RENAISSANCE PERIOD
Lecturer : Imelda M. Simorangkir, S.S., [Link].
R7A, Group 1𝑠𝑡
Name of the members:
1. Vya Puspa Armadanti 201612500011
2. Berta Maria S. X. Panggabean 201612500048
3. Maya Ursula S. 201612500056
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF INDRAPRASTA PGRI
2019
Renaissance Period
1. The History of Renaissance Period
The Renaissance was a fervent period of European cultural, artistic, political and economic
“rebirth” following the Middle Ages. Generally described as taking place from the 14th
century to the 17th century, the Renaissance promoted the rediscovery of classical
philosophy, literature and art. Some of the greatest thinkers, authors, statesmen, scientists and
artists in human history thrived during this era, while global exploration opened up new lands
and cultures to European commerce. The Renaissance is credited with bridging the gap
between the Middle Ages and modern-day civilization.
From Darkness to Light : The Renaissance Begins
During the Middle Ages, a period that took place between the fall of ancient Rome in 476
A.D. and the beginning of the 14th century, Europeans made few advances in science and art.
Also known as the “Dark Ages,” the era is often branded as a time of war, ignorance, famine
and pandemics such as the Black Death.
Some historians, however, believe that such grim depictions of the Middle Ages were greatly
exaggerated, though many agree that there was relatively little regard for ancient Greek and
Roman philosophies and learning at the time.
Humanism
During the 14th century, a cultural movement called humanism began to gain momentum in
Italy. Among its many principles, humanism promoted the idea that man was the center of his
own universe, and people should embrace human achievements in education, classical arts,
literature and science.
In 1450, the invention of the Gutenberg printing press allowed for improved communication
throughout Europe and for ideas to spread more quickly.
As a result of this advance in communication, little-known texts from early humanist authors
such as those by Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio, which promoted the renewal of
traditional Greek and Roman culture and values, were printed and distributed to the masses.
Additionally, many scholars believe advances in international finance and trade impacted
culture in Europe and set the stage for the Renaissance.
Medici Family
The Renaissance started in Florence, Italy, a place with a rich cultural history where wealthy
citizens could afford to support budding artists.
Members of the powerful Medici family, which ruled Florence for more than 60 years, were
famous backers of the movement.
Great Italian writers, artists, politicians and others declared that they were participating in an
intellectual and artistic revolution that would be much different from what they experienced
during the Dark Ages.
The movement first expanded to other Italian city-states, such as Venice, Milan, Bologna,
Ferrara and Rome. Then, during the 15th century, Renaissance ideas spread from Italy to
France and then throughout western and northern Europe.
Although other European countries experienced their Renaissance later than Italy, the impacts
were still revolutionary.
Renaissance Geniuses
Some of the most famous and groundbreaking Renaissance intellectuals, artists, scientists and
writers include the likes of:
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519): Italian painter, architect, inventor, and “Renaissance man”
responsible for painting “The Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper.
Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536): Scholar from Holland who defined the humanist
movement in Northern Europe. Translator of the New Testament into Greek.
Rene Descartes (1596–1650): French philosopher and mathematician regarded as the father
of modern philosophy. Famous for stating, “I think; therefore I am.”
Galieo (1564-1642): Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer whose pioneering work with
telescopes enabled him to describes the moons of Jupiter and rings of Saturn. Placed under
house arrest for his views of a heliocentric universe.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543): Mathematician and astronomer who made first modern
scientific argument for the concept of a heliocentric solar system.
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679): English philosopher and author of “Leviathan.”
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400): English poet and author of “The Canterbury Tales.”
Giotto (1266-1337): Italian painter and architect whose more realistic depictions of human
emotions influenced generations of artists. Best known for his frescoes in the Scrovegni
Chapel in Padua.
Dante (1265–1321): Italian philosopher, poet, writer and political thinker who authored “The
Divine Comedy.”
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527): Italian diplomat and philosopher famous for writing “The
Prince” and “The Discourses on Livy.”
Titian (1488–1576): Italian painter celebrated for his portraits of Pope Paul III and Charles I
and his later religious and mythical paintings like “Venus and Adonis” and
"Metamorphoses."
