Italian Renaissance Food

{{You can go straight to the recipes or view other Renaissance Italy Resources.}}

caption: The Marriage at Cana, from the Spiegel menschlicher Behältnis, Basle 1476. From Gode Cookery

What one eats is always influenced by what is available and how much money you have. Renaissance Italy is no exception. I am sure there were significant regional differences – just as there are today, although I can not find any reference to the “olive oil/butter line”. I did find references to olive oil used “for flavor and as a cooking medium”.

The Renaissance was a time of “awakening” and changes and food was not exception. Although Marco Polo is unlikely to have gone to China, people did and their influence was seen in many places.[1] One site said that China was responsible for spices, certain stewing/cooking preparations and the custom of eating fruit before a meal. Italians started stewing foods in fruits, wine and spices during the Renaissance. Multi-colored gelatin was seen in Florence - at least at their exclusive cooking academy.

Before refrigeration everyone was much more aware of what was in season and ate fresh when they could, and dried items out of season according to what was available.

caption: Line illustration and A Last Supper picture from Gode Cookery

Most Europeans were still Catholic and feast/fast days were observed. At one point in the late Middle Ages about half of the days of the year were designated fast days when no meat could be eaten. Of course this was not much of an issue for the poor who could not afford to eat meat as often as every other day! Fish was popular, fresh, dried, and salted, especially in the Lenten season.[2]

Common Foods

Almonds and onions were both very common in general, but I can’t say much about them for Italy in particular. (Please check for food allergies if you are feeding a group!) Common in Italy:

• Vegetables
  
• Bread, pizza (no tomato sauce) & hard biscuits
• The middle class at this time was responsible for the popularity of pasta, lasagna, and ravioli (without tomatoes)[3]
• Soups and stews
• Rice/risotto
• Cheese: including brie, cheddar, gouda, buffalo mozzarella cheese
• Omlettes
• Meatballs, pork, small birds, pike (fish) and game
• Wine (Water was used for coking when it was known to be safe)

Search for Cooking Methods for Vegetables on Gode Cookery's How to cook Renaissance foods for details - but boiling when the water was safe, and eating raw salads were both common. That page also discusses use of water & wine & alcohol, elsewhere the site lists foods to never use for Renaissance cooking like corn, tomatoes, turkey (which had not yet reached them from the New World), rhubarb and bananas (probably know but not used), potatoes, and yams (which traders would bring from Africa). Check out the illustration of a spit from Historic Food.

At Home in Renaissance Italy says “During the Renaissance it was common for meals to have four courses, which could consist of one entrée, two meat courses and one course of fruit or cheese. Meat was expensive and eaten regularly only by the wealthy. Short pasta, which would be boiled, became increasingly popular during the sixteenth century and soon dominated the Italian diet.”

From The Food Timeline

Cuisine of Christopher Columbus
He was born in Genoa where a diet with lots of herbs and salads - but no or few spices and no coffee was common. Read more about cuisine of his Genoa days. Recipes - for his whole life - are here.

Recipes Online

• At home in Renaissance Italy recipes. Note: the recipes are by weight in grams, not cups of ingredients. Got a scale?
  
  
• From Gode Cookery: A Renaissance Cookery Book – with recipes ( but in the original…) and the recipes - in the original & “translated” to modern English
  

• Menu & Recipes from Alabama Renaissance Faire: The 2005 Feast
  

• French Renaissance Menu: http://saint-esprit.freeservers.com/food.htm

• Food of the Renaissance from the Virtual Renaissance Team includes "tidbits" and recipes for breads, cheese & eggs, soups, vegetables (did you know the beginning of autumn was the best season for celery?), staples and desserts. They even have the script of a veggie presentation!

• Editure's Renaiassance Food Worksheet includes a recipe for gingerbread and sample menus.

