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0:02
saint peter's basilica in the vatican city in rome the cathedral on saint peter's square is a magnificent edifice kept with larger-than-life statues of the apostles it's the most impressive monument of the renaissance with colonnades reminiscent of the temples of antiquity [Music] saint peter's is the largest church in the world yet its construction would have been impossible just a few generations before no one had the knowledge of mathematics physics and structural engineering
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needed to plan and organize such a vast project
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[Music] then in the mid 16th century artists and scholars stepped onto the stage and managed to do things that had seemed impossible for the previous thousand years [Music] within just four generations they accrued the knowledge necessary to carry out massive projects such as saint peter's europe was transformed under the influence of individuals like michelangelo binary men of extraordinary accomplishment and versatility who found ways to bring seemingly impossible ideas to life
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their achievements still resonate today but how did they do it what was the secret of an age when the world seemed to undergo a paradigm shift the age of the renaissance
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rome 1547 perhaps one man stood out above all michelangelo bunurotti project manager architect and artist on the construction site for st peters
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although he was in his early 70s by this time he was still driven by ambition
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michelangelo was a painter sculptor and architect a scientist iconoclast and a genius what we now refer to as a renaissance man one of his works would become the icon of an entire era [Music]
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michelangelo's david is perhaps the best known sculpture in art history men like michelangelo were the managers of an era in which art and culture knowledge and technology developed at near lightning speed 1501 michelangelo astonished his contemporaries with works that seemed to border on the miraculous he set out to carve david from a 12-ton block of marble a feat at which two sculptors before him had failed michelangelo became obsessed with the undertaking and spent three years
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working non-stop on the five-meter tall statue the first monumental sculpture of the high renaissance
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from a cumbersome block of marble michelangelo's hammer and chisel revealed a human figure in the pose of a god
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[Music] in the renaissance has mentioned the image of mankind changed in the renaissance pope innocent iii said at the end of the 12th century that man was rottenness formed of slime and ashes a contemptible creature the medieval belief that the sinful nature of man was visible in his appearance during the renaissance we can see how this pessimistic view had become tiresome the idea arose that man was almost like god man was god's creation endowed with reason with strengths
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and created in his image man could almost become a god
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some ten years after he completed david michelangelo finished his figure of moses for the tomb of pope julius ii larger than life this moses is an angry prophet with bulging veins and a fearsome visage the way gods were depicted in the ancient world michelangelo may have learned from the masters of antiquity but he didn't copy them the renaissance was more than just the rebirth of antiquity men like michelangelo created something new they took the techniques and art of the
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ancient greeks and romans and developed them further
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you won't find a single artwork of the renaissance that simply copies an ancient one the crucial thing is that the renaissance didn't just rediscover the critical spirit of the greeks for example it didn't just grapple with the science and scholarship of antiquity it developed everything further it invented completely new things and toppled the ancient giants who had originally been its teachers
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[Music] primavera one of the best known works of renaissance art rafael's school of athens glorified ancient thought
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and leonardo da vinci's mona lisa for more than a thousand years the skill of realistically capturing the three-dimensional world on a flat canvas had been forgotten the renaissance rediscovered perspective it was a quantum leap for architecture which took its inspiration from the symmetry of the great buildings of the ancient world
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the art of building huge domed structures had fallen into oblivion in the middle ages and was rediscovered in the renaissance but the renaissance didn't limit itself to art
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the invention of double entry bookkeeping also meant that men of business now knew what funds they had available the surplus fortunes of the newly wealthy flowed into the pockets of the era's artists it was like an investment program for scholars and artists never before had so much been invented or devised in such a short period of time new mechanical machines were created and the human machine was researched in increasing detail the study of anatomy reached a peak
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the first pocket-sized timepieces were invented this also made it possible to track the orbits of planets and the movements of celestial bodies as the heavens guided seafarers adventurers discovered new trade routes the known world tripled
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there's probably no place anywhere in the world where so much was discussed in one big conversation involving such a large number of participants where things were invented in such quick succession printing triggered a huge discourse that captivated large parts of the population elites scholars and clerics too of course exchanged ideas and so invented groundbreaking new things but what was the impetus for this exceptional period of history what were the ingredients in this explosive development
