Italian Renaissance
A period of intense artistic and intellectual activity, said to be a 'rebirth' of Greco-Roman culture. From roughly the mid-fourteenth to mid-fifteenth century followed by this movement spreading into the Northern Europe during 1400-1600
Jacob Burckhart
Claimed the Renaissance period was in distinct contrast to the Middle Ages; coined the term "Renaissance
city-states
different sections of land owned by the same country but ruled by different rulers
Signori
despots who controlled much of Italy by 1300.
Oligarchies
the rule of merchant aristocracies-- possessed constitutions but only a small class controlled the functions of government. (rule by a few)
commenda system
Contract between merchant and merchant adventurer who agreed to take goods to distant locations and return with the proceeds for 1/3 of the profit
condotierri
military leaders hired by city-states to engage in warfare for them (called for Mercenary States)
Republic of Florence
A moderately large Italian city that was central to the Italian Renaissance because of its gifted individuals; Dante, Pretrach, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Boticelli and others. The city was ruled by the Medici familly, a fa
Medici family
powerful banking family who ruled Florence in the 1400s; patrons of the arts
Cosimo de Medici
Italian financier and statesman and friend of the papal court (1389-1464); ruled Florence
Lorenzo de Medici (The Magnificent)
Italian statesman and scholar who supported many artists and humanists including Michelangelo and Leonardo and Botticelli (1449-1492)
Duchy of Milan
Ruled by Sforza Family after 1450; Milan was a principal adversary of Venice and Florence until the Peace of Lodi created a relative 40- year period of peace among the Italian city states
Sforza family
Milanese family who, through despotism, came to power in 1450; ruled without constitutional restraints or serious political competition; produced one of Machiavelli's heroes, Ludovico il Moro
Republic of Venice
Longest lasting of the Italian states because it did not succumb to foreign powers unit Napoleon. Also one of the world's great naval and trading powers during the 14th and 15th centuries
Papal States
A group of territories in central Italy ruled by the popes from 754 until 1870. They were originally given to the papacy by Pepin the Short and reached their greatest extent in 1859. The last papal state�the Vatican City�was formally established as a sepa
Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Backwards monarchy; most of Southern Italy & Sicily; fought over between the Aragonese and the French; not very Renaissance-touched
Charles VIII
French king, invited by Ludovico Sforza to invade Florence, fought over Italy with Ferdinand of Aragon in the first Italian war
Girolamo Savonarola
a Dominican friar in Florence who preached against sin and corruption and gained a large following; he expelled the Medici from Florence but was later excommunicated and executed for criticizing the Pope; wanted to overthrow the Medici Dynasty
Machiavelli
Renaissance writer; formerly a politician, wrote The Prince, a work on ethics and government, describing how rulers maintain power by methods that ignore right or wrong; accepted the philosophy that "the end justifies the means.
The Prince
A short political treatise about political power how the ruler should gain, maintain, and increase it. Machiavelli explores the problems of human nature and concludes that human beings are selfish and out to advance their own interests
Cesare Borgia
Son of Pope Alexander VI; the hero of Machiavelli's "The Prince" because he began the work of uniting the peninsula by ruthlessly conquering and exacting total obedience from the principalities making up the Papal States
Sack of Rome, 1527
May 5, 1527 - A military event carried out by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in Rome, then part of the Papal States. It marked a crucial imperial victory in the conflict between Charles I of Spain Holy Roman Emperor, and the League o
Charles V
Holy Roman emperor (1519-1558) and king of Spain as Charles I (1516-1556). He summoned the Diet of Worms (1521) and the Council of Trent (1545-1563).
Humanism
a Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied classical texts and focused on human potential and achievements
Civil humanism
Idea that education should prepare leaders who would be active in civic affairs; if you're smart you should be in politics
Petrarch
Father of Humanism." studied classical Greek and Latin. introduced emotion in "Sonnets to Laura
Bocaccio
Decameron, Italian writer famous for his vernacular prose, in particular the Decameron, which reveals stories of society during the plague
Leonardo Bruni
1. First to use the term "humanism"
2. Among the most important of the civic humanists
3. Served as a chancellor in Florence
4. Wrote a history of Florence, perhaps the first modern
history, and wrote a narrative using primary source
documents and the div
Lorenzo Valla
Elegances of the Latin Language; On the False Donation of Constantine;, An expert on the Latin language, he also exposed the Donation of Constantine (the Church claimed it was granted vast territories by the Roman emperor Constantine) as a fraud. Eventhou
Latin Vulgate
the authorized version of the Bible for the Catholic Church
Marsilio Ficino
Founded the Platonic Academy at the behest of Cosimo de' Medici in the 1460s. Translated Plato's works into Latin, giving modern Europeans access to these works for the fist time.
