Renaissance

1
Renaissance

• The Rebirth of Europe

2
Humanism and Secular Life

• Study of classical texts that focused on
  potential human achievement
• Artists to carry on classical traditions
• Study history, literature, and philosophy
• Humanists think that you should enjoy what God
  has given
• Material luxuries, music, and tasty food
• Secular life - concerned with the here and now

3
Beginnings of the Rebirth

• Rebirth of art and learning
• Begins in Northern Italy around 1300
• Took longer to happen in N. Europe because of the
  100 years war
• Italy had several advantages
• Thriving cities, wealthy merchant class, heritage
  of Greece and Rome

4
Urban Centers

• Crusades brings about much overseas trade
• N. Italy was very urban
• Cities places for new ideas to spread
• Plague had previously hit hard and changed
  economic structure
• Fewer opportunities for business expansion,
  merchants begin pursuing the arts

5
Merchant Class

• All Italian city-states ran their own affairs -
  collect taxes, have own army
• Merchants wealthiest most powerful class
• Didnt inherit social rank
• Success depended on own abilities
• Individual achievement became important

6
Changing Art

• New techniques
• Vanishing point, perspective, and horizon line
• Often painted religious depictions

7
New Writers

• Begin writing in the vernacular
• Wrote either self-expression or to portray the
  individuality of their subject

Picture from Dantes Inferno
8
Northern Renaissance Begins

• 1453 The 100 Years War ended and cities are
  growing rapidly
• Began first in Flanders
• England and France unified under strong monarchs
• More humanists in France more concerned with
  religious ideas
• Social reform based on Christian values

9
Northern Writers Reform Society

• Erasmus - The Praise of Folly, poked fun at
  greedy merchants, heartsick lovers, quarrelsome
  scholars, and pompous priests.
• Thought to improve society all should study the
  bible
• Believed in a Christianity of the heart not of
  ceremonies
• Sir Thomas Moore - Utopia, imaginary land about
  peace loving people, no greed, corruption, war,
  or crime