Free Printable Crossword Puzzles for the Renaissance

Press New puzzle for a Renaissance criss-cross crossword of 12 clues on art, ideas and Italian cities, then Print.

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Renaissance Crossword

Read each clue and write the answer in the squares that start at its number, one letter in each square.

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Tap a square, and its clue shows here.

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Print gives 2 pages on Letter or A4: the puzzle with its clues, then the answer key. The squares print 8 mm wide. For a PDF, choose Save as PDF in the print window.

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Answer key: Renaissance Crossword

1P2PE3BA4PORTRAITSORPNO5MARBLEZNCE6SFUMATO7DKIO8GESSOVM9CT10TEMPERACN11CHISELVAS

Across 4 PORTRAIT · 5 MARBLE · 6 SFUMATO · 8 GESSO · 10 TEMPERA · 11 CHISEL

Down 1 PERSPECTIVE · 2 PATRON · 3 BRONZE · 6 SKETCH · 7 DOME · 9 CANVAS

Next step Print an art crosswordPrint a crossword on another period of history

All 60 clues

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Art and the Workshop 20

  • Apprentice Trainee who learned a trade under a master
  • Bronze Alloy of copper and tin, cast into statues
  • Canvas Strong cloth stretched on a frame as a surface for painting
  • Cartoon Full-size preparatory drawing for a large painting
  • Chisel Carver's cutting tool, struck with a mallet
  • Dome Rounded vault shaped like a sphere's hollow top half
  • Fresco Wall painting done on wet lime plaster
  • Gesso White coating that readied a wooden panel for paint
  • Gilding Covering a surface with thin gold leaf
  • Marble Stone carved and polished into statues
  • Palette Board on which a painter mixes colors
  • Patron Wealthy supporter who paid for an artist's work
  • Perspective Way of showing depth on a flat surface, with lines that meet at a vanishing point
  • Pigment Colored powder that is mixed with a binder to make paint
  • Portrait Picture of a person where the face is the main subject
  • Sculpture Art of carving or modeling in three dimensions
  • Sfumato Soft blending of tones with no hard outlines
  • Sketch Quick freehand drawing, often a study for a later work
  • Tapestry Heavy woven textile with a picture, hung on a wall
  • Tempera Paint bound with egg yolk, common before oil paint took over

Ideas and Inventions 20

  • Anatomy Study of the structure of the body
  • Astrolabe Instrument that measured how high a star stood above the horizon
  • Cartography The making of maps
  • Classical Belonging to the world of ancient Greece and its Roman heirs
  • Globe Round model of the Earth
  • Greek Language of ancient texts that scholars carried west after 1453
  • Heliocentric Describing a model that puts the Sun, not the Earth, at the center
  • Humanism Movement that put the study of ancient writers at the center of learning
  • Latin Language of the old Roman Empire, used by scholars across Europe
  • Lens Curved piece of glass that bends light
  • Manuscript Book or document written by hand
  • Parchment Writing surface made from animal skin
  • Polymath Person with deep knowledge of many subjects
  • Press Machine that prints by pushing paper against inked metal letters
  • Rebirth What the French word renaissance means
  • Sonnet Poem of fourteen lines with a set rhyme scheme
  • Telescope Viewing tube invented in the Netherlands early in the 1600s
  • Type Movable metal letters, set in rows and inked
  • Utopia Word for an ideal place, from the title of a book of 1516
  • Vernacular Everyday spoken language of a place

Places and Powers 20

  • Adriatic Arm of the Mediterranean east of the Italian Peninsula
  • Court Household of a ruler, where artists and poets looked for work
  • Doge Elected head of the Venetian state, chosen for life
  • Ducat Gold trade coin used across Europe since the late Middle Ages
  • Duke Ruler of a duchy
  • Florence City on the Arno, often called the birthplace of the Renaissance
  • Florin Gold coin struck from 1252 and trusted across Europe
  • Genoa Port city on the Ligurian coast, a sea power in its own right
  • Guild Association of craftsmen or traders that oversaw the practice of their trade
  • Italy Peninsula where the Renaissance began
  • Merchant Person engaged in trade, above all in imports and exports
  • Milan Chief city of Lombardy, seat of a duchy from 1395
  • Naples Kingdom that ruled the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States
  • Palace Grand residence of a ruler or a rich family
  • Piazza Open public square of an Italian town
  • Prince Ruler of a small state, and the title word of a famous book of 1532
  • Republic State without a monarch, governed in the name of its people
  • Rome City on the Tiber, seat of the popes
  • Tuscany Region whose dialect became the model for the Italian national language
  • Venice City built on islands in a lagoon and crossed by canals

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this page in three sets: art and the workshop, ideas and inventions, and places and powers. Each was checked against the English Wikipedia article for its answer in October 2026. No painter, sculptor, writer or ruler is named: the bank keeps to the words of the period. No clue was copied from a published puzzle. Licence: own work

How it works

This Renaissance crossword puzzle, printable with its answer key, covers one unit of a world history course in three sets: the artist's workshop, ideas and inventions, and the cities and powers of Italy. It is a vocabulary crossword.

Read the full guide

Three sets

Art and the Workshop, the opening set, has Fresco, Gesso, Apprentice and Sfumato. Ideas and Inventions has Humanism, Astrolabe, Vernacular and Heliocentric. Places and Powers has Florence, Guild, Florin and Doge.

Words of the period, no names

No painter, writer or ruler is an answer or is named in a clue, so the puzzle tests the unit's vocabulary. Two clues point to a book by its year alone.

  • In More options, turn on Word bank under the clues for a first pass through the unit, and leave it off for review.

Questions and answers

What grade is the Renaissance crossword for?

About grades 6 to 9, the years a world history course reaches the period. Answers run from Dome and Duke to Perspective and Heliocentric. The band is our judgment, not a published standard.

Why are no artists named in the puzzle?

The bank keeps to the words of the period: materials, methods, ideas, places and offices. A class can add its own names with the crossword maker for names on this site.

Is there an answer key?

Yes. Every print ends with the key on a sheet of its own, and Show all clues and answers, under the puzzle, lists all 60 clues.

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