Italian

Renaissance
Toward the end of the 14th century AD, a handful of Italian thinkers declared that they were living in a new age. The
barbarous, unenlightened Middle Ages were over, they said; the new age would be a rinascit (rebirth) of learning
and literature, art and culture. This was the birth of the period now known as the Renaissance. For centuries, scholars
have agreed that the Italian Renaissance (another word for rebirth) happened just that way: that between the 14th
century and the 17th century, a new, modern way of thinking about the world and mans place in it replaced an old,
backward one. In fact, the Renaissance (in Italy and in other parts of Europe) was considerably more complicated than
that: For one thing, in many ways the period we call the Renaissance was not so different from the era that preceded it.
However, many of the scientific, artistic and cultural achievements of the so-called Renaissance do share common
themesmost notably the humanistic belief that man was the center of his own universe.
The Italian Renaissance in Context
Fifteenth-century Italy was unlike any other place in Europe. It was divided into independent city-states, each with a
different form of government. Florence, where the Italian Renaissance began, was an independent republic. It was also a
banking and commercial capital and, after London and Constantinople, the third-largest city in Europe. Wealthy
Florentines flaunted their money and power by becoming patrons, or supporters, of artists and intellectuals. In this way,
the city became the cultural center of Europe, and of the Renaissance.
The New Humanism: Cornerstone of the Renaissance
Thanks to the patronage of these wealthy elites, Renaissance-era writers and thinkers were able to spend their days
doing just that. Instead of devoting themselves to ordinary jobs or to the asceticism of the monastery, they could enjoy
worldly pleasures. They traveled around Italy, studying ancient ruins and rediscovering Greek and Roman texts.

To Renaissance scholars and philosophers, these classical sources held great wisdom. Their secularism, their
appreciation of physical beauty and especially their emphasis on mans own achievements and expression formed the
governing intellectual principle of the Italian Renaissance. This philosophy is known as humanism.
Renaissance Science and Technology
Humanism encouraged people to be curious and to question received wisdom (particularly that of the medieval Church).
It also encouraged people to use experimentation and observation to solve earthly problems. As a result, many
Renaissance intellectuals focused on trying to define and understand the laws of nature and the physical world. For
example, Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci created detailed scientific studies of objects ranging from flying
machines to submarines. He also created pioneering studies of human anatomy. Likewise, the scientist and
mathematician Galileo Galilei investigated one natural law after another. By dropping different-sized cannonballs from
the top of a building, for instance, he proved that all objects fall at the same rate of acceleration. He also built a
powerful telescope and used it to show that the Earth and other planets revolved around the sun and not, as religious
authorities argued, the other way around. (For this, Galileo was arrested for heresy and threatened with torture and
death, but he refused to recant: I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason and
intellect has intended us to forgo their use, he said.)


However, perhaps the most important technological development of the Renaissance happened not in Italy but in
Germany, where Johannes Gutenberg invented the mechanical movable-type printing press in the middle of the 15th
century. For the first time, it was possible to make booksand, by extension, knowledgewidely available.
Renaissance Art and Architecture
During the Italian Renaissance, art was everywhere. Patrons such as Florences Medici family sponsored projects large
and small, and successful artists became celebrities in their own right.

Renaissance artists and architects applied many humanist principles to their work. For example, the architect Filippo
Brunelleschi applied the elements of classical Roman architectureshapes, columns and especially proportionto his
own buildings. The magnificent eight-sided dome he built at the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence was an
engineering triumphit was 144 feet across, weighed 37,000 tons and had no buttresses to hold it upas well as an
aesthetic one.

Brunelleschi also devised a way to draw and paint using linear perspective. That is, he figured out how to paint from the
perspective of the person looking at the painting, so that space would appear to recede into the frame. After the
architect Leon Battista Alberti explained the principles behind linear perspective in his treatise Della Pittura (On
Painting), it became one of the most noteworthy elements of almost all Renaissance painting. Later, many painters
began to use a technique called chiaroscuro to create an illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat canvas.
The End of the Italian Renaissance
By the end of the 15th century, Italy was being torn apart by one war after another. The kings of England, France and
Spain, along with the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, battled for control of the wealthy peninsula. At the same time,
the Catholic Church, which was itself wracked with scandal and corruption, had begun a violent crackdown on
dissenters. In 1545, the Council of Trent officially established the Roman Inquisition. In this climate, humanism was akin
to heresy. The Italian Renaissance was over.
How to Cite this Page:
Italian Renaissance
APA Style
Italian Renaissance. (2012). The History Channel website. Retrieved 11:21, November 1, 2012, from
http://www.history.com/topics/italian-renaissance.
Harvard Style
Italian Renaissance. [Internet]. 2012. The History Channel website. Available from:
http://www.history.com/topics/italian-renaissance [Accessed 1 Nov 2012].
MLA Style
Italian Renaissance. 2012. The History Channel website. Nov 1 2012, 11:21 http://www.history.com/topics/italian-
renaissance.
MHRA Style
Italian Renaissance, The History Channel website, 2012, http://www.history.com/topics/italian-renaissance [accessed
Nov 1, 2012].

