Traveling through History
Catherine the Great/Renaissance
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Catherine the Great
Catherine was born in 1729, her birth name was Sophie Friederike Auguste, she was a minor German princess. When she made a relationship with Duke Peter, they soon got engaged so she had to convert to Roman Orthordox faith. That's how she got her new name;Catherine or Yekaterina. When she was able to be empress, in 1762, she led Russia into the political and culteral life of Europe. Catherine soon became great friends with enlighted [modern] thinkers. She expanded Russia's territory and made them more modern. (From Britannica)
Catherine had twelve lovers and three children, two sons and a daughter. Catherine was mainly remembered for this, she was barely remembered for her accomplishments. She sought power of an Orthordox church, but she thought that the wealth of a church should belong to it's state(from biography.com). She made a school specifically for girls with/from noble families and also made free schools scattered across Russia. She built a theatre for ballet and opera performances, and wrote a few librettos (text of an opera--other long vocals).
She was soon found unconscious on her bathroom floor, people thought that she suffered a stroke. She died on November 17, 1796 never regaining consciousness. Her son Paul, had Catherine and her husband, Peter III, buried next to each other in the Cathedral of St. Peter. (Britannica)
The Renaissance
When the Renaissance first began, artists discovered how to paint in 3-D, shade, and many more things. They made buildings bigger and better. The famous painting 'Mona Lisa' was made during the High Renaissance by Leonardo da Vinci. Men wanted to study the natural world and didnt face value to the teachings in church(from Pbs.org). Galileo Galilei announced that the Earth rotated around the sun, and da Vinci studied human anatomy and found out more about the human body.
Soon Catholic churches were [almost] intolerable. Michelangelo started making sculptures during the High Renaissance, while Raphael made paintings like da Vinci did during this time.
Mannerism(a style of Italian art characterized by unusual effects of scale, lighting, and perspective, and the use of bright, often lurid colors) became a crisis in the 16th century. Some artists did expirements in art, while some Italians went on with life as is nothing was happening. People still argue what the Renaissance really meant and if it happened or not. All we know is that it was a revolution in art, science, religion, etc, and it was a period of genius.