Ap art History – unit sixteen early Renaissance in Italy: Fifteenth Century (Also known as Quattrocento): “pma”

PMA can stand for “positive mental attitude,” which allows for a discussion of Humanism and the mind set at the beginning of the Renaissance. The letters separately can stand for Perspective, Modeling and Anatomy – three challenges early Renaissance artists were tackling. I sometimes arrange the letters in an equation, P=AM², to focus on the mathematical perspective and the “morning” of the Renaissance. One year the students put letters PAM on spray can to make a link to grease or “Greece” as a way to help them remember the strong Classical influence present during the Renaissance in Italy. They later added, “PAM…a Better idea! Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael would have been “stuck” without it…” pointing to the influence and contribution of Early Renaissance achievements.

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  Competition between artists
  
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  Humanistic spirit placed greater emphasis on human beings and the world in which they lived
  
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  Social, religious, and political influences of the Quattrocento: 1400s
  
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  Florence and civic pride
  
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  Neoplantonic philosophy
  
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  Rebirth of classicism
  
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  Shift in art from spiritual world to secular world
  
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  Application of mathematical logic to architecture
  
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  Scientific perspective and geometric organization of space
  
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  Church, merchant, and citizen patronage
  
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  Recognition and freedom of personal artistic styles that do no have to answer to dictates of the church
  
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  Changing roles of the artist as an individual and of art in society