The Renaissance

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The Renaissance
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Objectives

• The student will demonstrate knowledge of
  developments leading to the Renaissance in Europe
  in terms of its impact on Western Civilization
  by
• Identifying the economic foundations of the
  Italian Renaissance
• Sequencing events related to the rise of Italian
  city-states and their political development,
  including Machiavellis theory of governing as
  described in The Prince

• Citing artistic, literary, and philosophical
  creativity, as contrasted with the medieval
  period, including Leonardo da Vinci,
  Michelangelo, and Petrarch
• Comparing the Italian and the Northern
  Renaissance, and citing the contributions of
  writers

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The Renaissance

• Late Middle Ages, Europe suffered from both war
  and plague
• Those who survived wanted to celebrate human life
  and the human spirit
• People began to question institutions like the
  church
• In Northern Italy, writers began to express this
  new spirit and experiment with different styles

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rebirth

• Renaissance means rebirth
• Between 1350- 1550 Italians witnessed a rebirth
  of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds
• Rival of art and learning

• Italy of three advantages
• Thriving cities
• Wealthy merchant class
• Classical heritage of Greece and Rome
• Three Characteristics of the Renaissance
• Urban society
• Recovery from disasters
• Emphasizing individual ability

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Urban Society

• Powerful city-states emerged from the Middle Ages
• City-states center of Italian political,
  economic, and social life
• Italy urban compared to rural Europe

• Had a growing secular, or worldly, viewpoint
• Increasing wealth, enjoyment of material things
• Cities conducive to spreading of ideas

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City-States

• No centralized monarchy developed during the
  Middle Ages
• lack of single strong ruler
• Three city-states remained independent
• Milan, Venice, and Florence

• Prospered from
• Flourishing trade during the Middle Ages
• Profited from the Crusades
• Able to extend trading into Eastern ports
• Developed Mercantile fleet
• Merchants did not inherit wealth, earned it (and
  status) with with, believed they deserved wealth
  and power because of their individual merit

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Milan

• Northern Italy
• Crossroads of main trade routes from Italian
  cities to Alps Mountains
• One of the richest Italian cities

• Rulers
• Visconti family dominated the region starting in
  the 14th century
• Became Dukes of Milan and the Lombardy region
• Last Visconti ruler died in 1447
• Francesco Sforza conquered the city and became
  its new duke
• Was a leader of mercenaries
• Built strong centralized state
• Created an efficient tax system- generated
  enormous revenues for the government

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Venice

• Link between Asia and Western Europe
• Republic with a Doge as leader
• Really ran by small group of merchant-aristocrats
• Traders that became wealthy through crusades
• Ran government affairs for their own
  self-interests
• Tremendous trading power and international
  economic power

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Florence

• Region of Tuscany
• 14th century controlled by small group of wealthy
  merchants that controlled government
• Led successful wars that established Florence as
  a major city
• The Medici Family
• Cosimo deMedici
• 1434, took control of city
• Controlled government, did not seek office
  himself, Dictator of Florence
• Had banks throughout Italy
• Wealthiest man in Europe

• Lorenzo deMedici The Magnificent
• Grandson of Cosimo
• Dominated the city, patron of the Arts
• Economic Decline
• Late 1400s
• Increased cloth competition drove down profits

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Renaissance Society

• Middle Ages three estates or social classes
• Nobility, peasants, and townspeople

• Renaissance
• Nobility
• Only 2- 3 of population
• Held important political posts
• Expected to fulfill certain ideals
• Peasants
• Mass of population, 85-90
• Serfdom declined with end of Middle Ages and end
  of Manorial system
• Labor converted to rent paid in money
• Townspeople
• Merchants and artisans

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Society in towns or cities

• Patricians
• Top of society
• Wealth from trade, industry, and banking
• Dominated communities economically, politically,
  and socially
• Burghers
• Shopkeepers, artisans, guild masters, guild
  members
• Produce goods and services

