Italy: Birthplace of the Renaissance

    Today in class we started our new unit on the Renaissance and Reformation. My notes are below.


Italy's Advantages

  • Renaissance-rebirth (learning and culture)
City States
  • Cities were the center of action 
  • Milan + Florence- wealthy merchants and bankers 
  • Artists in these cities were inspired by Rome and Greece
Merchants and the Medici 
  • Merchants dominated politics
  • The Medici were a powerful banking family
  • Paid artists/writers/musicians to create beautiful works of art
  • They were patrons- financed artistic endeavors
A Super Patron: Isabella d'Este 
  • Wealthy
  • Sponsored painters, sculptors, musicians, writers, architects 
  • Patron of da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Bellini, Correggio, and many others
Evolving Values- humanism 
  • a deep interest in what people have already achieved, as well as what they are capable of achieving in the future
  • It is not a coincidence that humanism resembles arete (Greek idea)
-Classical (ancient Greece + Roman) writings were more important to them
-worldly (secular) values were essential
-Christian values still important, but separate from secular values

"Renaissance Man/Woman"
  • Someone who could master many fields of work
  • Renaissance woman: Isabella d'Este
  • Ultimate Renaissance Man: Leonardo da Vinci 
    • Painter
    • Scientist 
    • Inventor 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Constantine and Christianity

    Today in class we continued to talk about Christianity and we touched on Constantine. Some of my notes are below: Conversion of Constantine (AD 312) Roman emperor Constantine has a vision before the Battle at Milivian Bridge he sees an image in the sky of a cross and the words Ev ToUTw Nika ("In this sign, conquer") Orders troops to put a cross on shields they win Edict of Milan in AD 313 Christianity becomes a religion which is recognized/approved by the emperor it continues to gain strength By 380, it becomes the empire's official religion Chi-Rho: first two letters of "Christ" in Greek  Decline of the Roman Empire While Christianity strengthened, Rome weakened  Military: too week to defend huge area Economy: taxes too high; widening gap between rich and poor; trade disrupted Social: Who cares about public affairs?; disloyalty; population decreases Political: division of the empire (Constantine moved the capital to Byzantium)
Read more

Questions

    Today in class we worked on questions from the textbook. The questions include:  What is the significance of the following terms Renaissance: period from 1300 to 1600 when art, creativity, and writing were "rebirthed' Humanism: focused on human potential (arete) secular: Renaissance power was worldy patron: financially supported artist, wealthy became important perspective: art became more popular b/c the use of perspective drawing which shows 3D vernacular: a native language, started trends in writing that modern writers follow to this day   Qualities of a Renaissance man include mastering every area of studying including writing and art. Also, he should be charming, witty, well- educated, dancer, singer, musician poetry writer, skilled writer, wrestler and swordsmen Qualities of a Renaissance woman include knowing the classics, being charming, inspiring art, and some were skilled in politics.  How did Italy's cities help to make it a birthplace o
Read more

Non-Test Day

    Today in class we were supposed to take our Renaissance and Reformation test. Our class, however, voted to not take it. A lot of kids did not want to take a chance in hurting their grade, including me, It has taken me a very long time to get my grade up, so anything I can do to keep it where it is or get it higher I will do. I was a little uncomfortable with being tested on the i formations since we only took 2 days to talk about it and we crammed so much of the reformation in to one day. We "took" the test, but it didn't count. I didn't know a lot of the answers on the test because we never talked about them. I don't know when we would have, so if the test counted, I would have gotten those answers wrong and gotten a bad grade. The test was all on the reformation too, which I thought was weird because then we would have wasted time on the Renaissance when we could have learned about the Reformation in a larger amount of time and then we could have taken the t
Read more