Petrarch

(1304-1374)

• "Father of Humanism"
• Letters to the Ancient Dead, Africa (an epic poem), Lives of Illustrious Men
• Most famous for his love sonnets to Laura
• Classical and Christian values are present in his works

Boccaccio

(1313-1375)

• Student and friend of Petrarch
• Decameron- stinging social commentary about men and women hiding out from the plague.
• Assembled an encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology

Dante

(1265-1321)

• Vita Nuova & Divine Comedy- form the cornerstone of Italian vernacular literature

Humanism

• the scholarly study of the Latin and Greek classics and of the ancient church founders
• advocated studia humanitatis, a liberal arts program
• first humanists were oraters and poets

Renaissance Art Advancements

• concerned with the observation of the natural world and human emotions
• chiaroscuro- shading
• linear perspective- adjusting the size of figures to give a feeling of continuity
• symmetry and proportionality

Leonardo Da Vinci

(1452-1519)

• exhibited Renaissance ideals more than any other person
• advocated scientific experimentation, dissected corpses, and was a botanist
• Mona Lisa- shows his skill in conveying inner moods through complex facial expressions

Raphael

(1483-1520)

• most famous for his madonnas
• praised for his fresco The School of Athens, which depicts Plato and Aristotle surrounded by the great philosophers of antiquity

Michelangelo

(1475-1564)

• glorification of the human form, symmetry, proportion, and harmony
• most famous for frescoes for the Sistine Chapel

Giotto

(1266-1336)

• father of Renassiance painting
• painted a more natural world than his predecessors, although it was still religous

Donatello

(1386-1466)

• famous for his depiction of David standing on the head of Goliath.
• It is the earliest free standing nude made in the West since Roman times

Machiavelli

(1469-1527)

• a humanist
• had strong republic ideals and wanted the republic in Italy to survive
• The Prince (1513)- advised rulers how to behave (both a lion and a fox) in order to obtain a unified Italy

The Printing Press

• Johann Gutenberg
• allowed for books to be produced rapidly
• literacy deeply affected people everywhere, as it was a sign of status and authority
• allowed humanists to voney their ideals to laypeople and clerics alike

Erasmus

(1466?-1536)

• the most famous of the northern humanists
• Colloquies- a collection of Latin dialogues intended to teach his students how to speak and live well, but elaborated to be satires on popluar religious supersition as well.
• Adages- collection of ancient and contemporary proverbs
• aspired to unite classical ideals of humanity and civic virtue with Christian ideals
• produced a Greek version of the New Testament
• Books were placed on the Index of Forbidden books

Thomas More

(1478-1535)

• the best known English humanist
• Utopia (1516)- depicts an imaginary society in which all property and goods are shared and people earns their food by doing work.
• Henry VIII's best dimplomat, but executed after he refused to recognize Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn.

Henry the Navigator

• rounded the Cape of Good Hope, opening the Portugese Empire in the East

• reached the coast of India and brought back a huge amount of goods

• began a period of rapid conquest in 1428, and included all of central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest
• 1519 Cortes landed in Mexico and his forces defeated the Aztecs, claiming Mexico as New Spain

• Conquered by Pizarro, but effective royal control was not established until the late 1560's

required adult male Indians to devote a certain number of days of labor anually to Spanish economic enterprises

• was often very harsh, and many did not survive