History
What was the Renaissance?
Quick answer
The Renaissance was a period of new interest in art, science and learning that began in Italy in the 1300s and spread across Europe. The word means "rebirth".
In one sentence
The Renaissance was a time of great change in Europe, when artists, writers and scientists looked again at the world and at the learning of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Explained
Renaissance is the French word for "rebirth". It started in Italy in the 1300s and lasted until about 1600. After the Middle Ages, people grew more interested in the ideas of ancient Greece and Rome, in the human being and in the real world. This way of thinking is called humanism.
palette
paintbrush
book
Cities such as Florence, Venice and Rome were rich from trade, and powerful families, such as the Medici of Florence, paid artists and scholars. These supporters are called patrons.
Artists made lifelike paintings and sculptures. They studied anatomy, light and shadow, and discovered how to show depth with linear perspective, as explained in perspective drawing. Famous names include:
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452 to 1519), painter of the Mona Lisa, who also designed machines and studied the human body.
- Michelangelo (1475 to 1564), who carved the statue of David and painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
- Raphael (1483 to 1520), known for harmonious paintings of people.
Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg in Germany developed a printing press with movable metal type. Books became cheaper and faster to make, and ideas spread across Europe. In science, Nicolaus Copernicus suggested that Earth goes round the Sun (1543), and Galileo used a telescope to study the sky in 1609 and 1610. In England, William Shakespeare wrote plays at the end of the 1500s. Explorers sailed across the oceans too.
The Renaissance did not begin on a particular day, and its changes did not touch everybody equally. Most people were still farmers. But its art and ideas shaped later science and learning, leading towards the Industrial Revolution.
Examples
| Person | Known for |
|---|---|
| Leonardo da Vinci | Mona Lisa, inventions, notebooks |
| Michelangelo | David, the Sistine Chapel |
| Galileo | telescope, studying the planets |
| Gutenberg | printing press with movable type |
| Shakespeare | plays and poems |
Common mistakes
- "Everyone was an artist." It was a time of change for a small group of people first.
- "The Middle Ages had no art." They had a lot, but with different styles.
- "It happened everywhere at once." It began in Italy and spread slowly.
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The Renaissance
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Related topics
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages, or medieval period, lasted roughly from 500 to 1500 CE in Europe. It was the time of kings, knights, castles, cathedrals, monasteries and village farming.
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Perspective drawing is a way to make a flat picture look three-dimensional. Things that are farther away look smaller, and parallel lines seem to meet at a vanishing point on the horizon.
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