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I. Dates and Chronology of the Italian and Northern Renaissance

 

April 6, 1341: Francesco Petrarch is Crowned Poet Laureate - Many historians cite this date as the beginning of the Renaissance.

 

1397: Giovanni de Medici Moves to Florence - Giovanni de Medici, the papal banker, headquarters his business in Florence and becomes involved in Florentine public life and patronage of the arts, laying the groundwork for the rise of his son Cosimo de Medici to power.

 

1401: Ghiberti Wins the Right to Sculpt the Northern Doors of The Baptistry - Ghiberti is commissioned and takes 28 years to sculpt the bronze doors of the Florentine church. The doors remain one of the most valued treasures of the Renaissance

 

1420: The Papacy Returns to Rome - The Papacy, having been located in Avignon since 1305, returns to Rome, bringing with it the prestige and wealth necessary to rebuild the city.

 

1423: Francesco Fosari Becomes Doge of Venice - Fosari assumes the position of doge and attempts to usurp great political power, to the distaste of the Great Council, Venice's oligarchic ruling body, which asserts its power over the doge and torments him until his resignation.

 

1429: Cosimo de Medici Takes Over his Father's Business - Cosimo de Medici becomes head of the bank after his father dies, using his economic power to consolidate political power. Within five years he runs the city without question.

 

1447: Pope Nicholas V Ascends to the Throne - Pope Nicholas V takes the first steps toward turning Rome into a Renaissance city, undertaking many construction projects and strongly encouraging the arts.

 

1450: Francesco Sforza Seizes Control of Milan - After a short experiment with republican government, Milan returns to monarchy when Francesco Sforza takes control of the city. His most prominent successor is Ludovico Sforza.

 

1453: Constantinople Falls - The center of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks, provoking an exodus of Greek people and works of art and literature into the Italian city-states.

 

1454: Johann Gutenberg Prints the Gutenberg Bible - Gutenberg is credited with the invention of the printing press in Europe, and ushers in the age of printed books, making literature more accessible to all Europeans.

 

1464: Lorenzo de Medici Ascends to Power in Florence - After Cosimo's death in 1464, his son Piero rules until his death in 1469, when power falls into the hands of Lorenzo, who rules until 1491, raising Florence to its greatest heights of the Renaissance.

 

1471: Sixtus IV Becomes Pope - Sixtus IV becomes pope, undertaking many successful projects in Rome, but disgracing the Church through his corruption and practice of nepotism.

 

1486: Pico Publishes His Collection of 900 Treatises - Pico's philosophy often conflicts with that of the Catholic Church and he is declared a heretic. He is saved from demise by the intervention of Lorenzo de Medici.

 

1492: Rodrigo Borgia becomes Pope Alexander VI - Alexander VI is widely known as a corrupt and manipulative pope, scheming for his family's benefit. Many claim that the Papacy reaches its greatest moral decline of the Renaissance during his pontificate.

 

1494: The Medici are Ousted from Florence by Girolamo Savonarola - Savonarola, preaching a return to simple faith, leads a popular uprising against the Medici, who are forced to flee. Savonarola's rule is short-lived, and he is burned as a heretic in 1495.

 

1494: Ludovico Sforza Permits the French Invasion of Italy - In an attempt to weaken his enemy, the King of Naples, Ludovico invites the French to invade Italy, granting them free passage through Milan. Though this invasion fails, the French return in 1499, turning on Ludovico and taking Milan, and opening an era of foreign competition for Italian land.

 

1503: Pope Julius II Assumes the Papal Throne - The ascension of Pope Julius II begins the Roman Golden Age, during which the city and Papacy both prosper. Julius II reverses the trend of moral degradation in the Papacy and takes great steps in the rebuilding of Rome.

 

1513: Pope Leo X Succeeds Julius II - Pope Leo X, the son of Lorenzo de Medici, continues the trend of the Golden Age, proving himself a gifted administrator and intelligent patron of the arts. Rome prospers.