• Renaissance Peas, Sausage, or gingerbread (more like candy)
  
• Renaissance-style Pasta
• 16th century Italian Carrots in Vinagrette from De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine by Platina and a Cariota
  
• 16th century Italian Peach Compote
• 16th century Italian Pear Pie
  
  
• Janis Herbert's Leonardo da Vinci for Kids has a recipe for Vegetarian Minestrone (p. 46) and Salai's Aniseed Sweets (p.49). da Vinci probably ate minestrone - but not this one with tomatoes! Spanish explorers brought kidney beans back from Peru in the 15th century so he may have eaten them. While we know that Salai liked anise seed; I am not sure we know if he ate this date sweet recipe. (For more on minestrone, see Richard Calhoun's piece).
  

I also enjoyed reading "What Foods are Period When?" by Marieke. Although I was confused by her referring to Protestants in Medieval Times - since they did not exist until the Renaissance in Italy (while it was still "High Middle Ages" elsewhere).

References for this page included:
Victoria & Albert's At Home in Renaissance Italy
Goode Cookery
Thinkquest's library

---

[1] Last week I was told that daVinci was responsible for the “modern” spinning wheel, and he was influenced to do this by information on pulleys – from China. I want to check that out.

[2] Salt was a major trade item, probably from at least the time of Viking invasions. I can’t remember when salt flats were created in Europe.

[3] Remember tomatoes were from the New World and originally thought to be poisonous. Extra credit: tell us when tomatoes arrived in Europe and when people started eating them. Make your own food timeline.

Italian Renaissance Resources

These resources may be of interest to you and your family as you prepare to attend the Italian Renaissance Homeschool Archaeology Camp. Although your child will still learn if they just attend the Dig, many families have found that some preparation helps their child learn more and make connections. Resources are organized into: Books, Videos, online Video clips, Web Quests, Web Sites and Picture Books. There is a separate page on Italian Renaissance Food and Recipes. This is the background our dig director suggested:

"The Renaissance as it unfolded in Italy was the culmination of developments in art, politics and demography that occurred during the high Middle Ages (13th century AD). Children should be aware that the artistic and political products of the High Renaissance in Italy (1470-1530 AD) rested on events knowable from history, still- existing architecture and copious museum exhibits. The dig focuses on a site from outside the gates of Milan, Italy, which dates to around 1500. The stories they will hear center on the people, events, artifacts and buildings of that period in Lombardy (the region of which Milan was and is the capital) as well as those of Northern Italy and the rest of Europe. In passing, such geniuses as Machiavelli and Vico will be mentioned, as well as scientists like Galilleo, artists like Giotto, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, and architects like Bramante and Brunelleschi. Lavishly illustrated slide stories will accompany the verbiage, as well as very detailed and serious maps of the region of concern. The object of the dig is to give the children a grasp of the importance of the period and the region as it can be obtained through correctly-applied archaeological technique and reasoning."

- Geof Purcell, The Archaeological Perspective
(excerpt from private email, September 2006)

Outline of Topics

To me, Big Dog's quote suggests the following discussion items for your children. Of course, every family has their own curriculum plan and interests, and not everyone will be studying this period of history past the dig.

1. Introduction and Culture (time line, geography, culture)

• A bit of Geography
  Maps? world – Europe – Italy – Lombardy – Milan
  perhaps importance of city walls and city gates
  
• history?
  A bit of timeline – the Renaissance is after the Vikings & Middle Ages, Christianity is well established in Europe. Well before Columbus and electricity.
• The Venetian Empire was the seat of economic power in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

(note for parents – The Medicis were a prominent family in the Renaissance – a wealthy family, involved in politics, patrons of the arts, but perhaps not a dynasty that you would want your children to study in detail at this time. I think Machiavelli worked for the Medici. The Renaissance was also known as the “Golden Age of Poison”. This deadly practice helped shape European history and the Catholic Church.)

