life.

Authors began writing works that questioned everything. Scholars read the classics from ancient Greece and Rome.

Most of All The Renaissance stressed the importance of the individual. There was a revival of learning in art, literature and the sciences. A new exploration in all realms of human accomplishment.

Artists studied classical art from Greece and Rome. Writers studied classical literature from Greece and Rome. Europeans brought Greek ideas and ideals into the modern world.

Where The Renaissance began in Southern Europe, then spread to Northern Europe. It began in Italy in the early 1300s and spread to the rest of Western Europe. Specifically the Renaissance began in Florence, Italy

Florence -- Firenza It was a city-state with self-government. The city was run by wealthy merchants. Merchants financed the Renaissance. The pope sponsored artists. Italy was the home of the Roman Empire. Kings and popes did not involve them in wars.

They connected Europe with the Silk Road. They sponsored individual artists. The Catholic Church had been doing this for centuries. Artists studied Greek and Roman art and ideas.

Who Dante – 1300 Italy – wrote The Divine Comedy. Gutenberg (1450) Germany – invented the printing press. Leonardo da Vinci (1500 Italy) A Renaissance man, both artist and inventor.

Dante

Dante’s Tomb

Gutenberg Printing Press

Leonardo da Vinci

How The artists and authors created a new approach toward the individual. They drew people as they appear in real life. Renaissance artists studied anatomy, so their paintings presented people with flesh, muscle and bone.

Michelangelo (1500) Painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Shakespeare (1600, England) A world- famous playwright.

William Shakespeare

Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo’s “David”

Michelangelo’s “Pieta”

They used perspective, things in the foreground are big and things in the background are small. Using light and shadows, people and things have weight and volume. They wrote about people as they appear in real life. Present real individuals with real human problems as in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

Why Merchants became the dominant class and financed the Renaissance. New wealth from trade, industry, banking… They had money and leisure time to invest in painters and thinkers. They are opening their eyes to the world. The Middle East and China were more advanced.

They were rediscovering their past. Europeans sought their greatness in ancient Greece and Rome. Heading into the future…for the first time artists looked at the individual. There was a revolution in communication. Using the printing press, artists and writers were able to communicate with each other.

Gutenberg Bible

Moveable Type