B. The World, 1450–1650 · The World, 1450–1650The Renaissance and Humanism
B3 B1 A1.4 A1.7About 70 minutes
Learning goals- I can explain humanism and why the Renaissance began in Italy.
- I can describe major Renaissance artists, writers and thinkers and their contributions.
- I can explain how Byzantine and Islamic scholarship contributed to the Renaissance.
- I can evaluate whether the Renaissance was a turning point, and for whom.
Words to know
Renaissance
"Rebirth": the revival of classical learning and art in Europe, c. 1350 to 1600.
humanism
A movement that studied classical texts to develop human potential, eloquence and civic virtue.
patron
A person or institution that pays for art or learning.
linear perspective
A drawing system in which parallel lines meet at a vanishing point, creating depth.
vernacular
The everyday language of a region (Italian, English) rather than Latin.
civic humanism
The humanist belief that educated citizens should serve their city or state.
source criticism
Testing a document's authenticity and reliability, as Valla did.
A forgery exposed
For centuries, popes pointed to a document called the Donation of Constantine, in which the Roman emperor Constantine (300s) supposedly handed the western half of his empire to the Pope. Around 1440, an Italian scholar named Lorenzo Valla studied its Latin closely. He showed that it used words and phrases that did not exist in Constantine's time. The document was a forgery, written centuries later.
Valla's method, going back to the original sources and testing them with careful knowledge of language and history, is the heart of humanism, and of the historical thinking you practise in this course.
What was the Renaissance?
Renaissance means "rebirth". It names a movement in European culture, starting in Italy in the 1300s and spreading north in the 1400s and 1500s, that revived the study of ancient Greek and Roman texts, art and ideas.
Humanism was its core. Humanists studied the studia humanitatis: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy. Their motto could be ad fontes, "back to the sources".
- They valued human potential and achievement. Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) praised humans' freedom to shape themselves.
- They believed education should produce active, virtuous citizens and leaders (civic humanism).
- Most were sincere Christians. Humanism was not anti-religious; Christian humanists like Erasmus applied the same methods to the Bible.
Why Italy?
Historians point to several causes:
- Wealthy, competitive city-states (Florence, Venice, Milan, Rome) whose merchants and bankers spent money on art and learning to gain prestige.
- Patronage: families such as the Medici of Florence, bankers to the Pope, commissioned buildings, paintings and libraries. The Church, especially popes in Rome, was the biggest patron of all.
- Visible ruins of ancient Rome all around.
- Contact with the eastern Mediterranean: Greek scholars came to Italy, especially as the Ottomans advanced on Byzantium (1453), bringing manuscripts of Plato and others.
- Knowledge preserved and developed in the Islamic world: many Greek works on philosophy, medicine and mathematics had been translated, studied and expanded by scholars writing in Arabic, such as Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and reached Europe through Spain and Sicily.
Art: new ways of seeing
- Linear perspective: the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (who also built the great dome of Florence Cathedral) worked out how to show depth on a flat surface. Parallel lines in the scene meet at a vanishing point on the horizon.
- Realism and the human body: artists studied anatomy, light and shadow. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 to 1519) filled notebooks with studies of bodies, machines and water. Michelangelo (1475 to 1564) carved the David (1501 to 1504) and painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508 to 1512). Raphael painted the School of Athens, placing ancient philosophers in a Renaissance building.
- Secular subjects (portraits, myths) appeared beside religious ones.
Renaissance art was also a primary source: who paid for it, who is shown, and how, all tell us about the society.
Political thought: Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli, a Florentine official, wrote The Prince in 1513 (published 1532). He described how rulers actually gain and keep power, rather than how an ideal Christian prince should behave. In a famous passage, he argues (paraphrased) that if a ruler cannot be both loved and feared, it is safer to be feared. Many readers were shocked, and "Machiavellian" came to mean cunning and ruthless. Others read him as a realist and a founder of modern political science. He also wrote the Discourses on Livy, praising republics.
The Northern Renaissance
As humanism spread north, often through printed books, it took a more religious turn.
- Erasmus of Rotterdam (died 1536) published a new edition of the Greek New Testament (1516) and mocked corruption in the Church in The Praise of Folly (1511).
- Thomas More imagined an ideal society in Utopia (1516).
- Painters such as Albrecht Dürer (Germany) and Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Low Countries) showed everyday life, peasants and landscapes in detail.
- Literature in vernacular languages flourished: Shakespeare in England and Cervantes (Don Quixote, 1605) in Spain.
Did women have a Renaissance?
In 1977 the historian Joan Kelly asked exactly that, and argued that for many women the answer was no: elite women may have lost some of the freedom they had in medieval courts, and humanist education aimed mainly at men. Others have since found many women who did take part: patrons like Isabella d'Este, painters such as Sofonisba Anguissola (who became a court painter in Spain) and Artemisia Gentileschi, and writers who defended women's abilities. Kelly's question changed the field: historians now ask who experienced a period as progress, not just what changed. This is historical perspective and significance at work.
Worked exampleModelled example: Was the Renaissance a turning point?
To what extent was the Renaissance a sharp break from the Middle Ages?
- Define the claim. A "sharp break" means major, fast change in ideas, art and society.
- Evidence of change: linear perspective and realism in art; humanist education; new attention to classical texts and to source criticism (Valla); new political ideas (Machiavelli).
- Evidence of continuity: most Europeans were peasants whose lives changed little; religion remained central; medieval scholars had already studied Aristotle; much "Renaissance" learning came through medieval monasteries and Islamic scholarship.