• Workers and Unemployed
• Pitiful wages
• 30-40 of population
• Urban poverty increased in late 14th and early
  15th century

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Family and Marriage

• Family bond important during Renaissance
• Marriage
• Arranged by parents
• Often to strengthen business ties
• Most important part of contract was dowry
• Money paid to husband by wifes family upon
  marriage

• Center of family
• Father-husband was center of family
• Gave it his name
• Managed finances
• Made decisions
• Fathers Authority
• Absolute
• Children did not reach adulthood until they
  went before a judge and they were formally freed
• Varied between early teens and late twenties

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Humanism

• Study of Classical Texts
• Leads to Humanism
• Intellectual movements focused on human potential
  and achievements
• Studied Ancient Greek values, tried to reconcile
  them with Christian teachings
• Influenced art and architects to carry on
  classical traditions
• Popularized study of subjects common to classical
  education

• Emphasizing individual ability
• High regard for human worth
• Well-rounded universal person
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Painter
• Sculptor
• Architect
• Inventor
• mathematician

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Renaissance Man

• Educated men should master almost every area of
  study
• Called universal man, today called renaissance
  man

• Baldassare Castiglione (1528)
• The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare
  Castiglione
• Described characteristics have character,
  talent, skills of warrior and an education,
  follow certain standard of conduct, aim was to
  serve prince in effective and honest way
• Should be charming, witty, and educated in the
  classics
• Should sing, dance, play music, and write poetry

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The Renaissance Man defined

• Leonardo Da Vinci
• Painter
• sculptor
• inventor
• scientist
• Best known for painting the Mona Lisa and the
  Last Supper

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Writers changing Literature

• Petrarch
• One of the earliest and most influential
  humanists
• Father Renaissance Humanism
• Great poet, wrote in both Latin and Italian
• Looked at forgotten Latin manuscripts, spread
  Cicero, Homer, and Virgil
• Typically wrote sonnets (14-lined poems)
• Used pure classical Latin
• Boccaccio
• Wrote Decameron
• Uses cutting humor to illustrate the human
  condition
• Presents his characters in all their
  individuality and all their folly

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Niccolo Machiavelli

• Wrote The Prince (1513)
• Central thesis
• How to acquire and keep political power
• Ethics
• Middle Ages stressed ethics of leaders
• Machiavelli said that princes must understand
  human nature, which was self-centered
• Political policy should not be based on moral
  principles

• Must be strong and shrewd, be able to trick his
  enemies and even own people for the good of the
  state
• World
• Examines the imperfect conduct of humans
• Idea that people are selfish, fickle, and corrupt
• In real world, Prince must sometime mislead
  people and lie to opponents

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Machiavelli
Machiavelli saw himself as an enemy of oppression
and corruption Critics attacked his cynical
advice and even claimed he was inspired by the
devil Machiavellian came to be a term used to
refer to deceit in politics
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Education in the Renaissance

• Humanists believed that education could
  dramatically change human beings
• At core were liberal studies
• History, moral philosophy, rhetoric, letters,
  poetry, mathematics, astronomy, music, physical
  education
• Preparation for life
• Aim was to create not just great scholars, but
  complete citizens
• Model for basic education in Europe until the
  20th century

• Females
• Some did attend school
• Taught same subjects, as well as how to ride,
  dance, sing, play the lute, and appreciate poetry
• Did not learn mathematics or rhetoric
• Religion and morals were most important for
  education Christian ladies to become good wives
  and mothers

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Artistic Renaissance in Italy

• Artists sought to imitate nature
• Wanted people to see the reality of the objects
  or events they were portraying
• Developed a new world perspective
• Human beings became the focus of attention

• New Techniques
• Frescoes
• 1st masterpieces of Renaissance were frescoes
  painted by Masaccio in Florence in 15th century
• Fresco is a painting done on fresh, wet plaster
  with water-based paints
• Looks like the paintings come alive, created a
  new realistic style of painting

