1. The Renaissance and Reformation
Ch. 15.1
The Italian Renaissance

3. Key Vocabulary
Renaissance
Humanists
Perspective

4. Key People Francesco Petrarch Niccolo Machiavelli
Baldassare Castiglione
Giotto
Masaccio
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Rafael
Titian

5. An Era of Awakening
In the early 1300’s a movement began in Italy that would alter how Europeans viewed themselves and their world.
The Renaissance – or “rebirth” was both a philosophical and artistic movement and the era when that movement flourished.
Medieval scholars had studied ancient history and tried to bring everything they learned into harmony with Christian teachings.

7. An Era of Awakening
Italian Renaissance scholars studied the ancient world to explore its great achievements.
A new emphasis on the power of human reason developed, and many advances were made in the arts and sciences.

8. Palace of Versailles

9. Causes
In many ways it was natural that the Renaissance would begin in Italy.
Italian cities such as Florence, Milan, Naples, Rome, and Venice had grown rich through trade and industry.
Their citizens included educated, wealthy merchants and bankers.

10. The Humanities
In the early Renaissance of the 1300s, Italian scholars turned to classical Greek and Roman literature to study grammar, history, poetry, and rhetoric.
These studies are called the humanities and people who specialized in them were humanists.
As humanists studied classical manuscripts, they came to believe that it was important to understand how things worked.
This belief led humanists to emphasize education.

11. The Humanities
Although fascinated by the classics, most humanists were Catholics who remained committed to Christian teachings.
Humanists viewed life not only as a preparation for the afterlife, but also as a joy in itself.

12. Italian Renaissance Writers
One of the first humanists was Francesco Petrarch.
Petrarch became famous as a scholar and a teacher.
His sonnets to Laura, an imaginary ideal woman, are considered some of the greatest love poems in literature.
His main influence grew out of his desire to continue the work of the classical writers.
He thought these writers could best be imitated by studying their writings.

13. Soleasi Nel Mio Cor
She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine, A noble lady in a humble home, And now her time for heavenly bliss has come, 'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine. The soul that all its blessings must resign, And love whose light no more on earth finds room, Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom, Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine; They weep within my heart; and ears are deaf Save mine alone, and I am crushed with care, And naught remains to me save mournful breath. Assuredly but dust and shade we are, Assuredly desire is blind and brief, Assuredly its hope but ends in death.

14. Italian Renaissance Writers
The study of ancient Greek and Roman literature came to be called classical education.
Petrarch thought it important to lead a full and active life here on earth.
Niccolo Machiavelli, a Florentine diplomat and historian wrote the essay The Prince in 1513.
Machiavelli sought to describe government not in terms of lofty ideals but in the way it actually worked.
Machiavelli can be considered a humanist because he looked to the ancient Romans as models.

15. Italian Renaissance Writers
Baldassare Castiglione published what was probably the most famous book of the Renaissance, The Book of the Courtier in 1529.
The setting for the book is the court of Urbino, an Italian city-state where Castiglione lived for many years.
In his book, Castiglione used real people engaged in fictional conversations to explain how gentlemen and gentlewomen should act in a polite society.

16. The Book of the Courtier

17. Italian Renaissance Artists
Renaissance artists created realistic scenes and images.
They depicted lifelike human figures in their paintings.
Renaissance painters used a technique called perspective to make their paintings more lifelike.
Perspective – making distant objects smaller than those in the foreground and arranging them to create the illusion of depth on a flat canvas.

18. Italian Renaissance Artists
Giotto was a magnificent early realist painter.
According to legend, a fly in one of Giotto’s works looked so real that an observer triet to brush it off the painting.
Another important early realist was Masaccio who used light and shadows to create a powerful sense of depth in his paintings.
Scholars often call the late 1400s and early 1500s the High Renaissance.
Leonardo da Vinci was an architect, engineer, painter, sculptor, and scientist.
He made sketches of plants and animals, as well as detailed drawings of a flying machine and a submarine.
His studies in anatomy helped him draw realistic human figures.

19. The Mourning of Christ: Giotto

20. Italian Renaissance Artists
Michelangelo was a brilliant painter.
Millions of people have visited the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, the residence of the Pope in Rome, to view his painting on the chapel ceiling.
In addition to his art, Michelangelo, wrote poetry and helped to design St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Rafael became so popular in Florence that the pope hired him to help beautify the Vatican.
Titian spent most of his life in Venice.
His works are known for their sense of drama and rich colors.
Titian was one of the first painters to become wealthy from his work.

21. The Last Judgment Michelangelo

22. Why was the Renaissance considered a time of rebirth?
Free Response
Why was the Renaissance considered a time of rebirth?
Introduction paragraph 1
Include in your answer the following:
Topic 1: rediscovery of ancient achievements
(name them)
Topic 2: human reason (examples)
Topic 3: advances in the arts and sciences
(name them).
Conclusion paragraph 5

23. Western Tradition Video Series
Western Tradition Video Series
The Renaissance and the Age of Discovery