The Renaissance: A Cultural Rebirth in Italy

2. The Dark Ages • The Middle Ages in Europe were known as the Dark Ages as there was a lack of learning and art. • The Middle Ages was the start of discovery and learning. • People believed that the study of Greek and Latin was very important.

3. What was the Renaissance? • People were afraid to question their religion or the world around them as it could be seen as heresy. • Heresy was a belief that was opposite to the beliefs of the church. • Heresy was punishable by death.

4. The Renaissance began in Italy The word Rennaisancemeans re-birth. It was a revolution in culture and art It began in Italy because Italy was the centre of the old Roman Empire. Italians were a proud people and they wanted to repeat the achievements of the Romans. The Italians were well educated and they could read Latin.

5. Trade • Italy traded with many countries: Eastern Europe, Arabia, India and China. Traders brought back silk, spices and ceramics • Traders also brought back new ideas including arithmetic. They learned to calculate profit and loss using numbers. • They also used their knowledge of maths for architecture and engineering.

6. Art and Sculpture • Paintings and sculpture became more realistic due to detailed studies of the human body. • Paintings and nature scenes were popular. • Perspective was used to create depth or distance in paintings. • Nature scene by Vernet • Can be seen in Art Gallery , Adelaide, Australia

7. Wealth • The Italians became wealthy through trading with other countries. • Bankers, traders and even the Pope hired artists to paint portraits, sculpt and decorate churches. Observe the portrait what do you notice? Pieta by Michelangelo

8. Styles of Art • Paintings were colourful and artists did fresco paintings on damp plasterwork. Example of fresco painting • Sfumatoan art technique using light and shade. It was used to show expression on faces. • Leonardo da Vinci used this technique in the Mona Lisa

9. Architecture • Many new buildings were designed. • Architectural details such as columns, porches and domes were included. • Dome DomeDOme ColumnsDOme Porche

10. Writing • Before the renaissance all books were written by hand. • They took a long time to produce and because of this very books were scarce and very expensive. • In 1440 Johannes Guttenberg from Germany developed the printing press. • This meant that more books could be produced and they were cheaper.

11. Printing Press Single letters were arranged into words. They were held in place in the wooden form. Ink was rolled over the letters and the inked letters were pressed against a sheet of paper. • The first book printed was the bible. It had 1,300 pages and took 4 years to print.

12. Renaissance Writers • Renaissance writers wrote poems, plays and stories in their own language instead of Latin. • The most famous English writer of this time was William Shakespeare • Printers could make books faster, this meant that knowledge could be spread more widely, and more people learned how to read. William Shakespeare

13. Science • During the Middle Ages the church believed that the earth was the centre of the universe and that all other planets revolved around it. • A Polish priest named Nicholas Copernicus wrote a book on his theory that the earth orbited the sun. He did not publish this book until shortly before his death as he was afraid of being punished.

14. Galileo was a scientist from Pisa. He invented the telescope to study the night sky. • Galileo discovered that the moon’s surface is uneven and that Saturn has rings around it. • By 1600 the Renaissance had spread all over Europe and people began to question ancient beliefs in the areas of science and religion.

15. Medicine • The Renaissance saw an improvement in medical knowledge. • Scientists made discoveries in anatomy(structure of the body) and physiology (how the body works). • Many people rejected the new ideas. • Doctors still did not develop better cures for their patients, because they had still not discovered that germs caused disease. Public dissection of body

16. Thermometer The Thermometer was invented by Galileo. Changes in temperature could now be measured. In 1714, Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury Thermometer which is still in use today. Thermometers measure temperature, by using materials that change in some way when they are heated or cooled.