Renaissance

The Renaissance

Period: Jan 1, 1300 to Dec 31, 1600

Giovanni Boccaccio

Sep 13, 1313

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer. He was the illegitimate son on a merchant. He was launched on a commercial career, yet he pursued the study of canon law. He is best known for "Decameron", a series of realistic stories. During the plague in Florence, the stories were told by young people waiting in a country villa. It depicted both the tragic and comic parts of life.

Black Plague

Oct 5, 1347

The Bubonic Plague was brought to Europe by 12 Genovese trading ships. The majority of the sailors were dead, while the living were gravely ill. Their bodies were covered with black boils which coined the name "The Black Death". The plague killed over 20 million people in Europe, almost one-third of the population. It is rumored to have been caused by infected flees on rats aboard the ships, but there are many other theories.

Donatello

Nov 5, 1386

Donatello was the greatest Florentine sculptor of his age. In his early years, he worked in Rome with Brunelleschi studying the city. The lessons they learned developed Italian art. He brought back the Greco-Roman style. All his sculptures were realistic and could be viewed from various perspectives. He was acclaimed for his "David" which was the first free-standing human sculpture of the Renaissance.

Johann Gutenberg

May 6, 1398

Johann Gutenberg was a printer and publisher who introduced the movable type printing to Europe. He made it possible to produce books quickly and cheaply. His printing press enabled a printer to produce hundreds of copies of a single work. Initially, it produced mainly religious works, but soon began to provide travel guides and medical manuals. His innovation fed the growing of the Renaissannce. A major work, the Gutenberg Bible, has been celebrated for its high visual and technical quality.

Cosmo de Medici

Sep 26, 1434

The Medici family were not the rulers of Florence. They simply had enormous amounts of money and they made people understand that they did. Comso de Medici rose to power in 1434. Florence became the center for art. The Medici family fully supported arts and thus the Renaissance was set into full swing.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Apr 15, 1452

When people think of a "Renaissance man", most people think of Leonardo da Vinci.Da Vinci was intelligent, scientific, a painter, an architect, an inventor, and a sculptor. Two of Da Vanci's very famous art works would be Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Leonardo Da Vinci owned a sketchbook in which he drew many of his ideas. His inventions were all very sketched with full detail. Examples would include the blueprints for a helicopter and an armored tank-type vehicle.

Desiderius Erasmus

Oct 28, 1466

Desiderius Erasmus was a classical scholar of his time. Nicknamed "the Prince of Humanists", he furthered the influence of humanism throughout the Renaissance. He felt that if humans were created with free will, they may have personal independance and individual expression aswell. His teachings speard throughout Europe causing alot of reformation. Desiderius Erasmus opposed the death penalty despite his assertions on free will. He wrote, "It is better to cure a sick man than to kill him."

Machiavelli

May 3, 1469

By the age of 29, Machiavello was in the political service of Florence. He became an important man, and was assigned diplomatic missions. He met very powerful people through these missions. After 1512, Machiavelli's politcal career began to plummet. He was accused of conspiracy by the Medici family. Machiavelli was imprisoned, tortured, and exiled temporarily. Cesare Borgia's political treatise "The Prince" featured Machivelli as the title character. "The Prince" was written in 1532.

Albrecht Dürer

May 21, 1471

Albrecht Dürer was regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance. He established his reputation in his twenties built on numerous religious works, portraits, and etchings. His name spread throughout Europe and he was in communication with most of the major artists. Some of his most celebrated paintings and "Adam and Eve" and "Adoration of the Trinity." His "woodcut of a Rhinoceros" remains one of the best-known images today.

Michelangelo

Mar 3, 1475

Michelangelo grew up in Florence as the son of a government administrator. He became an artist's apprentice at age 15. The artist that made Michelangelo his apprentice was Lorenzo de' Medici. Michelangelo waas the student of sculptor Bertoldo di Gioivanni while he lived at the Medici palace. Michelangelo sculpted the Pieta in 1498 which was one of his most important early works. In 1504 he sculpted David; it was 17 feet long. One his most known works is on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.(1508

Sir Thomas More

Feb 7, 1478

Thomas More tried to model a better society. His book, "Utopia", depicts an imaginary land where greed, corruption, and war have been expunged. He supported humanism and tried to convert the king through his works. The king, however, was steadfast. When he refused to attend the coronation of the Queen, it was seen as treason. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by execution.

Baldassare Castiglione

Dec 7, 1478

Baldassare Castiglione was a famous author of the Renaissance. At age sixteen, he began his humanist studies. Humanism played significant roles in the themes of his books. The year prior to his death, he wrote "The Book of the Courtier". It was approved by hundreds of thousands of people and became his most successful book.

Raphael

Apr 6, 1483

Raphael is also one of the well known artists that were in the period of the Renaissance. Raphael acheived the task of making paintings more realistic. He studied the paintings of Da Vinci and Michelangelo and worked on the techniquesof perspective and realism. Raphael soon became the Pope's favorite painter. Raphael's greatest and most well known painting was School of Athens. That painting incorporated many famous figures from the Renaissance period.

Northern Renaissance

Feb 5, 1490

Ideas from the Renaissance began to spread through Europe. Different parts of Europe experienced their own Renaissance. The reason for the spread was the merchants. The merchants came to Florence and experienced it. They spread the ideas from Italy all around. Examples include France and England. England had literature, and France was known for architecture.

Shakespeare

Apr 23, 1564

In Shakespeare's time, he was THE writer of all writers. He still is today. Many people admire his writing and some of his writings have been made into movies with a modern twist. One of Shakespeare's most famous works was Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare was part of the Northern Renaissance in England. England was known for it's literature, and Shakespeare played a key factor in that.