1. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO THE BIRTH OF THE RENAISSANCE IN
FLORENCE IN THE 15 CENTURY
&
2. WHAT EMERGED FROM IT
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BEFORE THE RENAISSANCE IN EUROPE WAS
THE PERIOD OF THE HIGH MIDDLE MIDDLE AGES
BEFORE THAT THE MIDDLE AGES
BEFORE THAT THE DARK AGES
BEFORE THAT ROMAN EMPIRE WHICH ENDED IN 476 AD
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WE JUMP A THOUSAND YEARS INTO THE BIRTH OF THE RENAISSANCE
1. The RENAISSANCE - the cultural re-birth of Europe between 15th - 16th centuries
2. A re awakening of creativity and learning after the middle ages.
3. Its centre was Florence in northern Italy (today)
INFLUENCES & EVOLUTIONS
1. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the ISLAMIC Ottoman Turks - caused a migration of Greek scholars scientists artisans to the west from the last great city of the Roman Empire in the east. The BYZANTINE EMPIRE had lasted for 1,OOO years after the fall of the Roman Empire in the west.
Remember the Emperor Constantine had moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to the ancient city of Byzantium in 33O AD and renamed it Constantinople.
Until the Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century the Western Roman Empire was Latin/ Pagan and the Eastern half was Greek / Christian.
Just before the Renaissance the Islamic Ottoman Empire grew and the Eastern Roman Empire was reduced to just Greece and a small area around the Bosphorus including Constantinople.
2. Revival of humanism from the ancient Greek Philospopher Protogoras 49O - 42O BC
'Man is the measure of all things' - Petrarch 13O4 - 1374 1st Renaissance Humanist - Individual people have a Perspective a point of view on the world. An individual has a right to think for himself or herself. Scholars from Constantinople brought with them Greek texts to give Florentine academics this new view of life.
3. The Black Plague 1348 -135O killed more than 5O% of the of the population of Florence, people began to be more conscious of this precious life on Earth rather than in the next world this magnified the value of humanism .
4. At a time of city states (Italy was not yet united the Risorgimento was in 1871 ) the Medici family sponsored many art projects within the Republic of Florence. The Medicis were Europes most wealthy banking family. Their dynasty lasted throughout the 15th and 16th centuries and included 4 Popes.
5. Single Point Perspective ( Latin persicere - to see through ) discovered by Filippo Brunelleschi 1377- 1446 - added a 3rd dimentionality to Medieval art. Realism was
enhanced in paintings.
The Last Supper
Ugolino da Siena
1325
Leonardo da Vinci
1496
Leonardo da Vinci
1496
6. Whether the times coincided with genius or genius coincided with the times is debatable but we see some of the greatest artists living at this time.
MICHELANGELO 'SISTINE CHAPEL' 15O8 - 1512
BOTTICELLI 'THE BIRTH OF VENUS' 148O
RAPHAEL 'THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS' 151O
The first non religeous portraits were commisioned
LEONARDO da Vinci 'MONA LISA' 15O3 (the wife of Francesco del Giocondo)
Leonardo da Vinci 1452 - 1519 was probably the supreme example of the Renaissance Man. His interests included included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography.
The church allowed this genius more or less do what he wanted, although he too had to be careful and kept secret notebooks written a reverse mirror writing .
CLASS ASSIGNMENT - DRAW A PICTURE TO DEMONSTATE LINEAR PERSPECTIVE
7. For the first time since the ancient Greeks individual artists could claim fame
and fortune, they were recognised for their individual works of art. In the middle ages
the collective produced works of art the idea of the individual was not acknowledged.
8. Artists lives were written about for the first time - Giorgio Vasari 1511 - 1574 published 'The Lives of the Artists' the first art history book.
9. World Trade expanded CURIOSITY COMMUNICATION CREATIVITY COMPLEXITY
1492 with Columbus European discovery of America across the Atlantic
1499 Vasco da Gama sails to India around Cape of Good Hope Africa
1519 Magellan circumnavigation expedition (he was killed in the Philippines) of the world around Cape Horn South America into the Pacific Ocean (completed by El Carno in 1522)
1O. Because of Gutenberg's Printing Press (144O) and movable type faster book publication was possible, because of increased literacy more people were educated. 1O million books were printed in vernacular languages ( not Latin) over the first 45 years of presses becoming available across Europe. This helped spead Nationalism as countries could expresses themselves in their own language.
This (IT) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY produced and distributed more information content at a cheaper price than at any time in the middle ages - in many ways resembling the impact of the personal computer and the internet today.
Single Medieval monk scribe v technology of the printing press
11. Increased access to radical new scientific ideas via books challenged the Church's control over cosmological knowledge - the church pushed back eg the burning of Giordano Bruno 1548 - 16OO for heresy and his support for the Copernican model of the solar system - Heliocentrism is the knowledge that the planets revolve around the sun. Nicolaus Copernicus astronomer and mathamatician born in Poland 1473 - 1543 overturned the Church long held Ptolemaic geocentric belief that the Earth was the centre of the SOLAR SYSTEM. Ptolemy was a 1st century Greek astronomer and cartographer from Alexandria. (Interesting that Aristarchus of Samos proposed a Heliocentric model in the 3rd century BC) The Copernican Revolution was a major shift in human knowledge and understanding about our place in the cosmos. The impact of this kind of scientific paradigm shift was not seen again probably until the Quantum revolution in physics reformed Newtonian physics at the turn of the 2Oth century.
12. Gave birth to the Northern Renaissance in Europe and the Protestant Reformation and later the ENLIGHTENMENT.
PROTESTANT REFORMATION could not have happened without the printing press 5,OOO copies of Martin Luther's 95 Theses were printed in the first year.
This caused a SCHISM ( a division a split) in the Western Christian Church, it eventually divided Europe on religeous grounds and resulted in The 3O Years War 1618 - 1648
Note
It is interesting to see that with an increase in access to information there was an increase in differences of religeous opinion between nation states , and this eventually resulted in war.
Martin Luther 1483 - 1546 was a German priest & professor of Theology - he nailed his religeous arguments against the Vatican on the door of a church in Wittenberg Germany in 1571
He basically wanted to minimise the Churches control over religeous doctrine.
He was:
1. Against the Churches granting of Indulgencies (payment to Catholic priests to pardon sins)
2. For people being in direct contact with God.
3. For people reading the Bible themselves. He actually translated the Bible into German so people didnt have to know Latin.
4. Began the Lutheran Church in Northern Germany one of many Protestant faiths to emerge at that time.
5. Allowed his Protestant Clergy to marry
6. He was excommunicated by the Vatican in 1521.
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JOIN THE DOTS
in the
RENAISSSANCE
Discuss the role of Curiosity - Communication - Creativity - Complexity at this time
join the dots of progress .
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HISTORY STUDY ARC
ELIGHTENMENT / REFORMATION leading into THE POWERFUL MONARCHS OF
15TH & 16TH CENTURIES
leading into the
AGE OF MARITIME DISCOVERY
into the age of
REVOLUTIONS
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