By: Nathan Hopkins
What was the Renaissance? | When and where did the Renaissance begin?
Influences of the Renaissance | Art and Architecture | Music | Literature | Math and Science
How the Renaissance affects us. | Works Cited
The Renaissance was a period when the ideas and ways of the Greeks and Romans were very popular. Renaissance means rebirth, referring to people taking an interest in the things that the Greeks and Romans did. During the Renaissance many people made their art and architecture look like that of the Greeks and Romans.
When and where did the Renaissance begin?
The Renaissance began around 1300. It started mainly in Italy but then spread to the rest of Europe.
The most influential people during the Renaissance were scholars because they came up with new ideas like humanism and inventions like paper and the printing press. Artists were influential because many people bought their works which depicted scenes of Greek looking gods in Italy and daily life scenes in the North. Kings were important because they were rich and funded explorers who then brought back new trade items.
An influential artist was Leonardo da Vinci who was a great artist as well as an inventor, mapmaker, and engineer. He used perspective in all of his works. He was born and raised in Vinci, Italy around 1452. I chose Leonardo because he has many recognizable works and is in my opinion one of the greatest thinkers ever.
Guillaume Dufay was born in 1397 and was a Franco-Flemish composer in the early renaissance. Dufay was called one of the most influential artist in the 15th century and his music was copied and sung everywhere where polyphony had become the popular form of music. I chose Dufay because his music was very influential.
Dante was born in 1265 and was an Italian poet from Florence. His most famous work is The Divine Comedy. He died in 1321. I chose Dante because I like his name and because we had studied him, his work, and where he was from in class.
Scipione del Ferro was born in 1465 in Bologna and was an Italian
Mathematician. He first discovered how to solve cubic equations. He also contributed to the rationalization of fractions. I chose Ferro because he has made many discoveries that influence us today.
How the Renaissance affects us.
The event of Marco Polo going to China made many new goods like silk and coal known to people in Europe and they were then eventually brought to America a long time later.
The discovery of perspective made the paintings that we see today in museums much more interesting and life-like.
The decision to study not only religion but the humanisms too has affected us to because we now learn the humanisms as well as religion too.
Many of the advancements made in the Renaissance affect the things we do like people now paint with perspective and Leonardo’s drawings of a helicopter have become a reality.
Burnstein, Stanley. World History Medieval to Early Modern Times. Student Edition. Orlando: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 2006.
"Renaissance." Wikipedia. 25 Apr 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance#Science>.
"Dante Alighieri." Wikipedia. 25 Apr 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri>.
"Renaissance Music." Wikipedia. 25 Apr 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_music>.
Longo, Marty. "Renaissance Music." Serra Catholic School, CA.