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Western Civilizations, 3rd Brief Edition: A W. W. Norton StudySpace
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In This Chapter
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Chapter 12
Renaissance Ideals And Realities, C. 1350-1550
Chapter Study Outline
Introduction
From darkness to light?
The Renaissance spirit
An intellectual and cultural movement
Diversity of attitudes and approaches
The Renaissance and the Middle Ages
Observations
Classical culture was alive in the Middle Ages
"Renaissance paganism" and medieval "age of faith" a false contrast
There was no Renaissance position on anything
Renaissance classicism
Significant quantitative difference between medieval and Renaissance learning
Rediscovery of classical texts (e.g., Virgil, Ovid, and Cicero)
Recovery of classical Greece from Byzantium
Forced scholars to learn Greek
Renaissance scholars used classical texts in new ways
An awareness of history
An awareness of cultural gaps
Models of thought and action
Similarities between ancient city-states and those of Renaissance Italy
Renaissance culture more worldly and materialistic
Italian city-states
The importance of the urban political arena
A nonecclesiastical culture
Relative weakness of the Church in Italy
Renaissance humanism
A program of study
From scholastic logic and metaphysics to language, literature, rhetoric, history, and ethics
Vernacular literature as a diversion for the masses
Serious scholarship written in Latin (Cicero and Virgil) or Greek
The charge of elitism
Turned Latin into a fossilized language
The Renaissance educational program
The study of Latin and Greek
Producing virtuous citizens and able public officials
A practical elitism
Little concern for the education of women
The humanities
The Renaissance in Italy
The origins of the Italian Renaissancewhy Italy?
Italy was the most advanced urban society
Aristocrats lived in urban centers
More fully involved in urban public life
Aristocrats and merchants less sharply defined
Engaged in mercantile enterprises or banking
Greater demands for education for public life
Best-educated upper class in Europe
A greater sense of affinity with the classical past
The omnipresence of the past surrounded by the monuments of ancient Rome
The attempt to establish a cultural identity independent from scholasticism
Heightened antagonism between France and Italy
Roman art as alternative to French Gothicism
Italian wealth
A wealthy Italy compared to the rest of Europe
Italian writers and artists stayed at home rather than seek employment abroad
Urban pride and the concentration of per capita wealth
Public urban support for culture
Patronage of the aristocracy
Patronage of the papacy
The Italian Renaissance: literature and thought
Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374)
Deeply committed Christian
Scholasticism was misguided
Taught abstract speculation, not how to live virtuously
The Christian writer must cultivate literary eloquence, inspire people to do good
Models of eloquence to be found in Latin literature
Ethical wisdom
Wrote vernacular sonnets
The ultimate ideal was contemplation and asceticism
Civic humanism
Leonardo Bruni (c. 1370-1444) and Leon Battitsa Alberti (1404-1472)
Agreed with Petrarch on the need for eloquence and virtue
Taught that man was equipped for action and usefulness to society and family
Refused to condemn material possessions
Human progress equivalent to man's mastery over nature
The emergence of textual scholarship
The civic humanists went beyond Petrarch in their knowledge of classicism
Aided by Byzantine scholars who migrated to Italy
Italian scholars traveled to Constantinople looking for Greek texts
Giovanni Aurispa brought 238 manuscript books to Italy (1423)
Translated into Latin sense for sense rather than word for word
Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457)
Secretary in service to the king of Naples
No allegiance to republican ideals
Used an analysis of Greek and Latin texts to discredit old truths
Proved the Donation of Constantine to be a medieval forgery
Introduced the concept of anachronism into textual study
Notes on the New Testament
Elucidated the true meaning of Paul's letters
Believed they had been obscured by Jerome's translation
Renaissance Neoplatonism
Blending the ideas of Plato, Plotinus, and ancient mysticism with Christianity
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499)
Member of the Platonic Academy at Florence
Translated Plato's works into Latin
Hermetic Corpus
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494)
Also a member of the Academy
Saw little worth in public affairs
Oration on the Dignity of Man
"Nothing more wonderful than man"
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
The man
Reflected the instability of Renaissance Florence and Italy
Became a prominent government official of the Florentine republic (1498)
Went on diplomatic missions to other city-states
Fascinated with the achievements of Cesare Borgia
Deprived of his position (1512)
The ideas
Was he the amoral theorist of realpolitik?
Was he an Italian patriot?
Was he a follower of Saint Augustine?
