Renaissance

  • Italian: Rinasciemento (Ri- again; nascere- be born)

  • Movement applied not only in architecture, but also in literature and painting, and customs

  • Giorgio Vasari:

    • Italian painter, writer, historian, & architect

    • famous for his biographies of Renaissance artists

    • coined the term “Renaissance“ (rinascita) in print, through an awareness of the on going “rebirth“ in arts

    • wrote “Le Vite de' Piv Eccellenti Pittori Scultori et Architettori...“ (Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects)

  • originated in Florence, Italy (Gothic never took a firm hold) at the beginning of the 18th century

  • spread to France, Germany, England, and the rest of Western Europe

  • Renaissance artist rejected the intricacy & verticality of Gothic for the simplicity & balanced

Humanism & the Renaissance