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Renaissance

Renaissance

the "rebirth" of classical culture that occurred in Italy following the Middle Ages between 1350 and 1550; a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome

Medici

aristocratic Italian family of powerful merchants and bankers who ruled Florence in the 15th century and held power through philanthropy; assisted in making Florence the home of the Italian Renaissance.

Dowry

property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage

Papal States

A section of central Italy governed by the pope

Ambassador

an official representative of a country's government that is sent to foreign courts to reside there and oversee political and economic affairs; these came into use in Italy after the Treaty of Lodi to avoid war.

Niccolo Machiavelli

(1469-1527) a statesman of Florence who wrote The Prince which contained a secular method of ruling a country and advocated for a strong central government. His quote "End justifies the means" exemplifies the Renaissance preoccupation with political power.

The Prince

a book written by Machiavelli in 1513 concerning the acquisition and expansion of political power as the means to restore and maintain order in his time (a secular and strong central govt)humans are self-centered, thus political activity could not be restricted by moral considerations

Individualism

a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control; put emphasis on and interest in the unique traits of each person; popular concept during the Renaissance

Secularism

a doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations and is more concerned with material, worldly, and temporal things

Humanism

a Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied classical texts and focused on human potential and achievements. these texts were Greek and Roman classics.

Petrarch

(1304-1374) Father of the Renaissance; Father of Humanism; the first intellectual to characterize the Middle Ages as a period of darkness, promoting the mistaken belief that medieval culture was ignorant of classical antiquity

Civic humanism

an intellectual movement of the Italian Renaissance that was humanism with the added belief that one must be an active and contributing member of one's society; advocated for humanists to be involved in the government and use their rhetorical training in the service of the state.

Neoplatonism

views based on the ideas of Plato that one should search beyond appearances for true knowledge; a revival in the Italian Renaissance, associated with Marsilio Ficino, who attempted to synthesize Christianity and Platonism

Hermeticism

an intellectual movement beginning in the fifteenth century that taught that divinity is embodied in all aspects of nature; included works on alchemy and magic as well as theology and philosophy. The tradition continued into the seventeenth century and influenced many of the leading figures of the Scientific Revolution

Liberal studies/liberal arts

the seven areas of study that formed the basis of education in medieval and early modern Europe. Following Boethius and other late Roman authors, they consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic or logic (the trivium) and arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music (the quadrivium).

Francesco Guicciardini

(1483-1540) achieved the high point of Renaissance historiography in his works History of Italy and History of Florence at the beginning of the sixteenth century; the beginning of "modern analytical historiography"; analyzed political situations precisely and critically

Johannes Gutenburg

played an important role in completing the development of movable type printing, one of the most important technological innovations of Western civilization; made the Gutenberg Bible, which was the first true book of the West to be produced by movable type

Masaccio

continued the work of medieval artist Giotto by imitating nature in his paintings; his cycle of frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel has long been regarded as the first masterpiece of Early Renaissance Art; introduced a new realistic style of painting through his use of monumental figures and landscape, and visual representation of the laws of perspective

Donato di Donatello

spent time in Rome studying and copying the statues of antiquity and mastered the essence of what he saw; famous statue of David, displaying revolutionary achievements in Renaissance sculpture and architecture

Donatello's David

the first known life-size freestanding bronze nude in European art since antiquity-- celebrated Florentine heroism in the triumph over Milan in 1428; statue reflected the simplicity and strength of human dignity

Filippo Brunelleschi

Florentine architect who was the first great architect of the Italian Renaissance; built the first dome over the Cathedral of Florence; style evident in the Church of San Lorenzo containing classical columns, rounded arches, and coffered ceiling

High Renaissance

shift to this period of the Renaissance is marked by the increasing importance of Rome as a new cultural center of the Italian Renaissance; artists had mastered new techniques for scientific observation of the world around them and were now ready to move into individualistic forms of creative expression; produced some of the most well-known religious and secular artwork of the period from such figures as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

Leonardo da Vinci

A well-known Italian Renaissance artist, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, and scientist; stressed the need to advance beyond realism and initiated the High Renaissance's preoccupation with the idealization of nature; known for the Mona Lisa

Last Supper

a mural painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci; depicts the dramatic interaction in the moments of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) where Jesus declares that one of the disciples will betray him, and later He institutes communion or the Eucharist.

Raphael

(1483-1520) considered one of the Italian Renaissance's best painters; he painted frescos, his most famous being The School of Athens; acclaimed for his numerous madonnas, in which he attempted to achieve an ideal of beauty far surpassing human standards.

School of Athens

Raphael's fresco revealing a world of balance, harmony, and order-- the underlying principles of the art of the classical world of Greece and Rome

Michelangelo

(1475-1564) An Italian sculptor, painter, poet, engineer, and architect. Famous works include the mural on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the sculpture of the biblical character David. Influenced by Neoplatonism, the Sistine Chapel murals depict the Fall of Man; the beauty of his figures is meant to be a reflection of divine beauty

Michelangelo's David

a colossal marble statue commissioned by the Florentine govt in 1501; the largest sculpture in Italy since the time of Rome, it inspires awe and proudly proclaims the beauty of the human body and the glory of human beings. Focused on the potential of man; a manifestation of Michelangelo's search for ideal beauty

Northern Renaissance

An extension of the Italian Renaissance to the nations Germany, Flanders, France, and England; it took on a more religious nature than the Italian Renaissance

Jan van Eyck

(1390-1441) Flemish painter who was a founder of the Flemish School of Painting and who pioneered modern techniques of oil painting

Albrecht Dure

northern german artist of the later period who was greatly affected by the Italians; mastered the laws of perspective and Renaissance theories of proportion; in his famous Adoration of the Magi, he incorporated both the northern style of minute details and the Italian style to achieve a standard of ideal beauty by a careful examination of the human form

The Spanish Inquisition

under the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella, it worked with cruel efficiency to guarantee the orthodoxy of the Jewish converts to Christianity; eventually expelled all professed Jews and Muslims from Spain; achieved the goal of absolute religious orthodoxy as a basic ingredient of the Spanish state

Council of Constance

the council in 1414-1418 that succeeded in ending the Great Schism in the Roman Catholic Church

Great Schism

the crisis in the late medieval church when there were first two and then three popes; ended by the Council of Constance (1414-1418)

Jan Hus

The leader of the Czech religious reforms, and the spiritual founder of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s; urged the elimination of the worldliness and corruption of the clergy and attacked the excessive power of the papacy within the Catholic church; arrested by the Council of Constance and burned at the stake for heresy in 1415

Nepotism

the appointment of family members to important political positions; derived from the regular appointment of nephews by Renaissance popes

Contrapposto

an asymmetrical arrangement of the human figure in which the line of the arms and shoulders contrasts while balancing those of the hips and legs; an Italian term that means "counterpoise"

Virtu

the good qualities inherent in a person or thing; refers to the meaning and the fame awarded by Machiavelli, an Italian author and political thinker of the Renaissance; in his classical work The Prince, he says that there are two opposing strengths that lead both the individual life as well as the whole society: the Virtue and the Fate;