Telling the Story of the Early Renaissance

Fresco 'The Triumph of Death' 
https://www.history.com/news/black-death-timeline

    The video, Art of the Western World, first begins explaining about the Early Renaissance. The narrator, Michael Wood elaborates on how the government worked and functioned in Siena. In Siena, the city was no longer controlled by lords, they were now Republics. Then a plague called the black plague had killed half of Europe. But after the plague, Europe's economy was able to grow stronger. For the survivors of the plague "there were new opportunities, Florence recovered particularly quickly"(3:15 - 3:24). Florence now dominated Central Italy. Merchants were able to expand their empire, all over Europe. Architects and arts were able to evolve as well. Intellectual breakthroughs were made and Italy was born again. Another main topic the film talks about is a church that holds paintings that had a revolutionary effect. Merchant families would compete with each other on their artistry. On the other hand, in chapter 12, the main focus points of the chapter was when the author Cunningham described about what had happened in Florence and the character of Renaissance humanism. The chapter points out many instances that had occurred in Florence and how it was a proud city. The author stated "Florence had been one of the centers of the wool trade since the late Middle Ages. In the fifteenth century, it was also the center of the European banking system" (Cunningham 268). After the black plague, Florence was able to grow stronger and was powerful in Europe. Then as the chapter goes on, the author talks about Jules Michelet who was a French historian who described the cultural period of fifteenth-century Florence.

'Mona Lisa' by Leonardo da Vinci

 

    The book had described Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting called the Mona Lisa and about his life. Initially, I had not known much about the Mona Lisa. I did not know or understand how it was created and where it was created. But Leonardo was "called the genius of the Renaissance not so much for what he left in the way of art... as for the things that he dreamed of doing, the problems he set for himself to solve, and the phenomena he observed and set down in his Notebooks" (Cunningham 283). The video did not mention Leonardo da Vinci, but the book described where he lived which was Florence and where he moved restlessly from place to place. Although the video had described many artists who played important roles in Florence back then, Leonardo was emphasized as a genius much more in the text. The film had described Brunelleschi's works as genius and how Brunelleschi was able to face "the greatest architectural and engineering challenge..." (Art 15:05 - 15:17). So while the video elaborated on Brunelleschi's achievements and how important he was during that time period, the book talks about Leonardo's importance in the Early Renaissance.

    While watching the video and comparing it to chapter 12 of the textbook, I had learned from the video about a specific architect structure. The structure was created by Filippo Brunelleschi and was a cathedral that had specific construction that went into it. The building was built "in such a way that is was self supporting" (Art 15 - 16:30). Chapter 12 had mentioned Brunelleschi's cathedral briefly but emphasized about Arnolfo di Cambio's Cathedral of Florence and how it was self-supporting. The cathedral was "strong enough to support the lantern that eventually crowned the whole construction" (Cunningham 272). The book had mentioned the Cathedral of Florence in 1390 was reconstructing when Brunelleschi found it and began his work on it. The video has not mentioned the artist Arnolfo di Cambios's initial structure of the cathedral. But only Brunellshi's reconstruction. 

Brunelleschi 'Cathedral of Florence'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Works Cited 

Seven, John. “The Black Death: A Timeline of the Gruesome Pandemic.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 16 Apr. 2020, www.history.com/news/black-death-timeline.

 Smarthistory. “ Brunelleschi's Dome Brunelleschi, Dome of the Cathedral of Florence.” Youtube , Youtube , 19 Nov. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8F_yPwqzA.

Vinci, Leonardo da. “Mona Lisa.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Jan. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa.

Yildiz, Berna. “Filippo Brunelleschi, Florentine Architect: Renaissance Architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi, Architecture History.” Pinterest, tr.pinterest.com/pin/481040803934732530/.