2. Daily Life (dress, home life, occupations) impacts artifacts that might be found.
By the Renaissance, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe. One "digger" suggests this virtual Renaissance Village that a school created online. It seems to span countries and many years but has a school, a wedding, complete with photos, the Sistine Chapel and the Globe Theatre. (The Renaissance started in Italy and reached England later.)

3. Religion/Mythology (gods, burial rites, Christianity)

4. Arts and Recreation - Games, Music, Sports, etc.) Games/sports included: Rounders, chess and card games. (lots of pop-ups from this Renaissance Games site)

5. Government, Armies, Class System

6. Language/Writing

Libraries?, Gutenberg, printing press,

7. People (or what do those turtles have to do with this…?)
Genius: Machiavelli, Italian philosopher Giovanni Battista Vico

Scientists:
Galileo Galileo - astronomer and physicist who supported the Copernican theory. (Copernicus was an early scientist who wrote Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.)

Johann Gutenburg invented the printing press. He printed the first printed version of the bible.

Artists: Giotto, Leonardo Da Vinci, (Raphael, Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli (painted the Birth of Venus), Fra Angelico, …)

Architects:
Donato Bramante (1444 – March 11, 1514),
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – April 15, 1446) This Florentine architect and engineer was the first to carry out a series of experiments leading to a mathematical theory of perspective.

8. Zooming out for a bigger picture -

• How was this different in different parts of Europe
• Why did the Renaissance start in Flanders and Italy?
  
• What was happening in the rest of the world?
  
• How long was the Renaissance? Why did it start in Italy?
• (what period follows – Age of Reason, Enlightenment.
• Where would Shakespeare fall? (this is a question for the oldest children who have or are studying Shakespeare)

For pre-dig days:
Please be ready to give a very brief overview of your craft/presentation's importance to the Renaissance Italians (not a thesis, just a brief history). Pretend Big Dog will be there, ready to say, “What is the context?"

A couple of alerts - In the Renaissance people began to question the church; the church was a bit slow in reacting to scientific discoveries, and some priests were very corrupt. Michelangelo did not lay on his back to paint the Sistine Chapel even though some books and sites still say that. Please use appropriate adult supervision if your family builds things or conducting experiments - even if it is from a source listed here. I accept no responsibility for supervising your children!

Actual Resources

We've listed lots of video clips and web resources this go-around. There has been a lot published on the Renaissance so it's much easier to find things than it was for the Vikings! (Special thanks to Miranda.)

Books

1. Eyewitness: Renaissance (Eyewitness Books)


2. Journey Through History: Renaissance by Garme Peris, Gloria & Oriol Verges (1988). I would call it a read-to-them picture book, lots of words. I think it makes a good introduction to the period, and give you lots of chance to talk about things. (only caveat: I'm not sure the mention of an "attack by Moslem" is representative.)
   


3. Art for Children: Leonardo DaVinci by Ernst Rabott (ISBN 0-06-446076-2). I especially like that the art work is large enough to see. The series also has books on Michelangelo and Raphael although I have not seen them, all of the others in the series have also been good.


4. Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself (Build It Yourself series) by Maxine Anderson (grades 4 - 8 ) how to & history. Please remember appropriate adult supervision when building. (You can get an ebook copy for FREE after registering at wowio.com. Here's their description of the book.)
   


5. Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas, 25 Activities (For Kids series) by Richard Panchyk.


6. Leonardo da Vinci for Kids: His Life and Ideas, 21 Activities (For Kids series) by Janis Herbert (biography with background on Italy and art) and then 21 activities (grades 4- 8)


7. Leonardo, The Beautiful Dreamer by Robert Byrd (grades 3 - 8)
   

Videos

1. PBS – video and related book on Renaissance Lives
   
   
2. Video: Engineering an Empire - Engineering An Empire: Da Vinci's World
   After the fall of Rome, Italy fell into a dark sleep, and wasn't reawakened until the 11th century. Autonomous city-states emerged and these tiny republics began to revitalize their cities and build on a massive level not witnessed since the rise of Rome. In the late 15th and 16th centuries, alliances among various city-states continually shifted as foreign superpowers tried to sink their claws into Italy. The masters who are best known for creating the works of art and architecture of the Renaissance, were also the greatest military and civil engineers of the time. Peter Weller hosts. (See clips online.)
   