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how could men like michelangelo suddenly reacquire knowledge and techniques that had been lost for centuries [Music] let's look back to rome in the first century back then the romans were capable of constructing buildings like saint peter's as seen in the roman forum the power center of an empire that ruled the western world rome exported its way of life to its father's provinces it dictated the art culture and architecture of an entire era
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at the time rome was home to a million people 20 times more than one of the largest cities of the renaissance [Music] london
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but rome's dominance was built on the oppression of millions of slaves entire peoples were subjugated [Music]
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for centuries the roman military machine succeeded in holding the empire together but at some point the barbarians gained the upper hand the germanic tribes the goths and the vandals
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in the 5th century the western empire ceased to exist roma mundi once the capital of the world and home to a million people fell into decay and the dark ages began
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much of the knowledge of antiquity was lost in all areas but particularly in engineering architecture mathematics and physics the ruins of the ancient world were plundered for building materials just a few generations after rome fell no one was capable of creating anything remotely comparable in the year 330 the roman emperor constantine had moved his capital to the bosporus in what is now turkey naming it constantinople in his own honour
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after that the empire split into an eastern and a western half the eastern roman empire also known as byzantium endured until the 15th century constantinople was the second rome home to more than half a million people who called themselves romayoi romans the byzantine emperors saw themselves as descendants of caesar and augustus while its patriarch was head of the orthodox christians constantinople also became the repository of ancient wisdom its scholars were leading figures in every field
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the rome of the east was the bulwark of antiquity in the medieval world no one had been able to conquer the city on the bosporus
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but one-seventh of its population were merchants from genoa pisa and the republic of venice known as latins this affluent minority had a reputation for arrogance and belligerence and were unpopular with the eastern romans in early 1171 riots broke out in pera the genoese quarter the emperor manuela the first komnenos accused the venetians of causing the trouble venetian merchants were imprisoned and their possessions confiscated
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venice tried to defend its people to no avail it was the start of a conflict that was to last for decades and ultimately end in disaster for constantinople
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the conflict culminated in what history calls the fourth crusade this wasn't a crusade against people of a different faith but a catholic war against orthodox christians the crusades laid siege to constantinople and on the night of the 12th of april 1204 broke through its defenses for three days they plundered the city abusing raping and killing many of its residents the collapse of byzantium its defeat by the west during the fourth crusade and its subjugation by the ottoman
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empire all played a major role in the development of the renaissance many scholars fled to italy taking manuscripts with them and trying to instill new values and ideas into a culture they still saw as barbaric it gave an unprecedented boost to innovation
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[Music] the libraries of constantinople were replete with treasures of immeasurable worth the collective knowledge of antiquity [Music] [Applause] [Music] as hundreds of scholars and artists fled the advance of the ottoman turks they took valuable books with them the scholar manuel chrysolorus was one of them when the chancellor of florence offered him a chair at the university there he also sent him a wish list of ancient works [Music]
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this exodus of scholars from byzantium reintroduced ancient techniques to the west marble sculptures took on a realism movement and vitality unknown in the middle ages ancient frescoes inspired painters [Music] long forgotten engineering techniques triggered a wave of technical innovations
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ancient ideas about the movement of the heavenly bodies were taught once more science especially mathematics and physics experienced an unexpected revival after centuries of oblivion the europeans learned from several civilizations they learned from the greeks and romans the arabs the byzantines and also from the indians the arabic numeral system we use today actually came from india
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but they didn't just copy they developed something new with what they had learned and disseminated these ideas through printing there was an incredible flourishing of discussion and debate
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florence in 1410 a city-state with a population of fifty thousand the size of london and bursting with self-confidence
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the italian city was like the silicon valley of the renaissance a fountain of knowledge and a meeting place for artists and scholars
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the ambitious plans for the cathedral of maria del fiore were drawn up around 1300 it was to be the largest church in christendom bigger and more beautiful than the cathedrals of pisa siena and milan 153 metres long florence cathedral remains the fourth largest church in the world but back then it was number one
