Name ______Class ID ______Date ______Per______

Renaissance Art & Literature Activity

Historical Context:During the Renaissance, humanism was a movement that showed secular (non-religious) and religious subjects as realistic yet idea (perfect) people. Artists also used classicism, or references to Greek and Roman culture, perspective, or making distant objects smaller and closer object bigger to give a 3D effect to paintings and incorporated (blended in) their Catholicism as well.

Task:Use thelinks for each piece of art or literature toanswer the questions about it. Try to pick out the humanism, perspectiveand classicism in piece.

Piece 1: The School of Athens by ______

Label at least 6figures in the painting (go back after you’re done and do the rest for E.C.!)

Use this website to label the two Greek statues

(scroll down to the picture with the numbers on it to find out who more of the people are)

  1. How does this piece of art reflect classicism?

Piece 2: The Sistine Chapel

Once it loads, choose auto-pilot to hear the info needed to answer the question #2 and you will see it in little boxes too.

  1. Which pope is the Sistine Chapel named after?
  1. Explainin detail one fact about theceiling you find interesting.

Piece 3: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by ______

  1. What is the apocalypse a depiction of (in other words, what is being shown will happen during the apocalypse?)
  1. Where does the artist get his ideas from?
  1. For each rider, list their color, symbol (what they’re holding) and what they represent:

1st rider:

2nd rider:

3rdrider:

4th rider:

  1. Find the artist’s initials and draw a copy of them in the space below.

Piece 4: The Prince by ______

  1. Where was the Machiavelli family from?
  1. What do you think a papal militia is?
  1. Here are two excerpts (a short piece of a text) from Machiavelli’s book The Prince.

“Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved…”

a.Do you agree with him?

“…I see that one is obliged to [has to] look to the results of an action, and not to the means by which it was achieved… The fortunate man is he who fits his plan of action to the times.”

b.What do you think he means in the rest of the quote?

Piece 5: In Praise of Folly by ______

  1. What is folly?

Folly is the narrator of this book. Therefore, she is being personified. Every time you see her name mentioned, replace it with your definition of her from above as you read. This will help you understand the point of view being expressed.

  1. Who are what is the author criticizing/making fun of/satirizing in this book?
  1. Give an example of a person who make fun of others for a living (either name a specific person and who they make fun of or name a profession that is critical of others).
  1. For extra credit, copy or summarize an Erasmus quote and state your interpretation and opinion about what it’s saying.