   
3. The History Channel's Da Vinci and the code he lived by: The Unique Vision and Determination of the Renaissance Master. This video seems to have more than was shown on TV.
   
   
4. The Teaching Company videos can be found at many libraries or purchased. (each title goes on sale at least once a year.) These are courses for high school and college level but usually with entertaining instructors. You may find they are good background for you to watch sharing selected lectures with your family, or you may find this is "too much" now. Relevant videos include: Italian Renaissance, Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance, Art of the Northern Renaissance, Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Rise of Nations, and (New in 2007 & probably not in the libraries - yet) Italians Before Italy: Conflict and Competition in the Mediterranean.
   

Online Video Clips

Click on the link below for the clips from HISTORY.com.

1. Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists, is born in the small village of Caprese on March 6, 1475. The son of a government administrator, he grew up in Flore ...

3/06/1475 - Michelangelo Born

[play video 51 sec

2. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of Italian artist Michelangelo's finest works, is exhibited to the public for the first time. Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest of the Ital ...

11/01/1512: Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel opens

[play video 1 min 3 secs]

3. A look at the Palazzo Vecchio and other great palaces in Florence, Italy ...

The Grand Tour: The Renaissance Art of Florence

[play video 3 min 46 secs]

4. Peter Weller (host) rants about the Renaissance and the birth of Humanism ...

Engineering an Empire: Peter on Humanism and the Renaissance

[play video 2 min 40 secs]

5. Peter Weller (host) visits the Pazzi Chapel, Filippo Brunelleschi's architectural triumph in Florence. ...

Engineering an Empire: Age of Architects - Pazzi Chapel

[play video 3 min 15 secs]

Web Quests

1. Renaissance background
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/%7Edee/REN/BACK.HTM

2. Renaissance WebQuest by Ms. Bjornstad
   http://www.mhrd.k12.nj.us/mk/library/webquests.htm#bjornstad

3. Leonardo da Vinci Web Quest
http://media.nasaexplores.com/lessons/04-065/5-8_2.pdf

4. The art of the Italian Renaissance WebQuest
   http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/HodgesSpring2005/JackieHirschi/

5. Ren. Artists & Inventions Web Quest
   http://teacherweb.com/WI/TMS/MrsFry/h0.stm
   
   
6. Web Quest – Learning about Leonardo
   http://library.thinkquest.org/13681/data/davin2.shtml

Web sites

1. The Renaissance Connection, from Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA
   A middle-school level exploration of Renaissance visual arts and innovations and their role in the making of the modern world. As described by their technology partner eduweb on their Adventures Page: " "Explore a timeline of Renaissance art and innovation, commission an artwork as a patron of the arts, design your own innovation, and much more, all enhanced with quirky visuals, irreverent humor, and engaging interactivity that reveal the ways that Renaissance life and culture resemble our own. " (Best if you have Flash installed - but there is a HTML/text version as well.)

2. (Victoria & Albert Museum's) At home in Renaissance Italy - listen to music, furnish your own sala, play bingo, …

3. Discover the Renaissance - Your Mission is to leap into the life of a character listed below. Find out as much as possible about your character including social status, daily life, talents and occupation.
4. Journey Through the Renaissance (although I was not impressed by their projects)
5. PBS has a lot from their special Medicis: Godfathers of the Renaissance including a gallery of art , an interactive time line for 1360 - 1743, and pages on artists and Galileo.
   