 

1513: Niccolo Machiavelli Publishes The Prince - Often considered the most influential political book of all time, The Prince outlines the argument that it is better for a ruler to be feared than loved.

 

1517: The Reformation Movement Begins - Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door of a church in Wittenburg, Germany, igniting a movement which provokes an enormous split in the Roman Catholic Church.

 

1519: Leonardo da Vinci Dies - Leonardo, perhaps the most remarkable individual of the Renaissance, dies in France, having established himself as a painter, sculptor, engineer, and scientist.

 

1523: Pope Clement VII Ascends to the Throne - Pope Clement VII comes to power in difficult times, following Pope Leo X. He soon proves himself an incompetent politician, and his poor decisions lead to the sack of Rome.

 

May 6, 1527: The Sack of Rome - After Pope Clement VII refuses to grant the imperial army a ransom, it attacks the city of Rome, taking the city in just over twelve hours. The sack of Rome symbolizes the downfall of Renaissance Italy, much of which is subjugated to Imperial-Spanish rule by the settlement of Bologna in 1530.


II. Significant Individuals

 

Boccaccio - One of the first writers of the early Renaissance, Giovanni Boccaccio, a Florentine, is most noted for writing the Decameron, a series of 100 stories set in Florence during the Black Death that struck the city in 1348. Boccaccio explores, in these stories, the traditions and viewpoints of various social classes, greatly based on actual observation and study.

 

Charles V - Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor during the early sixteenth century, was, by genetic good fortune, heir to Spain, Burgundy, the Netherlands, Austria, and Naples, as well as being claimant to Milan by imperial right. His forces harassed the Italian city-states for years, finally gaining dominance over much of Italy in the settlement of Bologna, in 1530.

 

Leonardo da Vinci - Perhaps the greatest single figure of the Renaissance, Leonardo excelled in painting, sculpting, engineering, biology, and many other fields. He traveled around Italy, and eventually France as well, making observations on nature and seeking commissions. Many of his contributions were ideas for inventions which were not built until long after his death. His most famous completed work, the Mona Lisa, is the most famous portrait ever painted.

 

Isabella d'Este - Isabella d'Este was perhaps the most powerful and most intelligent woman of the Renaissance. She mastered Greek and Latin and memorized the works of the ancient scholars, all the while excelling in the arts of singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments. As the duchess of Mantua, she exerted a great amount of influence over the politics, social life, and economics of the city, even ruling by  herself when her husband was captured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Donatello - The greatest sculptor of the early Renaissance, Donatello was born Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi. Donatello studied under both Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, and went on to create several masterpieces for Cosimo de Medici in Florence. His most important work is the David, which depicts the Hebrew king in the classical style of a Greek god. David was the first freestanding nude figure sculpted since the Roman era. Donatello went on to create the first bronze statue of the Renaissance, showing an incredibly realistic soldier on horseback.

 

Niccolo Machiavelli - Niccolo Machiavelli may be the most famed writer of the Renaissance. His most well known work, The Prince is a political handbook arguing that it is better for a ruler to be feared than loved. It was a guidebook for the ruler Machiavelli hoped would eventually unite Italy to drive out foreign threats.  The Prince argues that it is better for a ruler to be feared than loved, and has served as a handbook by European leaders for centuries since its publishing in 1513.

 

Cosimo de Medici - In 1434, Cosimo de Medici consolidated the power of Florence in his and his family's hands, beginning the reign of the Medici that would last in Florence until the end of the Renaissance. Cosimo built up strong connections throughout Italy and Europe in his capacity as a banker, and applied the wealth of Florence in patronage of artistic and intellectual endeavors.

 

Lorenzo de Medici - Lorenzo de Medici, known as 'Il Magnifico,' was Cosimo's grandson. Lorenzo lived more elegantly than had Cosimo, and enjoyed the spotlight of power immensely. Under

his control, the Florentine economy expanded significantly and the lower class enjoyed a greater level of comfort and protection than it had before. During

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


the period of Lorenzo's rule, from 1469 to

1492, Florence became undeniably the most important city-state in Italy and the most beautiful city in all of Europe.