Pico Della Mirandola
Oration on the Dignity of Man, Oration on the Dignity of Man. Stated that humans were created by God and therefore given tremendous potential for greatness, and even union with God if they desired it.
Baldassare Castiglione
The Book of The Courtier. Described the ideal of a Renaissance man who was well versed in the Greek and Roman classics, and accomplished warrior, could play music, dance, and had a modest but confident personal demeanor. It outlined the qualities of a tru
Virtu
The striving for excellence and being a virtuous person. Humanistic aspect of Renaissance.
Johann Gutenberg
printing press, moveable type, German printer who was the first in Europe to print using movable type and the first to use a press (1400-1468) (Gutenberg Bible)
quattrocento
Italian, literally "four hundred"; it refers to the 1400s� the fifteenth century, especially in reference to Italian art of this time (the late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance).
Giorgio Vasari
Italian painter and art historian (1511-1574); wrote The Lives of the Artists. Massive patronage of the arts came from this and was lead by families like the Medici's and also the churches, who saw art as a means of glorifying God.
cinquecento
the 1500s; the High Renaissance in Rome
Pope Alexander VI
A corrupt Spanish Renaissance pope whose immorality sparked debate about the integrity of the Catholic Church.
perspective
the appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer
chiaroscuro
The treatment of light and shade in a work of art, especially to give an illusion of depth.
stylized faces
medieval faces in art--more stylized and generic
sfumato
Painting technique in which contours are enveloped in a suggestive, smoke-like haze
contrapposto
put all weight on one leg, causes hips to shift and shoulders to counter balance, which sets up potential for natural pose
Greek temple architecture
triangular pediments, Greek columns, Roman arches, domes. Simplicity, symmetry, balance.
Giotto
Florentine painter who gave up the stiff Byzantine style and developed a more naturalistic style
Brunelleschi
Il Duomo, Italian architect celebrated for his work during the Florentine Renaissance. His greatest achievement is the octagonal ribbed dome of the Florence cathedral.
Lorenzo Ghiberti
gates of paradise", winner of the north doors competition for the Baptistery of Florence cited as the beginning of Renaissance Art
Donatello
David, (1386-1466) Sculptor. Probably exerted greatest influence of any Florentine artist before Michelangelo. His statues expressed an appreciation of the incredible variety of human nature.
Masaccio
Expulsion of Adam & Eve, 1401-1428 painter that worked on perspective in his cycle of frescoes in the Brancaci Chapel ("Tribute Money."), used realistic style
Sandro Botticelli
Birth of Venus, Italian painter of mythological and religious paintings (1444-1510)
High Renaissance
The time between 1400 and 1500 when the Renaissance was at its peak. This was when cultural values were formed, artistic and literary achievements occurred, and Renaissance style was largely defined, da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo
Bramante
started St. Peter's Basilica, had a giant circular dome (138 ft. in diameter) greatest building in High Renaissance, architect
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian painter, engineer, musician, and scientist. The most versatile genius of the Renaissance, Leonardo filled notebooks with engineering and scientific observations that were in some cases centuries ahead of their time. As a painter Leonardo is best k
Raphael
(1483-1520) Italian Renaissance painter; he painted frescos, his most famous being The School of Athens.
Michelangelo
An Italian painter, sculptor, and architect of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Among many achievements in a life of nearly ninety years, Michelangelo sculpted the David and several versions of the Piet�, painted the ceiling and rear wall of the Sis
Titian
Greatest Renaissance painter in Venice, used vivid color and movement, which was the opposite of the subtle colors and static figures in Florentine paintings.
