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Renaissance in England

🌱 Planted on Aug 05, 2021⌛ 5 min read

Table of Contents

Summary

  • First wave, Europeans bringing in ideas, Pietro Torrigiano (Italian) → Hans Holbein (Swiss-German) →Nicholas Kratzer (German) → Giovanni Damiano / John Damian (Italian)

  • Unrest, rising tensions, Newgate Prison, “foreigners stealing our jobs Englishmen at the forefront of the English Renaissance starts with these Thomas Wyatt →John Bettes

  • Henry VIII dies, Protestants are killed, ushers in a new era John Day and John Foxe → Thomas Tallis → John Thynn

  • Cryptic, hidden messages; Elizabethan code Nicholas Hilliard → Thomas Tresham (Catholic) → John Dee (asks Queen to start an Empire)

  • Exploration and going overseas Francis Drake → Emery Molyneux → John White → Thomas Harriot

Thomas (Wyatt → Tallis → Tresham → Harriot) John (Bettes → Day and Foxe → Thynn → Dee → White) Nicholas (Kratzer → Hilliard)

Mnemonic

Pietro Has Nicked Giovanni’s Tight Belt in Daylight, Tailing him is making us Thin. climbing a Hill, Trespassing (not a good Deed). Frankly, Molly-knew where White hurried

Renaissance in England

Renaissance - we usually think of Italy but England had its own Renaissance too

  1. Starts with - Pietro Torrigiano - Italian Sculptor. Childhood friends with Michalengelo. Pietro punched Michalengelo - had to flee Florence - Came to England in 1507 - felt like it was still in Middle Ages

    1512, the King Henry VIII comissioned Pietro to remodel Westminster Abbey - he designed it, he modelled the figures, he cast the bronze, he carved the stone, he gilded the surfaces, did everything. White marble and gilt bronze.

Under Henry VIII, it was peaceful for the first time in decades

  1. Swiss-German painter Hans Holbein - portrait painter - brought renaissance portrait to Britain, a place where portrait painting was almost non-existent - brought realism - lifelike faces in the whole of British history and they mark the beginning of a major British tradition - a warts-and-all preference for reality over beauty - most famous painting - The Ambassadors

  2. Nicholas Kratzer - German mathematician - spirit of scientific inquiry - specialised in miniature sundials - made a sundial with 9 dials

  3. Giovanni Damiano - Italian- AKA John Damian - alchemist - was obsessed with human flight - strapped on two large wings - made with hen feathers - tried to fly to Paris - fell in dunghill near the foot of the castle

Londoners had been concerned that foreigners were stealing their jobs. In 1517, this resentment had bubbled over into outright violence. 1,000 angry English apprentices gathered - broke into Newgate Prison and freed people - looted foreign craftsmen - New era of Renaissance, with English people and influence

  1. Thomas Wyatt - visited Italy - fell in love with Renaissance - was kidnapped - still didn’t leave - loved Petrarch - brought back Sonnets - poetry which is much more human - didn’t shy away from sex - unglamorous realism to poetry

  2. John Bettes - brought realism to painting - was trained by Hans

Death of Henry VIII, the long-standing tensions between the old Catholic Church and the new Protestant faith erupted into violence. In the 1550s, over 300 innocent men and women were cruelly and publicly burnt alive for being Protestant

  1. London printer called John Day - wanted to document - writer called John Foxe - Book of Martyrs - longest book in British history and more than twice as long as the Bible

  2. Thomas Tallis - Composer - 40 voices song - Spem in Alium -

  3. John Thynn - random dude who married Mayor of London’s daughter, became rich, was an asshole and a manager from hell - wanted a fancy house - sent a letter everyday to the workers - was impatient - 30 years of building - Longleat - Symettrical, intricate

Renaissance - age when poets wrote in codes, when artists filled paintings with mysterious symbols… ..and even buildings spoke in riddles

  1. Nicholas Hilliard - goldsmith - made miniature paintings - very delicate and intricate - painted jewels - almost 3D like texture

Renaissance Paintings - full of symbols, secrets, figures, inscriptions and emblems, Latin inscriptions and arcane symbols - visual obituary - Clever codes began to be used to conceal things from the Queen and her agents. And one Elizabethan rebel turned disguise into an art form -

  1. Thomas Tresham - Catholic - 20 years in prison - lodge for his rabbit warrener - obsessed with number three - triangular - three walls - three storeys - three is also the number of the Holy Trinity, Catholic Trinity - Lyveden New Bield - unfinished building TTT → Tom Tres Three

  2. John Dee - actor climbing on to the back of a huge mechanical beetle. And if that wasnt enough, the beetle then took off and flew around the room - illusion - advisor to Queen - made a cryptic painting, still undeciphered - John Dee is telling her to create a British empire John

  3. Francis Drake - Englishman who explored

  4. Emery Molyneux - Accompanied Francis Drake - made the globe

  5. John White - comissioned to visit Americas and make paintings

  6. Thomas Harriot - Accompanied John White - first Briton to learn a Native American language - was not a spoken language but Harriot still devised a 36 letter alphabet - painted the moon before Da Vinci

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