The Renaissance - Learning and Creativity
The Renaissance (15th & early 16th centuries)
Famous for...
An explosion of intellectual and creative activity in Europe in the fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries
(renaissance is a French word meaning re-birth).
Why did it happen?
1. Printing
Johannes Gutenberg’s (pictured right) invention of the first European printing press in
Germany in 1440 accelerated the spread of knowledge.
People were particularly inspired by the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman art and culture.
2. Patrons of the arts
The arts and the great Italian Renaissance cities (Florence, Rome and Venice) were transformed by money
from:
- the nobility (like the Medici family in Florence).
- popes (starting with Nicholas V , pictured right, in
1447).
3. Wealth and increases in population
Europe became richer as businesses prospered, helped by:
- the development of its banks.
- the invention of double entry book-keeping by the Italian friar, Luca
Pacioli (pictured right), in 1494.
- bigger markets - see point 4.
4. Bigger markets
Markets increased because:
- bubonic plague disappeared (the Black Death of 1348-50 killed at least a third of
Europe’s population).
- North and South America were discovered (bringing enormous amounts of precious metal
like silver).
- Europe’s population increased from 70 million in 1500 to 100 million in
1600.
5. Security
The Ottoman (Turkish) empire (led by Suleiman the Magnificent, pictured right above) was a huge
threat to Western Europe after its capture of Budapest in 1521.
But Charles V, pictured right, defeated the Turkish siege of Vienna in
1529.
The Turkish threat wasn’t completely removed until their defeat at the sea Battle of
Leponto in 1571.
Key Renaissance artists
Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519)
Italian genius - sculptor, architect, engineer and artist
His best known paintings are the:
- Mona Lisa (pictured right).
Michelangelo
(1475-1564)
Italian sculptor (creator of the nude statue, David), architect and artist
Famous for his painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome - pictured below
is God's creation of Adam from the Bible's Book of Genesis.
Raphael (1483-1520)
Italian architect (of St. Peter’s church in Rome) and artist
His paintings include the School of Athens, showing a group of great Greek philosophers,
pictured right.
Key Renaissance thinkers
Niccolo
Machiavelli (1469-1527) - pictured
right
His book, The Prince (1513) explains that you don’t have to be good to be a great leader.
Today’s word ‘Machiavellian’ means using dubious means to get what you want.
Erasmus (1466-1536) - pictured
right
Dutch scholar and intellectual force behind the Reformation (the Protestant rebellion against the Roman
Catholic Church that began in1517).
Erasmus proposed a key idea of the Renaissance: humanism (i.e. people can control their
lives through their own thought and actions).
Thomas More (1478-1535) - pictured
right
In his book, Utopia (1516), More (an English friend of Erasmus) wrote about an imaginary and
ideal island without intolerance, money or war.
He was executed for refusing to support Henry
VIII’s divorce.
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1573)
Polish astronomer (pictured right) who proposed that the earth went around the sun (not the other way around as
the Roman Catholic Church then believed).
Galileo
(1564-1642)
Italian scientist and astronomer (pictured right) who was forced by the Roman Catholic Church to publicly
withdraw his support for Copernicus in 1633.
Key quotes
He who thinks little, errs much,
- Leonardo da Vinci (pictured
right).
They raise our intellect to heaven,
- Michelangelo’s (pictured right) motto
referring to painting, sculpture and architecture.
It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved,
- Galileo.
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