Renaissance Ideals And Realities, C. 1350-1550

Chapter Study Outline

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