Contextualization
The Renaissance was a rebirth of culture, arts, and thought that occurred on the Italian peninsula starting in the late 15th century. It later spread to Northern Europe.
Key Contextual Ideas
Question: Why does the Renaissance begin in Italy?
Question: What philosophical changes occurred during the Renaissance?
Question: How was the Renaissance expressed in art and literature?
Renaissance writers and artists were often supported by wealthy individuals known as patrons.
Patrons usually saw support of the arts as a means of achieving social status within the community.
Ideas like secularism, individualism, idealism and naturalism are present in a number or works.
Examples include....
Key Contextual Ideas
- The European Middle Ages were a time of cultural and social stagnation.
- The stagnation was caused by a fracturing in society due to feudalism and a breakdown of trade.
- Society was organized by the Great Chain of Being, a concept that ranked everything into a cosmic hierarchy.
- Changes in the late Middle Ages such as a revival of trade and a breakdown of religious authority would eventually lead to the Italian Renaissance.
Question: Why does the Renaissance begin in Italy?
- The Italian City-States (Milan, Venice, Florence, and Rome)
- The city-states began the breakdown of the feudal system and engaged in trade with each other and the greater Mediterranean world.
- 1450: Italy vs. Western Europe
- Italy - Urban, Merchant class dominant, Modern commercial infrastructure, Free republicanism, Little feudalism
- Western Europe - Rural, Landed class dominant, Medieval commercial infrastructure, Monarchies, Lots of feudalism
Question: What philosophical changes occurred during the Renaissance?
- Humanism - Renaissance thinkers began to view humans as individuals based on the teachings of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
- Three types of Humanism
- Academic humanism - based on the philosophy of Plato called Neoplatonism
- Civic humanism - the moral, social and political philosophy. A well rounded individual who participates in the political life of the republic.
- Christian humanism - based on the study of Hebrew and Greek accounts of the bible, meant to refocus faith on the teachings of Jesus.
Question: How was the Renaissance expressed in art and literature?
Renaissance writers and artists were often supported by wealthy individuals known as patrons.
Patrons usually saw support of the arts as a means of achieving social status within the community.
Ideas like secularism, individualism, idealism and naturalism are present in a number or works.
Examples include....
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