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by the time its 45 meter diameter dome was completed it set a world record giorgio vazari an artist and architect began work on the 4 000 square meter fresco in its interior which was to rival michelangelo's last judgment but vazari's figures are lost in the height of the dome visitors below can barely see them [Music] in 1418 more than a hundred years after its construction began the cathedral dome had not been built
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[Music] no one in the middle ages had the knowledge to solve the structural and technical problems filippo brunelleschi took on the task [Music] brunelleschi was an architect and sculptor as well as an engineer and an inventor inspired by the ancient domes of the pantheon and the aya sophia he had clear ideas about how to realize the ambitious project [Music] he developed special cranes for the dome's construction new inventions that would revolutionize building methods
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[Music] brunelleschi's machines were a novelty of his era and were widely admired the cable that lifted the blocks of stone was seven centimeters thick 180 meters long and weighed half a ton years later the builder would receive the exclusive rights to build a ship with a crane on it the first patent in industrial history felipe brunelleschi rediscovered perspective a technique largely forgotten since antiquity it was a geometrical system that made it possible to depict three-dimensional
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views realistically using it he managed to put the building plans down on paper and render them visually comprehensible
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it was the dawn of modern architecture perspective drawing also inspired painters and their works took on a new realism artists took viewers on a journey to new worlds and renaissance paintings became more realistic than ever before the rediscovery of perspective drawing was a powerful engine of progress the fashionable architects in italy's competing city-states particularly in venice milan florence and pisa became some of the top earners of the renaissance
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no longer nameless as they had been in the middle ages they were celebrated and pampered elites venetian noblemen spent fortunes on palaces in the new style swiss architect antonio contino designed and built the bridge of size one of the most photographed motifs in the world this new style of building became popular outside italy the city hall in zurich is a masterpiece of the late renaissance a hundred years earlier the sculptor and builder anton eisenmann had built one of the most picturesque
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examples of italian renaissance the lucerne town hall in switzerland
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the new style inspired by the buildings of the ancient world was characterized by symmetry and a clear system for the arrangement of columns arches and domes architecture gardens and sculptures were designed as complete artistic ensembles the aim was to please the eye and please the people not praise god the middle altar he couldn't recently medieval art was basically religious art that's in part evidenced by the fact that we only know the names of a handful of the artists
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although it was customary to sign individual works we often speak of the master of such and such whose name we don't even know in the renaissance we see the creators of works being named art became free from religious motifs and turned towards everyday life it also described that everyday life more accurately think
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extremely self-confident artists stepped up and made their demands confronting the powerful who in turn then courted them michelangelo for example who would even dictate certain things to the pope
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in 1347 the black death broke out in europe [Music] bubonic play killed almost half the english population within just seven months and at least a third of the population of europe in the next four years [Music] millions perished
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it was the most horrific epidemic in european history and it changed everything ultimately even people themselves
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it might sound cynical but the plague didn't just have a negative effect on the culture of the renaissance and the arts the wealth of the dead was concentrated in the hands of the survivors and those who survived saw life with completely different eyes some must have said let's enjoy our days and spend them in the best way possible maybe they wanted to surround themselves with beautiful art others would have wanted to square their accounts with god and do something for
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the well-being of their souls like cosimo di merici who built an entire church
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the imperative of the renaissance was live this life and enjoy it renaissance art was a complete departure from the art of the middle ages nude bodies everywhere beautiful people enmeshed in idyllic landscapes open eroticism in michelangelo's last judgment the heavenly host is shown nude and great anatomical detail it was a revolution the plague ravaged florence only a fifth of the city's population survived the black death
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[Music] it also changed how wealth was distributed and led to the rise of a new elite tycoons who became unimaginably rich families like the medici were merchants and bankers people who had been held in contempt by the feudal society of the middle ages now they were the ones in charge [Music]
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let's go back to the year 1425 and the sculptor donatello his patron cosimo medici was the first great sponsor of the arts medici was a wealthy banker and a shrewd strategist who employed almost mafia-like methods
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[Music] he was one of the richest men of his day and his money fueled the development of art and architecture in florence it provided the spark that ignited the italian renaissance [Music] but his success would never have been possible without a seemingly minor invention that revolutionized banking [Music] double entry bookkeeping was a simple financial instrument that involved keeping a credit account showing income and a debit account with outgoing payments the first complete double entry