Mannerism
Artistic movement against the Renaissance ideals of symetry, balance, and simplicity; went against the perfection the High Renaissance created in art. Used elongated proportions, twisted poese and compression of space.
El Greco
Spanish painter (born in Greece) remembered for his religious works characterized by elongated human forms and dramatic use of color (1541-1614), La Vista de Toledo, El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz, San Martin y el Pordiosero
Northern Renaissance
More concerned with theology and personal morality, Cultural and intellectual movement of northern Europe; began later than Italian Renaissance c. 1450; centered in France, Low Countries, England, and Germany; featured greater emphasis on religion than It
Christian humanism
a movement that developed in Northern Europe during the Renaissance combining classical learning (humanism) with the goal of reforming the Catholic Church
Erasmus
In Praise of Folly, (1466?-1536) Dutch Humanist and friend of Sir Thomas More. Perhaps the most intellectual man in Europe and widely respected. Believed the problems in the Catholic Church could be fixed; did not suport the idea of a Reformation. Wrote P
Thomas More
Utopia, He was a English humanist that contributed to the world today by revealing the complexities of man. He wrote Utopia, a book that represented a revolutionary view of society.
Jacques Lefevre d'Etables
leading French humanist and good example of how Northern Christian humanists focused on early Church writings; produced five versions of the Psalms that challenged a singe authoritative version of the Bible
Francesco Ximenes de Cisneros
(1436-1517) Grand inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. A Spanish humanist who reformed the Spanish clergy and church so that many of the Church abuses that were highlighted during the Reformation did not necessarily apply to Spain. Made Complutensian Po
Francois Rabelais
Gargantua and Pantagruel, A French Humanist (1494-1553.) He was the author of Gargantua (satire), which made fun of the church using giants to represent the church. Instead of true monks there were swimming pools, maids, and no clocks.
Michel de Montaigne
skepticism, essay, Michel de Montaigne is the finest represent of the early modern skepticism. Montaigne developed a new literary genre: the essay. He rejected the claim that one culture may be superior to others and by doing this he inaugurated a new era
William Shakespeare
English poet and dramatist considered one of the greatest English writers (1564-1616)
Miguel de Cervantes
Spanish writer best remembered for 'Don Quixote' which satirizes chivalry and influenced the development of the novel form (1547-1616)
Flemish style
a Northern Renaissance Art, More detail throughout painting, use of oil paints, more emotional that the Italian style, and works often preoccupied with death
Jan van Eyck
Flemish painter who was a founder of the Flemish school of painting and who pioneered modern techniques of oil painting, The Arnolfini Wedding
Bosch
(1450-1516)
A surrealist painter of the Netherlands who focused his works on symbolism, fantasy, confusion, death and the torments of Hell. Most famous work = "Death and the Miser" (1490)
Peter Brueghel, the Elder
not influenced by the Italian R. focused on lives of ordinary people (Peasant Dance, Peasant Wedding), Northern Renaissance painter
Albrecht Durer
Famous Northern Renaissance artist, he often used woodcutting along with Italian Renaissance techniques like proportion, perspective and modeling. (Knight Death, and Devil; Four Apostles), known for engravings and woodcuttings
Hans Holbein the Younger
(1497-1543)
German Painter noted for his portraits and religious paintings, and painted for Erasmus, More, and King Henry VIII.
Famous work = "The Ambassadors" (1533), which portrayed the major themes of the era, including exploration, religious discord,
Fugger family
German Family (esp. Jacob Fugger, 1459-1525) that was significant in patronizing art of the Northern Renaissance. Their fortune was the result of international banking, which was similar to the Medici family in Florence.
Christine de Pisan
(? 1363-1434)
A wealthy woman who chronicled the accomplishments of great women of history. Wrote the Renaissance's woman's survival manual ('The City of Ladies,' 1405), was extremely well-educated in France, and was possibly Europe's first feminist.
Isabella d'Este
First Lady" of the Renaissance; set an example for women to break away from their traditional roles as mere ornaments to their husbands; rule Mantua after her husband died; well-educated; patron of the arts; founded school for young women
Artemesia Gentilleschi
Perhaps the first female artist to gain recognition in the post-Renaissance era. First woman to paint historical and religious scenes