Sowmya's Blog: Italian Renaissance

Introduction     

 The word "Renaissance" means re-birth. It was a period of time when people rediscovered: Learning and looked back at the culture of Rome and Greece as their inspiration. It was an exciting time of new inventions, amazing discoveries, magnificent buildings and beautiful art. The Italian Renaissance was a time of great artistic productivity, and many of the works created during this period are the pride of world-class museum collections. One of the most famous inventions in this period was the Printing Press which became very popular throughout Europe                                       The renaissance of Italy was possible because of the country's wealth. Towards the end of the 14 century AD, a lot of Italian thinkers declared that they were living in a new age which gave a chance to the people to express their talent. 

   Figure 1 :Map of Italy during the renaissance

What were the main features of the Italian renaissance society?

The Renaissance was marked by a growing secular spirit. Religion was still important, as can be seen by the many churches that were built by Renaissance artisans and by the religious themes of much Renaissance art, but it was no longer the overruling attention that it had been during the middle Ages.

Figure2: "The Last Supper" by Leonardo Da Vinci

During the Middle Ages, individuals were defined by the group to which they belonged. The Renaissance recognised individuals for their own actions. There was also the Reformation where Catholic beliefs were being questioned by the general public. Italy was the centre of Catholicism (as the Pope lived in Italy) and so even the Italians were beginning to question Catholicism as they were not happy about the 'luxuries' associated with the religion. Humanism was also another feature of the Italian Renaissance as a renewed love for the art of Classical Greece and Rome had emerged. This was because sculptures from these times were suddenly being dug up and collected by those in power, particularly the Pope. As people learnt more about art, they build beautiful churches and decorated them with wonderful art that they had known. Italy has one of the best churches of the world this is because of all the artwork that is present on them. One of the famous church in Italy and is the "Santa Maria Della Consolazione" which is located in a small town named Todi. It is a good example of a most beautiful church in Italy. 

Figure 3: "Santa Maria Della Consolazione"

Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in Italy which is painted by Leonardo da Vinci. The woman present in the painting is how woman looked during the Renaissance. After seeing it people had number of doubts but there are 3 most popular questions about the painting, they are:

• Is she pregnant?
• Does she have eye brows?
• Is she happy or sad?, what is her emotion?  

Figure 4 "Mona Lisa" 

Bronze David is one of the most popular sculpture in Italy during the Italian Renaissance. There were actually two bronze David statues created in the 15th century. The most famous one was by Donatello in the 1440s and the other was by Verrocchio which is done later in the 1470s. Verrocchio was the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci. Both works are kept in the Bargello Museum in Florence, Italy. 

Figure 5 " Bronze David" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfPpahRHIHQ : This youtube vedio clip provides the information about The italian Renaissance using a map and what actually happened 

Source: 

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Renaissance

2.http://www.jacplus.com.au/secure/Bookshelf?cb=8168764640577

            

  Figure 1:  Map Of Italy- https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_rn=5&gs_ri=psy-ab&tok=XK1Zuo5XptzZ7gP8HjeW0g&pq=italian+renaissance&cp=8&gs_id=15&xhr=t&q=map+of+italy&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&biw=1366&bih=667&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=kP42UbulL8v5lAWku4GoAg              

Figure 2: Mona Lisa- Wikipedia (information and picture)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa

             

 Santa Maria Della Consolazione-  http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/_Topics/churches/home.html

            

 Bronze David- http://listverse.com/2010/12/14/top-10-greatest-sculptures/