Influential scholars, such as Erasmus and Rabelais, spread Humanist ideas as they travelled. King Francis I of France brought in Italian artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, to paint for his court. From the middle of the fifteenth century, several Italian artists travelled to Poland. Ivan III of Russia brought in Italian architects to design Russian buildings. Young Hungarians studying in Italy returned with Humanist ideas and, in the late fifteenth century, the Hungarian city of Buda became an important centre of the arts with one of Europe’s greatest collections of books. The spread of the Renaissance was not just about the copying of Italian ideas but also the development of new ones. In northern Europe, the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck perfected techniques of painting in oils. In the Netherlands, the painter and printmaker Pieter Bruegel (1525–1569) followed Italian artists in depicting scenes from the Bible. An example is his famous Massacre of the Innocents (1565–67), which depicts the biblical story of King Herod’s attempt to wipe out all young male children in ancient Bethlehem. Bruegel also explored ideas other than religion in his artwork, such as the horrors of war in his Triumph of Death (1562), and he went on to influence many artists through his landscapes and scenes of peasant life. 5.9.2 The English Renaissance From the early sixteenth century, Renaissance culture flourished in England, especially through the works of poets such as John Milton and John Donne, and playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Of all the great figures of the English Renaissance, none has had a more lasting influence than Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets, many of which continue to be performed today.
SkillBuilder discussion Historical significance 1. Make a list of some of Shakespeare’s famous plays. Do you remember the plots?
SOURCE2 The title page of the first folio of William Shakespeare’s plays, printed in 1623.
2. How do you think
Shakespeare’s plays reflect the culture and new ideas of the time he lived in?
Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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