The Italian and Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance in Italy
Setting the Stage:

• BRING ON THE CHANGE:
• Middle Ages failed the people:
– Wars ravaged nations
– Plague was disastrous and killed many
• The Church was questioned
• In N Italy—writers and artists expressed the
topics in paintings and stories with new style
The Renaissance
• Meaning:
– Rebirth
– “revival of art and learning”
• Started in Northern Italy
– Thriving cities
– Wealthy merchant class
– Classical heritage (Greece and Rome)
• Strived to revive the culture of classical Greece
and Rome, but instead created new culture
Medici Bank and Family
• 1397-1494
• the most respected bank of its time during its
prime
• Was based in Florence, then spread to parts of
Italy and Europe
• Because of wealth, became politically
powerful in Florence, then throughout Europe
(in different forms)
• Ex: two queen regents of France
The Medici Influence
Giovanni di Bicci de’ Catherine de’ Medici, Maria de’ Medici,

Medici—founded to regent of France— regent of France—
Medici Bank 1547-1559 1600-1610
Medici Family and the Arts
• Patrons for art and architecture
• Funded huge amounts of Florentine art and architecture
Basilica of St
Lawrence
Changing Values
• Humanism—
– Study of classical texts led to this
– Focus of human potential, importance of
individuality and achievements
– The HUMANITIES:
• History, literature, philosophy
Changing Values
• Arts—
– Patrons: the wealthy, church leaders, other
important figures
• Pleasure—
– God did not mind people enjoying luxuries
– Still mostly devout Catholics, but became secular
Secular—worldly,
rather than spiritual
Changing Values
• Upper class Men and Women—
– Men:
• Create art and push for excellence in education
• “universal man” or “renaissance man”
• Arts and education: charming, witty, well educated,
dance, sing, play music and write poetry.
• Physical: skilled rider, wrestler and swordsman
“Renaissance Man”
• A man who is a master of many different
important areas of study
• Examples:
• Leonardo da Vinci—painter, sculptor,
inventor, scientist (always called “The
Renaissance Man”
• Michelangelo Buonarroti—painter, sculptor,
architect, and poet
Changing Values
• Upper class Men and Women:
– Women:
• Not expected to seek fame, but instead expected to
inspire and support art (patronize)
• Seek well rounded education and charm
The Courtier
Revolutionized Art
• Perspective—three
dimensions on a flat surface
(used by Renaissance
painters)
• Humanism displayed
through the art:
– Real, almost lifelike paintings
– Beauty, color, zeal,
inspiration and meaning now
a goal of the artists
– Human body far more
accurate
The Vanishing Point
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mgSPiAi
BjU--This is the Renaissance
Michelangelo
• Pieta
Michelangelo’s
David
Leonardo
da Vinci
The Mona
Lisa
Raphael– School of Athens
Women Artists
• Anguissola—
– First to gain international
recognition
Gentileschi-
painted art about the
power of women and
heroic women
Renaissance v Middle Age Art
Revolutionized Writing
• Vernacular writing vs Latin
• Vernacular = native language
• Dante did this in Middle Ages, most
Renaissance writers adopted this
Francesco Petrarch
• “Father of Renaissance”
• First to declare a difference
between the Renaissance and
Middle Ages
• Wrote in both Italian and
Latin
• Famous sonnets—about
Laura
• One of the earliest and most
influential humanists
Giovanni Boccaccio
• Decameron—book of
stories
• Tragic and comic
views of life
• Presented characters’
individuality
Niccolo Machiavelli
• The Prince—political
guidebook
• Addressed the
imperfection of
humans and that
what was morally
right was not always
politically effective
A Woman of Influence
• Vittoria Colonna
– Exchanged sonnets with
Michelangelo
– Helped Castiglione
publish The Courtier
Results of Italian Renaissance
• New art and literature styles
• New values—importance of individual
The Renaissance Spreads North
THE NORTHERN RENAISSANCE
HANDOUT
• 1. Why does the Renaissance matter now?
• Renaissance ideas are a strong part of modern
thought (ex: importance of individual)
• 2. How did Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and
Raphael show the Renaissance spirit in their art?
• Demonstrated—interest in classical culture,
curiosity about the world, belief in human
potential
• 3. What types of people would visit Italy, return
to their homeland and spread the Renaissance
beyond Italy?
• Scholars, students and merchants
• 4. Why did European population decline in the late
1300s?
• The bubonic plague
• 5. What two countries fought in the Hundred
Years’ War?
• England and France
• 6. As wealth increased in Northern Europe, so did
_____________________________.
• Patronage
• PATRON: a person who gives financial or other
support to a person, organization, cause, or
activity
• 7. Northern traditions made the Italian Renaissance
and Northern Renaissance slightly different. One
example of a difference between artists was that
northern artists were interested in ___________.
• Realism (the style of representing familiar things as
they actually are )
• 8. Why did some Italian artists leave Italy for
Northern Europe?
• 1494—French king claimed throne of Naples
(southern Italy), war ensued in Northern Italy,
artists fled.
• MORE SPECIFICALLY—This was the First Italian War
of Charles VIII’s Italian War.
• 9.
Name Nationality What he did Significance
Albrecht German Produced woodcuts 1. Popularity of his works helped

