Global 14.1 The Renaissance in Italy

Previous Next

Global I Table of Contents

The "Rebirth of Art"

 * The Rennaisance was a revival in the desire to learn and and explore for the people of Europe.
 * It began in Italy, thanks to a renewed interest in the culture of Rome.
 * The center of the Renaissance in Italy soon became the city of Florence, home to an astounding number of gifted artists, scientists, and sculptors. Florence is often called the "Jewel of the Renaissance."
 * The Medici family in Florence created a banking business in the 1400's. Soon the success that they had allowed the family to expand into other trades and became some of the richest bankers and merchants in Europe.
 * Thanks to this vast wealth, Cosimo do Medici gained control of the Florentine government, establishing the Medici family as their city's uncrowned rulers.
 * Cosimo's grandson Lorenzo "the magnificent" was an excellent politician as well as a generous patron, someone who paid another person to make a piece of artwork.
 * The core of Renaissance thought was the philosophy of humanism, a focus on worldly subjects rather than on the religious issues that were a large part of the Medieval world.
 * Humanists believed that education should stimulate the person's creative powers and spent their time studying grammer, poetry, and history.
 * Frencesco Petrach was a Florentine humanist that hunted down ancient Greek and Roman manuscripts, bringing those classic works back into Western civilization.
 * Art during the Renaissance was much more realistic than the art of the Medieval period. Artist followed the styles of Greek and Roman artists in their own work.
 * Artists used perspective, changing the sizes of certain objects to give the painting depth, to create more realistic and three-dimensional works of art.
 * Leonardo da Vinci


 * Painter, scientist, inventer, and engineer, da Vinci is the original "Renaissance Man."
 * Michealangelo was a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet.
 * ​Raphael was a painter that was younger than Leonardo and Michealangelo and studied their works. His most famous painting is The School of Athens.
 * Renaissance artists rejected the Gothic style of the late Middle Ages in favor of the columns and arches of Greek and Roman architecture.
 * Filippo Brunelleschi
 * Niccolo Machiavelli wrote a book called  The Prince . In his book, Machiavelli discusses what makes an effective ruler in the real world of politics.
 * The end justifies the means
 * Separation of Church and State
 * "Politics have no relation to morals."
 * "It is better to be feared than to be loved if you cannot be both."
 * "The promise given was a necessity of the past; the word broken is a necessity of the present."
 * The central rebirth of northern Europe was delayed nearly 100 years due to a slower recovery from the Black Plague.
 * The northwestern Renaissance