Vocabulary:
A polymath (Greek polymathēs, "having learned much") is a person with encyclopedic, broad, or varied knowledge or learning….Renaissance Man and Homo Universalis are related terms to describe a person who is well educated, or who excels, in a wide variety of subjects or fields. (wikidepia)
The Renaissance – An Overview
(from http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici/renaissance/index.html)
Between 1300 and 1600 the Western world was transformed.
An extraordinary wave of artistic and cultural innovation shattered medieval society and brought European culture reluctantly into the modern era.
This was the Renaissance.
In art…
Artists discovered how to paint in three dimensions, bringing new life and realism to their subjects. Breaking away from the religious traditions of the medieval world, they created entirely new genres of art, rich in drama and emotion. Radical new techniques were invented, like painting with oils, and perspective. Artists such as Botticelli, Gozzoli, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Ghiberti transformed the way we saw our world.
In architecture and science…
Buildings were constructed that were bigger and better than ever before. Taking inspiration from the classical past, new rules were invented governing proportion and perspective. Magnificent temples to wealth were designed across Florence and the largest dome in the world was built by Filippo Brunelleschi, the brilliant engineer.
Men no longer accepted at face value the teachings of the Church. Now they wanted to study the natural world, to discover for themselves the secrets of the universe. Leonardo da Vinci pioneered the study of human anatomy and Galileo Galilei rocked the Catholic establishment by announcing that the Earth revolved around the Sun.
In politics…
Liberated from the exclusive grasp of the Catholic Church, education filtered down to the upwardly mobile middle