The Italian Renaissance

The Renaissance 1350-1600 AD

It first began in the city-states of Italy

Italy’s central location helped make it a center for the trade of goods and ideas.

Italian scholars had a strong interest in the Classics (Greek and Roman writings)

This interest was called humanism.

They believed education should stimulate creativity.

Humanists

Humanists found the idea of a happy daily life more appealing than what the Catholic Church had been teaching in the Middle Ages all happiness will be found in heaven

The humanists opened schools that taught humanistic subjects

History Philosophy Latin and Greek

The humanist schools encouraged writing

Sonnets Autobiographies

The first political science book, The Prince, by Machiavelli was written in this time period

The Prince was a guide for rulers to gain and maintain power

• Rather than discuss high ideals, he stressed that the ends justify the means.

• The term Machiavellian has come to refer to the use of deceit in politics

City life was more important to Italians than many other Europeans

The Italian city-states set up their social order so that wealth and ability mattered more than titles and land ownership.

City-states were governed by wealthy families until the 1400s

• These families brought trade and wealth, and provided leadership.

• They were interested in art and emphasized personal achievement.

• They were patrons of the arts and supported artists, writers, and scholars.

The Medici family of merchants and bankers controlled Florence after 1434.

•Lorenzo de' Medici invited poets, philosophers, and artists to the city.

•The city of Florence became aleader, with numerous gifted artists, poets, architects, and scientists.

Italian Art

Italian art also underwent a transformation during the Renaissance.

Art in the Medieval period had almost always been based on religion.

The new artists started to include classical mythology into their works.

Changes in style

Artists started to use perspective to give painting depth.

They studied anatomy so their figures looked more life like.

They used subtleties to portray emotion.

Typical medieval Church art.

Two dimensional,religious subjectmatter, nouse of perspective.

Game of Chess

Paintingshows useof anatomy,perspectiveand emotion.

By SofonisbaAnguissola1555 AD.She was 23 when shepainted this.

The Masters and the Ninja Turtles?

Some of the best known artists came from Florence, Italy.

They will change the way Europe looked at art for centuries.

They were…..

Donatello

Given name was Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi

He created a life-size soldier on horseback, the firstsculpture of this size since ancient times.

He was the son of a wool comber.

He was a sculptor.

Michelangelo Given name was Michelangelo di Lodovico

Buonarroti Simoni) the son of a minor magistrate (judge).

He started out as a sculptorbut later became a painter.

He is most famous for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Florence.

Sistine Chapel

St. Peter’s Cathedral

Ghiberti

Given name was Lorenzo Ghiberti

He gained his fame for creating door

panels for a church.

And last but not least---Leonardo (DaVinci)

Painter, sculptor, inventor and mathematician.

He often wrote from right to left called “mirror writing”.

Some of his inventions were centuries before his time.

Some of his best known works were…

The Mona Lisa

The Last Supper

Can you guess what he was drawing?

This is what he was drawing…

Was there really a Da Vinci Code?

According to the book and the “Grail” theory of Biblical history Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ and was in fact pregnant with his child when Jesus was crucified.

Da Vinci was known for writing in code or “mirror writing”.

No one knows for sure if the “Grail” theory is real or not.

The Last Supper as “proof”?