The renaissance was a revolutionary time period in human history. Before this project I barley knew anything about the renaissance, so this was a very interesting topic for me.

For this project we had to choose a piece of art, an innovator, an invention and an event from the renaissance and compare it to modern times.

What I choose

Piece of Art- The piece of art from the renaissance I choose was the “Mona Lisa”. The Mona Lisa had a great impact on art culture of the renaissance. It now sits in the Louvre museum and is one of the most famous/well known pieces of art.

Innovator- The innovator I choose was Galileo Galilei. Galileo was a famous astronomer and philosopher who invented the Galilean telescope, hydrostatic balance, thermometers and compasses.

Invention- The invention I choose was the printing press because it was definitely one of the most impactful inventions of the renaissance. It was the first way to mass produce media/books, before it was invented each book was handwritten and only priest, popes and royalty had access to them.

Event- The event I choose was the shift to humanism. Before the renaissance the main religion was Christianity/Catholicism until people had access to the bible. Some people after reading the bible interpreted it differently which lead to the split of Christianity into Catholicism which then lead to humanism and freedom of religion.

We then made a collage to show how the renaissance relates to modern times using an app called SuperimposeX which is a photo editing app. This is what I made…

I compared the Mona Lisa to a piece of art by Banksy called “Crayon for Closure” because Banksy is a famous modern graffiti artist and his art is widely known around the world like the Leonard de Vinci. I compared Galileo Galilei to Neil deGrasse Tyson. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, planetary scientist and author. He studied at Harvard university for 3 years and he was a research associate at Princeton. Neil deGrasse Tyson has written 17 books including Space Chronicles, Star Talk and Cosmic queries. I compared the printing press to technology/iPads because back during the renaissance the printing press was basically what technology is to us today. Lastly I compared the shift to humanism to the array of religions we have today. Instead of just having one religion (Christianity) we have hundreds including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Hinduism.

For the second part of the project we had to write a paragraph about what you thought was the most important thing/event/person. I choose the printing press. You can read my paragraph down below.

The printing press revolutionized human kind as we know it. The reasons printing presses were such an important part of history are that they revolutionized communication allowing for better educational opportunities for men, and allowing the splitting of Christianity into separate sects. The printing press led to wide access of a variety of information for all levels of society. This has continued today in the form of the internet which allows people worldwide, regardless of income, access to the same information. This had both good (everyone has access) and bad (false information) affects. Previous to the printing press eduction was limited to priest, popes and royalty. As printing made information (books) more accessible learning became more common among the general public, which also led to questioning of societal structures. Once Gutenberg invented the press people were able to spread knowledge and books worldwide. One book -The Bible- was printed widely which gave people the knowledge to have their own opinions about religious and political ideas. As you can see the printing press is responsible for the spreading of knowledge leading to political and religious changes and ultimately to the world we live in today.

Sources: 1,2,3

What I learned
I learned all about specific events in the renaissance that I didn’t know before. I also learned a lot about photo editing, like masking and layering which helped me make my collage. Lastly I learned a lot about writing paragraphs, creating topic sentences and strong opinions about a topic.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day! 😀