RENAISSANCE FIGURES
done by:Madhu K
DaVinci
Leonardo helped set an ignorant and superstitious world on a course of reason.
A small catalog of his innovative designs include:
Flying machines, parachutes, submarines, underwater rebreathing devices, self floatation/ocean rescue devices, swimming fins, pumping mechanisms, water turbines, dredging systems, steam calorimeters, water-well drill, swing bridges, canals, leveling/surveying instruments, cranes, pulley systems, street-lighting systems, convection roasting spit, mechanical saw, treadle-operated lathe, compasses, contact lenses, and military weapons.
Some famous scientific accomplishments include:
Proposing the earth rotates around the sun, proposing that the moon's light is reflected sunlight, correctly explaining why sea shells are sometimes found miles inland on mountain tops, and creating the first textbook of human anatomy.
Donatello
Copernicus
Machiavelli
Humanism
Secular
Secularism, any movement in society directed away from otherworldliness to life on earth. In the European Middle Ages there was a strong tendency for religious persons to despise human affairs and to meditate on God and the afterlife. As a reaction to this medieval tendency, secularism, at the time of the Renaissance, exhibited itself in the development of humanism, when people began to show more interest in human cultural achievements and the possibilities of their fulfillment in this world. The movement toward secularism has been in progress during the entire course of modern history and has often been viewed as being anti-Christian and antireligious. In the latter half of the 20th century, however, some theologians began advocating secular Christianity. They suggested that Christianity should not be concerned only with the sacred and the otherworldly, but that people should find in the world the opportunity to promote Christian values. These theologians maintain that the real meaning of the message of Jesus can be discovered and fulfilled in the everyday affairs of secular urban living.
the medici family
Michelangelo
Michelangelo was without doubt one of the most inspirational and talented artists in modern history. One of the leading lights of the Italian Renaissance, his extraordinary talents emerged in early works such as the Pieta for the Vatican, and the statue of David commissioned for the city of Florence. His paintings and frescoes were largely taken from mythological and classical sources works. He manage to combine his high level of technical competence and his rich artistic imagination to produce the perfect High-Renaissance blend of aesthetic harmony and anatomical accuracy in his works.
Appreciation of Michelangelo's artistic mastery has endured for centuries, and his name has become synonymous with the best of the Italian Renaissance. Along with a small band of contemporaries, he was responsible for sixteen-century Florence becoming the center of a movement of artists that has permanently enriched western culture.
Shakespeare
- Shakespeare updated the simplistic, two-dimensional writing style of pre-renaissance drama. He focused on creating “human” characters with psychologically complexity. Hamlet is perhaps the most famous example of this.
- The upheaval in the accepted social hierarchy allowed Shakespeare to explore the humanity of every character regardless of their social position. Even monarchs are given human emotions and are capable of making mistakes.
- Shakespeare utilized his knowledge of Greek and Roman classics when writing his plays. Before the renaissance, these texts had been suppressed by the Catholic Church.
raphael
At the age of 25 he found a patron, Pope Julius II, and was given the task of decorating rooms in the pope's private apartments. The Stanza also known as the Raphael rooms, are located on the upper floor of the Vatican palace. The rooms already contained works by Piero Della Francesca, Perugino and Luca Signorelli, but the Pope decided that these works would have to be sacrificed to accommodate the young artist's frescoes.