Chicago Style
Italian Renaissance, The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/topics/italian-renaissance (accessed Nov 1,
2012).
CBE/CSE Style
Italian Renaissance [Internet]. The History Channel website; 2012 [cited 2012 Nov 1] Available from:
http://www.history.com/topics/italian-renaissance.
Bluebook Style
Italian Renaissance, http://www.history.com/topics/italian-renaissance (last visited Nov 1, 2012).
AMA Style
Italian Renaissance. The History Channel website. 2012. Available at: http://www.history.com/topics/italian-renaissance.
Accessed Nov 1, 2012.
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only.
1996-2012, A&E Television Networks, All Rights Reserved

Renaissance Art
Known as the Renaissance, the period immediately following the Middle Ages in Europe saw a great revival of interest in
the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome. Against a backdrop of political stability and growing
prosperity, the development of new technologiesincluding the printing press, a new system of astronomy and the
discovery and exploration of new continentswas accompanied by a flowering of philosophy, literature and especially
art. The style of painting, sculpture and decorative arts identified with the Renaissance emerged in Italy in the late 14th
century; it reached its zenith in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, in the work of Italian masters such as Leonardo da
Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. In addition to its expression of classical Greco-Roman traditions, Renaissance art
sought to capture the experience of the individual and the beauty and mystery of the natural world.
Origins of Renaissance Art
The origins of Renaissance art can be traced to Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. During this so-called
"proto-Renaissance" period (1280-1400), Italian scholars and artists saw themselves as reawakening to the ideals and
achievements of classical Roman culture. Writers such as Petrarch (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)
looked back to ancient Greece and Rome and sought to revive the languages, values and intellectual traditions of those
cultures after the long period of stagnation that had followed the fall of the Roman Empire in the sixth century.

The Florentine painter Giotto (1267?-1337), the most famous artist of the proto-Renaissance, made enormous advances
in the technique of representing the human body realistically. His frescoes were said to have decorated cathedrals at
Assisi, Rome, Padua, Florence and Naples, though there has been difficulty attributing such works with certainty.
Early Renaissance Art (1401-1490s)
In the later 14th century, the proto-Renaissance was stifled by plague and war, and its influences did not emerge again
until the first years of the next century. In 1401, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (c. 1378-1455) won a major competition
to design a new set of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence, beating out contemporaries such as

the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and the young Donatello (c. 1386- 1466), who would later emerge as the
master of early Renaissance sculpture.

The other major artist working during this period was the painter Masaccio (1401-1428), known for his frescoes of the
Trinity in the Church of Santa Maria Novella (c. 1426) and in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del
Carmine (c. 1427), both in Florence. Masaccio painted for less than six years but was highly influential in the early
Renaissance for the intellectual nature of his work, as well as its degree of naturalism.
Florence in the Renaissance
Though the Catholic Church remained a major patron of the arts during the Renaissancefrom popes and other prelates
to convents, monasteries and other religious organizationsworks of art were increasingly commissioned by civil
government, courts and wealthy individuals. Much of the art produced during the early Renaissance was commissioned
by the wealthy merchant families of Florence, most notably the Medici.

From 1434 until 1492, when Lorenzo de Mediciknown as "the Magnificent" for his strong leadership as well as his
support of the artsdied, the powerful family presided over a golden age for the city of Florence. Pushed from power by
a republican coalition in 1494, the Medici family spent years in exile but returned in 1512 to preside over another
flowering of Florentine art, including the array of sculptures that now decorates the city's Piazza della Signoria.
High Renaissance Art (1490s-1527)
By the end of the 15th century, Rome had displaced Florence as the principal center of Renaissance art, reaching a high
point under the powerful and ambitious Pope Leo X (a son of Lorenzo de Medici). Three great mastersLeonardo da
Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphaeldominated the period known as the High Renaissance, which lasted roughly from the
early 1490s until the sack of Rome by the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Spain in 1527. Leonardo
(1452-1519) was the ultimate "Renaissance man" for the breadth of his intellect, interest and talent and his expression
of humanist and classical values. Leonardo's best-known works, including the "Mona Lisa" (1503-05), "The Virgin of the
Rocks" (1485) and the fresco "The Last Supper" (1495-98), showcase his unparalleled ability to portray light and shadow,
as well as the physical relationship between figureshumans, animals and objects alikeand the landscape around them.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) drew on the human body for inspiration and created works on a vast scale. He was
the dominant sculptor of the High Renaissance, producing pieces such as the Piet in St. Peter's Cathedral (1499) and the
David in his native Florence (1501-04). He carved the latter by hand from an enormous marble block; the famous statue
measures five meters high including its base. Though Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor first and foremost, he
achieved greatness as a painter as well, notably with his giant fresco covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel,
completed over four years (1508-12) and depicting various scenes from Genesis.

