the renaissance timeline
Putting Things into Perspective
The Renaissance was a period of rebirth following what we commonly call the Middle Ages. It was an age of discovery, where classical philosophy, art, architecture and literature was rediscovered and developed upon. Most of what I write about falls into this period, between the 14th and 17th centuries, but how does it all fit together?
1300-1399
1300-1399
Trecento
The Art & The History
1305 - Giotto completes the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua1307 - Dante is exiled and begins writing The Divine Comedy
1309 - Clement V moves the Papacy to Avignon
1320 - Florence becomes a centre of international finance
1341 - Petrarch is named the first poet laureate of Rome
1347 - The Black Death arrives in Italy
1397 - Giovanni de’ Medici founds the Medici Bank in Florence
1400-1499
1400-1499
Quattrocento
The Art
1401 - Lorenzo Ghiberti wins the commission for the Baptistry of San Giovanni’s doors in Florence1411 - Donatello is commissioned to sculpt St. Mark, the first free-standing Renaissance sculpture
1419 - Filippo Brunelleschi returns to Florence, beginning the dome for the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore
1434 - Jan van Eyck paints The Arnolfini Portrait
1435 - Leon Battista Alberti publishes his treaties, On Painting
1450 - Paulo Uccello begins to play with perspective in The Battle of San Romano
1486 - Botticelli completes The Birth of Venus
1488 - Michelangelo is apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio
1495 - Leonardo da Vinci paints The Last Supper in Milan
1499 - Michelangelo gives life to The Pietà
1400-1499
1400-1499
Quattrocento
The History
1401 - Brunelleschi and Donatello travel to Rome1420 - The Papacy returns to Rome
1429 - Cosimo de’ Medici inherits the Medici Bank
1450 - Francesco Sforza becomes the 4th Duke of Milan
1450 - Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press
1453 - The Ottomon Empire conquers Constantinople, ending the Byzantine era and pushing people westward
1460 - Sigismondo Malatesta is canonised to Hell by Pope Pius II
1469 - Lorenzo il magnifico de’ Medici come into power
1471 - Sixtus IV is appointed pope
1478 - The Pazzi Conspiracy sees the death of Giuliano de’ Medici
1485 - Henry VII becomes King of England, beginning the reign of the House of Tudor
1491 - Girolamo Savonarola begins preaching in Florence
1492 - Rodrigo Borgia becomes Pope Alexander VI
1492 - Christopher Columbus discovers the Americas
1494 - Charles VIII invades Italy
1497 - Savonarola’s Bonfire of the Vanities
1498 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Savonarola and burns him at the stake as a heretic
1499 - The French conquer Milan, facilitating the flow of the Renaissance into France
1500-1599
1500-1599
Cinquecento
The Art
1503 – Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa1504 – Michelangelo completes his David
1508 – Michelangelo begins the Sistine ceiling
1509 – Raphael begins painting the Stanze
1511 – Raphael begins the School of Athens
1513 – Niccolò Machiavelli writes The Prince
1516 – Thomas More writes Utopia
1516 – Baldassare Catiglione writes The Book of the Courtier
1550 – Vasari's The Lives of the Artists is published
1500-1599
1500-1599
Cinquecento
The History
1503 – Julius II is appointed pope1505 – Albrecht Dürer returns to Italy, residing in Venice
1506 – Julius II and Bramante lay the foundation stone for the new St. Peter’s
1509 – Henry VIII comes into power in England
1515 – Francis I succeeds to the French Throne
1516 – Charles V takes control of Spain
1517 – Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses in Wittenberg, beginning the Reformation and splitting Europe spiritually
1519 – Leonardo da Vinci dies
1520 – Suleman takes over the Ottoman Empire
1525 – The Battle of Pavia ends France’s claim over Italy
1527 – The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, sacks Rome
1534 – Henry VIII separates the Church of England from the Catholic Church of Rome so he can divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn
1558 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England
1570 – The first modern atlas is published
1572 – The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre takes place in France
1590 – The dome of St. Peter’s is finished
1599 – William Shakespeare builds the Globe theatre
