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The Concept of the Renaissance

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Title: The Concept of the Renaissance


1
The Concept of the Renaissance
  • Federico Chabod

2
The Traditional Concept
  • The problem of Continuity
  • Fustel de Coulanges and his theory on the
    Barbarian invaders (tabula rasa)
  • The theory of continuity against the theory of
    things as they have occurred (effects and
    dangers of each theory in itself) p. 151
  • The traditional concepts Middle Ages and
    Renaissance
  • The praesens tempus and media aetas according to
    Italians of the XIV and XV (Boccaccio, C.
    Salutati, L. Valla, L. Bruni)

3
  • As the city of Rome perished at the hands of the
    perverse and tyrannical emperors, so did Latin
    studies and literature undergo similar ruin and
    diminution . . . And Italy was invaded by the
    Goths and Longobards, barbarous, uncouth people,
    who practically extinguished all knowledge of
    literature.

  • Leonardo Bruni
  • All statues and paintings were smashed and
    torn . . . And thus were destroyed not only
    statues and paintings, but the books and
    commentaries and handbooks and rules on which men
    relied for their training in this great and
    excellent and gentle art
  • Lorenzo
    Ghiberti

4
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5
  • Vasari criticism of the Christians but not of
    the faith. His is an aesthetic criticism
  • Voltaire antipathy for Catholicism it is the
    guilt of religion, responsible for medieval
    obscurantism (furor against the papacys power
    during the Middle Ages - spirit of the
    Reformation)
  • Voltaire echoes Ghibertis and Vasaris opinions
    about the fall of the Roman empire, the advent of
    Christianity and the barbarism of the northern
    invaders
  • These opinions are amplified by modern
    historians Michelet, Burckhardt, Spaventa,
    Dilthey and Gentile
  • Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien represents
    the period as a sudden emergence of genius in the
    middle of a cultural and artistic desert.
    Isolation of the Renaissance (no sense of
    historical continuity)

6
Imitation of Classical Models
  • Opinion expressed by the artists of the time. The
    Renaissance has its origin when the
  • glorious minds that sprang from the soil
    of Tuscany . . .
  • (turn to the ancient ruins of Rome and
    start)
  • distinguishing very clearly the good
    from the bad and
  • forsaking the old styles, they began
    once more to imitate,
  • to the limit of their energies and
    abilities, the styles
  • affected by the ancients . . .
    Giorgio Vasari
  • Belief that the ancients had exercised a
    direct
  • influence on the rebirth of Art and
    Literature
  • was general (a direct consequence of
    numerous
  • archeological excavations)

7
New Critical Approaches
  • The theory of continuity applied to the Middle
    Ages and Renaissance
  • Middle Ages rich in variety, stimulated by many
    problems, interests and aspirations a restless
    age, full of exuberant life
  • Is the Renaissance a new phenomenon, with
    features of its own, or is it a broadening (not
    very original) of already present motifs and
    ideals?
  • First step distinguish between every-day-life
    and the LIFE OF THE MIND, the theoretical
    formulation of a CONSCIOUSNESS (mans thoughts
    and ideas)

8
Renaissance
  • The term is used to describe a MOBILIZATION OF
    IDEAS which is primarily
  • ARTISTIC
  • LITERARY
  • CULTURAL
  • The Renaissance as an INTELLECTUAL reality, not
    as a PHYSICAL one
  • An intellectual construction in which human
    designs and actions conform to an ideal system,
    to a spiritual creed, to a program of life
  • Only when transformed in a complete, theoretical
    affirmation, a practical truth becomes a
    theoretical precept, a law explicitly credited
    with a universal validity

9
  • Vix scio quae fuerim, vix Roma recordor vix
    sinit occasus vel neminisse mei. Par tibi, Roma,
    nihil cum sos prope tota ruina.
    Hildebrand de
    Lavardin (Le Mans, 1106)
  • Nichil actum fore potavi, si que legendo
    didiceram, non aggrederer exercendo.
    Cola di
    Rienzo (1350)
  • Nos . . . Volentes et desiderantes . . .
    Voluntates, benignitates, et liberalitates
    antiquorum romanorum principium . . . imitari.