   
6. Renaissance Timeline
   


7. Renaissance Theme Page
   
8. The Italian Renaissance (1420-1600)
   
9. Renaissance: Focus on Florence
10. Renaissance Influence on Art & Architecture
    


11. Math in Italy
    http://www.montana.edu/webquest/math/gradeskto5/howell/italy.html
    By using the suggested resources, you will have the opportunity to acquire a better understanding of mathematics through the viewpoint of the Italian culture. Please visit the internet sites and read the accounts of the people and events you will find there. You can pretend to travel back in time and imagine yourself as being there and try to experience Italy and the math they used.

12. http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/renaissance/GeneralFiles/Introduction.html

13. http://www.craftsforkids.com/projects/600/608.htm

14. http://www.easyfunschool.com/article1063.html

15. Italian Renaissance Art Project - You are part of a group of artists dedicated to understanding Italian Renaissance Art. You will analyze the painting techniques used by Italian painters throughout the Renaissance. Each artist in your group of four will examine the art work.

16. Art of the Renaissance - Links to support lessons in Renaissance Art, including examples of Renaissance music, art, mapping etc., Scholastic's Internet Field Trip, Annenberg Media's Annenberg Media's Renaissance: Out of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: What inspired this age of balance and order?

17. Renaissance Ideas from a Parsippany Middle school– geared to 6^th grade level
    
    
18. Italy in Shakespeare’s Times (was this late Renaissance or a next period?) http://ryecityschools.lhric.org/webquest/High/Shakespeare/Life%20In%20Italy.htm

19. Italophiles has 24 depictions of woodcuts from Cesare Vecellio's Renaissance costume book - first printed in 1590.

20. Tour: Italian Renaissance Ceramics
    http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/itacer/itacer-main1.html


21. Italian Ren Elementary Lesson Plans – mostly art
    (note: Michelangelo built neat scaffolding and did not lie on his back – although Heston did in the movie)
    http://members.aol.com/TWard64340/Renaissance.htm


22. Raphael
    http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael


23. Leonardo daVinci
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci
    
    Transforming Mona Lisa – and downloadable Mona Lisahttp://www.wyckoffschools.org/eisenhower/teachers/olejarz/digitalimaging/mona/
    


24. Mona Lisa
    http://gardenofpraise.com/art17.htm


25. Wikipedia on Renaissance Music
    (This artist performs Renaissance music on recorder.)
    Another site about Renaissance musical instruments.
    
    
26. Reasonable intro/overviews of Renaissance Personalities
    These pages were made by 8^th graders in 1997. (I did not read them all!) http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/

1. Brunelleschi (architect)
   http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/main/brunelleschi.html
2. Galileo (scientist)
   http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/main/galileo.html
3. Donatello (Sculptor)
   http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/main/donatello.html
4. Shakespeare (scholar, writer)
   http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/main/shakespeare.html
5. Machiavelli
   http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/main/machiavelli.html
6. Mercator
   http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/main/mercator.html
7. Descartes
   http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/main/descartes.html
   

Picture Books

1. Katie And The Mona Lisa by James Mayhew - She falls through a painting to visit the Renaissance.
   
   
2. Leonardo and the Flying Boy by Laurence Anholt - "slight" picture book but does have some of Leonardo's drawings.
   
   
3. Leonardo, The Beautiful Dreamer by Robert Byrd (grades 3 - 8)
   
   
4. Michelangelo's Surprise by Tony Parillo
   
   
5. Galileo's Treasure Box by Catherine Brighton
   
   
6. Not sure if the art work in this book reflects Renaissance art or not: I have not seen this one. Mary, The Mother of Jesus by Tomie dePaola “is lovely and quite different from the author’s typical children’s storybook or his saints’ stories. Mary’s life is depicted in fifteen beautifully illustrated segments. In his forward, Tomie de Paola writes, “When I was an art student in 1956, I saw the Giotto frescoes of the life of Mary in the Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy. I knew that some day, I would attempt my own visual version of Mary’s life. I have drawn on scripture, legend and tradition for the praise of Mary, the mother of Jesus.” – Description from http://charlottemason.tripod.com/4realpaola.htm
   

last updated: 25 September 2007
links valid at the time they were added

Pre-dig Days: Italian Renaissance

Pre-dig Days: Italian Renaissance (for 5 – 12 year olds)

This year we decided to focus on the artists and scientists of the period before the dig. We have found that the more we know, the more we get out of a Dig, although there is lots of be learned if one just walks in too! Here is a possible schedule, of course it would vary with the ages and interests of the people involved.