William Tyndale (1494–1536): English biblical translator, humanist and scholar burned at the
stake for translating the Bible into English.
William Byrd (1539/40–1623): English composer known for his development of the English
madrigal and his religious organ music.
John Milton (1608–1674): English poet and historian who wrote the epic poem “Paradise
Lost.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616): England’s “national poet” and the most famous
playwright of all time, celebrated for his sonnets and plays like “Romeo and Juliet.”
Donatello (1386–1466): Italian sculptor celebrated for lifelike sculptures like “David,”
commissioned by the Medici family.
Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510): Italian painter of “Birth of Venus.”
Raphael (1483–1520): Italian painter who learned from da Vinci and Michelangelo. Best
known for his paintings of the Madonna and “The School of Athens.”
Michelangelo (1483–1520): Italian sculptor, painter, and architect who carved “David” and
painted The Sistine Chapel in Rome.
Renaissance Art, Architecture and Science
Art, architecture and science were closely linked during the Renaissance. In fact, it was a
unique time when these fields of study fused together seamlessly.
For instance, artists like da Vinci incorporated scientific principles, such as anatomy into
their work, so they could recreate the human body with extraordinary precision.
Architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi studied mathematics to accurately engineer and
design immense buildings with expansive domes.
Scientific discoveries led to major shifts in thinking: Galileo and Descartes presented a new
view of astrology and mathematics, while Copernicus proposed that the Sun, not the Earth,
was the center of the solar system.
Renaissance art was characterized by realism and naturalism. Artists strived to depict people
and objects in a true-to-life way.
They used techniques, such as perspective, shadows and light to add depth to their work.
Emotion was another quality that artists tried to infuse into their pieces.
Some of the most famous artistic works that were produced during the Renaissance include:
The Mona Lisa (Da Vinci)
The Last Supper (Da Vinci)
Statue of David (Michelangelo)
The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)
The Creation of Adam (Michelangelo)
Renaissance Exploration
While many artists and thinkers used their talents to express new ideas, some Europeans took
to the seas to learn more about the world around them. In a period known as the Age of
Discovery, several important explorations were made.
Voyagers launched expeditions to travel the entire globe. They discovered new shipping
routes to the Americas, India and the Far East, and explorers trekked across areas that weren’t
fully mapped.
Famous journeys were taken by Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo
Vespucci (after whom America is named), Marco Polo, Ponce de Leon, Vasco Núñez de
Balboa, Hernando De Soto and other explorers.
Renaissance Religion
Humanism encouraged Europeans to question the role of the Roman Catholic church during
the Renaissance.
As more people learned how to read, write and interpret ideas, they began to closely examine
and critique religion as they knew it. Also, the printing press allowed for texts, including the
Bible, to be easily reproduced and widely read by the people, themselves, for the first time.
In the 16th century, Martin Luther, a German monk, led the Protestant Reformation – a
revolutionary movement that caused a split in the Catholic church. Luther questioned many
of the practices of the church and whether they aligned with the teachings of the Bible.
As a result, a new form of Christianity, known as Protestantism, was created.
End of the Renaissance
Scholars believe the demise of the Renaissance was the result of several compounding
factors.
By the end of the 15th century, numerous wars had plagued the Italian peninsula. Spanish,
French and German invaders battling for Italian territories caused disruption and instability in
the region.
Also, changing trade routes led to a period of economic decline and limited the amount of
money that wealthy contributors could spend on the arts.
Later, in a movement known as the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic church censored
artists and writers in response to the Protestant Reformation. Many Renaissance thinkers
feared being too bold, which stifled creativity.
Furthermore, in 1545, the Council of Trent established the Roman Inquisition, which made
humanism and any views that challenged the Catholic church an act of heresy punishable by
death.
By the early 17th century, the Renaissance movement had died out, giving way to the Age
of Enlightenment.
2. Renaissance Drama SDGs : descent work and economic growth
During the Renaissance, the European economy grew dramatically, particularly in the area of
trade. Developments such as population growth, improvements in banking, expanding trade
routes, and new manufacturing systems led to an overall increase in commercial activity.