Discourses on Livy
Praises the ancient Roman Republic as a model
Constitutional government
Equality among all citizens of a republic
Subordination of religion to the needs of the state
The Prince
A "handbook for tyrants" in the eyes of his critics
Machiavelli saw that only a ruthless prince could revitalize the spirit of independence
Dark vision of human nature
The ideal of the courtier
Baldessare Castiglione (1478-1529)
The Book of the Courtier (1528)
A handbook of etiquette
The Renaissance Man
Multitalented, brave, witty, and courteous
Helped spread the Italian ideal of civility
Machiavelli, Mandragola
Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533)
Orlando Furioso
Lyric fantasy devoid of heroic idealism
Written to make readers laugh
Embodies the disillusionment of the late Renaissance
Loss of hope and faith
Seeking consolation in pleasure and aesthetic delight
The Italian Renaissance: Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture
General tendencies
Laws of linear perspective were discovered in the fifteenth century
Experimented with the effects of light and shade (chiaroscuro)
Careful studies of human anatomy
Growth of lay patronage opened the door to nonreligious themes and subjects
Delighting the intellect and the eye
Oil does not dry quickly, allowing the painter to make changes
Renaissance painting in Florence
Masaccio (1401-1428)
"Giotto reborn"
Paintings imitated nature
Employed perspective and chiaroscuro
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)
Classical and Christian subjects
Allegory of Spring and Birth of Venus
Allegories compatible with Christian teachings
Ancient gods and goddesses represent various Christian virtues
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Personified the "Renaissance Man"
Painter, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, and artist
Patronage of Lorenzo the Magnificent
Worked slowlyhad difficulty finishing projects
Left Florence for Milan and the Sforzas (1482-1499)
A "camera eye" for what he painted
The worship of nature and the essential divinity in all things
The Virgin of the Rocks
Passion for science, the universe as a well-ordered place
The Last Supper
A study of psychological reactions
Mona Lisa and Ginevra de Benci
The Venetian School
Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430-1516)
Giorgione (1478-1510)
Titian (c. 1490-1576)
Characteristics
Their art reflected the luxurious life of Venice
Their aim was to appeal to the senses, not the mind
A mirror of the tastes of wealthy merchants
Painting in Rome
Raphael (1483-1520)
Native of Urbino
Portrayals of man as temperate, wise, and dignified
Influenced by Leonardo
Disputà and the School of Athens
Michelangelo (1475-1564)
An idealist, embraced Neoplatonism
Painter, sculptor, architect, and poet
The centrality of the male figurepowerful and magnificent
The Sistine Chapel paintings (1508-1512)
God Dividing the Light from Darkness, The Creation of Adam, The Flood
Commitment to classical aesthetic principles of art (harmony, solidity, dignified restraint)
The Last Judgment (1536)
Sculpture
Donatello (c. 1386-1466)
Davidthe first free-standing nude since antiquity
Michelangelo
Sculpture allowed the artist to imitate God in re-creating human forms
Subordinated naturalism to the force of imagination
David (1501) as expression of Florentine civic ideals
Moses (c. 1515)anatomical distortion and emotional intensity
Descent from the Cross (unfinished)
Architecture
New building style was a composite of elements from antiquity and medieval Europe
Italian Romanesque as model
Cruciform floor plan
Geometrical proportions
Saint Peter's Basilica (Rome)
Andrea Palladio (1508-1580)
The Waning of the Italian Renaissance
Causes of decline, c. 1550
War
French invasion of 1494 and incessant warfare
French inroads on northern Italy by Charles VIII
Duchy of Milan and kingdom of Naples
Aroused the suspicions of the Spanish
Louis XII invaded a second time (1499-1529)
Rome sacked by the Holy Roman emperor, Charles V (1527)
The waning of Italian prosperity
Gradual shift of trade from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
Warfare contributed to economic decline
The Renaissance in the North
Observations
Italian merchants were familiar figures at northern courts
Students from all over Europe attended Italian universities
Northern European intellectual life dominated by universities
Paris, Oxford, Charles University (Prague)
Focus was on logic and Christian theology
Little room for study of classical literature
More secular, urban-oriented educational tradition in Italy
Northern rulers less interested in patronizing artists and intellectuals
Christian humanism and the Northern Renaissance
Northern Christian humanists looked for ethical guidelines in the Christian past
They sought wisdom from the Christian ancients
New Testament
The church fathers
Northern artists inspired by Italian example to learn classical techniques
Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1469-1536)
"The prince of the Christian humanists"
Born near Rotterdam but was a citizen of the world
Devoured the classics and the teachings of the church fathers
Attended University of Paris
Rebelled against Parisian scholasticism
Made his living by teaching and writing
Traveled to England, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands
A Latin prose stylist
Verbal effects, puns, and irony
Promoted the "philosophy of Christ"
All society is corrupt, go back to the Gospels
The Praise of Folly (1509)
Sarcasm and parody of everything, including himself
Colloquies (1518)
Examined contemporary religious practices
Handbook of the Christian Knight (1503)
Urged the laity to pursue lives of inward piety
Complaint of Peace (1517)
Christian pacifism
Textual criticism
New versions of Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose
The New Testament (1516)
Greek and Latin translations
Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)
Lord Chancellor of England (1529)
Imprisoned for not taking an oath naming Henry VIII as head of the Church of England (1534)
Thrown into the Tower of London and executed
Martyrdom
Utopia
An Erasmian critique of contemporary society
An indictment against unearned wealth, persecution, punishment, and the slaughter of war
No private property or war
Literature, art, and music in the Northern Renaissaance
Pierre de Ronsard (c. 1524-1585) and Joachim du Bellay (c. 1522-1560) wrote Petrarchan sonnets
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) and Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599)
François Rabelais (c. 1494-1553)
Began his career in the clergy
Studied medicine, became a physician in Lyons
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Satirized religious ceremonialism, scholasticism, superstitions, and bigotry
Written in French
Glorified the human and the natural
The "abbey of Thélème" "do what thou wouldst."
Architecture
French châteaux
Combined elements of French Gothic with classical horizontality
The Louvre, Paris (1546)
Painting
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Mastered Italian techniques of proportion and perspective
The details of nature
Erasmus the hero
Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543)
The portraits of Sir Thomas More and Erasmus
Capturing the essence of human individuality
Music
Humanistic efforts to recover and imitate classical musical forms
New expressiveness: coloration and emotional quality
New musical instruments: lute, viol, violin, and harpsichord
New musical forms: madrigal, motets, opera
Less distinction between sacred and profane music
The ars nova (new art)
Flourished in Italy and France
Francesco Landini (c. 1325-1397)
Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377)
Secular music
Also adapted for ecclesiastical motets
Franco-Flemish compositions
Roland de Lassus (1532-1594)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594)
Choral music written for Catholic church services
England
William Byrd (1543-1623)
Conclusion
Contrasts
Scholasticism and Christianity
Neoplatonism and Christianity
Civic and Christian humanism
Machiavelli and Erasmus
High Middle Ages and the Renaissance