Day 1 – 10 – 2pm – Art & Artists

Bring your own ‘bag’ lunch. Tentative schedule!

1. Brief introduction to the period – perhaps with a time line and black line maps

2. (?) intro to art & artists – by ?

3. daVinci presentation – by child

create a Mona Lisa off your own with a present day person. For ideas:

1. Lesson Plan: http://members.aol.com/TWard64340/Renaissance.htm#Leonardo
2. Mostly questions for you to use: Mona Lisa Images for a Modern World: A Teacher's Guide by Robert A. Baron
   
3. Ideas for Mona Lisa Parodies
   
4. Upside down Modern Mona (more art/drawing, less really Mona Lisa)
   

Maybe discuss Davinci’s Mona Lisa – monochromatic, review shading & tinting? How it is the most copies art piece in the world? Mona Art and Mona kids versions to show after.

Mona Lisa painting info (& timeline), landscape/background, more landscape, and about the dress. Or, for more background and what scientists have found on the Mona Lisa, see:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa (Look at the detail of the background, left side to see a tiny bit of column in the picture)
• Austen, Ian, “New Look at ‘Mona Lisa’ Yields Some New Secrets”, New York Times, Published: September 27, 2006, http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/09/27/arts/design/27mona.html
• The Louvre’s “A Closer Look” web site http://www.louvre.fr/llv/dossiers/detail_oal.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673229908&CURRENT_LLV_OAL%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673229908&bmLocale=en

4. Michelangelo presentation – requested

Check out the sonnet Michelangelo wrote about how painful standing on scaffolding and painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel was

5. Donatello representation – requested

Share additive style sculpture done at home following Tabitha Wards’ Elementary Lesson Plans (distributed in advance) from: http://members.aol.com/TWard64340/Renaissance.htm#Donatello

(Warning – while we like her page, it does repeat a myth about Michelangelo as fact. Despite what C. Heston did in the film, we know that Michelangelo stood to paint the Sistine Chapel, using scaffolding he designed himself. We avoided her “ceiling painting” exercise for didactic reasons.)

6. Other (other artists?, perspective, architecture) Victoria & Alberts has some nice resources on Raphael and his painted designs for tapestries that might help.)

7. Renaissance game (if time permits, but we won't be gambling!)

Day 2 (10 – 2 with lunch break) – Scientists

(with a themed potluck of Italian Renaissance food – sign up in advance.) So, where does one learn about Renaissance Italy food and recipes?

Tentative!

1. Galileo’s work – by ?

Scientific method intro – by child

Display Telescopes made at home and discuss seeing the moon. For ideas, see:
http://amasci.com/amateur/teles.html

I'm disappointed by Home Training Tools' "make a simple telescope" directions, unless you happen to have the right lenses around the house! They sell a kit for $13 with what you need, and individual lenses for a more do-it-yourself approach. I really liked their astrolabe directions - this tool has been around for 1000 years reaching its heyday in 1400-1500.

Activity 1. Re-create Galileo experiments (perhaps acceleration? his experiments with motion?). The group leader may want to consider these links – as well as the space they have and the abilities of their group. Please point out that we don’t really know whether Galileo actually ever dropped cannon balls from the Tower of Pisa!