 

Michaelangelo - Michaelangelo was one of the greatest artists of the High Renaissance. At a young age his talent was spotted by Lorenzo de Medici and he was brought up in the Medici palace. He went on to create some of the most famous works of the Renaissance, carving the Pieta and painting the walls and ceilings of the Sistine Chapel.

 

Francesco Petrarch – often referred to as the founder of humanism.  As one of the first humanist writers he explored modern life through the lens of the ancient Romans and Freeks, influencing with his works the later renaissance writers and the spirit of the times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Other Significant Individuals

 

Lucrezia Borgia - One of the few notable women of the Renaissance, Lucrezia Borgia was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, who used her as a pawn in his attempts to gain political power. He married her first to the duke of Milan, then to the illegitimate son of the King of Naples, and finally to the duke of Ferarra, where she became an influential member of the court.

 

Botticelli - A well-known painter of the Renaissance, Botticelli was one of a circle of artists and scholars sponsored by the Medici in Florence. He was fascinated by Neoplatonism, and many of his works are seen as great examples of applied Neoplatonism.

 

Brunelleschi - Brunelleschi was one of the great sculptors and architects of the early Renaissance. His most famous contribution was the design of the dome of the cathedral of Florence, which still dominates the Florentine skyline today.

 

Francesco Fosari - In 1423, Francesco Fosari became doge of Venice. He ruled with excessive grandeur and exercised far greater power than had past doges, aggressively pursuing a policy of western expansion. To torment and control the doge, the Venetian Council of Ten falsely accused his son, Jacopo, of treason, and began a long process during which Jacopo was exiled, readmitted, tortured, and exiled again. Finally, when the Council of Ten forced Fosari to resign, affirming its power over the monarch.

 

Ghiberti - Ghiberti was one of the earliest sculptors of the Renaissance. He developed techniques for showing perspective that greatly influenced his followers throughout the Renaissance. Ghiberti sculpted a pair of bronze doors to a church in Florence which remain one of the greatest-admired treasures of the Renaissance.

 

Giotto - Giotto was one of the first painters of the Renaissance. He did groundbreaking work in the realm of perspective and realism. Giotto's techniques were instrumental in pursuing the goals of Renaissance art, and they greatly affected the artists who followed.

 

Johann Gutenberg - Gutenberg is credited with inventing the printing press in Germany in 1454, and printing the first book, the Gutenberg Bible, ushering in the age of the printed book, during which books became cheaper and more accessible to the general population.

 

Masaccio - Masaccio, a nickname meaning 'Messy Tom', was born Tomasso Guidi. Masaccio is credited with mastering perspective, and was the first Renaissance artist to paint models in the nude, often using light and shadow to define the shape of his models rather than clear lines. Masaccio's best known work is a scene from the Bible called The Tribute Money.

 

Pico - Pico was a philosopher and writer of the Renaissance. His most famous work is a collection of 900 philosophical treatises in which he expresses his belief in the free will of man and the ability of individuals to commune with God without the medium of a priest. Pico was declared a heretic, and only saved from demise by the intervention of Lorenzo de Medici.

 

Pope Alexander VI - Rodrigo Borgia, who took the name Alexander VI upon rising to the papacy in 1492 and ruled until 1503, was a corrupt pope bent on the advancement of his family through the political ranks of Italy. While pope he turned many away from the church with his actions, and his reign is considered by some to be the darkest era of the Papacy.

 

Pope Clement VII - Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) ascended to the papal throne in 1523, following Pope Leo X. He arose during troubled times and proved a moral man but a poor administrator, and his lack of political skill eventually led to the sack of Rome.

 

Pope Julius II - Pope Julius II (1503-1513) ascended to the papal throne in 1503, and presided over the beginning of Rome's Golden Age. He ended the long string of highly corrupt pontiffs and began the massive project of rebuilding St. Peter's basilica.

