Renaissance and Reformation

151 flashcards by MentisLibrary

Three centuries in which Europe rediscovered the classics, invented printing, split its church and started measuring the sky. From the Medici and Michelangelo to Luther, Calvin, Trent and the first stirrings of modern science.

What is an indulgence?
A remission of temporal punishment due for sin, granted by the Church, which by the early sixteenth century was often obtained in exchange for a monetary donation
What was the Republic of Venice built on?
Long-distance trade, a large merchant fleet and a tightly controlled oligarchic constitution
What is fresco painting?
Painting with pigment onto fresh wet lime plaster so the color bonds into the wall as it dries
Why is Giotto important in the history of painting?
He gave figures weight, emotion and a sense of real space in fresco cycles such as the Arena Chapel in Padua, breaking from flat Byzantine convention
Who is often called the father of humanism?
Francesco Petrarca, known in English as Petrarch, who hunted down classical manuscripts and wrote Italian sonnets to Laura
Who wrote The Divine Comedy, and in what language?
Dante Alighieri, who wrote it in the Tuscan vernacular rather than Latin
What did Petrarch do with old manuscripts?
Hunted them down in monastic libraries and recovered lost letters of Cicero
How did the Black Death help produce the Renaissance?
It killed so many that surviving workers earned more and inherited wealth concentrated in fewer hands
What does the word 'Renaissance' mean, and what was being reborn?
It means 'rebirth' in French, and it referred to the revival of the learning, art and literature of classical Greece and Rome
Why did the Renaissance begin in the Italian city-states rather than elsewhere in Europe?
Italian cities such as Florence, Venice, Milan and Genoa grew rich on long distance trade and banking, were largely self governing, and sat among visible Roman ruins
What is patronage, and why did it matter to Renaissance art?
Patronage was the financial support of artists by wealthy individuals, families, guilds, city governments and the Church, usually through a contract for a specific work
What is Renaissance humanism?
A scholarly and educational movement centered on the study of classical texts in grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy, with an emphasis on human potential and civic life
What is Boccaccio's Decameron?
A collection of one hundred prose tales told by ten young people who have fled Florence during the plague
Who were the condottieri?
Mercenary captains who fought the wars of the Italian city-states under contract
Who was Donatello?
A Florentine sculptor whose works include a bronze David and the equestrian monument known as the Gattamelata
What technical advance is associated with Jan van Eyck?
The refined use of oil paint in layered glazes, allowing minute detail and deep luminous color
What was the Medici Bank?
The largest bank in fifteenth-century Europe, with branches across the continent and the papal account
Why did Greek study revive in Italy?
Byzantine scholars, notably Chrysoloras, came west to teach it
What was the 1401 baptistery competition?
A contest for the Florence baptistery doors, won by Ghiberti over Brunelleschi
Who was Lorenzo Valla and what did he prove?
An Italian humanist who used linguistic analysis to show that the Donation of Constantine, a document claiming imperial grants to the papacy, was a forgery
What is contrapposto?
A pose with the weight on one leg so the hips and shoulders tilt in opposition
Who demonstrated linear perspective and who wrote it down?
Filippo Brunelleschi demonstrated it with painted panels, and Leon Battista Alberti set out the rules in his treatise On Painting
What was Brunelleschi's greatest engineering achievement?
The dome of Florence Cathedral, built without conventional full centering by using a double shell and a herringbone brick pattern
Why does Masaccio matter?
He put solid, weighty figures in convincing space with a single light source
Which family dominated Florence and became the most famous patrons of the Renaissance?
The Medici, who built their power on banking and controlled Florence for much of the 15th and 16th centuries
What did Alberti write?
On Painting, which set out perspective for artists, and a treatise on architecture
Who was Lorenzo de' Medici, called 'the Magnificent'?
The Florentine statesman and patron who led the city from 1469 to 1492 and supported artists including the young Michelangelo
What does the Latin phrase 'ad fontes' mean in humanist scholarship?
'To the sources', the principle that scholars should read ancient and biblical texts in their original languages rather than through later commentary
What is civic humanism?
The Florentine idea that the educated person should use classical learning in active service to the republic rather than withdraw into contemplation
What is linear perspective?
A geometric method of representing depth in which parallel lines converge on a vanishing point and objects shrink at a calculable rate