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bookkeeping system can be traced back to 1340 in ledgers from genoa showing government income and expenditure double entry bookkeeping showed account holders how much capital they had on hand allowing them greater overview and control of their finances the medicis were global players they issued loans and signed secure credit notes for travellers that could be cashed in many countries the precursor to today's traveller's checks [Music] earned huge sums and spent them again
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by the time he died he spent 600 000 florence equivalent to more than a quarter of a billion euros on taxes donations to the needy on buildings and on art a host of writers scholars artists and architects were dependent on his money and they repaid him in beauty the military palace is a glorious stage of renaissance art it's hard to believe that cosimo instructed the architect not to make it too magnificent as he didn't want to rouse the envy of the other patrician families
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the medicis also invested in their spiritual well-being they donated money for a new church the basilica di san lorenzo cosimo de medici supported artists careers and spawned something that had not existed before the celebrity these are star instead this celebrity arose in a sort of intellectual hot house in a market full of competition where humanists intellectuals creatives and artists of all kinds were supported and often very well paid by patrons these patrons in turn hoped these
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artists would bring their courts greater fame and status for painters and sculptors hyperbole soon became just as important as skill towers in this very competitive arena they acquired fame and status and we
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but that also means the unrecognized artist the suffering genius was a particularly frequent phenomenon [Music] donatello was one of the first great celebrity artists of the renaissance he was almost 60 when he came to cosimo de medici with designs for his statue of david the boy who defeated goliath this his most significant work was also a brave one because donatello's david was naked just a few generations earlier ancient statues were destroyed for showing nudity
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both medici and donatello were certainly aware of how revolutionary it was donatello's david was the first life-sized sculpture of a nude since antiquity
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unlike other cultures the renaissance didn't worry about depicting naked or semi-naked bodies very significant for the development of medicine you can't study anatomy if you can't depict naked bodies
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that was crucial to a different way of looking at people the person wasn't just animated by the spirits and guided by the stars he was a mechanically functioning machine an organism in organisms what was also unusual was his interpretation donatello's david is not a muscular adult but a youth with a rather feminine appearance and he is fascinatingly lifelike but where did donatello get his knowledge of the human body
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with the enthusiasm of the early renaissance for all things classical interest in anatomy was growing as well almost all the artists sculptors and painters of the renaissance would have studied human anatomy if only from books and drawings there was a flourishing trade and fresh corpses it was illegal in many places and punishment for this crime was often draconian but curiosity often triumphed over fear
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donatello quite possibly dissected corpses too as did albrecht dura michelangelo and leonardo da vinci one or two generations later but even in donatello's time in the early renaissance artists were very familiar with the structure of the human body which allowed them to create new very lifelike depictions of people men like donatello were either artistically talented scholars or scholarly artists as fate would have it donatello's interpretation of the old testament hero
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didn't achieve the same popularity as another sculpture of the renaissance one that was also created in florence at five meters tall michelangelo's david is a monumental statue half a century after donatello it symbolized the self-confidence of the new renaissance man [Music] the explosive thing about the renaissance was that people became aware of their abilities and strengths in a new way they unleashed an incredible energy in their thinking and actions in business and technology
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there was an outpouring of
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self-confidence
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in the middle ages nearly everyone was illiterate the few who could read and write were from wealthier families or men and women of the church the people who made or owned books looked after them like treasures a copyist might only produce 10 to 15 volumes in an entire lifetime which made the books incredibly valuable but that was about to change to obtain a lovely codex such as a bible for example you would have to slaughter an entire flock of sheep and that was expensive
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but suddenly books could be had for little money and reading became democratic knowledge became accessible to larger numbers of people more and more people were able to participate in scholarly discussions about new ideas
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that's the only way we can explain how europe became the continent of innovation more so than any other
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the scribes of the church hadn't just copied works they had also changed them and falsified sources claiming their interpretation as the word of god that gave them great power but the renaissance broke their monopoly on knowledge one of the most important bastions of the church it's indeed an awareness of sources and the truth grew not least because these sources were now accessible people started analyzing them using classical techniques techniques used in antiquity
