The Italian Renaissance Lecture Review

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the key people, movements, artistic techniques, and historical events of the Italian Renaissance based on the lecture notes.

Black Death

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

Great Schism (Avignon Papacy)

A period from 1378-1417 where there were two popes, one in Italy and one in Avignon, France, leading each side to claim the other was heretical.

Humanism

A movement focused on the individual in all aspects of life, including purpose, growth, and achievement, which connected God directly to man without placing the Church between them.

The Medici

A non-noble, extremely wealthy merchant class family that ruled over Florence and mentored artists such as Giotto, Da Vinci, Botticelli, and Michelangelo.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Author of "The Prince," written while in prison, which provides amoral advice for rulers on how to gain and keep power, famously stating "the end justifies the means."

Baldassare Castiglione

Author of "The Book of the Courtier," which emphasized appearances over truth and introduced concepts like "Renaissance man" and "sprezzatura."

Sprezzatura

A term from Castiglione's "The Book of the Courtier" denoting a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort.

Petrarchan Sonnet

A 14-line poem with a tight rhyme scheme (abbaabbacdecde) typically focused on the unrequited love of a man for a woman.

Scientific Naturalism

The demand for realism in art, involving correct anatomy, accurate musculature, and the use of nude forms and three-dimensional scene drawing.

Linear Perspective

A technique using a vanishing point where all angles lead, resulting in background images appearing smaller in size and buildings angled toward that point.

Vitruvius’ D’Architectura

The classical text that provided the mathematical rules for single-point (linear) perspective.

Fra Lippo Lippi

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

Leonardo da Vinci

A true "Renaissance Man" skilled in painting, sculpting, and goldsmithing who performed 30 dissections on bodies to study anatomy.

Sfumato

A painting technique used by Da Vinci in the "Mona Lisa" that involves the use of no sharp edges.

Chiaroscuro

A painting technique involving the use of shadow and light.

Filippo Brunelleschi

The architect who designed the dome for the Cathedral of Florence, creating new inner ribs to hold the weight of the outer dome.

Donatello’s David

The first free-standing nude sculpture in Christendom in over 1000 years, featuring the Greek stance of contrapposto.

Contrapposto

A decidedly Greek stance used in sculpture, as seen in Donatello’s David, where the weight is shifted onto one leg.

School of Athens

A fresco by Raphael in the Vatican that includes portraits of pre-Christian philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, representing four branches of human knowledge.

Michelangelo’s David

An iconic sculpture known as "The Giant" made from granite with distorted proportions, including an enlarged head and hands, to create a stern appearance.

Palladianism

A style of Renaissance architecture where symmetry was idealized and classical features like false arches and stonework were used for outward show.

Villa Rotunda

A cubic family home designed with four stairways, four entrances, and a central dome, utilizing complete symmetry with the square and circle.

Orlando Furioso

An epic poem by Lodovico Ariosto featuring medieval knights that represent Humanistic ideals, including the female knight Bradamante.

Averroism

An Islamic influence found in Venice, reflecting a mixture of harmony, discussion, and argument among artists.