Feudalism, which had been widespread in the Middle Ages, gradually disappeared, and early
forms of capitalism emerged. The changes affected many aspects of European society,
forcing people to adapt to different kinds of work and new ways of doing business with
others.
Agriculture. Medieval Europe was overwhelmingly rural, and its economy depended almost
entirely on agriculture. Towns and cities did not become significant centers of production
until the late Middle Ages, but after that time their economic importance increased rapidly.
During the Middle Ages most peasants were serfs, individuals tied by law to the land they
worked. By the late 1400s, however, serfdom was declining throughout Europe and peasants
were freer to move about and to rent farms for themselves. At about this time peasants in
many parts of Europe faced a shortage of open land. Most of the best fields were already
being farmed. Moreover, high prices for wool encouraged nobles to enclose pastures for
herding sheep, denying the peasants access to the land. As a result, thousands of peasants
moved to urban areas looking for jobs, and cities and towns swelled in size.
As populations grew, the demand for food rose. Meanwhile, the new freedom of peasants
meant that landowners had to pay more for their labor. These developments made goods
more expensive and produced inflation—a general increase in prices—across Europe. The
combination of rising prices and a growth in the number of people needing goods and
services encouraged merchants to expand their businesses.
The European Economy. Renaissance Europe had a very diverse economy, in which many
different goods were produced by various regions. Over time, some parts of the continent
grew economically, while others declined.
In the 1300s and 1400s Italy dominated European trade and manufacturing. Merchants in
Florence, Milan, and Venice developed large business organizations to carry on their
activities across Europe. They manufactured, sold, or traded a wide variety of products. They
also provided banking services for governments and other merchants in many areas of
Europe.
Some cities specialized in particular areas of trade and manufacturing. Florence was known
for the production of woolen cloth and silk. Milan produced metal goods, such as armor.
Venice dominated Mediterranean trade. Venetian merchants bought spices and other goods
from Arab and Ottoman* traders in eastern Mediterranean ports and shipped the goods to
buyers in Italy and northern Europe.
In the early 1500s mining became an important economic activity in southern Germany. The
silver, copper, tin, and iron produced by the mines were used to make various metal items,
including silver coins. Funding from merchants and bankers in the cities of Nürnberg and
Augsburg helped mine operators introduce new techniques and increase productivity.
However, after 1550 the flow of silver from Spanish mines in the New World made silver
mining in Germany unprofitable.
Overseas exploration contributed to the rapid development of Spanish and Portuguese trade
in the 1500s. Spain brought silver from the Americas, and Portugal imported slaves, sugar,
and other goods from Africa. The Portuguese also began to trade with Asia, breaking the
Venetian monopoly* on goods such as spices, which were highly prized in Europe. However,
Spain and Portugal did not profit as much as they should have from their overseas trade. They
both borrowed heavily from banks in Italy and Germany to finance their voyages. Moreover,
the two countries shipped much of the silver, spices, and other overseas goods to northern
Europe. Merchants in northern ports such as Antwerp profited as much as—or more than—
the Spanish and Portuguese from the overseas trade.
After the 1550s the center of Europe's manufacturing, trade, and banking moved from Italy
and the Mediterranean to northern Europe, especially the Netherlands and England.
Amsterdam and London became major centers of commerce, in part because of the increased
importance of transatlantic trade routes. Italy remained a leader in the production of luxury
goods such as works of art and fine silk cloth, but the balance had shifted.
Manufacturing. A number of changes in the organization of manufacturing and trade
occurred during the Renaissance, especially in the 1500s. Major guilds*, such as those for the
production of woolen cloth, changed character. Owners and investors dominated the guilds,
making all the decisions. Investors had considerable political power, which they used to
advance their interests, sometimes at the expense of the workers. Moreover, some laborers,
such as many wool workers, were not even members of the guild, but they depended on the
owners for their jobs.