 

Pope Leo X - Pope Leo X (1513-1521) was the son of Lorenzo de Medici. A truly enlightened leader and patron of the arts, he followed the reign of Julius II, ascending to the throne in 1513. Pope Leo X continued the work begun during Julius II's pontificate, rebuilding all of Rome, and most specifically, St. Peter's basilica. His one grave error was to authorize the sale of indulgences to finance this project, an action which prompted the beginning of the Reformation movement.

 

Pope Nicholas V - Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455) ascended to the Papacy in 1447 and took the first steps necessary in resurrecting Rome. He began the rebuilding of Rome as a Renaissance city, supporting the arts and reviving the city's economy.

 

Pope Sixtus IV - Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) is known for both the great steps taken under his rule to rebuild Rome and his great corruption. Pope Sixtus IV instituted nepotism as a way of life in Rome, and ran the Papacy as a family operation.

 

Raphael - Hailed as the greatest painter of the Renaissance, Raphael, born Rafaello Sanzi, worked in Rome under papal commissions from Pope Julius II and Pope Leo X, decorating much of the Vatican. The most widely known of the series of murals and frescoes he painted is the School of Athens, which depicts an imaginary assembly of famous philosophers. He was considered so important by his contemporaries that when he died at the premature age of 37 he was buried in the Pantheon.

 

Girolamo Savonarola - Savonarola attracted a following starting in 1491, when he began preaching against the worldliness and paganism of the Renaissance. He led the ousting of the Medici from Florence in 1494, and assumed power, drafting a new draconian constitution, and attempting to revive the medieval spirit. He ordered burned many books and paintings he considered immoral. In 1495, Savonarola called for the deposal of Pope Alexander VI, was declared a heretic, and burned at the stake.

 

Ludovico Sforza - Ludovico Sforza played the part of the archetypical Italian Renaissance prince, surrounding himself with intrigue and corruption. Though Ludovico was not the rightful duke of Milan and was known to use coercion and manipulation to achieve his political goals, for a time the city of Milan flourished in his care. Under Ludovico, known as 'Il Moro," Milan became extraordinarily wealthy and its citizens participated in a splendid and excessive social culture.

Titian - Titian was the most famous Venetian artist of the Renaissance. Born Tiziana Vecellio, in the Italian Alps, he moved to Venice early in life to study. Titian distinguished himself through the use of bright colors and new techniques that gave those colors greater subtlety and depth. Between 1518 and 1532 he served as court painter in Ferrara, Mantua, and Urbino. In 1532, he became the official painter to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, in which role he dabbled mainly in portraiture.

 

III. Map of Italy

 

 

The city-states of Renaissance Italy were at the center of Europe’s economic, political, and cultural life throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.  During the Middle Ages, the towns of Northern Italy were under the control of the Holy Roman Empire; residents, however, were basically free to decide their own fate, which resulted in many politic differences.  The old nobility, whose wealth was based on land ownership, often conflicted with a new class of merchant families who had become wealthly in the economic boom of the 12th and 13th centuries.  Both groups had to contend with an urban underclass known as the ‘popolo’ who wanted their share of the wealth and political power.  In Florence, in 1378, the popolo expressed their dissatisfaction with the political and economic order by staging a violent struggle against the government known as the Ciompi revolt.  This struggle rose in other city-states and resulted in the rise of a tyrant or signor. The most powerful being Cosimo de Medici and his grandson Lorenzo de Medici. In 1434, Cosimo de Medici consolidated the power of Florence in his and his family's hands, beginning the reign of the Medici that would last in Florence until the end of the Renaissance.  He built up strong connections throughout Italy and Europe in his capacity as a banker, and applied the wealth of Florence in patronage of artistic and intellectual endeavors.  His grandson, Lorenzo de Medici, known as 'Il Magnifico,' lived more elegantly than had Cosimo, and enjoyed the spotlight of power immensely. Under his control, the Florentine economy expanded significantly and the lower class enjoyed a greater level of comfort and protection than it had before. During the period of Lorenzo's rule, from 1469 to 1492, Florence became undeniably the most important city-state in Italy and the most beautiful city in all of Europe.