Raphael Sanzio, the youngest of the three great High Renaissance masters, learned from both da Vinci and
Michelangelo. His paintingsmost notably "The School of Athens" (1508-11), painted in the Vatican at the same time
that Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapelskillfully expressed the classical ideals of beauty, serenity and
harmony. Among the other great Italian artists working during this period were Bramante, Giorgione, Titian and
Correggio.
Renaissance Art in Practice
Many works of Renaissance art depicted religious images, including subjects such as the Virgin Mary, or Madonna, and
were encountered by contemporary audiences of the period in the context of religious rituals. Today, they are viewed as

great works of art, but at the time they were seen and used mostly as devotional objects. Many Renaissance works were
painted as altarpieces for incorporation into rituals associated with Catholic Mass and donated by patrons who
sponsored the Mass itself.

Renaissance artists came from all strata of society; they usually studied as apprentices before being admitted to a
professional guild and working under the tutelage of an older master. Far from being starving bohemians, these artists
worked on commission and were hired by patrons of the arts because they were steady and reliable. Italy's rising middle
class sought to imitate the aristocracy and elevate their own status by purchasing art for their homes. In addition to
sacred images, many of these works portrayed domestic themes such as marriage, birth and the everyday life of the
family.
Expansion and Decline
Over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries, the spirit of the Renaissance spread throughout Italy and into France,
northern Europe and Spain. In Venice, artists such as Giorgione (1477/78-1510) and Titian (1488/90-1576) further
developed a method of painting in oil directly on canvas; this technique of oil painting allowed the artist to rework an
imageas fresco painting (on plaster) did notand it would dominate Western art to the present day. Oil painting during
the Renaissance can be traced back even further, however, to the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck (died 1441), who painted
a masterful altarpiece in the cathedral at Ghent (c. 1432). Van Eyck was one of the most important artists of the
Northern Renaissance; later masters included the German painters Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) and Hans Holbein the
Younger (1497/98-1543).

By the later 1500s, the Mannerist style, with its emphasis on artificiality, had developed in opposition to the idealized
naturalism of High Renaissance art, and Mannerism spread from Florence and Rome to become the dominant style in
Europe. Renaissance art continued to be celebrated, however: The 16th-century Florentine artist and art historian
Giorgio Vasari, author of the famous work "Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects" (1550), would
write of the High Renaissance as the culmination of all Italian art, a process that began with Giotto in the late 13th
century.
How to Cite this Page:
Renaissance Art
APA Style
Renaissance Art. (2012). The History Channel website. Retrieved 11:31, November 1, 2012, from
http://www.history.com/topics/renaissance-art.
Harvard Style
Renaissance Art. [Internet]. 2012. The History Channel website. Available from:
http://www.history.com/topics/renaissance-art [Accessed 1 Nov 2012].
MLA Style
Renaissance Art. 2012. The History Channel website. Nov 1 2012, 11:31 http://www.history.com/topics/renaissance-
art.
MHRA Style
Renaissance Art, The History Channel website, 2012, http://www.history.com/topics/renaissance-art [accessed Nov 1,
2012].

Chicago Style
Renaissance Art, The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/topics/renaissance-art (accessed Nov 1, 2012).
CBE/CSE Style
Renaissance Art [Internet]. The History Channel website; 2012 [cited 2012 Nov 1] Available from:
http://www.history.com/topics/renaissance-art.
Bluebook Style
Renaissance Art, http://www.history.com/topics/renaissance-art (last visited Nov 1, 2012).
AMA Style
Renaissance Art. The History Channel website. 2012. Available at: http://www.history.com/topics/renaissance-art.
Accessed Nov 1, 2012.
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only.
1996-2012, A&E Television Networks, All Rights Reserved

Art & The Italian Renaissance Reading Questions

1. The Italian Renaissance was a rebirth of _________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________.
2. Write out the numerical version for 14th 17th centuries.
3. Where did the Italian Renaissance begin?
4. After the city above, what were the 2nd and 3rd largest cities in Europe?
5. Who are patrons?
6. Define secularism based on its use in the text.
7. Describe what a Humanist believes.
8. What did Galileo discover?
9. What was the most important technological achievement during the Renaissance? Where, when, and
by who was it invented?
10. Why was the invention, mentioned above, important?
11. Name the family who sponsored an abundance of art production during the Renaissance.
12. Name a famous architect from the Italian Renaissance who produced magnificent doors for the Santa
Maria del Fiore cathedral.
13. The architect mentioned above discovered a technique. What is that technique and why was it
important?

14. Why do you think England, France, Spain, and the Pope fought for control of Italy during the
Renaissance?

15. What do you think the following statement means (the Renaissance) reached its zenith in the late
15th century? Use context clues from the reading to explain your response.

16. What was the ultimate goal of Italian scholars and artists?
17. Why is the painter Giotto famous?
18. What does this sentence mean: At the end of the 15th century, Rome had displaced Florence as the
principal center of Renaissance art?

19. Name the three great masters of Renaissance art.

20. What media did each of these artists predominantly work in?
21. Today, Renaissance art is viewed as great works of art, but what purpose did the art of that time period
hold?
22. Name the famous Flemish painter popular during the Northern Renaissance.