The Renaissance

What are “Values” of Society?

• Write down what you think the values of

society are…

• Get up and meet someone across the room

and share out your thoughts with each other

There Were Three Important Values

that set Renaissance Thought apart

from the Middle Ages

• Individualism: Celebration of the Individual

• Humanism: Love of Classical Learning

• Secularism: Enjoyment of Worldly Pleasures

Individualism • Celebration of the individual

– Individuals become more

important than churches, guilds,

etc.

– Artists wanted to be remembered-

everyone did!

• Biographies and portrait painting

• emphasize the importance of

individuals

How is this different from

the Middle Ages?

Humanism • Humanism- the study of classical

culture

– What every educated person should know

– Focused Greece and Rome

• scholars rejected the culture of the Middle ages

• returned to Greek and Roman culture

• All art was inspired by Greece and Rome – Freestanding statues

How is this different from the Middle Ages?

Secularism

• Secularism: the belief that

religion should have little part in

political or public affairs

• Enjoy worldly pleasures/luxuries

– Clothes, jewels, food

• Art had more earthly subjects

How is this different from

the Middle Ages?

Write down these questions and

answer them in the space for each

picture and quote.

• What values of society from the Renaissance are present

in this image/passage?

• How is human nature described in this image/passage?

• How is the role of government displayed in this

image/passage?

• What is the role of religion in this image/passage?

• What are the key vocabulary words present in this

image/passage? (Use your T.U.S.K. Sheet)

“But we must not forget that true distinction is to be

gained by a wide and varied range of such studies as

conduce to the profitable enjoyment of life, in which,

however, we must observe due proportion in the

attention and time we devote to them. First amongst

such studies I place History: a subject which must not

on any account be neglected by one who aspires to

true cultivation. For it is our duty to understand the

origins of our own history and its development; and

the achievements of Peoples and of Kings.”

– Leonardo Bruni’s “Study of Greek Literature and a

Humanist Educational Program”

“Upon this a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared or feared

than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when,

of the two, either must be dispensed with.”

– Machiavelli’s The Prince

“He desired glory and excellence more than any man,

but he can be criticized for having carried this desire

even into unimportant matters. In versifying, in

games, and in other pursuits he got very angry with

anyone who equaled him or imitated him. The desire

was too strong in important matters too. He wanted to

equal and compete with all the princes of Italy in

everything.”

– Francesco Guicciardini’s History of Florence

“Whatever seeds each man cultivates will grow to

maturity and bear in him their own fruit. If they be

vegetative, he will be like a plant. If sensitive, he

will become brutish. If rational, he will grow into a

heavenly being. If intellectual, he will be an angel

and the son of God. And if, happy in the lot of no

created thing, he withdraws into the center of his

own unity, his spirit, made one with God, in the

solitary darkness of God, who is set above all

things, shall surpass them all.”

– Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man