    Decree of the sovereignity of the Roman People I
    August 1347
  • Imitatio - legere becomes exercere. Instead of an
    elegy, there is a determination to revive the
    ancient splendors and glories of Rome
  • Men must imitate the ancients in matters calling
    for strength and vigor . . . (they must adopt)
    the true and perfect ways of antiquity, not the
    false and corrupt. Niccolò Machiavelli (Larte
    della guerra)

10
  • Limitation of Medieval thought
    a) the relationship between God and
    man b) the Christian and
    Augustinian sense of sin and grace (religious
    conception of the world)
  • The Classic authors remained ornaments in the
    works of the Middle Ages, intended to give luster
    to the moral and spiritual ways of the medieval
    philosophers (Dante?)
  • Il est remarquable . . . que pendant la période
    la plus radieuse de la Renaissance les types
    iconographiques transmis et donc altérés, -
    soient presque partout abandonnés au profit des
    types retrouvés dans leur pureté première.

    J. Seznec, La
    survivance des dieux antiques

11
  • For the Medieval scholar, Rome was imitable, but
    only as Christian Rome, capital of Christianity
  • The Renaissance viewed Rome as the ideal moment
    in human history, in which the highest
    aspirations of mankind were realized. Imitation
    becomes a pattern of life

12
Realism and Individualism
  • In the Middle Ages realism is episodic,
    emotional. The detail is realistic, but the
    general conception is not. The Prime Mover of
    life and human history is located outside the
    world and the destinies of men are determined by
    the will of God.
  • The sensibility is human and mundane, but the
    spirit is nourished by an inner life located
    outside carnal humanity
  • Medieval and Renaissance historical descriptions?
    What is the difference? (177)
  • The conceptual (vs impressionistic)realism of
    Guicciardini and Machiavelli

13
  • The realistic description of physical traits is
    undertaken only if it serves to complete the
    moral description (178)
  • Renaissance Realism
  • Villanis (medieval chronicler) Historiae
    Fiorentine
  • a) passionate moral appeals (God, devil
    etc.).
  • b) no interpretation, no sense of human
    individuality
  • Machiavellis Historiae Fiorentine
    a) no supernatural presence
    b) man is the
    primary agent of history c)
    the supernatural as fatality, casualty
    d) natural deterministic realism
    (sins are political not moral)

14
  • Machiavellis political realism is not concerned
    with right and wrong, good and evil
  • But since it is my purpose to write what
    may be useful to those who need it, I have
    thought it more fitting to concern myself with
    the effective reality of things than with
    speculation. For many have imagined republics
    (Plato) and principates which have never been
    seen or known to exist in reality.

  • Machiavelli Il principe
  • Political realism How things are, not how things
    should be
  • No supernatural Will to explain the immediate
    causes of events

15
Art in the Renaissance
  • Aim of the medieval artist is the glorification
    of the Creator (Theophilus, Schedula diversarum
    artium)
  • Renaissance artist (L. B. Alberti, Della pittura)

    a) is conscious of the intrinsic merit of an
    artwork b) aims at creating the beautiful
    and immortal c) glorification of humanity
    and its achievements d) Nature is imitated
    (scientifically) per se, not as a mirror of Gods
    power
  • Liberation of the artist from every restriction
    that is not dictated by artistic reason
  • The world becomes a synthesis of lines, volumes
    and colors

16
Novelty of the Renaissance
  • Realism and individualism (from Alberti to
    Machiavelli, Ariosto and Galileo) lead to the
    affirmation of the complete autonomy of art,
    politics, science and history
  • Ars gratia artis
  • The typically medieval conception of the world in
    which no branch of human activity could be
    considered independent from life as a whole is
    abandoned

17
Man and God
  • Main issues raised by the new system
    a) how can Nature be
    reconciled with the excellence of man

    b) how to reconcile man and Nature with
    God
  • Art and politics are no longer serving a
    supernatural purpose but ethics still is!
  • The idea of a purely rational ethic, independent
    from religion, is unthinkable
  • Ethics concern itself with the question how
    things ought to be (vs. how things are)
  • The need to justify the world and existence,
    nature and creature, will and fortune, brings man
    back to the idea of a transcendent God of humanity

18
The Treatise as Genre
  • A treatise is a prose work that analyzes a
    problem in all its aspects. It is the
    demonstration of a thesis whose validity results
    from the confutation of all other antitheses
  • The themes can range from politics, to
    aesthetics, to science
  • It derives directly from the Greek and Roman
    tradition, from Platos Dialogues, where a group
    of thinkers that debate their individual
    philosophical positions
  • The treatise can have a dialogical form, that
    becomes a lively debate, or can be discursive,
    presenting different arguments and contrasting
    perspectives
  • Popularity of the treatise a) the rediscovery of
    the classics b) exemplary
    form of discussion and expression of ideas
    c) the necessity to theorize and form a new model
    of man d) the projection on the page of a
    human res publica whose aim is the education of
    free thinking human beings

