Chapter 13 Section 1 The Renaissance In Italy

The Renaissance

in Italy

(1300s to 1500)

Chapter 13, Section 1
(pages 224 – 231)

Essential Question: What were the ideals of the Renaissance, and how did Italian artists and writers reflect these ideals?

Essential Question: What were the ideals of the Renaissance, and how did Italian artists and writers reflect these ideals?

Open Ended

Essential Question:  What were the ideals of the Renaissance, and how did Italian artists and writers reflect these ideals?

The Italian Renaissance marked a period of great cultural change in Europe that took place between the 14th and 16th centuries. A number of painters emerged out of the Italian Renaissance and began to show an interest in the beauty of nature and the human body.

​

Renaissance

means “rebirth”

Classical scholars of Renaissance Italy
thought of their era as one of cultural
rebirth.
A revival of the wisdom and art of what was
for them - Europe’s greatest age!

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

What Was the Renaissance?

• Began in the 1300s- reached peak

around 1500

• A great change in areas like political,

social, economic, and cultural

• Shift from agriculture to an urban

• Produced new attitudes toward

culture and learning

• Explored the richness and variety of

human experience in the here and
now

society

Europe in
year 1300

The Renaissance was a time of creativity and great change in many areas – political, social, economic, and cultural.

Michelangelo’s Palace of Versailles

Michelangelo was a master of many artistic trades, painting chief among them. In the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, he painted two of the most impressive frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling and the The Last Judgment on the altar wall. Michelangelo completed the magnificent frescoes on the chapel’s ceiling in about four years. The composition spans more than 500 square meters and includes at least 300 figures; it is without a doubt an unprecedented work of art that influenced many Baroque ceiling painters for years to come.

Palace of Versailles is a painting by Michel Angelo

What Was the Renaissance?

 The Renaissance supported a spirit of

adventure and curiosity

 Navigators, scientists, writers, and artists

all shared that spirit

 At the heart, an intellectual movement

known as humanism

 Humanists believed that education

should stimulate the individual’s creative
powers

 Emphasized humanities- subjects such as

grammar, rhetoric, poetry, and history

 Francesco Petrarch, a Florentine who

lived in the 1300s- humanist, poet, and
scholar

 Assembled a library of Greek and Roman

manuscripts in monasteries and churches

CHECKPOINT p. 225

Open Ended

Checkpoint:

What were the main characteristics of the Renaissance?

Answer:

A new worldview based on human experience, an emphasis on education and humanism, and a spirit of adventure and curiosity.

Italy’s Vibrant City-States

*The Renaissance emerged in Italy

• Italy had been the center of the Roman Empire- people studied art and architecture

• Located on the Mediterranean Sea- trade provided the wealth that fueled Italy’s Renaissance

• Italy was divided into small city-states

• Each city-state was controlled by a powerful family and a powerful merchant class

• The Medici family of Florence(one of Italy’s most influential city-states), ranked among the richest

merchants and bankers in Europe*

• Lorenzo Medici represented the Renaissance ideal- was a generous patron, or financial supporter

Italy’s Vibrant City-States

• Each Italian city-state was controlled by a powerful family and a

powerful merchant class.

• City-states were competitive, encouraging innovative ideas.
• Wealthy rulers of city-states were patrons to artists, artisans, and

scholars.

• Trade was well established in the city-states.

Open Ended

How did the city-state structure encourage the Renaissance?

Renaissance Art Flowers

 Attained most glorious expression in paintings,

sculpture, and architecture

 Renaissance art reflected the ideas of humanism

 Used new artistic techniques

 Giotto, Father of Renaissance painting, led the

way in rethinking space and depth in an
approach called perspective

 Allowed Renaissance artists to create realistic

art

Renaissance Art Flowers

 Leonardo da Vinci was an artist

who gripped people with his
paintings’ realism

 The Mona Lisa

 The Last Supper

Answer:

Italy was divided into many small city-states.

Renaissance Art Flowers

 Michelangelo Buonarroti was an artist with many talents

 Called a “melancholy genius”

 Greatest project- series of murals on ceiling of Sistine Chapel in Rome.

 Most famous design- dome of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome

 Served as a model- United States Capitol building in Washington D.C.

Renaissance Art Flowers

 Artist Raphael was an admired talented artist

 Developed own style of painting- blended Christian and classical

styles

 Known for portrayal of Madonna

 The School of Athens

Writing for a New Society

 Some writers developed a

literature of guidebooks to help
ambitious men and women who
wanted to achieve success in
the Renaissance

 Most widely read- The Book of

the Courtier- describes manners,
skills, learning, and virtues that a
member of the court should
have

 Author Baldassare Castiglione

 Niccolo Machiavelli wrote a

guide for rulers on how to gain
and maintain power

 His book The Prince looked at

real rulers in an age of ruthless
power in politics

CHECKPOINT

Why was Italy a favorable setting
for the Renaissance? p. 226

Open Ended

Checkpoint:

Why was Italy a favorable setting for the Renaissance? p. 226

Answer:

It was a crossroads of trade and had been the center of the classical world.

NAME THAT PAINTING AND ARTIST!!

Let’s revisit what we just learned……..