How is the Renaissance So Different from the Medieval Period?

“The Renaissance was a rebirth of the

human spirit, a rebirth of creativity. While

taking the classical [ancient Greek and

Roman] past as its model, the

Renaissance was one of the most creative

periods in human history, comparable only

to the Golden Age of Hellenic Athens in

the fifth century before Christ.”

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“Among the many subjects which interested me, I dwelt especially upon Antiquity, for our own age has always I repelled me, so that, had it not been for the love of those dear to me, I should have preferred to have been born in any other period than our own.

In order to forget my own times, I have continually striven to place myself in spirit in other ages, and consequently I delighted in history.”

— Petrarch (1304 - 1374)

Humanism

The Sistine Chapel

The Renaissance Man

Gothic Architecture

Renaissance Architecture

The Arts

The Northern Renaissance

Pieter Bruegel

Niccolo Machiavelli

“A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank.”

— Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Machiavelli (Cont’d)

“Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”

— Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Machiavelli (Cont’d)

“Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women.”

--- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Machiavelli (Cont’d)

“From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.”

— Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

The Renaissance

“The Renaissance was a rebirth of classical

learning and a rediscovery of ancient Rome

and Greece. Renaissance artists and

scholars looked back to this Classical past.

They deliberately rejected the scholarship and

religious thought of the Middle Ages. For

them, the Middle Ages were a Dark Age.

Nothing original and creative had happened

since the fall of Rome. They sought to imitate

the art of Classical Greece with its realistic

depiction of the human form.”