The Renaissance

• Renaissance meant rebirth
• The Renaissance was a time of huge developments in art, science and education
• The Renaissance began in Italy because 1) Influence: intelligent scholars were forced to move to Italy, 2) Wealth: wealthy patrons and merchants, 3) Ideas: Italian merchants travelled and brought new ideas from all over, 4) Competition: city states would compete with one another, 5) Ruins: they had beautiful architecture and artists wanted to make art that improved those in Ancient Rome
• The difference between medieval art and renaissance art was that renaissance art was more realistic, they were no longer solely about religion, they used oil paints instead of water colours and they used perspective
• Leonardo De Vinci was the first to use sfumato which added shading or blurring to paintings
• Perspective was adding depth to a painting
• Some artists studied anatomy to understand the human body and it’s parts
• A patron was someone who sponsored or paid an artist to complete a piece of work
• Leonardo De Vinci painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper
• Leonardo De Vinci studied anatomy but also invented the tank, parachute and the helicopter
• Michelangelo created La Piete and statue of David, as well as painting the roof of the Sistine chapel
• Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450
• The printing press was important because it allowed for the spread of ideas and information, and more people became literate
• William Shakespeare was important because he invented new words/phrases, he spread education and wrote brilliant plays
• Galileo invented a telescope that could magnify up to 30 times, he proved that the sun was the centre of our universe, and published a book
• Impact of the renaissance: 1) Improvements in science and medicine, as well as art and writing, 2) invention of printing press, 3) people began to explore the planet, 4) led to split of Christian church