How does the Renaissance attitude towards the legacy of antiquity compare to that of the Middle Ages?
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How does the Renaissance attitude towards the legacy of antiquity compare to that of the Middle Ages?
The Renaissance and the Middle Ages are both modern terms; I just want to underscore that. They were terms given to these two periods that we talk about often. In many ways, the concept of the Middle Ages is invented in the Renaissance and is a product of the Renaissance view of the world.
A person living in the era that we call the Middle Ages is not aware that he or she is living in that period. He or she does not wake up and say, "Gosh, I really feel terrible that I live in this medieval world." They consider themselves to be living in a rich present full of its own triumphs and challenges, its own positives things and negative things. Moreover, they don't see themselves as being separated from the world of the classical past. Medieval kings and emperors consider themselves to be the heirs of Rome. The church itself has adopted Roman institutions, as we've mentioned and talked about. In many ways, the power of Ancient Rome is seen to carry over into medieval monarchies and into the medieval church, so there really isn't any consciousness of difference.
What produces this consciousness? The Italian poet, Francesco Petrarca, is the first person we know to locate himself in a conscious way as existing in a world that is not Roman. In other words, he feels that something has been lost, that there is no longer any continuity between the greatness of Rome and the present day. He sees himself as living in a debased world. In a way, he locates himself as living in a middle age.
In fact, the concept of the Middle Ages, in a Christian context, is not the medieval period that we know but the dark age between the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the birth of Jesus Christ. Those are the middle ages, the dark ages, in a Christian context. And of course, Christ enlightens that age and we all live in the light of Christ's resurrection.
Petrarca took this concept, applied it to his own time, and said, "Everything that separates me from the greatness of Rome is medieval, is the middle." What he set himself up to do was recover that past. Here is the essential difference: whereas a medieval worldview sees itself as being bound up to and connected with the classical past, a Renaissance worldview wants to revive, as that word means. It wants to give rebirth to that classical age because it perceives that classical age as dead.
What historical factors led to the emergence of new art forms during this period?
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What historical factors led to the emergence of new art forms during this period?
I would say we have to start with artists' use of new artistic media. The Renaissance sees the emergence of art forms that are portable. One of the things that make these art forms portable and therefore marketable to a wider audience is the fact that artists start using paper and canvas as media. Moreover, the development of new painting technologies - the use of oil paints becomes possible - begins in Flanders in the Netherlands and is actually exported to Italy. Oil paints make it possible for artists to correct mistakes in their work, to work more carefully, to play with light and shadow. So artists can start doing really interesting, cool effects with their art. More importantly, because they are painting on paper or canvas, those artworks are not tied to huge buildings like churches. They can be done on spec by artists who can buy their own materials instead of having to wait for a commission. You as an artist can then paint a picture that you then market to the highest bidder, whereas if you are an sculptor or painter who usually works for a cathedral, you have to wait for the bishop to build the cathedral and then you get to decorate it. So that is one very important thing.
The other thing we can point to is the existence of a plethora of new political powers, from princes to independent cities, all of whom are aspiring to aggrandize themselves, to beautify themselves. They all want to show that they are the arbiters of taste and each of them wants to hire artists to beautify their town halls or their palaces. As in the Hellenistic world that we studied in chapter four, it's always good for artists when there are a lot of people around competing for status because artists are the people who help to make you look good. Renaissance artists are benefiting from this enormously, especially after the Papacy returns from the Avignon Captivity and wants to restore Rome to its former glory.
That's another thing we should point to: the Italians in particular are looking toward the classical past for new models because they recognize that Italy has ceased to be a political power. This has occurred not only because of the fragmentation of the Roman Empire but because for several generations, there wasn't even a Papacy in Rome to make Rome look important. Looking back to the classical past and adopting those models was a way of tapping into that classical past, the time when Rome was great.
The final factor I would point to when discussing the historical conditions that make Renaissance art possible is actually the medieval science of optics. A lot of medieval scientists are interested in how the eye works. One of the things we associate with Renaissance art is the one-point perspective of Renaissance painting, which tries to simulate depth and three-dimensionality in two dimensions. And that is made possible by the science of optics. It means also that the viewer is privileged. The viewer needs to stand in a particular place, vis-à-vis a painting or a building, to get the full effect. One of the key differences, I think, between a medieval artistic worldview and a Renaissance artistic worldview is that medieval art is for god. And god can take in a plethora of dimensions at a glance. But an individual viewer, your individual patron or buyer, wants to be able to be the soul gaze that is taking in this work of art.
One of the things that Renaissance architects look back to in the classical past is symmetry. Medieval buildings place absolutely no emphasis on symmetry. If you look at a medieval cathedral like Chartres, its two spires are built in two completely different time periods. This doesn't seem to be part of a Renaissance aesthetic, which wants you to position yourself in the middle of a building and take in that whole building. This also means that buildings are built to more of a human kind of scale. St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, which is actually the largest building in the world at the time it is built, looks quite small because one-point perspective makes it look as though it is actually built to human scale. So if you go into a medieval cathedral such as Ras or Chartres, you feel very small. But if you go into St. Peter's, you actually feel as though it's pretty cozy, even though it's enormous because it employs this type of perspective.