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Renaissance

a rebirth of the Classical civilization of the Greeks and Roman, belief in the potential of man, and individualism

Medici

a powerful family that grew wealthy from commerce, real estate, and banking that expanded the Renaissance through patronage.

Dowry

a transfer of money, goods, land, or property from the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage; city states like Florence created public funds to finance them

Papal states

Territories in central Italy controlled by the Pope.

ambassador

resident diplomatic agents that fostered communication between states; the birth of modern diplomacy

Niccolo Machiavelli

secretary to the Florentine Council of Ten who made numerous diplomatic missions and saw the working of statecraft first hand; exiled following the failed French invasion; wrote The Prince

The Prince

one of the most famous treatises on political power in the Western world; written by Niccolo Machiavelli; concerned about the acquisition and expansion of political power as the means to restore and maintain order in his time; said that a prince's attitude toward power must be based on an understanding of human nature, which he perceived as self-centered

Individualism

movement away from medieval collectivism and rigid toward embracing humanism, personal achievement, self-awareness, and the human potential; seen most heavily in the intellectual and artistic realms

Secularism

a gradual shift in focus away from strictly religion toward worldly life, human reason, and earthly achievement seen in the intellectual and artistic realms

Humanism

literary movement during the Renaissance based on the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature that examined grammar, rhetoric, poetry, moral philosophy or ethics, and history

Petrarch

the father of Italian Renaissance humanism; the first intellectual to characterize the Middle Ages as a period of darkness

Civic humanism

the idea that intellectuals had a duty to live an active life for their state; reflected the values of the urban society of the Italian Renaissance; began in Florence and became closely tied to Florentine civic spirit and pride

Neoplatonism

the exposition of the Platonic philosophy; expanded by the Florentine Platonic Academy, who translated Plato's dialogues

Hermeticism

an intellectual movement sparked by the rediscovery and Latin translation of the Corpus Hermeticum—a collection of ancient Greco-Egyptian mystical texts attributed to the mythical sage Hermes Trismegistus

Liberal studies/liberal arts

education during the Renaissance that stressed the importance of learning history, moral philosophy, eloquence/rhetoric, letters/grammar and logic, poetry, mathematics, astronomy, and music

Francesco Guicciardini

believed the purpose of writing history was to teach lessons that were not always obvious because of history's complexity; developed the skills that enabled him to analyze political situations precisely and critically

Johannes Gutenburg

Inventor of the movable-type printing press in Europe around 1440 (Gutenberg Printing Press).

Masaccio

Italian Renaissance artist whose cycle of frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel used monumental figures, a more realistic relationship between figures and landscape, and visual representation of the laws of perspective that birthed a new realistic style of painting

Donatello

Italian Renaissance sculptor known for replicating the essence of statues of antiquity; created a famous statue of David

Donatello's David

the first known life-size, freestanding bronze nude in European art since antiquity; may have celebrated Florentine heroism in the triumph of Florence over Milan in 1428

Filippo Brunelleschi

a friend of Donatello; created a new architecture that specifically included domes

High Renaissance

the final stage of Renaissance art; the shift to the era was marked by the increasing importance of Rome as a new cultural center of the Italian Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci

Italian Renaissance artist that was a transitional figure in the shift to High Renaissance principles; stressed the need to advance beyond such realism and initiated the High Renaissance's preoccupation with the idealization of nature, or the attempt to generalize from realistic portrayal to an ideal form; painted the Last Supper

Last Supper

painting by Leonardo da Vinci; summary of fifteenth-century trends in its organization of space and the use of perspective to depict subjects three-dimensionally in a two-dimensional medium; embodied profound psychological dimensions

Raphael

Italian Renaissance painter acclaimed for his numerous madonnas, in which he attempted to achieve an ideal of beauty far surpassing human standards; known for his frescoes in the Vatican Palace; painted the School of Athens

School of Athens

painting by Raphael that revealed a world of balance, harmony, and order-the underlying principles of the art of the Classical world

Michelangelo

Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, and architect influenced by Neoplatonism; known for his painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and his statue of David

Michelangelo's David

Colossal marble statue by Michelangelo embodying the ideal human form and civic strength.

Northern Renaissance

the cultural and intellectual movement that spread to European countries north of the Alps beginning in the late 15th century; unlike the more secular and classical Italian Renaissance, it blended humanist learning with a deep focus on religious and social reform

Jan van Eyck

Northern Renaissance artist who was among the first to use oil paint, a medium that enabled the artist to use a varied range of colors and create fine details; painted the famous Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride

Albrecht Durer

Northern Renaissance artist who wrote detailed treatises on Italian mastery of the laws of perspective and Renaissance theories of proportion; painted Adoration of the Magi; tried to integrate the use of minute details characteristic of northern artists into his work to achieve a standard of ideal beauty by a careful examination of the human form

The Spanish Inquisition

a court that worked with cruel efficiency to guarantee the orthodoxy of converts; unified Spain under Catholic rule and increased the power of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella

Council of Constance

a major meeting of the Catholic Church that successfully ended the Western Schism, a time when three men claimed to be pope, by removing them and electing Pope Martin V

Great Schism

Period of division in the Catholic Church with multiple rival popes (1378-1417).

Jan Hus

chancellor of the university at Prague that led a group of Czech reformers; he urged the elimination of the worldliness and corruption of the clergy and attacked the excessive power of the papacy within the Catholic Church

Nepotism

The practice of favoring relatives in bestowing political appointments or church offices.

Contrapposto

An asymmetrical arrangement of the human figure where the weight is shifted onto one foot.

Virtu

the Renaissance quality of human excellence, force of character, and the ability to shape the world and master one's own fate rather than submitting to luck