Today In Class...

Today in class, we learned about the Renaissance. Here are my notes:

- Florence, Rome- 1450
- Humanist philosophy- with its focus on the human rather than the divine, and on the virtues of physical and mental self-perfection, encouraged this approach to art
- Religious topics were covered in paintings and sculptures
- They introduced mathematical perspective to their works
- Middle class of merchants and bankers, the arts found new sources of support
- It brought in a periods of explosive growth of knowledge in literature, painting, architecture, science, and mathematics
- Renaissance means "rebirth"
- Started in Italy for three main reasons
○ There were several important trade cities
○ Cities gas bankers and merchant class
○ Artists were inspired by heritage of classical Rome
- Humanism- an interest in secular (worldly) things rather than religious/ spiritual art
- Humanists focused on human potential and achievements (individuality)
- Spirit of the Renaissance was concerned with the here and now, not the hereafter
- Patrons- wealthy clients who pay to support artists and their creations
○ Example: the Medici family, a powerful banking and trading family, supported artists: paying for portraits, donating public art
- Leonardo Divinci
○ Born in 1452 in Vinci, Italy
○ He was a bastard child
○ He wasn’t able to learn literature or anything
○ "The First Modern Mind"
○ He wrote left handed and backwards
○ He was obsessed with everything
○ He left behind 6,000 pages of notes about making something for humans to fly
- Michelangelo