Ryan Cope

Italian Renaissance
The renaissance and the age of exploration was beneficial to the society. This
time period brought a lot of new art to the world. The art was Humanism, the study of
classics, or works of Greece and Rome (Spielvogel 2010: 406). The renaissance was
said to be started by Petrarch, also known as the father of Italian Renaissance,
(Spielvogel 2010: 406).
One form of art that came out of this was vernacular literature (Spielvogel 2010:
407). Vernacular is the language spoken in a certain region, such as Italian (Spielvogel
2010: 407). A known piece called Divine Comedy was written by the Italian author, Dante
(Spielvogel 2010: 407). Another author known for this time was Geoffry Chaucer (Spielvogel
2010: 407). He wrote The Canterbury Tales, which was about the journey to the tomb of
Thomas a Becket (Spielvogel 2010: 407). This next author is actually a Frenchwoman by
the name of Christine de Pizan (Spielvogel 2010: 408). She was most known for The Book
of the City of Ladies, in which she denounced some male writers that argued that women
are unable to learn (Spielvogel 2010: 408). All of these well-known books were written
during the renaissance and they help make it beneficial.
Another beneficial form of art was the paintings, sculptures, and architecture. One
sculptor, Im sure youve heard of him from the Ninja Turtles, is Donatello (Spielvogel 2010:
409). Donatello studied Greek and Roman artists, and his sculptures includes a freestanding statue of Saint George (Spielvogel 2010: 409). Michelangelo was another wellknown architect, sculptor, and painter (Spielvogel 2010: 410). He was the one to point the
figure with perfect proportions on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (Spielvogel 2010: 410).
Probably the most famous of them all is Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo went as far as

dissecting humans to make his realistic paintings as good as they could be (Spielvogel
2010: 410). He was known for his painting of the Mona Lisa, everyone knows about her!
Last but not least we have Raphael, known for his paintings of the Virgin Mary (Spielvogel
2010: 410). He used fresco, a painting done on fresh, wet plaster with water-based paints
(Spielvogel 2010: 409).
When you say renaissance some people think, the Italian Renaissance. Thats not
the only part though, there is also the Northern Artistic Renaissance. This was composed of
northern European artists (Spielvogel 2010: 411). Most artists went to the northern school of
art in Flanders, one of the Low Countries (Spielvogel 2010: 411). One of those artists was
Jan van Eyck, he perfected the oil paintings (Spielvogel 2010: 411). One of his best pieces
was Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride, which was striking realism (Spielvogel 2010: 411).
Another piece of art from this time was the famous Adoration of the Magi, this was painted
by Albrecht Durer (Spielvogel 2010: 411). Durer made trips to Italy to be influenced by the
art there (Spielvogel 2010: 411). So there is the Italian Renaissance, a rebirth in Italy, and
there is the Northern Artistic Renaissance (Spielvogel 2010: 398). All the new art that lasted
all these years is definitely beneficial to us and to them in that period. After all, it was the big
rebirth after the Black Death.