High Renaissance in Florence and Rome: Key Terms from the Lecture

Vocabulary flashcards covering major terms, people, places, and concepts from the lecture on the High Renaissance, focusing on Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and the Rome-Florence crossover.

High Renaissance

The early 16th-century Italian period (roughly around 1500) when masters like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael produced peak works, emphasizing classical ideals, humanism, and new artistic approaches.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leading figure of the High Renaissance; painter, inventor, and observer known for extensive notebooks, mirror writing, and works such as The Last Supper and Mona Lisa.

Sfumato

Leonardo’s smoky shading technique that blends light and shadow without hard edges to create depth and mystery.

Linear perspective

A mathematical method for depicting depth in painting; uses a vanishing point to organize space, famously used in The Last Supper.

The Last Supper

Leonardo’s fresco in Milan showing Jesus and the disciples at the moment of betrayal, notable for its dramatic composition and use of perspective.

Mona Lisa

Leonardo’s portrait famed for its enigmatic smile and sfumato technique; widely regarded as a pinnacle work of portraiture.

Mirror writing

Leonardo’s habit of writing text backwards from right to left in his notebooks, readable with a mirror.

The Courtier

Castiglione’s Renaissance handbook on courtly behavior, promoting unstudied nonchalance, grace, and social climbing at court.

The Prince

Machiavelli’s political treatise on power and governance, offering pragmatic, sometimes controversial guidance for rulers.

Raphael

Florentine master who became Rome’s leading painter; known for idealized portraits and the School of Athens; skilled at courtly diplomacy.

School of Athens

Raphael’s fresco in the Stanza della Signatura portraying a gathering of great philosophers, illustrating the fusion of classical philosophy and Renaissance learning.

Stanza della Signatura

Raphael’s room in the Vatican’s Papal Apartments decorated with frescoes, including the School of Athens; used for diplomacy and signatures.

Julius II

Pope (the Warrior Pope) who expanded the Papal States and commissioned major projects, including patronage of Michelangelo and Raphael in Rome.

Bonfire of the Vanities

Savonarola’s purge in Florence (late 15th century) burning wealth, art, and books to condemn secular excess and reform society.

Platonic Academy

Florence circle under Marsilio Ficino promoting Neo-Platonism; a key influence on Renaissance humanism and art.

Della Rovere oak symbol

The oak tree emblem of the Della Rovere family (to which Julius II belonged), used in heraldry and papal symbolism.