The Renaissance Was an Intellectual Movement That Began in Italy in the 14Th Century

The Renaissance

I. The Italian Renaissance

·  The Renaissance was an intellectual movement that began in Italy in the 14th century

o  two key hallmarks of the Renaissance were:

§  an extreme hostility to the culture of the Middle Ages

§  a fascination with the ancient world

§  The Renaissance was the first, for example, to use the term "Dark Ages" to describe the period after the fall of Rome.

o  Their love affair with the ancients led to an increasing literacy in Latin and Greek--the term "Renaissance" is this sense refers to the rebirth of the classic Greek and Roman ways

o  The main emphasis of the Renaissance centered around the individual and the potential of human nature

o  At first, it was restricted to a relatively small group of educated, self-conscious elites, but especially in the north, it spread out to embrace other social classes which deeply affected the history of Europe

o  In short, most historians mark the Italian Renaissance as the beginning of the modern world

·  Why did it begin in Italy?

o  The northern Italian cities had led the way in the economic revival of the 12th and 13th centuries--art flourishes in a society with money

§  Florence, especially, at the end of the 13th century became the bankers to the pope, taking a sizable cut out of church transactions for its services.

§  The Italian middle classes wanted to show off their pride in their city states

§  Italy had never been completely feudalized either; cities had always survived there and the tradition of lay education remained strong.

o  Moreover, Italian society of the 14th century was primarily urban

§  Nobles here lived in cities, a stone's throw from one another, so ideas could spread more rapidly here than in the isolated manors of northern Europe

o  Finally, Italian artists considered themselves the natural heirs to Roman art because they were surrounded with the remaining monuments

o  In the Renaissance, Italy would enjoy the prestige that France had had in the Gothic period.

·  The ideals of the Renaissance centered on individualism, the hallmark of the period

o  for example, Renaissance writers invented the autobiography, a form which presumes the reader is not only interested in your particular life, but in how you tell it

o  They were proud of their abilities and scorned the Christian humility that the Middle Ages prized

o  When the public thought Donatello had sculpted the Pietá, Michelangelo crept into St. Peters at night and carved his name, Michelangelo Buonarotti, across the Virgin's dress, so everyone would know he was the artist

·  The revival of antiquity led to a copying of the lives of the ancients, including an archaeological zeal in finding old manuscripts and uncovering Roman statues

·  The Renaissance was secular in orientation, concentrating its attention on the here and now unlike the medieval concern for the world to come

o  This secularism resulted in extravagant dress as well as greater refinements in manners, as well as an increase in personal hygiene

o  The contempt for the world theme of medieval religious literature disappeared; instead of the great cathedrals, one sees the private palaces of insecure, social climbing princes

o  There was, however, little concern for ordinary men

§  This was no Age of the Common Man, but was instead confined to a cultured elite

o  The Italian Renaissance thinkers remained good Christians

§  They were aware of the abuses of the church, but found them a subject of mirth rather than a clarion call for reform

o  The Renaissance indulged in a consumerism some of the age's admirers have refused to recognize

§  The elites were very concerned with acquiring and then displaying their wealth

§  The Virgin Mary was often painted surrounded by desirable worldy objects, reminding the viewer than sanctity would bring one wealth

§  And paintings became more numerous because they were cheaper to produce than labor-intensive mosaics; the gold leaf that had adorned paintings of the Middle Ages disappeared so that the cost of the painting decreased, thus allowing more people to display more art, thus increasing their social status

·  The Renaissance was also the first period to embrace quantification

o  For the first time, clocks helped quantify time with hours of the same length

§  The medieval belief in the timelessness of the world disappeared to be replaced by the Renaissance's obsession with time and numbers

§  The new vogue for clocks on the village church helped to educate even peasants about new ideas of time and orderliness

o  Renaissance thinkers saw numbers as neutral things, rather than imbued with special characteristics and religious meaning

§  Medieval scholars, for example, saw 6 as a perfect number because it was created by adding the numbers of the Trinity; Renaissance people saw 6 as simply a number like any other

o  One of the earliest examples of this rage for quantification was music that was now divided into equal measures; music could be "seen."

§  the musical staff was Europe's first graph

·  Humanism

o  The Renaissance ideas all came together in a new philosophy known as humanism

§  This involved the study of the classics to create a new definition of what made man truly human

§  To quote Erasmus, "Men are made, not born."

§  This was far cry from the medieval assumption that man was born with a soul that distinguished him from the animals

§  Now, to be truly human, one would need to become truly educated

o  Humanists differed from those who had studied the ancient works before; they did not feel inferior to the ancients, but rather saw themselves as equals

§  Humanists stressed the dignity of man, the best of God's creatures below the angels

§  Moreover, they did not interpret these ancient texts for their Christian meaning, but instead tried to see them on their own terms

§  Aristotle, humanists would argue, was not a proto-Christian, having lived centuries before Christ, but rather a Greek who would have to be understood in terms of his own culture

o  In a profound way, the humanists and the Renaissance invented history. Humanists were excited by the purity of ancient Latin, scorning the barbaric Latin of the medieval church

§  Their insistence on going back to the original texts helped them to expose errors in translation, not just of Aristotle and Cicero, but more importantly of the Latin Vulgate Bible then in use in the Catholic Church

·  Renaissance art

o  One place that clearly demonstrates the ideas of humanism is Renaissance art

§  Most art was now bought by patrons who were not churchmen, but rather important secular people like bankers

§  This freed art from service to religion, permitting themes and treatments that would have been off limits in a church

§  The emphasis on individualism led to the development of the individual portrait, where the sitter was presented warts and all, not idealized but realistically

§  Even the human body was presented in a more scientific and natural manner

§  One thinks of Michelangelo dissecting bodies to discover how muscles were connected so he could draw everything exactly (dissection was very much against church doctrines and law at the time.)

