1. Renaissance Literature

2. The Printed Word
C printing press invented by Johann Gutenberg in Germany
Decreased costs and time of printing
Made material available and affordable for many
Encouraged writers and literacy
Spread ideas more quickly

3. Italian Renaissance Writers Change Literature
Use of vernacular
Dante (Divine Comedy)
Petrarch (Sonnets to Laura)
Boccaccio (Decameron)
Style
Petrarch – Italian sonnet
Boccaccio – Humor used to illustrate
“the human condition”
Content
Humanism
Emphasis on here and now
“How to Books”

4. Humanism Literary movement of the Renaissance
Concerned primarily with individuals and the human condition rather than with the soul and life everlasting
Drew inspiration from classical civilizations

5. Important Italian Writers
Petrarch – “Father of Humanism”
Wrote in both Latin and Italian
Developed Italian Sonnet
Inspired others to study classics
Boccaccio – Decameron
Collection of 100 stories told by 10 young people seeking
refuge from the plague
Uses both tragic and comic views of situations
Presents characters as individuals

6. Castiglione The Book of the Courtier Describes the perfect courtier
Well-educated
Well-rounded
Well-mannered
Master of many fields

7. Machiavelli - The Prince
Guide to rulers on how to gain and maintain power
Realistic rather than idealistic
“The end justifies the means.”
“ It is better to be feared than loved.”
Strong influence on world politics

8. The Northern Renaissance

9. Flanders
today Northern
Belgium
Prime location –
North Sea
(English Channel)

10. Northern Humanism Like Italian Humanism
stressed education and classical learning
Unlike Italian Humanism
- emphasized religion as well
- looked to early Christian church
for models
- believed that the revival of ancient learning should be used to bring about religious and moral reform
- more emphasis on community than on the individual

11. Erasmus Dutch priest and humanist “Father of the Northern Renaissance”
The Praise of Folly
used humor to expose ignorance, immoral behavior, and corruption including in the Church

12. Sir Thomas More English Renaissance Utopia Describes ideal society
in which men and women
live in peace and harmony
Today, “utopia” means “an ideal society”

13. How did the Renaissance spread to the “North”?
Through religious, military, and commercial contacts
Through artists who traveled and studied in Italy
Printing Press (Johann Gutenburg 1450)

14. O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
My kingdom for a horse!
Something is rotten in Denmark.
To be or not to be – that is the question.
All the world’s a stage…

15. William Shakespeare “greatest poet and playwright of all time”
Peak of English Renaissance
Comedies, Histories, Tragedies
Characterizations

16. Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel on surface: adventures
of 2 gentle giants
also, satire on behaviors

17. Cervantes Spanish Renaissance Don Quixote
uses satire to mock feudal society and chivalry
about a mad, old knight and his trusty servant, Sancho Panza
Don Quixote by Picasso – drawn in only a few minutes

18. Art of the Northern Renaissance

19. Albrecht Dürer German Studied in Italy Famous for woodcuts
and engravings
Major influence in
the spread of the
Renaissance to
the North

20. The Hare

21. The Four Horsemen
of the
Apocalypse

25. The Madona of Chancellor Rolin – Van Eyck

26. Detail of the Virgin’s robe

27. The Ghent Altarpiece
Polyptich - The altarpiece represented a "new conception of art", in which the idealization of the medieval tradition gave way to an exacting observation of nature.[3]
The altarpiece consists of a total of 24 framed panels, which make up two views, open and closed, which are changed by moving the hinged outer wings.

28. Hans Holbein the Younger
Specialized in
portraits that
are almost
photogenic in
detail
Henry VIII

30. Portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales c
Portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales c Oil on oak, 57 x 44 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

31. Bruegel – The Peasant Wedding

32. which allegorical and peasant themes run strongly
which allegorical and peasant themes run strongly. His paintings, including his landscapes and scenes of peasant life, stress the absurd and vulgar, yet are full of zest and fine detail. They also expose human weaknesses and follies. He was sometimes called the "peasant Bruegel" from such works as Peasant Wedding Feast (1567). He developed an original style that uniformly holds narrative, or story-telling, meaning. In subject matter he ranged widely, from conventional Biblical scenes and parables of Christ to such mythological portrayals as Landscape with the Fall of Icarus; religious allegories in the style of Hieronymus Bosch; and social satires. But it was in nature that he found his greatest inspiration. His mountain landscapes have few parallels in European art.

33. Hunters in the Snow

35. Children’s Games

36. Triptych of Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus BOSCH c
Triptych of Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus BOSCH c. 1500Oil on panel, central panel: 220 x 195 cm, wings: 220 x 97 cmMuseo del Prado, Madrid

37. Center Panel

38. Portion of right panel

39. Spain’s El Greco: A View of Toledo

40. Pieta – El Greco

41. Flemish Painter – Peter Paul Rubens

42. Rembrandt
Dutch
Known for use
of color and
light

43. The Syndics of the Clothmaker’s Guild (Staalmeesters)

45. Nightwatch