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Renaissance architecture (adapted from the Wikipedia article)

Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence

Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 14th and early 17th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance architecture followed Gothic architecture and was succeeded by Baroque architecture. Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, the Renaissance style quickly spread to other Italian cities. The style was carried to France, Germany, England, Russia and other parts of Europe at different dates and with varying degrees of impact.

Renaissance style places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts, as they are demonstrated in the architecture of classical antiquity and in particular ancient Roman architecture, of which many examples remained. Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicules replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings.

Renaissance architecture in France

Amboise castle

During the early years of the 16th century the French were involved in wars in northern Italy, bringing back to France not just the Renaissance art treasures as their war booty, but also stylistic ideas. In the Loire Valley a wave of building was carried and many Renaissance châteaux appeared at this time, the earliest example being the Château d'Amboise (c.1495) in which Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years. The style became dominant under Francis I (cf. Châteaux of the Loire Valley).

Renaissance architecture in England

Renaissance architecture arrived in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, having first spread through the Low countries where among other features it acquired versions of the Dutch gable, and Flemish strapwork in geometric designs adorning the walls. The new style tended to manifest itself in large square tall houses such as Longleat House.

Queen's House, Greenwich

The first great exponent of Italian Renaissance architecture in England was Inigo Jones (1573–1652), who had studied architecture in Italy where the influence of Palladio was very strong. Jones returned to England full of enthusiasm for the new movement and immediately began to design such buildings as the Queen's House at Greenwich in 1616 and the Banqueting House at Whitehall three years later. These works, with their clean lines, and symmetry were revolutionary in a country still enamoured with mullion windows, crenellations and turrets.

Banqueting House

Renaissance art (adapted from the Wikipedia article)

Many of the most famous and best-loved works of art in the world were created during the time known as the Renaissance. The Renaissance began about 1400 and lasted until about 1600. Italy, and in particular the city of Florence is thought of as the home of Renaissance art.

Many Flemish painters from the area of modern Belgium were also very busy at this time. The style of their pictures, and their use of oil painting influenced the Italian painters.

Important artworks

Competition for the Baptistry Doors

In 1401, a competition was held to find a sculptor to make a huge set of bronze door for the oldest church in Florence. Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello all entered the competition. Ghiberti won. When he finished the first set of doors, he had to make another set. It took fifty years. In that time, dozens of artists helped Ghiberti to make the doors.

Brancacci Chapel

On the walls of this family chapel at the church of the Carmelite Monastery, Massaccio painted pictures which were so realistic that everyone was amazed.

Equestrian statue of Gattamelata

The most famous sculptor of the Early Renaissance was Donatello. His most important job was to make a huge equestrian monument of a soldier (on horseback). The soldier was called by his nickname, Gattamelata, meaning the Smug Cat ("a Cat who is fed on Honey"). Donatello had seen a huge equestrian monument before; there is one in Rome of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Noone had made such a big bronze statue for more than a thousand years. Donatello's statue was a huge success. It still stands outside the Basilica of Saint Antonio, in the city of Padua.

The painting of the Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci did one of the world's most famous paintings, the Last Supper on the wall of the dining room in a monastery in Milan while he was working there for the Duke. It shows Jesus, on the night before he died, sharing a meal with his disciples. It has been reproduced and copied thousands of times.

The Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Michelangelo painted the whole ceiling of the Sistine Chapel over five years. The way that the figures were painted was to influence other artists for hundreds of years.

Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda) is a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo Da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. The work is owned by the French government and hangs in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France with the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman whose expression is often described as enigmatic. The ambiguity of the sitter's expression, the monumentality of the half-figure composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the painting's continuing fascination. Few other works of art have been subject to as much scrutiny, study, mythologizing and parody.

The Renaissance (blog post adapted from a Wikipedia article)

The School of Athens by Raphael

This Renaissance painting shows an imaginary scene from Ancient Greece, with Greek philosophers, writers, artists and mathematicians. Raphael used faces of people from his own time. Leonardo da Vinci was his model for Plato, the philosopher with the white beard in the centre.

Question: What is the title of this painting?

Answer: The School of Athens

The Renaissance is a period in the history of Europe beginning in about 1400, and following the Medieval period.

Question: What was the period before the Renaissance called?

Answer: The Medieval period.

"Renaissance" is a French word meaning "rebirth". The period is called by this name because at that time, people started taking an interest in the learning of ancient times, in particular the learning of Ancient Greece and Rome. The Renaissance was seen as a "rebirth" of that learning. The Renaissance is often said to be the start of the "modern age".

Question: What does the word “Renaissance” mean?

Answer: Rebirth (it is a French word).

