Renaissance+art

importance in the early Renaissance was DONATELLO (1386-1466) who worked mainly as a sculptor. Donatello sculpted the first free-standing nude since the times of Ancient Greece and Rome. The statue, DAVID, shows an adolescent David with the severed head of his Biblical foe, Goliath, lying at his feet. The statue is realistic and anatomically accurate, a general characteristic of most Renaissance art. David is also modeled after the Ancient Greek and Roman statues, a revival the classical past. || This painting exemplifies Leonardo's subtle use of light and shadow to create an exquisite softness and realism in human flesh. The high renaissanse produced some of the most recognizable art of the western world. By the 16th century, the Renaissance had reached full blossom in the works of its greatest masters: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Michelangelo Buonarotti from 1475-1564. These two men left a legacy of pure genius that would bring the Renaissance in Italy to its culmination. Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, a portrait of a mysterious woman, is probably the world's most recognizable painting. || THE PRINCE, by NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI. At the time, Italy was not a united country, it was broken up into several small city-states that were constantly warring and competing against each other. Machiavelli, a diplomat for Florence, watched helplessly as Italy was repeatedly invaded and defeated by larger, unified countries. Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a practical guide to how a leader should rule to maintain and gather political power.
 * [[image:00002765.jpg caption="David"]] || [[image:00039100.jpg caption="Mona Lisa"]] || [[image:00001261.gif caption="Niccolo Machiavelli"]] || [[image:10836-1-photo.jpg width="266" height="288" caption="Martin Luther"]] ||
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Machiavelli believed that a leader needed to be both clever and ruthless to be successful. He argued that it was better for a leader to be feared than loved. People give the bond of love to a leader, and therefore this bond is weak because it can be broken by the people in times of trouble. While Machiavelli wrote The Prince about Renaissance politics, his words had an eerie universality making them applicable to many other times including today. || There were many long-term factors that contributed to a decline in the Catholic Church's prestige. The roots of these trends go all the way back to the Late Middle Ages and the 14th century. First, the Church found itself challenged by powerful, secular monarchs. Up until this time, the head of the Catholic Church, the POPE, was the most powerful leader in all of Europe. When larger nation-states such as Spain, France, and England came into being, their monarchs became almost as strong as the Pope. From 1309-1376, the Pope was forced to live in AVIGNON in Southern France. For more than 1000 years the Pope had resided in Rome. Suddenly, the king of France was telling the Pope where to live. This period of time when the Popes lived in France became known as the BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. This did not enhance the image of the Church ||