§  Perhaps most important, artists were now regarded as intellectual geniuses, not simply craftsmen

§  Some became quite wealthy; Michelangelo was paid 3000 ducats to decorate the Sistine Chapel when a man could live like a prince on 300 a year

§  He even refused payment for working on St. Peters Basilica because he was already so rich

o  New technological advances made much of Renaissance art possible

§  Oil painting allowed richer, deeper colors, and required much less speed to produce than frescoes which had to be painted while the plaster was still wet

§  Oil paintings could be done in the north where wetter, colder climates caused frescoes to pop off the wall, something which bedeviled Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper painted in wet Milan rather than drier Rome

§  Brunelleschi's Dome of the Cathedral Santa Maria del Flore in Florence as an engineering marvel

o  Renaissance artists were interested in making money and changed their style and production techniques to maximize their profit

§  Albrecht Durer, for example, refused to do more oil paintings because they were so time consuming, and he concentrated instead on wood block prints that were quick and more profitable

§  More painters entered the middle classes as a result of their improved fortunes

§  Patron consumerism was reflected in the popularity of tapestries

§  Such works ostentatiously displayed the owner's wealth and erudition, and moreover the tapestries could easily by moved if the owner changed residences in a way a fresco could not

·  Niccolo Machiavelli

o  the key political thinker of the Renaissance

o  The Prince

§  written as a how-to manual for his Florentine patrons

§  Machiavelli focuses on the individual qualities needed to rule

§  The Prince is filled with harsh advice--murder, intrigue, betrayal--basically describing what it takes to gain power and stay in power

§  there are no notions of rulership by "divine right" in Machiavelli's writing, simply a naked truth about what it took to be a ruler in those times

·  The Renaissance may have begun in Italy, but as it spread north, it changed in ways that would have a profound impact on the development of Protestantism

·  As many historians have noted, once you had the Renaissance with its ideals of individualism, historical precision, and understanding people in the context of their original cultures, the Protestant reformation was inevitable.

II. Northern Renaissance

·  The Renaissance spread north about 1500

o  Students from the North carried the ideals of the Italian Renaissance back with them

o  Spanish and French armies invading Italy were exposed to new theories before returning home

o  More important was printing with moveable type, invented in the mid-15th century, which made printing easier and cheaper; this helped spread books and knowledge of Renaissance ideals as well

·  But soon differences developed between the northern and southern Renaissance

o  In the north, the prime patrons were kings of the new nation states, not the wealthy burghers of Italy adding prestige to their cities

o  The northern Renaissance had a more Christian, religious aspect than did the more Greco-Roman, pagan aspect of Italian Renaissance

§  The north had always stressed theology in its universities, while Italy had trained lawyers and administrators in its schools

§  In the north, they edited the commentaries of St. Paul, in the south, Plato; both were Greek writers, but one was a father of the Christian church and the other a pagan philosopher

o  Northern humanists tended to be of a more varied social background as well, unlike the elites of Italy

§  Perhaps because of this, northern Renaissance thinkers were more willing to write for a lay audience, not just the educated intelligentsia

·  Erasmus

o  An example of the northern Renaissance is Erasmus, a Christian humanist who sought to blend the humanities with the Christian tradition

§  To the stoical patience, calmness and broadmindedness of the classical period, Erasmus sought to add the Christian virtues like love, faith, and hope

§  He faced up to the serious ills of his time, becoming a reformer, especially of religion

§  His ideas are characterized by a tolerant view of man

§  He was horrified by the intolerance of Luther, for example

§  Erasmus was interested in developing ethical purity of religion which the Italians by and large were not, and he showed great faith in education to prepare people for a pious life

§  He was impressed with the purity and simplicity of the early Christians, as opposed to the formalism and complexities of the Renaissance church

·  Art of the Northern Renaissance

o  Northern Renaissance painting reflected these differences in ideas of the Italian and Northern Renaissances

§  It is characterized by a deep religious feeling and spiritualism frequently missing in the south

§  When Hans Memling did a portrait, the sitter was almost always in an attitude of prayer, rather than dressed in Sunday best facing the artist

§  Even the architecture of the north remained Gothic, a truly "Christian architecture," they believed, as opposed to the pagan Roman building of the south

§  Towns halls remained mini-cathedrals. The frescoes of Italy were rarely seen in the north, and instead they experimented with oil painting and the meticulous care of miniatures

o  Durer and Brueghel

§  The two most famous of these northern painters may be Albrecht Dürer and Peter Brueghel

§  Durer

§  Dürer got the idea of perspective, the new use of color and modeling from Italy, but his themes tend to be religious

§  Primarily an engraver, Dürer remained concerned with outline and extraordinary attention to detail

§  Many of his drawings could easily be turned into wood block suitable for printing in books

§  Brueghel

§  Brueghel shows the religious aspect of the north as well in his Slaughter of the Innocents

§  Most artists approached this subject by painting a mythical scene of people dressed in vaguely Roman costumes, but Brueghel painted it as a Flemish village being attacked by Spanish soldiers

§  Flanders were being occupied by the Spanish and the Flemish people resented it greatly

§  One sees here the close alliance of religion and politics so typical of the north as well as the idea that religion was not far away and irrelevant but contemporary and vital

·  As historians have argued, the Reformation had to begin in the north

III. Social Life in Renaissance Europe

·  Marriage and family

o  Marriage for Catholics was dominated by economic factors, not love or physical attraction

§  Men needed to have sufficient land before marrying, meaning they usually had to wait until the father died or yielded up the land

§  That meant people continued to marry late, and this in turn affected the number of children a couple had