AP Euro Unit 1: Renaissance Europe

Renaissance

A period of intense artistic and intellectual activity, said to be a 'rebirth' of Greco-Roman culture. Usually divided into an Italian Renaissance, from roughly the mid-fourteenth to mid-fifteenth century, and a Northern Renaissance 1400-1600.

secularism

The emphasis on the here-and-now rather than on the spiritual and otherworldly; the removal of religion from aspects of life that it is irrelevant to

Vernacular Literature

Literature not in Latin, used to make statements. Authors became critical of society and its values, and used their vernacular writing in their own language to express this.

Patronage

Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists such as musicians, painters, and sculptors; most prominent in Renaissance were Medicis

Medici family

Ruled Florence during the Renaissance, became wealthy from banking, spent a lot of money on art (patrons), controlled Florence for about 3 centuries

Florence

Center of the Italian Renaissance. Ruled by the Medici family. Home to the Early Renaissance.

humanism

A Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied classical texts and focused on HUMAN potential and achievements

Renaissance Man

A person who is successful when it comes to working, and overall universal, knew how to dance, fight, sing, write poetry, and how to create art, and well educated with the classics. (well rounded, jack of all trades). A person of many talents.

liberal arts

The traditional curriculum of Renaissance universities which included grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy

Petrarch

Father of the Renaissance. He believed the first two centuries of the Roman Empire to represent the peak in the development of human civilization (we should return to it)

Book of the Courtier

Written by Baldassare Castiglione, this was a practical guide for the nobility at the court of Urbino. It embodies the highest ideals of Italian humanism: knowledge of languages and history, athleticism, military skills, musical skills, and chivalry.

Fall of Constantine

1453- Fell to the Turks and Muslims, lead to the fall of the Byzantine Empire, and to the end of the Middle Ages. Lead to the beginning of the Renaissance.

Linear perspective

The relative size, shape, and position of objects are determined by drawn or imagined lines converging at a point on the horizon.

naturalism

a style and theory of representation based on the accurate depiction of detail (NOT the same as realism - naturalism doesn't have to be realistic, it just portrays something that COULD happen or exist)

mannerism

Artistic movement against the Renaissance ideals of symmetry, balance, and simplicity; went against the perfection the High Renaissance created in art. Used elongated proportions, twisted poese and compression of space.

Filippo Brunelleschi

architect, painter, and engineer who introduced linear perspective in painting and designed the dome of Florence's cathedral

Leonardo da Vinci

A well known Italian Renaissance artist, architect, musician, mathemetician, engineer, and scientist. Known for the Mona Lisa.

Botticelli

A Renaissance painter known for his flowing lines and graceful forms - painted the Birth of Venus and Primavera (important paintings)

Michelangelo

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. Discovered and adopted by the Medici Family.

Raphael

Italian Renaissance painter; he painted frescos, his most famous being The School of Athens (on Pope's wall in vatican)

St. Peter's Basilica

Pope's residence, center of Catholic Church, located at the Vatican

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; more focused on Greek culture than the Italian focus on Rome. Main theme of Christian Humanism, focused more on religion.

Jan van Eyck

Flemish painter who was a founder of the Flemish school of painting and who pioneered modern techniques of oil painting; painted Arnolfini Portrait

Albrecht Dürer

Famous Northern Renaissance artist, he often used woodcutting along with Italian Renaissance techniques like proportion, perspective and modeling; painted self-portrait and signed paintings (humanist influence)

Erasmus

Dutch Humanist and friend of Sir Thomas More. Perhaps the most intellectual man in Europe and widely respected. Believed the problems in the Catholic Church could be fixed; did not support the idea of a Reformation. Wrote The Praise of Folly.

printing press

A mechanical device for transferring text or graphics from a woodblock or type to paper using ink. Presses using movable type first appeared in Europe in about 1450; created by Johann Gutenburg; enabled fast spreading of books, knowledge, literacy, etc.

Christian humanism

A branch of humanism associated with northern Europe. Like their Italian counterparts, the Christian humanists closely studied classical texts. However, they also sought to give humanism a specifically Christian content. Christian humanists like Desiderius Erasmus were committed to religious piety and institutional reform.

new monarch

Laid the foundation for the centralized modern state led by absolute monarchs. They could impose taxes, raise armies, control the nobles in their respective states and determine the religion of their subjects. i.e. Specific examples of New Monarchs are Ferdinand and Isabella (Spain) Henry IV and Louis XIII (France), Henry VIII and Elizaebth I (England). i.e. Specific examples monarchial control include Star Chamber, Concordat of Bologna, Peace of Augsburg, Edict of Nantes.

Louis XI of France

He was a tough, cynical, and calculating ruler. Louis XI of France ruthlessly pushed for more power. He preferred to be feared rather than loved in order to be secure. Scholars have credited him with laying the foundation for later French royal absolutism

Henry VII of England

Just like Louis XI of France, Henry VII of England subordinated mortality; he ruthlessly suppressed opposition and rebellion, especially from the nobility. He left England at peace domestically and internationally with the dignity and the role of the royal majesty enhanced.

Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain

During the late 15th century, they became King and Queen of a united Spain after centuries of Islamic domination. Together, they made Spain a strong Christian nation (inquisition) and also provided funding to overseas exploration, notably Christopher Columbus. As well as created a strong Spanish navy and army.

