Social Changes during the Renaissance

1. Social Changes during the Renaissance By: Samantha, Leanne, Roshany, and Shaji

2. Introduction • “Socially the Renaissance was a break from the medieval period” • Change in Italian society • New attitudes towards • Individualism • Humanism • Secularism • Religion

3. Marriages • In arranged royal marriages: portrait paintings took on important roles • In portraits, single women wore their hair long. Once they were married, they wore their hair short • There were no official recordings of marriages • Became “Business contracts”

4. Education • Humanism within fifteenth-century Italian educational thought emphasized the, architecture, sculpture, and especially the literature of ancient Rome, of Greece to a less extent • Renaissance educational theory of the 15th and 16th centuries weighs on side of aristocracy • Few renaissance educational theorists speak about leadership education for girls, but a fair number do recommend variant forms of liberal education for upper class girls

5. Religion • Religion was one of the main aspects of the Renaissance that changed drastically over a few centuries • The Catholic Church was dominate in most states in Europe • The pope was one of the most influential and feared by bodies of politics • Eventually, people began taking up their own views and opinions and started questioning the church and the Pope

6. Individualism • Renaissance witnessed the emergence of unique personalities • People had enormous confidence to achieve great things • Newfound faith in the individual • Less absorbed in religious hierarchy and more curious about the capabilities of man • Ex. Artists, Athletes, Painters, Scholars, Sculptors, etc.

7. Secularism • Any movement in society that is directed away from other worldliness to life on earth • Seen as “anti-religious” • Sexual activity increased • Sodomy and Sexual acts against nature • Black Slaves were in demand • Sign of wealth and used for display

8. Women • Girls now received education that was similar to boys • Women were bound to chastity, whereas men were more free • Until the Renaissance, rape was not considered a big crime against women • Status of upper-class women declined • Less power compared to women in the Feudal age • Laura Cereta illustrates the successes and failure of educated Renaissance women

9. Humanism • Study of grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, moral philosophy, and writing • Efforts used to translate and understand Bibilical and Early Christian Texts. • Petrarch and Nicolas of Cusa were examples of humanists • Petrarch • Father of Humanism • Model for Lyrical Poetry • Initiated the Renaissance

10. Analysis • Education in the Renaissance period paved the way for girls to receive education • Portraits displayed a proof of marriage • Individualism gave people confidence to achieve their potentials and talents • Lead to an evolution of distinctive personalities • People did not have their own opinions or views and referred to the Roman Catholic Church or the Pope

11. Evaluation • Renaissance was a break from Medieval period socially • Status of women and education changed • Theories of Humanism, Individualism, Secularism and religion changed