19
Niccolò Machiavelli
  • 1469 Born in Florence
  • 1498 Is elected secretary of the Florentine
    Republic
  • 1500 Is sent as envoy to the King of France,
    Louis XII
  • 1501 Marries Marietta Corsini will have six
    children
  • 1502 Envoy to Cesare Borgia, at Urbino and Imola
  • 1503 Is sent to Rome for the Conclave (Pious III)
  • 1506 Works for the republic and organizes its
    army
  • 1507-11 Travels to Tyrol (Maximilian), then to
    Blois, to meet Louis XII. Later he travels to
    Munich and France
  • 1512 The Holy League of Modena decides the return
    of the Medici to Florence. He is banned from the
    city for a year
  • 1513 Imprisoned and tortured. Begins to write The
    Prince
  • 1515-16 Offers The Prince to Lorenzo de Medici
  • 1519 Composes The Art of War
  • 1525 Completes the eight volumes of the
    Florentine Chronicles
  • 1527 After the sack of Rome, Florence returns to
    the Republic. He dies on June 21

20
The Prince and Its Ideology
  • A negative evaluation of human nature
  • The conviction of human natures immutability
  • The necessity to keep these data in mind if one
    wants to enter a political career (Realpolitik)
  • The usefulness of examples taken from the past
  • At the light of his lucid realism, politica
    activity becomes a science whose core is the
    foundation and maintenance of the state
  • Political actions shall not be evaluated on the
    basis of a moral code but keeping in mind the
    principle of utility and congruence with that
    given objective (previous point)
  • Virtues are therefore cruelty, dissimulation,
    murder etc.
  • Net separation between moral and political
    judgement differentiates The Prince from previous
    treatises (mirror of prince) popular during the
    Middle Ages (catalogues of moral virtues)
  • Contrasting aspects of Machiavellis thought
    a) the
    theorization of an absolute power (The prince)
    b) his sympathy for
    the democratic government (The Discourses)

21
The Structure of The Prince
22
  • XI Ecclesiastical Principalities

    a) Reasons why
    Ecclesiastical Principalities are secure and
    happy
    b) Why
    are E.P. so powerful now when they once were not
    c) Present history Alexander VI - Julius II -
    Leo X
  • XII Militia and Mercenary Soldiers
    a) Chief foundations of a
    state
    b) Different kinds of arms
    c) Mercenaries
    (proof of reality)
    d) What
    kind of sins have the Italian princes committed
    e) Overview of the Quattrocento (church and
    princes)
  • XIII Auxiliary and Native Troops
    a) Definition

    b) Why are they worse than mercenaries
    c) The symbolic meaning
    of Davids biblical story d) But men
    with their lack of prudence initiate novelties
    and, finding the first taste good, do not notice
    the poison within.

23
  • XIV The Duties of a Prince in Regard to the
    Militia a) Main objective of a Prince
    b)
    Armed vs unarmed
    c) The art of war in
    peace time
    d) Knowledge of hardship and territory
    e) Imitation and study
  • XV Of the Things for which Men, especially
    Princes, are Praised or Blamed
    a)
    Concept of reality
    b) What ought to be
    done (consequences) c)
    Know hows for a Prince
    d) Good and bad virtues
    (reversed value)
  • XVI Of Liberality and Niggardliness
    a) Praise of the miserly
    Prince (good vice)
  • XVII Of Cruelty and Clemency
    a) Reasons for being cruel
    (consequences of leniency) b) To be feared
    or loved

24
  • c) Description of humanity
    d) Hannibals example
    and the historians e)
    Men love of their own free will but fear at the
    will of the prince.
  • XVIII In What Way Must Princes Keep Faith
    a) Experience contradicts good
    intentions b) The
    beast and the man
    c) Broken promises

    d) Deceivers and deceived
    e) Alexander VIs
    example
    f) It is not, therefore, necessary for
    a prince to have all the above-named qualities,
    but it is necessary to seem to have them.
    g) To be or to appear to be
    h)
    Mercy, faith, integrity, humanity, religion

25
Machiavelli and Fortuna
  • Fortuna as ambiguous concept in M.?
  • Characteristics of Fortuna (images used)
  • What is the role of religion in a state (religio
    instrumentum regni)
  • What is virtue for Machiavelli?
  • Are mans virtue, intelligence, energy enough to
    create and shape history?
  • Can man achieve anything by himself?
  • Where is God in his philosophy of man
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