The Renaissance
Darkness and Light
Renaissance Essentials




After St.Thomas Aquinas, there were
cracks in the unifying culture of Christianity
Rebirth of humanism: everything revolved
around man again, as in Greece and Rome
We have to be educated to be human
beings
Compass, firearms, printing press




Transition from a minimum-level
economy to a middle class based
on banking/trade
Individual can achieve wealth through
diligence, innovation, and education
Man is now infinitely great and valuable
Pico della Mirandola Oration on the Dignity
of Man
Baldassare Castiglione



Renaissance social
ideal: poet, scholar
The Courtier:
nobleness of birth, wit
comely shape of
person and
countenance, grace,
capable in arms,
ingenuity and loyalty,
pleasant, discreet
Plotinus – 3rd Century
Egyptian-born neoplatonist




Plotinus’s Belief: a mystical union between
the individual soul and “the One.”
Union achieved by soul’s ascent through
levels of spiritual purification
Christians’ Modification: substituted “God”
for the “One.”
Christians: Soul is eternal
Marsilio Ficino, Humanist Philosopher




Translated Plato’s writings into Latin (after fall of
Constantinople to Ottoman Turks 1453)
Platonic Academy in Florence (Cosimo financed,
Ficino led)
“Platonic” (or spiritual) love attracts the soul to
God
Renaissance painters: spiritual love inspired by
physical beauty led to beautiful paintings

Ficino: “She was the very embodiment of
“Humanitas…her Soul and mind are Love
and Charity, her eyes Dignity and
Magnanimity, the hands Liberality and
Magnificance, the feet Comeliness and
Modesty. The whole, then, is Temperance
and Honesty, Charm and Splendor”
Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538-1539
.
Oil on Canvas 3 ft. 11 in. x 5 ft. 5 in