Global History Regents Review Notes (Italian Renaissance)

Humanism

Focus on world-y subjects than on rel. issues

Humanist scholars were pious

Christians who hoped to use wisdom of the ancients to increase the understanding of their own times

Believed education should stimulate individuals’ creativity

Humanities: subject taught in ancient Greek & Roman schools and they started returning to this

Major areas of study: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, and history based on Greek and Roman texts

Did not want to accept classical texts without questioning it Studied the ancient authorities in light of their own experiences 

Francesco Petrarch - An early Florentine Renaissance Humanist

In monasteries & churches, he found and assembled libraries of Greek and Roman manuscripts

Wrote Sonnets to Laura, love poems that were inspired by a woman

Renaissance art reflects the humanist concerns at the time

Religious figures (like Jesus and Mary) were against Roman/Greek backrounds

Painted also humanist interest in individual achievement

Used perspective

Scientific Perspective

distant objects smaller than objects closer

first time there were 3D paintings

Used shading to make objects look round and real

Painters & sculptors studied human anatomy

Now able to portray humans more accurately

Medici Family

In the 1400s' they organized a successful banking business

Expanded into wool manufacturing, mining, etc.

Ranked richest amongst merchants and bankers in Europe

At the time money was a cultural and political power

1434 - Cosimo de' Midici gained control of the Florentine government

Grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent', represented Renaissance idea

Politician, patron, supporter of the arts

Had numerous poets and philosophers visit medici palace

Michelangelo

Sculptor, painter, architect and poet

Shaped marble into master pieces

The Pieta - captures the sorry of Mary as she cradles the dead Christ on her knees Statue of David - biblical shepherd who killed the giant Goliath; recalls harmony & grace of ancient Greek tradition

Ceiling of Sistine Chapel mural: depicts biblical world

Most famous architectural design was for dome of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome

Da Vinci

Born 1452 - artist and inventor, with interested in botany, anatomy, optics, music, architecture & engineering

Dissected corpses to learn how bones and muscles work

paintings had freshness and realism to them

e.g.: the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper

Made sketches of flying machines before they were every built

Dante

Italian poet

Wrote Divine Comedy

Poem topics: humor, tragedy, endless medieval quest for religious understanding

Summarizes Christian ethics

Highlights key idea of Christianity - people's actions in life will determine their fate in the after life

Albrecht Durer

Like a German Leonardo

Traveled to Italy (1494) to study techniques of Italian masters

Employed methods in paintings and engravings

Portrays relevant upheaval of his age

Spread Italian Renaissance ideas in homeland

Thomas More

English humanist who pressed for social reform

Wrote Utopia - describes an ideal society where men and women live peacefully

No one idle, all educated, justice used to end crime rather than eliminate criminal

Italian

Northern

Greek and Roman based

Rebirth after the previous disorder and disunity of medieval world

Emphasis on individual achievement

Ideal = person talented in many field

Spirit of adventure & curiosity

Humanism

Perspective

Shading

Anatomy

Focus on world-y subjects

Education important

Adopted column, domes, and arches

Leonardo, Raphael, Micheloangelo

Castiglione - The Book of Courtier

Niccoli Machiavelli - The Prince

Albrecht Durer - like a German Leonardo

Engravings

Flemish painters

1400s - Hubert van Eyck, townspeople and rel scenes in realistic details

1500s - Pieter Bruegel, vibrant colors for lively scenes of peasant life

1600s - Peter Paul Rubens, blended realistic tradition of Flemish painters with classical themes and artistic freedom of Italian Renissance

Erasmus, humanist, produced new Greek edition of New Testament, called for translation of Bible into vernacular, Praise of Folly

Thomas More - Utopia

Rebelais - Gangantua and Pantagruel

Shakespeare - The Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet

Cervantes - Don Quixote

Gutenburge & Printing Revolution

Italian renaissance

Italian v. Northern REnaissance