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the traditional myths propagated by the church simply weren't accepted anymore
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mines 1450 printer johannes gutenberg's invention may have been the most significant one in a thousand years and yet we don't know what he looked like his achievement was to combine existing methods of reproduction and printing into a single system [Music] the handheld cast was the key to his printing press it allowed letters to be cast individually more quickly and with greater precision this marked the invention of modern printing [Music] it was also the dawn of mass communication
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information became more widely available opening the door to new opinions and perspectives
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information also became valued in new ways as the printed word to precedence over oral traditions
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printing was of truly enormous significance and gutenberg is the person who did the most important thing in a thousand years of world history reading became increasingly widespread the great scientific innovations and the great religious revolution the reformation wouldn't have been possible without printing the first 60 years after the invention of printing saw the publication of 400 different vernacular editions of the bible at the same time the number of lay people who could read and write
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grew more and more people now had direct and immediate access to biblical texts to the word of god their renaissance fruits the people of the renaissance felt close to god they felt they were becoming god like themselves they wouldn't have said that in the middle ages it would have been considered blasphemous people referred to the bible and called themselves god's creations god made us in his image we're almost gods in miniature god came closer to people in the
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renaissance than he ever was in the middle ages but it wasn't books that made up the bulk of the printing shop's business it was fly sheets and pamphlets they were affordable and cost a labourer two or three hours pay now even ordinary people could print a pamphlet and disseminate their opinions verses and drawings
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three subjects dominated sensations and miracles religious instruction and political and military propaganda [Music] illustrated fly sheets also carried the first caricatures they could be an invitation an opinion or a warning just like today's social media networks they served as a vehicle for the mass dissemination of opinion [Music] the renaissance had fly sheets it had literature that was printed and spread very quickly it could be printed in nuremberg tomorrow and in two days time would be
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in zurich information disseminated more quickly and was much harder to control too the censorship of the church that dictated what was right didn't work anymore once the fly sheets began circulating
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you can only understand the huge boom in free thinking in the renaissance if you look at the media and the fly sheets in particular mass communication helped create that new type of individual the celebrity giorgio vazari who had painted the frescoes in the florence cathedral dome was also a biographer of the most dazzling personalities of his time the artists visari also produced portraits of raphael and michelangelo but it was particularly taken with leonardo da vinci
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leonardo was unconventional and wasn't afraid to acknowledge his homosexuality he was remarkably creative and talented but also rather vain
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visari was the first to coin the term rene shetta renaissance he endowed his subjects with the aura that made them stars the shining lights of society he created an image of the artist that hadn't existed before most artists were craftsmen that's how they saw themselves and that's how others saw it but visari created the image of the genius the strange crazy man the artist enthrall to ideas he painted a picture of an artist that seems strangely familiar today in fact he created the modern artist
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the painter holbein was the first to paint a portrait of his family star painters botticelli and dura even painted themselves the self-portrait became the expression of a new self-confidence and then finally raphael antician the first painters to sign their paintings a further step towards celebrity the great names in art suddenly became world famous a hundred years earlier it would have been unthinkable the towering figures of renaissance art first and foremost leonardo da vinci and
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michelangelo were fated invited to court and paid handsomely in 1300 venetian glassblowers invented the convex mirror its importance is widely underestimated but compared with what had come before its reflection was bright and almost free of distortion most people in the middle ages had only seen their faces as blurry reflections in water [Music] the glass mirror meant people could really see themselves clearly for the first time maybe that's why they were more self-confident than their medieval
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ancestors
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self-confidence and pride in personal achievements were no longer seen as sinful humility was out of step with the times [Music] a person who held his head high and walked tall in the presence of god who saw reason as his special gift from god those were the new values as a result humility became less important as humans we're capable and god wants us to use our gifts in the world
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what was the secret of the great renaissance artists this immense flourishing of creativity remains a mystery but their charisma endears to this day
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you
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