Ch8: Renaissance

• Causes of the Renaissance:

  • Ruins of the Roman Empire: Italy was the centre of the Roman Empire
  • Wealth from trade: Italy was in the middle of the Mediterranean
  • Patrons: churches paid artists to glorify the buildings
  • Fall of Constantinople in 1453 led to Greek scholars fleeing to Italy with their ideas of the ancient world
• Renaissance art


  • Used 'sfumato - smudging lines + colours to add a smoky effect
  • Used perspective - the illusion of depth, making objects appear far/close
  • Used anatomy - the study of the human body - made portraits realistic
• Movable printing press


  Individual metal letters (on a frame), dipped in ink and pressed against paper
• Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

  • Born in Florence to and was an apprentice to Ghirlandaio
  • Invited to study sculpturing with patron Lorenzo de Medici
  • Sculpted the Pieta
  • Returned to Florence, won a sculpting competition, making the statue of David (David v. Goliath)
  • In 1508, he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He laid on scaffolding & the fresco contains 300+ characters from the Old Testament.
  • Behind the altar, he painted the Last Judgment
  • Spent the rest of his life in Rome as a poet + architect
  • Died in 1564
  • His body was smuggled & buried in Florence