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 

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