Durer and engravings spread Renaissance ideas
2. Emphasis on realism influenced
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein German Painted royal English

the Younger family, his painting
were almost
photographic in detail
Jan van Eyck Flemish painter 1. Developed oil-based techniques

that painters still used today
2. Lifelike work influenced later artists
Pieter Bruegel Flemish Painter, skilled in

the Elder portraying large
numbers of people in
realistic settings
• 10. How did Christian humanism begin and what
was its focus?
• Northern humanists were critical of the failure of
the church, producing a new movement. Focus =
reform of society
• 11. Name Nationality Famous Work
Desiderius Erasmus Holland The Praise of Folly
Thomas More England Utopia
• 12. What does utopia mean in English?
• Ideal place
• 13. What was different about Christine de Pizan
when compared to other women of that time?
• Highly educated and earned living as a writer
• 14. Using the excerpt of The Book of The City of
Ladies, in your own words, explain what she is
saying.
• Not all opinions of men are right, women are being
held back and this is because of men and, etc
• 15. The Renaissance in England is known as the
_______________________named after who?
• Elizabethan Age, named after Queen Elizabeth I
• 16. Who was the most famous writer of this time?
List three of his most famous plays.
• William Shakespeare (Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello,
Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, The Taming of the Shrew)
• 17. Why was movable type practical for Europeans
but not the Chinese?
• The Chinese had thousands of letters, but
Europeans had only a small amount
• 18. Why was Gutenberg’s printing press significant?
• Enabled one man to produce hundreds of copies,
making books cheap enough so that many people
could buy them
• 19. The European Renaissance shifted focus from
around the ___________________ and also gave
rise of _________________.
• Church, democratic ideas
• 20.
Changes in the Arts Changes in Society
1. Art drew on techniques and 1. Printing made information

styles of classical Greece and available and inexpensive.
Rome. 2. Availability of books promoted
2. Paintings and sculptures increased desire for learning and
portrayed individuals and nature rise in literacy.
in more realistic and lifelike 3. Published accounts of new
ways. discoveries, maps, and charts
3. Artists created works that were led to further discoveries in
secular as well as those that variety of fields.
were religious. 4. Christian humanists’ attempts to
4. Writers began to use vernacular reform society changed views
languages to express their ideas about how life should be lived.
5. The arts praised individual 5. People began to question
achievement. political structures and religious
practices.
Hans Holbein the Younger
Pieter Bruegel the Elder

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The Renaissance in Italy

Setting the Stage:

Giovanni di Bicci de’ Catherine de’ Medici, Maria de’ Medici,

Albrecht German Produced woodcuts 1. Popularity of his works helped

Hans Holbein German Painted royal English

Jan van Eyck Flemish painter 1. Developed oil-based techniques

Pieter Bruegel Flemish Painter, skilled in

1. Art drew on techniques and 1. Printing made information

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