Chapter 14, Section 1

1
Chapter 14, Section 1

• The Renaissance in Italy

World History Connections to Today, Prentice Hall
(2003)
2
Reading QuizPlease ACE the following questions

1. What conditions in Italy contributed to the
   emergence of the Renaissance?
2. How did Renaissance art reflect humanist
   concerns?
3. Describe Castigliones ideal Renaissance man.

3
The Middle Ages (500 1350)

• Fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century.
• Invasion of
• Magyars (Hungarians)
• Northmen (Norse or Vikings)
• Arabs
• Mongols

A History of Modern Europe From the Renaissance
to the Present (1996)
4
The Middle Ages (500 1350)
5
The Middle Ages (500 1350)

• Three Social Groups
• Clergy
• Nobles
• Peasants

6
The Middle Ages (500 1350)

• Nation-states did not exist
• Economic, Political, and Judicial institutions
  were overwhelmingly local.
• Town walls were used to protect communities.

7
Government of the Middle Ages Feudalism

• King
• Autocratic Monarchy (Top of the food chain)
• Nobles (A seat at the table)
• Titles assigned by the King.
• Peasants (The food)
• 85 of the population in Europe.
• Also called Serfs.

8
Chapter 14, Section 1 Learning Focus

• Why were the Italian city states a favorable
  setting for a cultural rebirth?
• What was the Renaissance?
• What themes and techniques did Renaissance
  artists and writers explore?

9
Vocabulary

• Patron
• Humanism
• Humanities
• Perspective

10
The Italian City-States

• The Renaissance began in Italy, then spread north
  to the rest of Europe.

11
(No Transcript)
12
Why Italy?

• The Renaissance was marked by a new interest in
  the culture of ancient Rome. Because Italy had
  been the center of the Roman empire, it was a
  logical place for this reawakening to begin.
• In the north, city-states like Florence, Milan,
  Venice and Genoa grew into prosperous centers of
  trade and manufacturing.

13
Why Italy?

• A wealthy and powerful merchant class in these
  city-states further promoted the cultural
  rebirth. These merchants exerted both political
  and economic leadership, and their attitudes and
  interests helped to shape the Italian
  Renaissance. They stressed education and
  individual achievement. They also spent lavishly
  to support the arts.

14
The Medici (Godfathers of the Renaissance)

• In the 1400s, the Medici family of Florence
  organized a successful banking business.
• The Medici were generous patrons of the arts. A
  patron is a financial supporter. Poets and
  philosophers frequently visited the Medici
  palace. Artists learned their craft by sketching
  ancient Roman statures displayed in the Medici
  gardens.

15
What was the Renaissance?

• The Renaissance was a time of creativity and
  change in many areas- political, social,
  economic, and cultural. Perhaps most important,
  however, were the changes that took place in the
  way people viewed themselves and their world.

16
A New Worldview

• Their era, they felt, was a time of rebirth after
  what they saw as the disorder and disunity of the
  medieval world.
• Unlike medieval scholars, who were more likely to
  focus on life and death, Renaissance thinkers
  explored the richness and variety of human
  experience in the here and now.

17
A New Worldview

• At the same time, there was a new emphasis on
  individual achievement. Indeed, the Renaissance
  ideal was the person with talent in many fields.

18
A Spirit of Adventure

• The Renaissance supported a spirit of adventure
  and a wide-ranging curiosity that led people to
  explore new worlds.
• The Italian navigator Christopher Columbus, who
  sailed to the Americas in 1492, represented that
  spirit.

19
Humanism

• At the heart of the Italian Renaissance was an
  intellectual movement known as humanism. Based on
  the study of classical culture, humanism focused
  on worldly subjects rather than on the religious
  issues that had occupied medieval thinkers.
• Humanists believed that education should
  stimulate the individuals creative powers.

20
Humanism

• They returned to the humanities, the subjects
  taught in ancient Greek and Roman schools.
• The main areas of study were grammar, rhetoric,
  poetry, and history, based on Greek and Roman
  texts.
• Humanists did not accept the classical texts
  without question, however. Rather, they studied
  the ancient authorities in light of their own
  experiences.

21
A Golden Age in the Arts

• Renaissance artists studied ancient Greek and
  Roman works and revived many classical forms.
• The sculptor Donatello, for example, created a
  life-size statue of a soldier on horseback. It
  was the first such figure done since ancient
  times.

22
New Techniques

• Renaissance artists learned the rules of
  perspective. By making distant objects smaller
  than those close to the viewer, artists could
  paint scenes that appeared three-dimensional.

23
Three Geniuses of Renaissance Art
24
Raphael
25
Leonardo da Vinci
26
Michelangelo
27
Three Geniuses of Renaissance Art

• Leonardo da Vinci
• Michelangelo
• Raphael

28
Italian Renaissance Writers

• A literature of how-to books sprang up to help
  ambitious men and women who wanted to rise in the
  Renaissance world.

29
Castigliones Ideal Courtier

• The most widely read of these handbooks was The
  Book of the Courtier. Its author, Baldassare
  Castiglione, describes the manners, skills,
  learning, and virtues that a member of the court
  should have.

30
Castigliones Ideal Courtier

• Castigliones ideal courtier was a well-educated,
  well-mannered aristocrat who mastered many
  fields, from poetry to music to sports.

31
Castigliones Ideal Courtier

• Castigliones ideal differed for men and women.

32
Castigliones Ideal Courtier

• The ideal man, he wrote, is athletic but not
  overactive. He is good at games, but not a
  gambler. He plays a musical instrument and knows
  literature and history but is not arrogant.

33
Castigliones Ideal Courtier

• The Ideal woman offers a balance to men. She is
  graceful and kind, lively but reserved. She is
  beautiful, for outer beauty, wrote Castiglione,
  is the true sign of inner goodness.

34
How about now?
Every Magazine tells her shes not good enough.
The picture that she sees makes her cry. -Jon
McLaughlin Beautiful Disaster
35
Machiavellis Successful Prince

• In The Prince, published in 1513, Machiavelli
  combined his personal experience of politics with
  his knowledge of the past to offer a guide to
  rulers on how to gain and maintain power.

36
Machiavellis Successful Prince

• The Prince looked at real rulers, such as the
  Medicis, in an age of ruthless power politics.
  Machiavelli stressed that the end justifies the
  means. He urged rulers to use whatever methods
  were necessary to achieve their goals. On the
  issue of honesty in government, for example, he
  taught that getting results was more important
  than keeping promises.

37
Machiavellis Successful Prince

• How praiseworthy it is for a prince to keep his
  word and live with integrity rather than
  craftiness, everyone understands yetthose
  princes have accomplished most who paid little
  heed to keeping their promises, but who knew how
  craftily to manipulate the minds of men.
  -Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

38
Partner Question, Chapter 14, Section 1

• Describe two ways that todays society still
  reflects beliefs that originated in the
  Renaissance.
• Do you and your partner think a political leader
  today would be wise to follow the advice of
  Niccolo Machiavelli? Why or why not?

39
Chapter 14, Section 1

• The Renaissance in Italy

World History Connections to Today Prentice Hall
2003