Sara+B

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =Sara's Virtual Museum=

This virtual museum shows the four main aspects of humanism in the Renaissance. The humanist ideas came the classical times, which were the Greeks and Romans, and some of the things they considered and thought were important was: the importance of the individual, contributing to the society, modeling themselves on the ancient past, and the importance of learning.

= ** Contributing to Society **= Michelangelo's sculpture of David (1501-1504)

This is the Sculpture of David done by Michelangelo in 1501. Michelangelo was able to make this statue because he got money from patrons. Patrons contributed to society by paying artists to produce work for the community. The sculpture of David contributed to the city of Florence in many ways. Not only did Michelangelo get paid to have his work produced and show the world that his work was worth something, but also Michelangelo picked to produce the sculpture of David. David was believed to have defeated the giant Goliath, this reminds Florence that small people can do great things, things that may seem impossible and too big to even attempt by yourself as an individual but all things are possible. David was supposed to give hope to the city through its attempt to become free of the Medici family. Some patron’s supported the art because you became more respected if you contributed to your society. They also supported the sculptures, architects, and painters because if they hired an expensive artist to make a sculpture in their city neighboring communities would think highly of them because they could afford such artists to do work for them. Humanists thought patronage was important because people who have talent for art should get recognized and paid for expertise.

= Modeling Themselves on the Ancient Past = Ancient Church

Democracy is a kind of government where the people elect representatives to represent them and make decisions that would best benefit them. Democracy comes from and is named after the Greek system of participatory government. In the Renaissance they started to bring back this form of government because the individual became more important and people's opinions started to matter. This picture is of an ancient church. Churches used to rule over all the people and taxes were paid to them they became quite wealthy. But then the government changed and people elected representatives to make decisions for them and soon the church/monarchy was not in the highest command. Democracy was one of the ways the people in the renaissance modeled themselves on the ancient past because it had once taken place with the Greeks and Romans and then died out and then came back again during the renaissance.

= The Importance of the Individual = People in the Renaissance

During the renaissance the potential of the individual on what it could accomplish was the most important thing to the humanists. This picture shows people in extravagant clothing. It wasn’t just about developing the mind with book smart, it also started to matter what clothes you wore and what shape your body was in. People started spending more on their selves and they cared what people thought of them and what level of society they were so they wore big dresses with lots of layers and started to work out so they would be in shape. The women especially started to wear clothes that big and layered that caught people's attention.

= The Importance of Learning = Desiderius Erasmus

Humanists thought the importance of learning was highly critical. They wanted to bring back the classical times and the only way to know how those times were was to read ancient writings. It became a popular past time to read and discuss the past to make things better for the present. Developing the mind and educating yourself on the past and on what was going on in the world around you was something people did and what they thought was important. This picture is of Desiderius Erasmus he used his knowledge to make a revised translation of the Greek bible. Humanists wanted to make all manuscripts available to the public because they wanted them to educate themselves on the history of the Greek and Romans in order to bring back those times. Desiderius helped make reading the ancient writings possible.