CHAPTER CONTENTS A. How Do We Know about the Renaissance? 117 B. Differences between Renaissance Art and Medieval Art
C. Artists of the Renaissance D. Artists outside Italy
E. Women and Children in the Renaissance F. The Printing Press
G. Writers of the Renaissance H. Science and Medicine Apply Your Learning
A short history of the Renaissance The period from approximately 1400 to 1600 is known as the
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People began to: (1) revive many ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans and (2) question the world around them much more than during the Middle Ages.
‘Renaissance’ means rebirth, in other words the rebirth of interest in ancient times. People studied ancient Greek and Roman art, architecture, engineering, writing and science. Many of the great achievements of the Greeks and Romans had been forgotten during the Middle Ages. However, during the Renaissance, scientists, scholars and artists used many of the ancient ideas and developed them further.
This interest in the ancient world led people to look more closely at the world around them. Beliefs people held without question during the Middle Ages were examined. Scholars wanted to understand how the human body worked. Could humans build flying machines? Did the sun and the stars really revolve around the earth? Everything was questioned.
placed
humans at the centre of all things. It was a time when people believed there was no limit to what humans could discover and explain about themselves and the world around them.