Chapter 13 Section 1 Flashcards
Humanism
An intellectual movement at the heart of the Renaissance that focused on education and the classics.
Renaissance
Meaning “rebirth,” the Renaissance marked the transition from medieval times to the early modern world. Beginning in the 1300s and reaching its peak around 1500, this was a time of creativity and great change in many areas - political, social, economic, and cultural.
Humanities
The study of subjects such as grammar, rhetoric (the study of using language effectively), poetry, and history, that were taught in Ancient Greece and Rome.
Francesco Petrarch
A Florentine who lived in the 1300s. He was an early Renaissance humanist, poet, and scholar. He assembled a library of Greek and Roman manuscripts in monasteries and churches.
Florence
A city in the Tuscany region of northern Italy that was the center of the Italian Renaissance.
Patron
A person who provides financial support for the arts.
Perspective
An artistic technique used to give paintings and drawings a three-dimensional effect.
Leonardo da Vinci
An artist who had an endless curiosity that fed a genius for invention. Although he thought of himself as an artist, his talents and accomplishments ranged over many areas, including botany, anatomy, optics, music, architecture, and engineering.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
An artist like Leonardo, he had many talents - he was a sculptor, engineer, painter, architect, and poet. He created marble masterpieces such as David and the Pieta in his twenties. One of his greatest projects was painting a series of huge murals to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His most famous design as an architect was for the dome of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.
Raphael
He was admired for his artistic talent. He studied the works of the great masters but developed his own style of painting that blended Christian and classical styles.
Baldassare Castiglione
Author of The Book of the Courtier, which was the most widely read guidebook to help ambitious men and women who wanted to achieve success in the Renaissance world. He describes the manners, skills, learning, and virtues that a member of the court should have.
Niccolo Machiavelli
He wrote a guide for rulers on how to gain and maintain power. He stressed that the end justifies the means and he urged rulers to use whatever methods were necessary to achieve their goals.
The Prince
Written by Machiavelli, this book was a guide for rulers on how to gain and maintain power. This work continues to spark debate because it raises important ethical questions about the nature of government and the use of power.
The Medici
A family of Florence, ranked among the richest merchants and bankers in Europe. Their great wealth and influence transformed Florence and it came to symbolize the energy and brilliance of the Italian Renaissance.
“Social Art”
Architect Leon Alberti described architecture as this. It was meant to blend beauty with utility and improvements of society.