Fall of Granada

A siege of Granada fought over months until the city's surrender. The last outpost of Islamic control and brought an end to 780 years of Islamic rule in Islamic Iberia.

Expulsion of the Jews (1492)

150,000 Jewish people removed forcibly from Spain; caused a significant loss of population, skills, and wealth, but led to national religious unity.

Spanish Inquisition

An organization of priests in Spain that looked for and punished anyone suspected of secretly practicing their old religion instead of Roman Catholicism; initiated by Ferdinand and Isabella to pursue centralization and national unity

Habsburg Dynasty

one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740; intermarried with royal families of and produced rulers for many European countries

Charles V

Holy Roman Emperor and Carlos I of Spain, tried to keep Europe religiously united, inherited Spain, the Netherlands, Southern Italy, Austria, and much of the Holy Roman Emperor from his grandparents, he sought to stop Protestantism and increase the power of Catholicism. He allied with the pope to stamp out heresy and maintain religious unity in Europe. He was preoccupied with struggles with Turkey and France and could not solley focus on the rise of Protestantism in Germany.

Alexander VI

(1492-1503) Corrupt Spanish pope. He was aided militarily and politically by his son Cesare Borgia, who was the hero of The Prince.

Antiquity

The quality of being ancient; ancient times.

Balance of Power

Condition of roughly equal strength between opposing countries or alliances of countries.

Borgia Family

A Valencian-Italian noble family of terrible (and mostly deserved) reputation, the Borgias featured importantly in renaissance Italian politics. Notable members of the family included Rodrigo, who went on to become Pope Alexander VI, and Ceasare, son of Rodrigo, and the inspiration for Machiavelli's "The Prince."

Hieronymus Bosch

A Dutch painter of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. His allegorical religious works include his masterpiece, The Garden of Earthly Delights, in which grotesque, fantastical creatures mingle with human figures. His work is often considered a forerunner of surrealism.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Flemish Renaissance painter known for landscapes and depictions of peasant life.

Charles VII

King of France, established a royal army composed of cavalry and archers. He recieved from the Estates General the right to levy the taille without any further approval of them. It meant less power for the Estates General.

city-state

A sovereign state comprising a city and its immediate hinterland.

Donatello

(1386-1466) Sculptor. Probably exerted greatest influence of any Florentine artist before Michelangelo. His statues expressed an appreciation of the incredible variety of human nature.

Duomo

The dome designed for the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence (span 150ft, height 308) built by Filippo Brunelleschi.

Florin

A gold coin minted by the city of Florence.

Genre Art

An art movement with everyday scenes as subject matter and a detailed, highly realistic style.

Hanseatic League

An organization of cities in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia for the purpose of establishing a commercial alliance.

Holy Roman Empire

The loose confederation of principalities, duchies, cities, bishoprics, and other types of regional governments stretching from Denmark to Rome and from Burgundy to Poland.

Individualism

Giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications.

Italian city-states

Location led to trade, which led to wealth and cultural diffusion, which led to the Renaissance; Venice, Milan, Florence, Papal States, Naples.

Julius II

(1503-1513) Pope - very militaristic. Tore down the old Saint Peter's Basilica and began work on the present structure in 1506. Sponsored Michaelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel.

Leo X

Pope during the reformation who excommunicated Luther and typified the worldly lifestyle of Renaissance Rome; sold indulgences; saw the argument with Luther as just a disagreement among monks.

Niccolo Machiavelli

(1469-1527) Wrote The Prince which contained a secular method of ruling a country. "End justifies the means."

Milan

Italian city-state- manufactured weapons and silk in Renaissance Italy.

Pico della Mirandola

Wrote On the Dignity of Man which stated that man was made in the image of God before the fall and as Christ after the Resurrection. Man is placed in-between beasts and the angels. He also believed that there is no limits to what man can accomplish.

Modern Diplomacy

Formed because of the Italian city-states. Each city-state would send officials back and forth in an attempt to balance the power and maintain order without resorting to war through debate and discussion and negotiation.

Thomas More

He was a English humanist that contributed to the world today by revealing the complexities of man. He wrote Utopia, a book that represented a revolutionary view of society. He was beheaded by Henry VIII.

nation-state

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality.

Ottoman Turks

Turkish group ruled by the Ottoman dynasty; formed an empire that lasted from about 1300 to 1922. The group that proved to be the greatest threat to the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century.

Papal States

A group of territories in central Italy ruled by the popes from 754 until 1870. They were originally given to the papacy by Pepin the Short and reached their greatest extent in 1859. The last papal state—the Vatican City—was formally established as a separate state by the Lateran Treaty of 1929.

Portaiture

Painting of an actual person meant to capture their likeness. Became more common during the Northern Renaissance.

Religious Art

Typically architecture, sculpture, painting or crafts or artifacts with a religious theme.

Reconquista

The effort by Christian leaders to drive the Muslims out of Spain, lasting from the 1100s until 1492, during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.

Scholasticism

This sought to synthesize the beliefs and values of Christianity with the logical rigor of Greek philosophy.

Venice

An Italian trading city on the Ariatic Sea, agreed to help the Byzantines' effort to regain the lands in return for trading privileges in Constantinople.

Civic Humanism

The belief that individuals owe a service to their community and its government. During the Renaissance, political theorists argued that selfless service to the polity was of critical importance in a self-governing republic.