Rebirth of Learning

1350-1600

Middle Ages EuropeEarly High

Kings

Lords Bishops

Lower lords

Peasants Parish priests

Serfs

Crusades

Black Death

2nd Agr Revolution

New Economy

Kings

Lords Bishops

GUILDS (university)

journeyman Lower lords

apprentice laborers

Peasants Parish priests

Townsmen

Centers for trade and shipping Purchase of luxury goods such as silk, spices, ivory, and porcelain Guilds dominated social and civic life of towns Guilds reflected importance of Christianity in towns

A) contributed to building cathedralsB) adopted patron saints and sponsored parades in their honor

Trade and Commerce: The Foundations of Town Life

Moneychanger and his Wife

by Quentin Massys

European RenaissanceEuropean Renaissance ~1300- ~1700~1300- ~1700

Kings New wealthNew wealth Lords Bishops

GUILDS HumanismHumanism (university)

journeyman Art Art Lower lords

apprentice PrintingPrinting laborers

New MonarchsNew MonarchsPeasants Parish priests

New TechnologiesNew Technologies Townsmen

KingsClergyNobles

BourgeoisieBourgeoisielawyers

merchantsguildsmen

ProletariatProletariat

peasants

Town Life in the Middle Ages

• Towns were small because society was based on agriculture and most people lived in the countryside

• Nobles had most of the power a) lords owned the land where

most towns were locatedb) towns needed protection from knights that lords could provide

• Status determined by birthright

• Towns grew because society began to be based on commerce and more people started to live in cities

• Middle class had most of the power

a) limited the power of feudal lords by forcing them to grant chartersb) gained control of great sums of money by organizing banks

• Status determined by wealth and ability

Town Life in the Renaissance

SOCIETY

POWER

STATUS

500 C.E. 1400 1650

What was the Renaissance?

Why did it begin in Italy?• Renaissance is a French word meaning

“rebirth.” It refers to a revival in arts and learning

• Period when scholars became interested in ancient Greek and Roman culture

• Italian city-states displayed their wealth by giving financial support to artists who created works with classical themes

New Wealth

1. Venice and Genoa2. Followed by

FlorenceMilanRome

3. Acceptance by church of profit motive

St. Thomas Aquinas

1. IndividualismFocus on man rather than God

Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man(1463-94) “You shall determine your own nature without constraint from any barrier.”

Castiglione’s The Book of the CourtierHow should the ideal man and woman behave?

Humanism

2. Classicism a. translation of Greek, Roman texts b. Arab texts that used Greek and Roman texts that no longer existed

-Ibn Sina, Averroes

3. Secularism- focus on world/not just heaven

*transforms education

Universities not just for educating clergy

The Arts

Renaissance Art and Artists/Genius

Italian city-states/Florence

de Medici family=bankers, art patrons

Cathedral of Florencethe Duomo

Brunelleschi’s Dome

How did Florence become the most influential city-

state?• Maintained thriving industry in wool and silk

trade• Purchased luxury items from the East and sold

them for a large profit• Sold insurance to sea traders to protect their

overseas investments• Created numerous banks that made loans or

exchanged currencies• Medici family promoted trade, banking, the arts,

scholarship and civic pride

The Medici Family

• Made a fortune as merchants and bankers.

• Used their profits to promote trade, banking, the arts, scholarship and civic pride.

Characteristics of Renaissance Art

Raphael’s “School of Athens”

Pythagoras

Socrates Plato Aristotle

Ptolemy

EuclidAverroes

Massys’ “A Money Changer and His Wife”

Da Vinci’s “Proportional Study of Man in the Manner of Vitruvius”

Durer’s “Erasmus”

Bruegel’s “Summer”

1. Public ArtDavid as symbol of Florence (small city-state surrounded by large states)

Michelangelo Donatello

MasaccioMasaccio Trinity with the Virgin

1427

2.Perspective

Use ofgeometricproportions,arrangements

Leonardo da da VinciVinci Mona Lisa

3. chiaroscuro

MichelangeloMichelangelo Sistine Chapel ceiling

4. Biblical/classical themes

5. Realism

Van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Wedding

1434Northern Renaissance

5. Realism/Merchants as subjects

Printing

Chinese had pioneered wood block printing press

Gutenberg puts it together with new thicker inks and moveable type

What about paper?

Northern Renaissance

• Late 15th century

• Van Eyck

• Durer

• Holbein’s Henry VIII

• Brueghel

Satires were very popular as well as “how-to” books

Renaissance Literature Writing in the Vernacular (not Latin)

Petrarch—sonnets

Dante—The Divine Comedy

Erasmus—Father of Humanism wrote “In Praise of Folly”

Machiavelli The Prince 1512 realpolitick observations of how politics really worked in Florence and rest of Europe

“…it is much safer to be feared than loved..”“A prudent ruler ought not to keep faith when by so doing it would be against his interest..”“…one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.”

principle=the end justifies the means

1. Caravel and lateen (triangular) sail from Arab

dhows combine with straight sternpost, stern

rudder, and square sails of northern Europe

New Technologies

Dhow Caravel

2. New maps portolani– sailing maps

• 3. Applications for gunpowder

cannons- cannonballs by 14th century

Galileo’s telescope

First portable clocks developed in Florence, Italy, in 1410

by Brunelleschi. Before this time, mechanical clocks were large, fixed devices. The spring- driven clock made it possible to carry the time around with you.

Renaissance Ends

• Invasions by French, Spanish and Holy Roman Empire sap strength of Italian city-states

• Italy lost monopoly on trade routes--wealth decreases

• Catholic Reformation stifles creativity with Forbidden Books list and Inquisition