During the Renaissance, there were many famous artists, many writers and many philosophers. Many people studied mathematics and different sciences. A person who is clever at a great number of things is sometimes called a "Renaissance man". Leonardo da Vinci, who was a painter, a scientist, a musician and a philosopher, is the most famous Renaissance Man.

Question: Why can Da Vinci be called a “Renaissance man”?

Answer: Because he was very clever (he knew a lot of things) and he lived in the Renaissance period.

The Renaissance started in Italy but soon spread across the whole of Europe. In Italy, the time is divided into three periods:-

·   >the Early Renaissance;

·   >the High Renaissance;

·   >the Late Renaissance which is also called the "Mannerist" period.

Question: Where did the Renaissance start?

Answer: In Italy

Following the Mannerist period was the Baroque period which also spread across Europe from about 1600. Outside Italy, it can be hard to tell where the Renaissance period ends and Baroque begins.

Question: When did the Baroque period start?

Answer: Around 1600

Causes of the Renaissance

 

Printers at work in 1520

Reading and printing

In the Middle Ages (the Medieval period), there were very few books. Most books belonged to churches, or universities, or to the upper class. Books were written by hand. Many were beautiful illuminated manuscripts with hand-painted pictures. They were so expensive that most people could not buy them.

Question: Why were there so few books in the Middles Ages?

Answer: Because they were hand-made and very expensive.

Most books at that time were written in Latin, the language of the Ancient Romans that was used in the Catholic Church. Only priests and well-educated people read Latin then. People were forbidden by law from translating the Bible into Italian, English, German, French, or other "local" languages. Around 1440 the first printed books were made in Europe. The way of printing quickly improved so that large books like the Bible could be made and sold cheaply. It took 300 calf skins or 100 pig skins to print the Bible. The printers then began to print everything that they thought was interesting: Ancient Greek and Roman writings, poetry, plays, lives of the saints, mathematics textbooks, medical textbooks, Christian stories, books about animals and monsters, advice to princes on to how to rule their people, and maps of the world.

Question: When were the first printed books made?

Answer: Around 1400.

Before the invention of the printing press, knowledge belonged to priests, monasteries and universities. Suddenly, many thousands of people, even merchants could learn far more than they ever could before.

Question: Why could more people learn more during the Renaissance period than during the Medieval period?

Answer: Because they could buy books.

The mixture of architecture in Rome

At the back is the huge wall of the ancient sports arena, the Colosseum. Near it is a church tower from about 1100 in the Middle Ages. The white front of the church of St. Francesca is from the 1600s. The columns and broken walls are all from Ancient Roman buildings. The round building to the left is now a church but was an ancient temple.

Ancient Roman remains

The time of Ancient Greece and Rome, when there were many philosophers, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and mathematicians was seen by people as a Golden Age, a time when things were beautiful, well-organised and well-run. This time had lasted from about 400 BC to about 400 AD.

Question: Why was Antiquity described as a “Golden Age”?

Answer: Because it was considered by many as a time when things were much better.

In the year 1400, in the city of Rome, people would wander around looking up at the ruins of a city that had once been great. Inside the broken walls that had been smashed in 410 AD were the remains of huge temples, sports arenas, public baths, apartment blocks and palaces. Nearly all of them were ruined and could not be used. Nearly all of them were half-buried in dirt. A lot of them were pulled down to use as building stone. But they showed people what great things could be done. Among the ruins of this once-great city, the people of Rome lived in cottages. They still went to church in the huge churches (basilicas) built by the first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, in the 4th century. They still held market day in the Ancient Roman market place of Campo dei Fiori ("Field of Flowers").

Question: What is a basilica?

Answer: A huge church.

One day in 1402, into the middle of Rome came a young man called Filippo Brunelleschi and a teenage boy called Donatello. They were fascinated by everything that they saw. They measured ancient ruined buildings, they drew things and they dug around for weeks looking for bits of broken statues and painted pottery that they could stick together. They were probably the world's first archaeologists. By the time they went back home to Florence, they knew more about Ancient Roman architecture and sculpture than anyone had known for about a thousand years. Brunelleschi became a very famous architect and Donatello became a very famous sculptor.

Question: Who were (probably) the world’s first archaeologists?

Answer: Brunelleschi and Donatello

Money and politics

The city of Florence

Apart from the dome at San Lorenzo's in the centre of the picture, this view has not changed very much since the 1400s.

The city of Florence is really where the Renaissance began. In those days, Italy was not one single country. It was lots of little states, all governed in different ways and all fighting or making allies with each other all the time.

Question: Where did the Renaissance begin?

Answer: In Florence.