            The Italian City states were far more economically active than the rest of Europe, with merchants carrying Italian wool and silk to every part of the continent and with Italian bankers providing loans for European Monarchs.  Wealthy Italian merchants became important patrons of the arts and insisted on the development of secular art forms, such as portraiture, that would represent them and their wealth to the greatest effect.  Italy’s central location in the Mediterranean was also ideal for creating links between the Greek culture of the east and the Latin culture of the west.

 

IV. Major Events/Concepts of the Renaissance

 

IndividualismBehavoir or theroy which emphasizes each person and is contrasted with  with corporate or community behavoir, or theory in which the group is emphasized at the expense of the individual.  Renaissance individualism sought great accomplishments andd looks for heroes of history.

 

Virtu – the essence fo being a person throguh the showing of human abilites.  This ability ccould be displaced in speech, art, politics, warfare, or elsewhere by seizing the opportunities available.

 

Causes of the Renaissance - (1) The Middle Ages, which began around 500 AD, finally came to an end around 1450 AD.  (2) Though the beginning of the Renaissance, which signaled the end of the Middle Ages, occurred in the city-states of Italy, the same reasons that caused the Renaissance to begin in Italy caused it to appear in the rest of Western Europe.

 

Conditions that led to the Renaissance in Italy:

1.            Because of the Crusades, and the new trade routes, Europeans began to come in contact with other, more advanced civilizations, which influenced them greatly.

2.            The Church, due to the scandals that occurred, lost much of its power, and people began to doubt its ultimate authority.

3.           Due to trade, the middle class grew, and people began to accumulate vast sums of money. They then wanted to enjoy and show off their wealth, which led to a philosophy of enjoying this life instead of simply waiting for the next one.

4.           Competition between wealthy people for status led to developments in education and art, since wealthy people, wanting to be respected, would compete to see who was the most educated or had sponsored the most artists.

 

Feudalism - A combined economic and social system that defined the Middle Ages. Under feudalism, societal classes were hierarchically divided based on their position in the prevailing agrarian economy. The system produced a large number of scattered, self-sufficient feudal units throughout Europe, made up of a lord and his subservient vassals. These feudal lords constantly battled during the early middle ages, their armies of peasants facing off to win land for their lords.

 

Humanism - Humanism was the philosophical backbone of the Renaissance, emphasizing the potential for individual achievement and stipulating that humans were rational beings capable of truth and goodness. In keeping with the principles of humanism, Renaissance scholars celebrated the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans for their own sake, rather than for their relevance to Church doctrine.

 

The Four Aspects of Humanism

 

1.     Admiration and emulation of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

2.     Philosophy of enjoying this life, instead of just waiting for the next one.

3.     The glorification of humans and the belief that individuals are can do anything.

4.         The belief that humans deserved to be the center of attention.

 

-         Humanism also had a subdivision known as civic humanism.  The civic humanists believed that participation in public affairs was essential for human development and that individuals should not cut themselves off from society and study the world.  Instead, they should help make changes in it by becoming a part of government.  Eventually, the beliefs of the civic humanists spread to the humanists as a whole.

 

Neoplatonism - Neoplatonism sought to reconcile humanism with Christianity, to blend the teachings of Plato and other ancient philosophers with the teachings of the Church. Neoplatonism flourished throughout Italy as the primary philosophy by which artists rationalized their more secular works.

 

Papal Nephew - The term 'nephew' (nipote, in Italian) was applied to the children, which though claimed as those of the pope's siblings, were understood to be the pope's own illegitimate children. The fathering of illegitimate children was common practice throughout the history of the Papacy, but during the Renaissance, especially under corrupt popes such as Pope Sixtus IV, the position of the papal nephew rose to new heights, as nephews were given influential positions and high salaries. This practice of nepotism was one way in which the Church became morally discredited during the Renaissance.