During the Renaissance the European economy experienced a mix of crises and
opportunities. Nevertheless, people showed remarkable skill in adapting to change. If one
promising trade route failed, merchants developed others. If one industry declined, another
took its place. When Venice lost its leading role in the Asian spice trade, it became a center
for printing. In 1500 Venice printed more books than any other city. Yet, in the 1570s,
printing declined in Venice, and Paris became the printing capital of Europe, continuing the
process of growth and change in the Renaissance economy.
Banking. Much of the increase in commercial activity during the Renaissance occurred in the
area of international trade. This led the banking industry to expand to provide financial
services that made it easier for merchants to conduct business far from home.
In the Middle Ages merchants had developed long-distance trade routes to bring their
customers exotic goods from faraway lands. During the Renaissance merchants made use of
their knowledge of international markets and trade goods to expand their operations. Some of
these merchants became important bankers. They began making loans, transferring funds to
different locations, and exchanging various forms of money. As the need for financial
services increased, banks emerged as important institutions. Two of Europe's most prominent
banks were run by the Medici of Florence and the Fugger family of Augsburg in Germany.
Banks lent entrepreneurs the money to buy materials and equipment, to hire workers, and to
pay for transporting goods. Without these funds, few people would have been able to develop
large-scale trading enterprises. Banks also simplified the handling of money by introducing
bills of exchange, notes that allowed merchants to borrow or deposit money in one city, then
repay or withdraw money in another city. Merchants could then transfer money over long
distances without the risk and inconvenience of carrying coins.
Trade Routes and Trading Centers. Political developments and overseas exploration had a
profound effect on European trade. At the beginning of the Renaissance, the Mediterranean
Sea was the main arena of international trade. Venice dominated commerce in the region
because of its powerful merchant fleet and strategic location. The Venetians controlled the
flow of luxury goods and spices between Asia and Europe
In the early 1400s the Ottoman Empire expanded westward, and Venice lost vital bases in the
eastern Mediterranean. Then in the late 1400s the Portuguese discovered a sea route to Asia
by sailing around Africa. This broke the Italians' monopoly over the profitable spice trade.
Spain, France, England, and the Netherlands soon followed Portugal in opening up overseas
markets in Asia. In the 1500s, merchants began to develop trade routes across the Atlantic
Ocean to supply colonies being settled in the Americas. This contributed to the decline of
Venice, Genoa, and other Mediterranean ports.
During the Middle Ages, much trading in Europe had taken place at regional fairs, such as
those held in the Netherlands and the Champagne region of France. By the Renaissance many
of the fairs had disappeared and some of those that survived had begun to specialize in
particular goods or services. For example, the fair in Lyon, France, concentrated on
international money exchange. Meanwhile, many Renaissance cities became centers of trade
and banking, reducing the need for fairs as a place to buy and sell goods. In the Netherlands,
local fairs declined when Antwerp emerged as a commercial hub.
Trade Goods. A wide variety of goods were traded in Europe, with each country known for
certain products. Although Italy suffered a general decline in trade after 1500, it was still the
main source for fine arts and crafts such as painting, woodcarving, sculpture, silver and gold
objects, glasswork, and silk. The Spanish prospered during the 1400s from trade in crafts
such as leather processing and metalworking. Spain also produced olive oil, wine, fruit, and
grain. However, Spanish agriculture, which depended on the labor of the Moors*, suffered
heavily when the Moors were expelled from the country in 1492.
England exported raw wool and competed with the Netherlands in the market for woolen
cloth. France sold grain and linen cloth to England and Spain, and wine and fruit to England,
the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The Netherlands, famous for its cloth products, developed
an important banking industry during the late 1500s and 1600s.
Transfer of Power
Between 1550 and 1650 northern Europe replaced Italy as the center of the continent's
economic activity. The growth of the cities of Amsterdam and London during this period
reflects that change. In 1500 Amsterdam, under Spanish rule, had some 11,000 residents.
After expelling the Spanish 78 years later, the city's economy and population both grew
rapidly. Amsterdam had 50,000 residents in 1600 and a population of 150,000 by 1650. It
became one of the most important commercial centers in northern Europe. London
experienced similarly explosive growth. A city of 100,000 in 1500, London doubled in size
by 1600 and doubled again by 1650. By that date it had 400,000 inhabitants and was the
largest city in western Europe.
