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The renaissance of Florence
The renaissance of Florence
Research paper on florence italy
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Europe’s historical development was brought to life by two dominant states of the renaissance. Florence and Venice, being the powerhouses, speedup the renaissance and developed along the way. Florence being the main hub of influence in the europe(Italy), during the renaissance along with Venice. Florence could be characterized as a financial central , with their banking system which was considered extraordinary at the time. Also, their focus of wool making, being the main producer of wool making gave them a chance to do trade. Venice was considered a biggest center of trade, being one of the coastal cities. It had access to Adriatic sea, which helped trades with Eastern world. Venice was known for their ship building as well. Two different …show more content…
Venetians on the other hand controlled most of the trade and shipping in the northern Italy. The Medici family ran Florence’s banking and international finance; they were an influentional family in the Renaissance Italy. The Medici family was well accomplished and famous for their banking systems, especially the double entry system. This system was introduced by Giovanni Bicci de Medici. This system made it easy to record credits and debits for the person writing them, while registering money flow, money going in and money going out. The system was also helpful for the merchants since if allowed them to use this to record credits rather than carrying coins and do the trade. The Medici bank was known internationally due the trade and fund transferring; it allowed the Medici bank be the dominant bank in Italy and Europe. Florentines accounting techniques supplied the coating in the Florentine economy. The Medici banking system began the era of credit in economy. Florentines also had strong currency which gave an upper hand to them over other cities. The Florentine gold coinage was considered standard in Europe. The Medici bank branches present in all major cities of Italy, also Avignon, London, Geneva and most importantly …show more content…
Venetian merchants had an advantage they were granted special privilege to trade by the Byzantine Empire. Venice in the renaissance was greatest trading power in the world. The trading connected Europe to the eastern world. The trading products consisted of animal skin, salt and minerals, sugar, wax, wool, metal, spices, drugs, precious metals like gold and silver. Venice received luxury goods from the east and raw material was sent to east form northern Europe. Trade and banking went hand in hand. The branches of Medici Bank were present in Venice and all the other big cities in the renaissance time. The currency and the banking systems by the Medici Bank supported the expansion of trade. Through the system, accounts were structured around the two traders which were helpful and handy for the traders. The level of convenience was a root cause of booming trades between the traders. Banking caused the expansion of trading while trade created a new division of banking. ( TAKE ABOUT THE
Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Italy on March 6th 1475. His family was politically prominent as his family had large land property. His father was a banker and was looking to his son to engage in his businesses. As a young boy, he has ambitions of becoming a sculptor, but his father was very discouraging of this. He wanted his son to live up to the family name and take up his father’s businesses. Michelangelo became friends with Francesco Granacci, who introduced him to Domenico Ghirlandio(biography.com). Michelangelo and his father got into a series of arguments until eventually they arranged for him to study under Ghirlandaio at the age of thirteen. Ghirlandaio watched Michelangelo work and recognized his talent for the art and recommended him into an apprenticeship for the Medici family palace studio after only one year of at the workshop. The Medici’s were very rich from making the finest cloths. Lorenzo, which was one of the most famous of the family had a soft side for art and is credited for helping the Italian Renaissance become a time of illustrious art and sculpting. At ...
Whenever we think of witches, we think of shriveled up ladies who wear pointy hats with a big black drape over her. But in England, in the Renaissance era, that is not always how they were distinguished out among the crowd. Many citizens were put on trial and even killed if they were accused of being witches. Many times, these people were falsely accused and therefore murdered wrongfully. Witchcraft was a problem starting around the mid-1400’s and influenced many writers such as Shakespeare, and although it is not a big problem in today’s society, looking back at how this affected the renaissance era in England is something that had a huge impact on their society.
The Renaissance, the time period in European history following the Middle Ages, was a period of cultural and artistic renewal that began in Florence, Italy and spread across Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It was a revival of education, science, art, literature, and music. However, the Renaissance era is mostly famous for its art, which includes some of the most iconic and beautiful pieces of all time. The Renaissance was filled with incredible artists, with Michelangelo being remembered as one of the most famous artists of the period.
The early Renaissance art in Florence focused on an elaborate, Gothic style of painting; very formal and traditional, yet there was always something that seemed to be lacking. Perspective and depth were two very important qualities in painting, yet up until the time of young Masaccio, (born Tommaso Guidi), paintings were beautiful, but seemed to just be art that hung on the wall. In Masaccio’s work, “rather than recede in space, the figures seem to come forward” (Cole 120). He may not have known it at the time, but his style of painting would influence many painters well after his death; Donatello, Michelangelo, and so on. Masaccio may have only painted for a total of 8 years, but during those 8 years he revolutionized not only the time of the Renaissance, but also the way painting could be created by the artist, and seen by its viewers. Through the use of linear perspective and astronomical instruments, he was able to create amazing works that defied the limits of the human eye, and allowed a painting to possess realistic depth. Through his skills, Masaccio was able to move away from the Gothic and elaborate style of the time, and his paintings reflect the first use of perspective in order to create a sense of a realistic, three dimensional world.
