The Italian Renaissance

Vocabulary and key concepts covering the causes, major figures, artistic techniques, and architectural developments of the Italian Renaissance.

Black Death

The main cause of the Renaissance ("Rebirth") that spread through fleas from rats and killed $50\%$ of Europeans and $30\%$ of the world population.

Great Schism

A period from $1378-1417$ also known as the Avignon Papacy, where two popes claimed authority after Archbishops moved the papal seat to France.

Humanism

A focus on the individual, emphasizing purpose, growth, and achievement, which connected God directly to man without the Church as the necessary center of society.

The Medici

A non-noble merchant class family who were extremely wealthy, ruled over Florence, and mentored artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Niccolo Machiavelli

The author of "The Prince," a book written in prison that provides amoral advice for rulers on how to gain power, arguing that "the end justifies the means."

Baldassare Castiglione

Author of "The Book of the Courtier," which emphasized appearances and the ideal of the "Renaissance man."

Sprezzatura

A term found in Castiglione's work referring to a certain nonchalance or ease in achieving the ideals of a courtier.

Petrarchan Sonnet

A $14$-line poem with a tight rhyme scheme of $abbaabbacdecde$, often focusing on a man's unrequited love for a woman.

Orlando Furioso

An epic poem by Lodovico Ariosto featuring medieval knights and classical Greek myths that represent Humanistic ideals.

Scientific Naturalism

A movement in art driven by science that demanded a realistic depiction of the human form, involving correct anatomy and accurate musculature.

Linear Perspective

A shift in scene drawing to be $3$-dimensional, using a vanishing point where all angles lead, as described in Vetruvius’ D’Architectura.

Fra Lippo Lippi

A Carmelite Friar and painter known for humanistic renderings of the Madonna; he eloped with a nun named Lucretia.

Sandro Botticelli

A painter whose typical subject matter was mythology, where objects and clothing often represented symbolic meaning.

Leonardo da Vinci

A true "Renaissance Man" who performed $30$ dissections on dead bodies to study anatomy and is best known for his paintings.

Sfumato

A painting technique used by Da Vinci, specifically in the Mona Lisa, characterized by a lack of sharp edges.

Chiaroscuro

An artistic technique involving the use of shadow and light.

Filippo Brunelleschi

An architect who won the contest to design the Dome for the Cathedral of Florence, utilizing new inner ribs to support its weight.

Contrapposto

A decidedly Greek stance used in Donatello’s David, the first free-standing nude sculpture in Christendom in over $1000$ years.

School of Athens

A fresco by Raphael in the papal apartments depicting pre-Christian philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, covering four branches of human knowledge.

Michelangelo

A sculptor and painter discovered by Lorenzo de Medici who taught himself the wet-plaster fresco technique to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

The Giant

A nickname for Michelangelo’s David, which was carved from granite rejected by other artists and features intentionally distorted proportions.

Palladianism

A style of architecture where symmetry is idealized and classical features are used for outward show on facades.

Villa Rotunda

A family home designed with a cubic exterior, complete symmetry, and a central dome that can be seen from all floors.

Teatro Olympico

An interior theater following classical Roman specifications that uses linear perspective to create the illusion of deep space.

Venice

A city heavily influenced by Islam and the East, and the first in the West to adopt the printing press.

Titian

A Venetian artist commissioned by the Duke of Ferrara who imbued his paintings with both Christian and classical elements.