The Renaissance

Why?

Middle Ages Europe suffered from war and plague

Began to question the church

Taught you need to suffer during life for reward in heaven

Renaissance

Means rebirth

1300-1600

Educated people wanted to bring back to life the culture of classical Greece and Rome

Spread from Italy to the rest of Europe

City States

Oversea trade led to the growth of city-states in northern Italy

The bubonic plague killed up to 60% of the population during the Middle Ages

Laborers could demand higher wages

It was hard to expand business so merchants perused other interests (art)

Merchants

Merchants became wealthy

Merchants felt they deserved power and wealth because they earned it

In the past, power was inherited

Medici Family

Powerful banking family that gained political control of Florence

The family’s bank had branches throughout Italy and Europe

Cosimo Medici won control of Florence’s government in 1434 and was a dictator for 30 years

Instead of having a formal political position he gave members of the ruling council loans and then told them what to do

Humanism

Focused on human potential and achievements

Influenced artists and architects to carry on classical traditions

Study the subjects common to classical education: history, literature and philosophy (these subjects are called the humanities)

Humanism

Taught that you could enjoy life on earth without offending God (If you have money spend it on stuff you want!)

Secular – become concerned with worldly things going on here and now – not just spiritual life and the afterlife

Patrons of Art

Church leaders, merchants and wealthy families paid for artwork

They either had their own portrait painted or donated art to be displayed throughout the city

Renaissance Man

Excel in all aspects of life – be educated, have a good personality, do “artsy” things as well as be athletic

Renaissance Women-were expected to inspire art yet not create it

Renaissance Art

They copied classical models of art

Used the technique of perspective – showing three dimensions on a flat surface

Difference in Painting

MedievalRenaissance (The Virgin and

Child with Saint Anne by Leonardo da Vinci, 1510)

Difference in Painting

Renaissance (Pope Julius II by Raphael)

Medieval

Michelangelo

Poet, sculptor, architect and painter

Used a realistic style when depicting the human body

Madonna & Child

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

A great artist, but more than any other person of his age, personified the idea of the “Renaissance man” Someone of broad interests

who is accomplished in both the arts and sciences

Mona Lisa uses light and shadow and perspective to make the figures fully human, enigmatic, and mysterious

Leonardo da Vinci

da Vinci’s study of the proportions of the human

body

da Vinci’s plans for a helicopter

Political Power & The Renaissance Is it better to be loved more than feared or feared more

than loved?

Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513 while he was virtually under house arrest

served in the Florentine Republic, accused of conspiracy, arrested & tortured in prison. Released to his country home, he wrote the first modern treatise on political science.

Focus is how to get & keep power Rejected Medieval thought that rulers must follow Christian morals. Said morality

unrelated to politics. Humans are motivated by self-interest.

“{Men} are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely.”

A prince acts on behalf of state. When possible do good.. BUT… be ready to do evil when necessary. The ends justify the means.

Think like Machiavelli“Everyone realizes how praiseworthy it is for a prince to honor his word and to be straightforward rather than crafty in his dealings; none the less, contemporary experience shows that princes who have achieved great things have been those who have given their word lightly, who have known how to trick men with their cunning, and who, in the end, have overcome those abiding by honest principles.”

What does Machiavelli use as the basis for his argument about how a prince should act?

Does Machiavelli think that a prince should prefer to be loved or feared? Why?

Why might Machiavelli have argued that political activity should not be restricted by moral principles?

Movable Type

Johannes Gutenberg’s use of movable type to print books accelerated the spread of classical learning

Allowed for the mass production of texts that spread the cultural heritage of the classical world throughout Europe