Renaissance

• Renaissance


  Rebirth (French)
• Historians believed the Middle Ages were "dark" and unproductive, so the following period was seen as a rebirth, or coming out of the darkness. This is not seen as true today.
• Renaissance


  • Reintroduction (or rebirth) of Greek and Roman culture
  • Saw as a separation of "ancient" and "modern" times, hence the term "Middle Ages"
  • Arts and literature flourished
• Italian Renaissance


  City-states in Italy had the largest cities in Europe during the Middle Ages due to Mediterranean trade, and were largely autonomous, with no king to unite them
• Italian city-states


  • Tended to be run by oligarchies of merchants
  • Florence grew successful in the Middle Ages due to the production of woolens, and produced writers, artists, etc.
  • Medici family controlled Florence, contributed to the arts, and influenced the popes (2 of the Medici became popes)
• Secularism


  Life was not seen as just a brief preparation for the here-after, more money=more leisure, people enjoyed life
• Art in the Renaissance


  • Architecture: Larger buildings which often reflected Greco-Roman styles, although town-houses often exhibited wealth and importance, as well as functionality (ie. added terraces and gardens)
  • Sculpture: often of the human subject, sculptures were brought out into the center of the room where people could walk around them and see the realism in the muscle structure, etc.
  • Painting: Still largely depicted religious themes, the use of mathematics in creating perspective made paintings more three-dimensional, glimpses of the real world were put into paintings, religious paintings narrated stories or presented familiar themes ie. The Last Supper, painters studied anatomy (as in sculpture) and showed more facial expression, etc.
• Humanism


  Modern literature was born in Renaissance Italy, writers were not clerics, and often wrote about secular topics, humanist studied Greek and Latin, and studied the ancient texts in their original forms, although humanist wrote some in Latin, they also wrote in the vernacular
• Humanist writers


  • Francesco Petrarca (or Petrarch), the "first man of letters"
  • Boccaccio, wrote The Decameron in Italian
• Humanists wrote histories which helped to create a collective civic identity (ie. Bruni)
• Education in the Renaissance


  • Began separating students by age groups, Latin=main subject, but Greek was also added, also added Rhetoric, the art of using language to influence others
• Etiquette


  The upper classes became aware of inter-personal behavior, and began to discuss and teach polite habits, Castiglione wrote Book of the Courtier (1528) which taught that "courtesy was the proper behavior for nobility, and explained that women were more civilized and should encourage good manners
• Marriage in the Renaissance


  • Often arranged for social status, or political alliances, women were generally about 18, while men were usually over thirty
• Politics in the Renaissance


  City-states were largely governed by wealthy families who had mercenary armies, Florence=Medici family, Milan=Sforza family, Venice and Genoa=oligarchies
• Influential political figures


  • Niccolo Machiavelli, wrote The Prince (1513) in which he described a prince (modeled after Louis XI, Ferdinand I, and Henry VII) who knew how to exercise power and maintain a strong empire, at an cost
• Machiavelli's The Prince was the first entirely secular treatise on politics, prior to this political writings had always talked about God's will
• Machiavelli's view on politics


  Effective rulers and govts. act only in their own political interest, good or bad, he admitted this was morally bad, but said it is simply how it is, he saw the New Monarchies as most effective because they were able to gain the loyalty of the people, where the Italian wealthy could not
• Italian disunity made Italy vulnerable to outside forces, 1494: France and Spain fought over Northern Italy, 1527: Spanish and German mercenaries attacked Rome, marking the end of the Renaissance in Italy. Italy would remain divided for 300 years.
• Renaissance


  Rebirth, the recovery of classical texts and ideas from the Romans and Greeks
• During the Middle Ages, much of the teaching from the Romans and Greeks was forgotten by Europeans
• Islamic scholars had translated the works of ancient Greece and Rome into Arabic and Latin
• Increasing contact between Europeans and Islamic people during the Crusades led Europeans to gain access to these ancient ideas again
• The recovery of these texts and ideas led to the Renaissance, which began in Italy
• Petrarch


  Preceded the Renaissance, laid the groundwork for Renaissance ideas
• Humanism


  A philosophy that focused on the unlimited potential of human beings as an end in themselves
• Humanism and individualism became the main mode of thought for much of the Renaissance
• Petrarch was especially moved by Cicero's eloquent support of the Roman Republic and opposition to the tyrannical Julius Caesar
• Philology


  The study of the history and development of languages
• In 1440, Lorenzo Valla demonstrated that an authoritative document of the Roman Catholic Church was a forgery
• The Renaissance saw a move away from religious authority to secular authority and more scientific modes of inquiry
• The Renaissance saw a shift from communal understandings of humanity to individualistic conceptions of humanity
• The invention of the movable type printing press in the 1440s allowed Renaissance and humanist ideas to spread widely and quickly
• Renaissance scholars introduced the humanities into the curriculum, emphasizing history, moral philosophy, poetry, etc. based on classical texts
• Baldessari Castiglione's "The Courtier"


  A guide for how an educated young man should behave in courtly society, emphasizing being a skilled, physically strong, and mentally awake gentleman
• Civic humanism


  The idea that educated men should be active and engaged in local politics
• Leonardo Bruni


  Argued that the republicanism of ancient Rome was the best form of government and that rule by an enlightened individual was best
• Nicolo Machiavelli's "The Prince"


  Argued that the basic function of a ruler is to maintain power at all costs, using whatever means necessary
• Renaissance artists emphasized naturalism, portraying the world as it was, and used new techniques like geometric perspective
• Renaissance artists


  • Michelangelo
  • Raphael
  • Filippo Brunelleschi
• Wealthy individuals, rulers, and popes patronized Renaissance artists to enhance their public prestige