Italian Renaissance

We are starting a new unit in art class about the Italian Renaissance, my art teacher is really excited to start this unit!  She says its some of the best art to have ever been created, I hope that I have the same enthusiasm about it:)

Last Wednesday, we watched 2 videos about the renaissance era, one about the early time, when it first began, and one when it was in it's prime.  We took lots of notes and were asked to answer a few questions and dive into the meaning of art behind this era!

The topic of this unit is very broad, so it gives me lots to work with, I will be expanding on a few of the questions we were asked to consider, and just basically be talking about development of art.

The Renaissance occurred after the dark times in Italian history, (the plague/the black death), so basically everyone was thriving with life and talent.  This was an awesome time for artists!

According to my research, the Renaissance is considered to have started in about 1350-1400's, in Florence, Italy. (The end of the Middle Ages) 

The major change that happened in the renaissance era was in the basic way people thought about things. This was a change from the previous years (middle ages) because in the middle ages people had a mind set that life was supposed to be hard, they were raised thinking that all they had to look forward to in life was hard work and war. 

Luckily, in the early 1300's people in Florence, Italy began to think about life in a whole new and exciting way!  The people of Florence studied the writings and works of the Greeks and the Romans and realized that the way they were living was not the only way, the earlier civilizations had lived much differently. 

The way of thinking that the people of Florence brought up was called Humanism. 

Many people called Francesco Petrarch the "Father of Humanism".  They called him this because he was a scholar and a poet who lived in Florence in the 1300s, right around the time the Renaissance began, also, he studied poets and philosophers from Ancient Rome such as Cicero and Virgil. Petrarch's ideas and poetry became an inspiration to many writers and poets throughout all of Europe as the Renaissance spread, throughout Italy.

Francesco Petrarch

Because of humanism, people were beginning to think that that life was more than just hard work and war, and that it could actually be enjoyable and they could have many comforts. 

They believed that it was important for people to be educated, and that it was necessary to study things like art, music, and science, and that this alone could make life better for everyone. 

Giotto was a painter in Florence. Giotto was actually the first known  painter to break away from the usual style painting of the Middle Ages and try something new. 

Giotto painted objects and people as they actually looked in nature. Before Giotto, many artist had only painted abstract paintings that didn't really look real. Giotto is said to have been one of the founding fathers of the Renaissance in the 'art department' with his new style of realistic painting. 

A few of Giotto's Painting's

When the Renaissance began, Italy was divided into many powerful cities/states.  Each city/state had its own government. One of the major states was Florence. The government that ran Florence was a republic. Which worked out well for the state of Florence because this meant that the citizens elected their own leaders, the were not chosen according to who had the most power. 

This also benefited Florence because they had a greater decision in what they wanted to do with their future, instead of being pushed into what was done in the past.

As the 1300's continued, Florence had become a rich flourishing city, housing wealthy merchants and businessmen that had the money to hire artisans and craftspeople.

This change inspired competitions among artists and thinkers, which further developed the Renaissance.  Art truly began to flourish and new thoughts began to emerge out of the people in Italy. 

The Medici Family was also a very powerful aspect to be considered in Florence during the Renaissance.

The Medici family came into power in Florence in the 1400's. They were a family of wealthy bankers and helped the art aspect of the renaissance along by sponsoring many artists, AND using their personal funds to further the humanist movement.  Thanks to them, the Renaissance got alot further along!

Medici Family Tree

There were other major contributors to the Renaissance aswell, for example. another major contributor was Dante Alighieri. Dante lived in Florence and wrote the 'Devine Comedy' in the early 1300s. The book that Dante wrote is considered by some to have been the greatest literary work ever written in the Italian language. 

The Renaissance era spread very quickly.  This new way of thinking (humanism) and style of art spread to many other wealthy Italian city/states such as Rome, Venice, and Milan, and these are just a few, there were so many more!  Italy became a wealthy, rich country through trade and their new ideas soon spread throughout all of Europe!

**I am planning on making another post later on in the week about actual art pieces in the Renaissance era!**