The Renaissance, which began in Italy in the 1300s, was one of the largest periods of growth and development in Western Europe. Navigation was no longer limited to traveling about by land. Large fleets of ships were constructed, and great navigational schools, the best founded by Prince Henry the Navigator in Portugal, were founded. People were no longer tied to the lands they lived on, as they were in medieval times. They were freer to learn new skills and travel. These enabled people to go further than they had before. Fleets of ships were sent to the Eastern world to bring back treasures and valuable spices. Routes to Asia were traveled beginning in the early Renaissance.
...Christian banner so far from home, given the contemporary conditions of transport and communication, was impressive.”(Encarta, “Crusades”). The most important effect of the Crusades was economic. The Italian cities prospered from the transport of Crusaders and replaced Byzantines and Muslims as merchant-traders in the Mediterranean. Trade passed through Italian hands to Western Europe with a tremendous profit. This power became the basis of economics in the Italian Renaissance. It also made powers such as the Atlantic like Spain and Portugal to seek trade through India and China. “Their efforts, through such explorers as Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, helped to open most of the world to European trade dominance and colonization and to shift the center of commercial activity from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.”(Encarta, “Crusades”).
Venice Italy is best known today for its culture and romantic canals. With the exotic way the city was construction and the backdrop of the ever-changing light caused by the waters of the canals, it has been romantically portrayed in many paintings, plays, movies, songs and operas. The once city state was a major trading empire. Located on the north end of the Adriatic Sea it was ideal for merchant shipping. Specializing in trade with the Byzantine Empire and the eastern world, Venice established a stable and prosperous economy. This naturally created and attracted a wealthy population. With this wealth people could afford many luxuries like art creating a thriving artists population. The style of Venetian art spanning two centuries during the renaissance was directly affected by the trade industry.
They were strong in the Italian cities they did more trading, people were more wealthy and people had more education. during this time people started to really open up their minds and see what others had in mind. To see the real beauty in art to look into other cultures and religions. Exploring the seas and sailing to other continents became very popular during this era. Sailers had more instruments, maps, and the ships were built so that their ships could last longer on their long journeys. Portugues navigators started to explore which they brought gold and ivory home. Then later they discovered that sailing around the southern tip of Africa would bring them to India and Asia. Those places had offered spices, nice clothing, and silk. Explores had brought those things home and sold them to richer European families.
Some of the main economic powers of the renaissance were Italian city states. The first, Milan, was in northern Italy. Milan, the center of trade and money with a large tax, was ruled by Visconti and was later taken over by Sforza. Next was Venice, which was the link of Asia and the western world. Venice was a republic with a doge, or an elected leader, and was ruled by merchants and aristocrats. Lastly, was Florence which became the cul...
This helped the trade become more accessible and easier to distribute from cities to cities. This is what helped spike its political and economic changes in the society during the Renaissance. The trade was brining is so much wealth for the merchants that the cities began to grew, and then they began to start taxing the people which brought it more wealth. It is also been said that Italy was divided into smaller cities at that time then eventually spread to the other cities when they became wealthy and began to gain more
This initiated the Renaissance Era in Europe, as these luxury items attracted more people to Europe, bringing about remarkable economic development, especially in regards to overseas trade. The Renaissance Era was a time in which Europe rebirthed, in a sense. They made lots of advancements in sciences and mathematics, art and culture was revived.
Florence was the trend-setter of the Renaissance, whatever they did everyone else wanted to do because Florence was very successful. “No great city has ever been built far from the water… [Florence] was now more vulnerable, but it had easy access to an important trade route. It had good communications by river to the west, and practicable passes through the mountains ...
Early Renaissance art had its birth of creativity and development in Florence, Italy, which eventually spread to Western Europe. Italy contained the status of being the richest trading nation with both Europe and the Orient, Italy was fortunate to be left with a huge repository of classical ruins and artifacts. In almost every town and city, examples of Roman architecture and sculpture, including copies of sculptures from Ancient Greece, have been familiar for centuries. The decline of Constantinople and the capital of the Byzantine Empire caused many Greek scholars to go to Italy, bringing knowledge of classical civilization.... ...
The influences of any era is evident through artwork and architecture. During the Middle Ages the main influence was the church, this is evident through the focus on biblical and religious symbols. During the Renaissance the main focus was the study of people. This is shown through the increase in self portraits and classical antiquity-inspired buildings. The change between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is best shown through the art and architecture, demonstrated specifically through an emphasis on religion and classical antiquity, both suggesting a clear cultural change. The culture of both of these eras was greatly shaped by the studies of humanism and theology.
The term Renaissance has, over the years, become synonymous with ideas of expanding civilisation, rebirth, and cultural expansion. The most renowned example of a country’s cultural renaissance was that of the Italians; however this is only one example of such a cultural and philosophical paradigm. To begin with, a “renaissance” is a revolution of the rebirth of ideals within a country’s individuals: self-awareness, art, architecture, religion and science, to name a few. For it is these ideas that have given civilisations the drive and perseverance to rise from a period wrought with fallow and of social, cultural, and economical regression. Many prominent world powers today, and subsequently in the past, have went through a period of renaissance, which was preceded by what many call a dark age; it is through this time of upheaval that the ideas and socio-political philosophies flourished, paving the way towards each nations’ renaissance. To this, the Renaissance should not only be seen as an essential part of European history, but its ideals should also be credited philosophically for improving and influencing different developing societies through the ages.