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Renaissance Art

• New Renaissance style was modified by others
• Two major developments
• Stressed technical side of painting
• Understanding the laws of perspective
• Organization of outdoor space and light through
  geometry
• Investigation of movement and human anatomy
• Realistic portrayal of the individual person,
  especially the human nude

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Artistic Renaissance in Italy

• Perspective
• Making distant objects smaller than those close
  to the viewer
• Scenes appeared three-dimensional
• Used shading to look more realistic
• Women Artists
• Work was secret
• Very few women were recognized
• Architecture
• Rejected Gothic style
• Adopted style of Ancient Greeks and Romans
• Domes were used often

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Artistic Renaissance in Italy

• Sculpture
• Donatello
• Spent time in Rome studying sculpture and
  architecture
• Copied statues of Greek and Romans
• Famous works include statue of St. George
• Made sculpture more realistic by carving natural
  postures and expressions that reveal personality

• Architecture
• Filippo Brunelleschi
• Inspired by classical Rome
• Medicis hired him to design the San Lorenzo
  Church in Florence
• Church unlike Medieval and Gothic offers warmth
  and comfort of spiritual needs
• Sought to reflect human-centered world

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Donatellos Sculptures
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Brunelleschi
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Masters of the Renaissance

• High Renaissance from 1490 1520
• Last stage of Renaissance painting
• Masters
• Leonardo
• Wanted to capture the perfection of nature and
  the individual
• Raphael
• Famous for Madonna paintings
• Tried to achieve an ideal of beauty far
  surpassing human standards
• Painted frescoes in Vatican Palace

• Michelangelo
• Accomplished painter, sculptor, and architect
• Painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
• Depicts Biblical history from Creation to the
  Flood
• Took four years to complete
• Humans with perfect proportions, beauty godlike
• Glorified human body
• Scupltures Pieta and David

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Raphael
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Renaissance in the North

• Spread from Italy to the Low countries
• Belgium, Luxembourg, and Netherlands
• Invasion of French King into Italy drove artists
  and writers north in 1494 C.E.
• Did not decorate ceilings and walls of churches,
  made illustrations

• Flanders was important school of art
• Jan van Eyck
• One of the 1st to use oil painting
• Imitated nature by observing and portraying
  reality
• Albrecht Durer
• German painter
• Visited Italy, copied Italian laws of perspective

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Jan van Eyck
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Albrecht Durer
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Other Notable Contemporaries

• Erasmus
• Christian Humanist
• Wrote The Praise of Folly
• Thought to improve society, everyone should read
  the Bible
• Sir Thomas Moore
• Christian Humanist
• Wrote Utopia which means no place
• About imaginary land inhabited by peace-loving
  people

• William Shakespeare
• English Playwright
• Themes included dramatic conflict, human flaws,
  and human nature
• Famous works include Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and
  Juliet, and A Midsummer Nights Dream

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The Printing Revolution

• Johann Gutenberg reinvented movable type around
  1440 C.E.
• Then invented the printing press
• Machine that pressed paper against a tray full of
  moveable type
• Printed completed Bible in 1455 C.E.

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Effects of Printing Revolution

• Enabled a printer to produce hundred of copies of
  a single work
• Books became cheap, more people could afford
• More books meant more people could learn how to
  read
• People began to interpret the Bible for
  themselves, became more critical of priests and
  demanded reforms

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Objectives

• The student will demonstrate knowledge of
  developments leading to the Renaissance in Europe
  in terms of its impact on Western Civilization
  by
• Identifying the economic foundations of the
  Italian Renaissance
• Sequencing events related to the rise of Italian
  city-states and their political development,
  including Machiavellis theory of governing as
  described in The Prince

• Citing artistic, literary, and philosophical
  creativity, as contrasted with the medieval
  period, including Leonardo da Vinci,
  Michelangelo, and Petrarch
• Comparing the Italian and the Northern
  Renaissance, and citing the contributions of
  writers