DO NOW: DEFINE RENAISSANCE?

IN WHAT WAYS DID EUROPE NEED A RENAISSANCE?

Aim: How did the Renaissance begin in Italy and change the world?

I. The Italian Renaissance

Renaissance means rebirth

rebirth of ancient Greek and Roman knowledge

***Began in Italy in the 1400s

***strategic location to trade routes

***expansion of trade, exploration, and technology

A middle class formed new wealth

secular views (worldly and not religious)

II. Humanism

individual achievements over religious views

Petrarch “father of the Humanism”

Medici family: great patrons of the arts

III. Renaissance Artists

Leonardo da Vinci

Renaissance man

scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor,

Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

sketches of flying machines and submarines

Michelangelo

sculptor, painter, and architect

Sistine Chapel and The Statue of David

IV. Literature

Writers wrote in the vernacular

language spoken in their own regions

Italian, French or German

Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet

***Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince

“the end justifies the means”

leaders must use absolute power and any means necessary to stay in power

V. The Artistic Renaissance

used perspective and shading

blended religious themes with natural settings

creating a sense of reality

moved away from the art of the Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, painting largely focused on religious themes.

Perspective is the ability to create a threedimensional appearance on a two dimensional surface.

VI. The Northern Renaissance

Renaissance ideas spread to Northern Europe

Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer used new styles in art

***Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press

allowed for the mass production of texts

Bible: first book produced

encouraged scholarly research and increased literacy increased

E. Napp

Questions for Reflection:

Why did the Renaissance begin in Italy?How did Renaissance art differ from Medieval

art?How did humanism and secularism differ

from previous Medieval beliefs?Why did the Renaissance eventually spread to

the rest of Europe?Do Renaissance ideas still affect us today?

Explain your answer.