1. http://galileo.rice.edu/lib/student_work/experiment95/inclined_plane.html
2. http://galileo.rice.edu/lib/student_work/experiment96/trajectorybackground.html
3. Falling Balls – experiment 1
   http://www.materialworlds.com/sims/Galileo/worksheet1.html
4. Period of a Pendulum – Large Angle
   http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspExpGuide&ResourceID=454
5. Registration is required to access experiments from teachers’ domain – but they have about a dozen based on Galileo:
   http://www.teachersdomain.org/app/search/run_search?terms=galileo

Discussion 2. “other Renaissance discoveries”

"war, armor an& weapons" - by child
"Occupations in the Renaissance" - by child

compass – new to Europe
printing press – new to Europe

presentation on libraries & books of the time – by child
(may include impact of printing press in general, or on religion and authors)

3. Renaissance game (if time)

More Renaissance Resources

More videos
Discovery Education streaming or unitedstreaming must have some relevant videos. The best way I know for homeschoolers to join is through the free Homeschool Buyers Co-op. Since we are a group, special deals are periodically available for us.

Clipart
Clipart ETC is an online service of Florida's Educational Technology Clearinghouse and has a 5 images under the category "Renaissance Sculpture". However, to find more, use the search option and look for individual artists, for example: "Donatello" (7 images), "Michelangelo" (3 images).

Educational Use. A maximum of fifty (50) clipart items may be used in any non-commercial, educational project (report, presentation, display, website, etc.) without special permission. The use of more than fifty clipart items in a single project requires written permission from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) at USF.

Credit. Please credit FCIT whenever a resource is used. If resources from this site are incorporated into a website, a link to http://etc.usf.edu/clipart must be included on your site. If you would like to help others find the Clipart ETC site, you may choose to link to us with one of these banners or buttons instead of a text link. (Here's a man mounted upon a horse from
S. Reinach, Apollo (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922) via FCIT)

Another

The Renaissance Connection, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania

A middle-school level exploration of Renaissance visual arts and innovations and their role in the making of the modern world. Explore a timeline of Renaissance art and innovation, commission an artwork as a patron of the arts, design your own innovation, and much more, all enhanced with quirky visuals, irreverent humor, and engaging interactivity that reveal the ways that Renaissance life and culture resemble our own. (It works best if you have Flash installed - but there is a HTML/text version as well.)

Suggestions from surfaquarium

Journey through the Renaissance - http://library.thinkquest.org/C005356/
This Flash-based website will allow your students to take an animated tour of the Renaissance beginning in Italy and traveling through time across Europe. You can take advantage of the Flash technology or use the Market Place alternative to sift through the content without having to make use of the plugin. Assuming you do want the full effect, you can opt for either a spoken guided tour or a smaller-sized silent tour. Running like an interactive multimedia movie, this is sure to get students' attention. Great as an introduction to the Renaissance!

Virtual Renaissance - http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/Renaissance/VirtualRen.html
OK so the index page is a bit much with the intense background. But once you get past it your students are in for quite a treat. Enter through Portal Five and receive a complete lesson plan for using this site with your students, who are required to apprentice for an artisan during Renaissance times. There is an emphasis on the study of the Guilds of the time and an opportunity for each of your students to become a master craftsperson in his or her own right. This site is set in Renaissance Italy, so it gives a nice contrast to other pages recommended on this topic which favor the later northern Renaissance.

RENAISSANCE - an Annenberg/CPB project on the cultural rebirth of the Middle Ages - excellent production and activities

RENAISSANCE TOME OF ADVENTURE AND KNOWLEDGE - "Sir Clisto Seversword" takes you on a journey through the Middle Ages using sight and sound to simulate a right medieval experience - very different!

LEONARDO HOME PAGE
From the Boston Museum of Science; includes an Inventor's Workshop and a look at Leonardo's Perspective

LEONARDO: WEBMUSEUM SITE
An art criticism of his life's work with eight of his works viewable online as part of the presentation; links to a timeline of the High Renaissance, Raphael, Titian and Rembrandt