 

The Definition of the Renaissance

The Renaissance (French Term) means the rebirth of culture. However, it would be more accurately put as the rebirth of ancient culture since the Middle Ages did have a form of culture, just not the same culture as the ancients.  An essential element of the Renaissance was the beginning of humanism, which glorified the culture of Ancient Greece and Rome.

 

Golden Age - The Golden Age refers to the period from 1503, when Pope Julius II ascended to the papal throne, to the sack of Rome in 1527, during which both the Papacy and the city of Rome prospered greatly. Pope Julius II and his successor, Pope Leo X, renewed faith in the morality of the Papacy and oversaw the most successful period of the rebuilding of Rome, during which artists flocked to the city in hope of a papal commission.

 

Sack of Rome - Because of Pope Clement VII's inept negotiating, the angry imperial army surrounded Rome on May 5, 1527 demanding that the Pope pay a ransom. When he refused, and called the citizens of Rome to arms, the army besieged the city. By one o'clock p.m. on May 6, the mercenary soldiers had taken the city. The sack of Rome led to the subjugation of all of Italy to Imperial-Spanish control, and the end of the Renaissance.

 

Women were affected by the new humanist teaching.  Throughout the Middle Ages there were women, usually nuns, who olearned to read and write.  During the Renaissance, an increasing number of wealthy, secular women were able to do these things.  Women were however, left out of the study of rhetoric or public speech, critical parts of the male education.  Christine de Pisan, an Italian  who was the daughter of the physician to  Charles V, wrote The City of Ladies (1405) to counter the idea that  women were inferior to men and incapabl eof making moreal choices.  Pisan wrote that woen have to carve out their own space or more to a “City of Ladies” for their abilites to flourish.

 

V. Recurring Themes or Patterns

The Renaissance occurred mainly in Italy between the years 1300-1600.  New learning and changes in styles of art were two of the most pronounces characteristics of the Renaissance.  This secular movement emphasized the individual, not the group.  Italian city-states, Venice, Milan, Padua, Pisa, and Florence were the home to most Renaissance developments, which were limited to the elite rich. 

Humanists, as orators and poets, were inspired by and imitate the works of the classical past.  The literature was more secular and covered more subjects than that of the Middle Ages. The area in which the humanists really excelled was art.  The differences between Medieval art and Renaissance art are numerous, and very dramatic, for a complete change in style occurred.  Also, during the Renaissance, great artists, for the first time, gained special recognition and prestige instead of simply being craftsmen.

 

Characteristics of Medieval Art 

Characteristics of Renaissance Art

- Paintings were lacking in depth and perspective.

- Paintings usually lacked a background.

- Always themed religiously and usually focusing on heaven or holy people.

- The paintings were not realistic, and made no sense geometrically or mathematically.

- The subjects did not show any emotions, except for calm or piety.

 

- Emulation of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

- Good use of depth in paintings.

- Linear (further away = smaller) and atmospheric (further away = hazier) perspective.

- Paintings began to have more detailed backgrounds.

- Not necessarily religious, more focus on earthly themes and humans.

- More realistic, geometrically precise and mathematically accurate.

- Subjects showing signs of more emotion.

- Contraposto posture, in which the subject is shifting his or her balance.

 

 

The Renaissance in the rest of western Europe was less classical in its emphasis, as well as more influenced by  religion.  In the Low Countries, artists still produced works on religious themes but the attention to detail was greater.  In Germany, around 1450, the invention of printing with movable type, traditionally attributed to Johann Gutenberg, enable new ideas to be spread through out Europe more easily. 

 

 

 

The Renaissance is usually cut into three phases as follows:

 

The Early Renaissance

The principal members of the first generation of Renaissance artists--Donatello in sculpture, Filippo Brunelleschi in architecture, and Masaccio in painting--shared many important characteristics. Central to their thinking was a faith in the theoretical foundations of art and the conviction that development and progress were not only possible but essential to the life and significance of the arts. Ancient art was revered, not only as an inspiring model but also as a record of trial and error that could reveal the successes of former great artists.  Early Renaissance artists sought to create art forms consistent with the appearance of the natural world and with their experience of human personality and behavior.

