Flashcards About the Italian Renaissance

- A sixteenth century painter, architect, and writer.- Used the Italian word rinascita, meaning "rebirth" to describe the Renaissance. - Believed achievements owed nothing to the backwardness of Middle Ages, but rather linked to classical world (Greek/Roman texts).

- Significant contributions made to Western civilizations.- Gains in literature, art, philosophy, and political/historical thought. - Modern notion of individualism surfaced.- Individuals sought to gain personal credit rather than giving God all of the glory.

- Place of the intellectual and artistic developments made during the Renaissance.- Center of Europe's economic, political, and cultural life.- Originally under control of Holy Roman Empire, but free to decide own fate, causing tensions.

- Northern: dealt with religious concerns and ultimately helped lay foundation for Reformation. (Able to spread through Europe as result of printing press in 15th century). - Italian: writers were primarily interested in secular concerns.

- Popolo: urban underclass who wanted their own share of wealth and political power with wealthy land-owning nobles as well as the rising merchants.- Florence, 1378: Ciompi Revolt - Popolo expressed dissatisfaction with a violent struggle; poor gained enormous control.

- Wealthy banking family in Florence who served as the "behind-the-scences" rulers.- Savanarola, a conservative, led a revolt against the family with the Florentines, seizing the family's power.

1. Milan 2. Naples 3. Florence4. Papal States 5. Venice- Generally more economically vibrant than rest of Europe; loaned money, traded wool/silk throughout.- Patrons of the arts- Geography: Central location in Mediterranean allowed for Greek/Latin cultures to be linked.

- A program of study, including rhetoric and literature, based on the classical world's works.- Petrarch: Father of humanism; coined the term "dark ages" to denote cultural decline that occurred after collapse of Roman world in 5th century.- Cicero: Important politician and philosopher whose writings provide account of Rome's collapse.- Petrarch and other humanists had a stated goal of writing in "Ciceronian style."

- Use one's own classical education for the public good.- Served as Florence's diplomats, worked in the chancellery office, and studied languages that had been previously lost in western Europe.

- Greek Philosopher who inspired Renaissance writers. - Believed that ideals such as beauty and truth exist beyond the senses' ability to recognize them.- Can train our minds to create ability to reason.

- Mirandola: Oration on the Dignity of Man; believed human potential to be infinite.- Castiglione: The Courtier; coined the term "Renaissance Man," which he defined as one who knew several languages, was familiar with classical literature, and was skilled in critical textual analysis.- Believed languages could tell a history all of their own.

- Leonardo Bruni: Created an educational program for women, leaving out study of rhetoric and public speech. - Women were to not speak out, but to serve as inspiration to men. - Chrisitine de Pisan: Italian who received a Renaissance education. Wrote The City of Ladies, detailing how women must carve out own space.- Laura Cereta: Renaissance writer and feminist.

- Artisans began to be considered important individuals, something untrue in the Middle Ages.- Sought prestige/money by competing for the patronage of secular individuals to glorify their sponsors' achievements.- Middle Ages: Fresco (wet plaster on wood), spiritual message.

- Chiaroscuro: Contrast of light/dark to create 3D images.- Single Point Perspective: All elements within a painting converge at a single point in the distance, crating a more realistic setting.- Classical motifs seen in architecture (symmetrical decorations and classical columns).

- Dome over the Cathedral of Florence, the first dome completed since the collapse of the Roman Empire.