The Renaissance

Why did it begin?

One Cause of Renaissance: The Crusades

• Crusaders encountered new products while in the Middle East

• This increased demand for Middle Eastern products in Europe

• Stimulated production of goods to trade in Middle Eastern markets

• Promoted contact with European kingdoms, Byzantines, and Muslim Empires

• Encouraged the use of credit and banking

Economic Concepts

• Church sayz no usury • Non church banks show up• Letters of credit (Borrowing) served to expand

the supply of money and expedited trade• New accounting and bookkeeping practices

(use of Arabic numerals) were introduced

Renaissance Trade

• Which cities had an advantage in trading goods between the Middle East and Western Europe?

Trading Routes• On the coast of the Mediterranean• In between Europe and the Middle East

Florence, Venice, and Genoa

• Had access to trade routes connecting Europe with the Middle Eastern markets

• Served as trading centers for the distribution of goods to northern Europe

• Were initially independent city-states governed as republics

Political, Cultural and Social Achievements

The Renaissance

Machiavelli’s The Prince

• An early-modern treatise on government

• Basic Principles– One ruler with absolute power is

OK– Maintains that the end justifies

the means– Advises that one should do good

if possible, but do evil when necessary

Comparison: Art and Literature

Medieval • Focused on the –Church– Salvation

Renaissance• Humanistic art which

focused on – Individuals–worldly matters–Christianity

How Art was created during the Renaissance

Patrons• Wealthy individuals/families

who sponsored artists• Paid to have artistic works

created• e.g. Medici family of

Florence

Humanism

• Celebrated the individual– Showed emotion– Very life-like, realistic

• Often depicted daily life (ordinary, not churchy)

• Stimulated the study of Greek and Roman literature and culture

• Artists tried to imitate Greco-Roman style

Renaissance Man• Someone well rounded in all fields of life– Painting, Sculpting– Inventing– Play music, write poetry– Science, Math, Languages– War (fighting and commanding)– Theology– etc.

• Good example – Leonard da Vinci– His mirror writing– His Cover Letter

Artistic and literary creativity

• Leonardo da Vinci—Mona Lisa and The Last Supper

• Michelangelo—Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and David

• Petrarch—Sonnets, humanist scholarship

• Dante – The Divine Comedy

Time to Play

Name that Artwork and Artist!

The Last SupperLeonardo Da Vinci

Mona LisaLeonardo Da Vinci

DavidMichelangelo

Sistine Chapel CeilingMichelangelo

School of AthensRaphael

Other examples

http://www.wga.hu/art/m/michelan/3sistina/lastjudg/0lastjud.jpg

Northern Renaissance

Changes

• Growing wealth in Northern Europe supported Renaissance ideas

• Northern Renaissance thinkers merged humanist ideas with Christianity.

• Gutenburg – The movable type printing press and the production and sale of books helped disseminate ides.

• Northern Renaissance artists portrayed religious and secular subjects.

• Martin Luther – The Church Reformation

Writers• Northern Renaissance writers• William Shakespeare• Erasmus—The Praise of Folly (1511)• Sir Thomas More—Utopia (1516)