Rational inquiry was believed to be the key to success; therefore, efforts were made to discover the correct laws of proportion for architecture and for the representation of the human body and to systematize the rendering of pictorial space.  These characteristics--the rendering of ideal forms rather than literal appearance and the concept of the physical world as the vehicle or imperfect embodiment of monumental spiritual beauty--were to remain fundamental to the nature and development of Italian Renaissance art.

The term Early Renaissance characterizes virtually all the art of the 15th century. Florence, the cradle of Renaissance artistic thought, remained one of the undisputed centers of innovation.  By the late 15th century the novelty of the first explosive advances of Renaissance style had given way to a general acceptance of such basic notions as proportion, contraposto (twisted pose), and linear perspective; consequently many artists sought means of personal expression within this relatively well-established repertoire of style and technique.

 

The High Renaissance

 

The art of the High Renaissance sought a general, unified effect of representation or architectural composition, increasing the dramatic force and physical presence of a work of art and gathering its energies and forming a controlled equilibrium.  The High Renaissance style endured for only a brief period (c.1495-1520) and was created by a few artists of genius, among them Leonardo da Vinci, Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian.  Leonardo da Vinci's unfinished Adoration of the Magi (1481; Uffizi Gallery, Florence) is regarded as a landmark of unified pictorial composition, later realized fully in his fresco The Last Supper (1495-97; Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan). Leonardo is considered the paragon of Renaissance thinkers, engaged as he was in experiments of all kinds and having brought to his art a spirit of restless inquiry that sought to discover the laws governing diverse natural phenomena.

 

The Late Renaissance

 

The sack of Rome in 1527, which temporarily ended the city's role as a source of patronage and compelled artists to travel to other centers in Italy, France, and Spain.  Even before the death of Raphael, in 1520, anticlassical tendencies had begun to manifest themselves in Roman art.  Mannerism was an aesthetic movement that valued highly refined grace and elegance--the beautiful maniera, or style, from which Mannerism takes its name. Although the fundamental characteristics of Late Renaissance style were shared by many artists, this period, dominated by Mannerism, was marked by artistic individuality--a quality demonstrated to its fullest extent by the late works of Michelangelo. The display of individual virtuosity became an important criterion of artistic achievement, and rivalry often provoked competition based on brilliance of individual performance.

 

VI. Sample Essay Questions

1.      What were the values and purposes of Renaissance education and how did they change over time?

2.      Compare and contrast the northern and the southern renaissance and identify the characteristics, which distinguished them from one other.

3.      What enterprises accounted most for the wealth of the northern Italian communes at the beginning of the Renaissance?

4.      Explain Machiavelli’s ideal prince based on his work The Prince.

5.      What were the views of Italian humainist Francesco Petrarch, and how did he feel that his own times were “the dawn of a new era,” and an improvement over the Dark Ages?

6.      Describe the  events leading up to Charles V’s sack of Rome and explain how this  incident signaled the end of Italy’s reign as the leading cultural center of the Renaissance

7.      Compare and contrast the views of Machiavelli and Rousseau on human nature and the relationship between government and the governed.

8.      Why was the Renaissance a turning point in the development of Western civilization? Why was it a "rebirth"?

9.      How was the Renaissance in Italy different from that in Northern Europe? How was it the same?

10.  How did the Catholic Church loose the dominant position it had had during the medieval period

    in the Renaissance?

11.  The ideals, art and literature of Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution affected many aspects that made up the period known as the Enlightenment. Using the documents and your knowledge of European history assess the validity of this statement.

 

 

VII. The Four Aspects of Humanism in Acronym form

 

P - Philosophy of enjoying this life, instead of just waiting for the next one.

A - Admiration and emulation of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

T -  The glorification of humans and the belief that individuals are can do anything

H - humans deserved to be the center of attention.