Rome was politically powerful, because Rome had the Pope, the person in control of the Roman Catholic Church. Because of his very great importance as a spiritual leader, most people and most cities did not want to argue with the Pope, whichever Pope he might be. Because a new pope was elected when the old one died, everyone who was rich and powerful was always hoping it might be a member of their family. It was always a good idea to have several young men in the family trained as priests, just in case. It was also a good idea to be good friends with other rich families. One way to do this was to have lots of daughters and get them to marry rich powerful men from different cities. This was the way that politics worked.

Question: Why was Rome powerful?

Answer: Because the Pope lived there.

Other cities that were powerful were Venice with its great big navy, Milan which controlled trade with Northern Europe and was very rich, Genoa which controlled trade with France and Spain and was very rich, and Florence, where many people say the Renaissance started.

Question: Why was Venice powerful?

Answer: Because it had a big navy.

The power of Florence was not founded on a strong army, on a strong fortress or a good position to control trade. It was founded on banking. The cleverness in business of one single family was very important in making Florence powerful and the centre of Renaissance learning. The family were called the Medici.

Question: What made Florence powerful?

Answer: Banking.

Major events of the Renaissance

In art

The Birth of Venus' by Sandro Botticelli

The rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica began in the Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci's study of the human head

1401, Lorenzo Ghiberti wins the Competition for the Florence Baptistry Doors.

1420s, Masaccio and Masolino paint the Brancacci Chapel, in Florence.

1440s, Donatello makes the statue of Gattamelata on Horseback, Padua.

1470s, Botticelli paints the Birth of Venus, in Florence.

1490s, Leonardo da Vinci paints The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa in Milan.

1508-1512, Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel Ceiling in Rome.

In architecture

1420, building of The Dome of Florence Cathedral begins, to Brunelleschi's design.

1420s, Brunelleschi designs the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence.

1444, Michelozzo designs the Medici-Riccardi Palace for Cosimo de' Medici.

1471, Alberti designs the Church of Sant' Andrea, Mantua.

1506, work begins on the new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

1550, Palladio designs the Villa Rotunda, near Vicenza.

In science and technology

Early 1300s, the first guns.

1423, the first printed books in Europe.

Late 1400s, the quadrant developed to help sailors find their way at sea.

1480s, Leonardo da Vinci studies human anatomy.

1550s, watches made by Peter Henlein of Nuremberg.

1608, the first Telescope is made by Hans Lipershey, in Holland.

1618, William Harvey said that the blood was pumped by the heart.

In thinking

Early 1300s, Petrarch publishes writings based on Classical writers and St. Augustine's writing.

Mid 1400s, the Humanist Academy begun, to discuss Ancient writings and modern ideas, patronised by the Medici family.

1511, Desiderius Erasmus publishes In Praise of Folly in which he showed that a lot of people in the church did not live holy lives.

1532, The Prince by Machiavelli is published, showing that people who wish to have political power often do wicked things to get it.

A Gutenberg printed Bible

Dante painted by Domenico di Michelino, 1465

A map of the world by Abraham Ortelius, 1570

In religion

1382, the Bible first translated from Latin into English by John Wycliffe, beginning a movement for translating it into many European languages.

1454-1455, Johann Gutenberg prints his famous Bible.

1517, Martin Luther nailed The Ninety-Five Theses (ideas for discussion about problems in the church) on the door of Wittenberg Castle. This was an important event in the Reformation.

1534, Henry VIII broke the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church

1545, Pope Paul III called the Council of Trent so that leaders of the Roman Catholic Church could meet and discuss the problems caused to the Catholic Church by the Reformation. This is the beginning of the Counter Reformation.

1559, John Calvin started the Geneva Theological Academy to teach people new (Reformation) ideas about Christian faith.

In writing

Early 1300s, Dante Alighieri writes The Divine Comedy. (Italy)

1348, Giovanni Boccaccio starts writing a collection of stories called The Decameron. (Italy)

1477, William Caxton publishes Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the first important book in the English language, written in the 1300s. (England)

1532 and 1534, Francois Rabelais writes Pantagruel and Gargantua. (France)

1550, Giorgio Vasari publishes "Lives of the Great Architects, Painters and Sculptors of Italy". (Italy)

1590-1612, William Shakespeare writes his 37 plays. (England)

1605 and 1616, Miguel de Cervantes publishes the tale of Don Quixotte, Man of la Mancha. (Spain)

In exploration

1487-1488, Bartholomeu Dias sailed down the coast of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope.

1492, Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies.

1497-1499, Vasco da Gama sailed from Portugal, around Africa to Calicut in India.

1519-1522, Ferdinand Magellan leads an expedition to sail around the world, completed under the command of Juan Sabastian del Cano.

1577-1580, Sir Francis Drake completes the second voyage around the world.