The Renaissance

The word Renaissance means rebirth and it is the name given to a cultural movement; (Literature, learning and the arts) which began in Italy around 1450AD and spread to the rest of Europe by about 1600AD.
Why did the Renaissance begin?
1. Italy was the centre of old Roman Empire. The ruins of the old Roman Empire were visible in almost every Italian town e.g Colosseum.
2. The Italian language was based on Latin, which was the language of the Romans.
3. Italy was the crossroads of trade which brought Italians into contact with Eastern cultures and new ideas from China and Asia.
4. Italy had many wealthy city-states, e.g the papal states were ruled from Rome by the Pope, Florence was ruled by the Medici family while Milan was ruled by the Sforza family.
5. Italy had many Patrons of the Arts. Patrons were sponsors. They were wealthy people who paid artists to produce works of art.
6. With the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 many Greek scholars fled from Constantinople to Italy bringing with them orginial Greek manuscripts.
7. Italy just happened to have a lot of talented artists at this time.
Patrons of the arts
1. Florence
  1. Cosimo de Medici
  2. Lorenzo de Medici
2. Milan
  1. Ludovico Sforza
3. Papal States in Rome
  1. Nicholas V
  2. Sixtus IV
  3. Alexander VI
  4. Julius II
  5. Leo X
New painting techniques during the Renaissance
1. Perspective: Giving dept and background to a painting - showing a 3D effect and making the painting realistic
2. Sfumato: Shading or blurring the outlines of faces ect. to make paintings more lifelike. Sfumato means smokiness.
3. Painting in oils: Renaissance artists mixed their paint with oil instead of egg white. Oil dried slowly which allowed artists to alter things and correct errors easily.
4. Impasto: A method of painting which involved applying layer upon layer of colour which made certain features stand out.
5. Fresco: Painting onto wet plaster
6. Humanism: Medieval artists tended to paint mainly religious scenes but Renaissance Artists concentrated more on people and nature. They also studied Anatomy- the study of the Human body.
7. Realism: Making paintings more life like and realistic.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1. Michelangelo was born in Caprese near Florence in 1475. He became an apprentice to the artist Ghirlandaio and soon noticed by Lorenzo de Medici who invited him to train at his sculpture school.
2. After Lorenzo's death, Michelangelo went to Rome where he carved The Pita - a life sized statue of the virgin Mary holding the dead christ. Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1501 where he carved his huge statue of David - 5 metres high and carved from a block of white marble.
3. In 1505 Pope Julius II asked Michelangelo to go to Rome to carve statues for his tomb. In 1508 Michelangelo began painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. For four years he worked on frescos which told the story of creation from the bible. He painted scenes from the old testament - the creation, Adam and Eve, Noah ect. In total he painted 343 scenes from the bible.
4. In 1536 Pope Paul III asked him to paint scenes depicting the Last Judgement on the alter wall alter the Sistine Chapel. This huge fresco shows many Renaissance painting techniques including: perspective, sfumato, impasto and realism.
5. Michelangelo was also a fine architect and was responsible for designing a new dome for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. He was also a great poet and wrote over 300 sonnets.
6. Michelangelo died in 1564 at 89. Michelangelo - scupter, painter, architect and poet - ranks as one of the greatest artists of all time.
Gutenberg and The Invention of the Printing Press
1. Before the Renaissance, all books had to be written by hand. Knowledge and new ideas spread slowly before the Renaissance.
2. The spread of printing
  1. The skill of printing soon spread from Germany and within a short time, presses had been set up in Italy, France, the Netherlands and England.
  2. William Caxton learned these new methods of printing. When e returned to England, he set up a printing press near Westminster Abbey.
  3. The most famous Italian printer was Aldus Manutius
3. The earliest form of printing is block printing. This involved carving letters on a wooden block to produce a single page.
4. Johan Gutenberg invented the printing press. The exact date of the invention of the moveable metal type printing press is uncertain. The Forty-Two-Line Bible was the first book printed by Gutenberg.
5. The invention of the printing press encouraged the development of the cheaper paper. Before the Renaissance manuscripts had been written on parchment or vellum. The paper was made from linen rags, which was boiled into pulp.
6. Results
  1. It made large numbers of inexpensive books available throughout Europe.
  2. While many copies of the bible and the ancient classics were printed, books also helped the spread of new ideas. This resulted in the rapid spread of mew learning.
  3. Without the invention of printing, the works of great Renaissance writers Erasmus, Cervantes and Shakespeare would not have been widely known.
  4. Martin Luther and others used the printing press to spread new ideas on religion (the Reformation)
Vernacular Writer- William Shakespeare
1. England's greatest Renaissance writer was William Shakespeare. He was born on Stratford-on-Avon on 23rd of April 1564.
2. In London Shakespeare became an actor and writer and writer of plays. He opened his own theatre called the Globe. Here Shakespeare's plays were performed in the open air. These playes aooekaed to people of all classes. The conatined a wide variety of interesting characters, from kings and queens to fools and common rogues.
3. Shakespeare wrote tragedies such as Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet. He wrote comedies such as the Merchant of Venice, As you like it and Twelfth Night, as well as plays like Henry V and Richard II which are called histories (factual accounts).
4. Shakespeare also wrote poems, including a collection of sonnets (14 line poem). He died in 1616.

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