- Notice the label. The idea of a dramatic "Renaissance" was popularized by 19th-century historians such as Jacob Burckhardt (1860), who saw it as the birth of the modern individual. Later historians challenged this.
- Judge. Change was real in elite culture, continuity was strong in daily life.
Sample thesis: "The Renaissance was a major turning point in elite art and learning, but not a sharp break for most Europeans, whose work, faith and social position continued much as before."
Just for funMichelangelo did not paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling lying on his back, as movies often show. He stood on a scaffold, bending backward. He even wrote a poem complaining that his neck was bent, his beard pointed to the sky and paint dripped on his face. Every student who has studied hunched over a desk can relate.
Hands-on activityDraw in one-point perspective
You need: paper, a pencil, a ruler and an eraser; about 20 minutes.
- Draw a horizontal horizon line across the middle of the page and put a dot in the centre: the vanishing point.
- Draw a rectangle (the front of a building or a box) anywhere on the page.
- With the ruler, draw light lines from each corner of the rectangle to the vanishing point.
- Decide how deep the box is and draw the back edge parallel to the front edge, between the lines. Erase the extra lines.
- Add a road or hallway whose edges also run to the vanishing point.
- Look at a photo of Raphael's School of Athens or Leonardo's Last Supper and find their vanishing points.
Look for: lines that truly meet at one point, and the realization that this was a mathematical discovery that changed how Europeans pictured the world.
Your turn
1What does "Renaissance" mean, and what did it revive?
"Rebirth": it revived the study of ancient Greek and Roman texts, art and ideas.
2What did Lorenzo Valla prove about the Donation of Constantine?
That it was a forgery, because its Latin used words and phrases not in use in Constantine's time.
3Name three causes of the Renaissance beginning in Italy.
Any three: wealthy city-states; patronage (Medici, popes); Roman ruins; Greek scholars from Byzantium; access to texts preserved in the Islamic world.
4What is linear perspective?
A technique for showing depth on a flat surface: parallel lines meet at a vanishing point on the horizon.
5What was shocking about Machiavelli's The Prince?
It described how rulers actually gain and keep power, even by cruelty or deceit, rather than how an ideal Christian ruler should act.
6Name two figures of the Northern Renaissance and one work each.
Any two: Erasmus (The Praise of Folly, Greek New Testament), Thomas More (Utopia), Dürer (prints and paintings), Bruegel (peasant scenes), Cervantes (Don Quixote), Shakespeare (plays).
More practice: warm-up
1Which Florentine family were famous bankers and patrons?
2Who painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling?
3What Latin phrase means "back to the sources"?
5Who asked "Did women have a Renaissance?" in 1977?
More practice: on your own
1Explain why humanism was not anti-religious.
Most humanists were Christians. They applied the study of original sources to religious texts too; Erasmus published a new Greek New Testament. They added classical learning to faith, not replaced it.
2How did the Islamic world contribute to the Renaissance?
Scholars writing in Arabic had translated, preserved and developed Greek philosophy, medicine and mathematics (e.g., Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sina). These works reached Europe through Spain and Sicily and shaped European learning.
3How does patronage help explain Renaissance art?
Wealthy patrons (Medici, popes, guilds) paid for art to show their wealth, piety and power. Their choices shaped subjects, styles and where art was displayed.
4Why can Renaissance paintings be used as primary sources?
They show what patrons and artists valued, how people dressed and lived, who had status (who is portrayed, and where), and religious and political messages of the time.
5Explain the significance of Joan Kelly's question.
It shifted historians to ask who benefited from the Renaissance; it showed that a "progressive" period for elite men could be different for women, leading to much new research on women's experiences.
Challenge
1Evaluate Burckhardt's idea that the Renaissance gave birth to the modern individual.
Support: self-portraits, biographies, Pico's praise of human freedom, artists signing work and becoming famous. Challenge: medieval people also expressed individuality; the idea reflects 19th-century European pride; it ignores peasants, women and non-Europeans. A balanced answer says it captures elite cultural change but overstates the break.
2Is Machiavelli better seen as a villain or a realist? Use historical perspective.
In context, Italy was divided and invaded by France and Spain in the early 1500s; Machiavelli, a former official, wanted a strong ruler to unify and protect Italy. Read in that context, he is a realist analysing power. But his advice justifies deception and cruelty, which shocked contemporaries. A strong answer explains his context without simply excusing him.
3Write an inquiry question about the Renaissance that uses continuity and change, and outline two pieces of evidence.
Example: How much did the lives of peasants in Tuscany change between 1400 and 1550? Evidence: tax records (the 1427 Florentine catasto) and paintings of rural life; also secondary studies of agriculture. Any well-formed question with fitting evidence is fine.
Quiz
1. What was the central idea of humanism?
2. Which technique made flat paintings look three-dimensional?
3. Why is Lorenzo Valla important to historians?
4. What does The Prince (1513) describe?
5. Which development helped spread humanism to northern Europe in the late 1400s?
6. What did Joan Kelly's 1977 essay challenge?
Big idea: This lesson covers B3 (how ideas, values and artistic production shaped identity, with specific individuals) and B1 (the economic and political setting of Italian city-states). It practises interpreting art as evidence (A1.4) and comparing interpretations (A1.7).
How to help: Look at Renaissance paintings online together and ask: Who paid for this? What message does it send? Try the perspective drawing activity yourself.
Common difficulties: thinking the Renaissance was anti-religious; ignoring Islamic and Byzantine contributions; assuming everyone's life changed.