Why did the Renaissance begin in the Italian city-states?

Ideas, Beliefs, and ValuesIdeas, Beliefs, and Values Between 1350 and 1550, Italian intellectuals believed they had entered a new age of human achievement.

The Italian Renaissance• The Italian Renaissance lasted from 1350 to

1550. It was a time period in which Europeans believed they had witnessed a rebirth of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.

• Characteristics of the Renaissance:

– The Renaissance was mainly led by an urban society, and Italian city-states came to dominate political, social, and economic life.

– The Renaissance witnessed the rise of a secular viewpoint of wealth and material items.

– The Renaissance occurred during a time of recovery from the disasters of the fourteenth century: the plague, political instability, and a decline of Church power.

– The Renaissance also stressed the individual ability of human beings. Well-rounded individuals, such as Leonardo da Vinci, emphasized the belief that individuals could create a new social ideal.

• With the lack of centralized power, Italian city-states such as Milan, Venice, and Florence played a crucial role in Italian economics and politics.

• Milan’s location as a crossroads between the coastal Italian cities and the Alpine passes made it a very wealthy state.

• In 1447, Francesco Sforza conquered Milan using an army of mercenaries. Sforza created wealth for the government by creating an efficient tax system.

• Venice was also located in a strategic position, as a trading link between Asia and Western Europe.

• In 1434, Cosimo de’ Medici and his family came to control Florence using their wealth and personal influence. Cosimo’s grandson Lorenzo de’ Medici later ruled the city.

• Powerful monarchial states in Europe were attracted to the wealth of the Italian city-states, and in 1494 Charles VIII of France occupied Naples in southern Italy.

• The Spanish replied to the Italian cries of assistance and engaged the French in a 30-year war on the Apennine Peninsula.

• The turning point of the war came in 1527 when soldiers and mercenaries of Spain’s King Charles I, who had not been paid in months, sacked Rome.

• Spain became the dominant force in Italy.

As a ruler,

• is it better to be feared or loved?

• does the end always justify the means?

• Niccolò Machiavelli wrote a book that influenced political thought in Italy and eventually all of Europe.

• In his influential work, The Prince, Machiavelli wrote about how to acquire and hold political power. He stated that a ruler must put the state first and not focus on moral principles.

• Machiavelli’s rejection of popular Christian values would have a profound influence on the political leaders who followed.

Machiavelli on Power

Moral ConductMoral

Conduct

• Despite being the minority, nobles dominated sixteenth-century Europe during the Renaissance.

• Peasants continued to make up the bulk of European society but were gaining more independence during the Renaissance.

• The growing numbers of townspeople were segregated into social groups based on income levels.

• The family bond provided a great deal of security to Renaissance-era Italians. As in many societies, a dowry was required in marriage contracts.

Renaissance Society

What characterizes Renaissance art, such as da Vinci’s Mona Lisa?

Ideas, Beliefs, and ValuesIdeas, Beliefs, and Values Humanism was an important intellectual movement of the

Renaissance and was reflected in the works of Renaissance artists.

Italian Renaissance Humanism• A key intellectual movement of the

Renaissance was humanism.

• Petrarch believed that intellectuals had a duty to live an active civic life and put their study of the humanities to the state’s service.

• The humanist emphasis on classical Latin led to an increase in the writings of scholars, lawyers, and theologians.

• The Italian author Dante and the English author Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in vernacular, making vernacular literature very popular.

• The humanist movement led to changes in education.

• Humanists believed that individuals could attain wisdom and virtue by studying liberal studies. Physical education was also emphasized.

• Liberal Studies: history, moral philosophy, eloquence, letters, poetry, mathematics, astronomy, and music.

• The goal of humanist educators was to create complete citizens, not great scholars.

Renaissance Education

Renaissance Art• Renaissance artists

sought to imitate nature through a human-focused worldview.

• Realistic portrayal of the individual, especially nude depictions, became one of the chief aims of Italian Renaissance art.

• Advances in understanding human movement and anatomy led to advances in Renaissance sculpture and architecture.

• The final era of Italian Renaissance painting (1490 to 1520) is known as the High Renaissance and is associated with Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

(I wonder where these turtles got their names?)

• Leonardo da Vinci mastered the art of realistic painting and sought to advance to idealized forms of nature and humans.

• Raphael was a well known artist for his paintings of the madonna. His works reveal a world of balance, harmony, and order.

• Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, and architect. His depictions of idealized humans are meant as a reflection of divine beauty.