THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
• Renaissance: a rebirth or ancient Greek and Roman
culture
– A new culture emerges in southern Europe, starts in
Italy
• Italy was largely an urban society with powerful
city-states
– Intellectuals and artists believed they were part of a
new Golden Age
• They wanted to separate themselves from
“backwardness” of the Middle Ages, or Dark Ages
• Economic growth laid the material basis for the
Renaissance
– The Italian city-states were involved in trade due to
their geography and served as the economic center
of Europe
The Italian City-States
• Italy was divided into several large city-states in the
north and various kingdoms in the south
• Florence
– A republic located in northern Italy
– Wealthy due to trade, the wool industry, and banking
• Became tax collectors for the papacy and gave
loans to kings
– The powerful and rich de’ Medici family controlled
this city-state
• Cosimo de’ Medici and his grandson Lorenzo de’
Medici
– The first artistic and literary beginnings of the
Renaissance start here
• Comes to an end when a Dominican friar runs the
de’ Medici out of town
• People soon get tired of the friar’s strict ways and
he is executed for heresy
• Milan
– Located in northern Italy
– Grew wealthy due to being the crossroads between
main trade routes from Italian coastal cities and the
Alpine passes
• Venice
– Located in northern Italy
– Link between Asia and western Europe, traders from
all overcame there
– Was an international power due to its trade empire
– Small group of wealthy merchants ran the city to
serve their own interests
• The Papal States
– Controlled by the Pope, and in the pope’s absence,
noble families
– Rome became the center of the Renaissance after it
declined in Florence and it was called the High
Renaissance
The Three Estates (Social Classes)
• Clergy
• Nobles
– The old landed nobility began to intermarry with the
new wealthy merchant families
• Peasants and townspeople
– Three classes of the towns:
• Patricians = wealthy merchants and bankers
• Burghers = shopkeepers, artisans, and guild
members who provided goods and services for the
town
• Workers = lives not good, urban poverty begins to
increase
• The upper classes were more affected by the
Renaissance than the lower classes and more likely to
embrace its ideas
• The upper classes had more rights than the urban
underclass, or popolo
– These popolo were heavily taxed and couldn’t vote or
hold public office
• Eventually the popolo used armed force and violence to
take over the city gov’t
– Starts in Florence and spread
– The popolo established Republican gov’ts – enduring
idea of the Roman Republic
• However they were republics in name only
• Soon replaced by oligarchies and signori (one-man
rulers
Politics and War
• Maintaining the balance of power
– If one city-state seems to get too powerful, the
others ally together against the major threat
– Try to create an alliance against foreign powers, but
the breakdown of the alliance will lead to the
domination of Italy by foreign powers
• Invasion of Italy by Charles VIII of France
– Attracted by the riches of Italy, Charles leads an army
of 30,000 men into Italy in 1494
• Charles occupies Naples in the south
– Northern Italian states ask Spain for help
– For the next 30 years, France and Spain make Italy
their battle ground
– 1527 – thousands of Spanish troops along with
mercenaries (hired soldiers) arrive at Rome to
protect it
• They had not been paid for months and demand
money
• The leader lets them sack Rome as their payment
–Soldiers go crazy in a frenzy of looting and
bloodshed
–The authorities had to establish control
– The sacking of Rome ends the wars and leaves Spain
a dominant force in Italy
• It will also bring an end to the High Renaissance
Characteristics of the Renaissance
• Secular society
– People were becoming more concerned with the
material world, had more of a worldly focus
– Still deeply religious, however they concentrated on
the here and now, not on life after death
• Individualism
– People sought to receive personal credit for their
achievements
• Personal quest for glory – people want money and
success
• This went against the medieval ideal of all glory
going to God and contrasted with Church
teachings that individuality and achievement were
unimportant
– The Renaissance Man – a person who could do many
things well
• The ideal Renaissance man = Leonardo da Vinci
• Humanism
– “new learning” – interest in and study of the Latin
classics to learn what they reveal about human
nature
– Studied the original manuscripts
– Petrarch is considered to be the father of humanism
– Civic humanists = used their humanist education to
serve the city governments
• Also revived the Greek language
Renaissance Intellectuals
• Machiavelli
– Wrote The Prince, which is the most widely read and
studied Renaissance book
– The subject is about how a ruler should gain,
maintain, and increase political power
• Machiavelli is about by what he sees as the
foreign domination of Italy and he feels that one
ruler needs to unite Italy
– As a humanist, Machiavelli studied human nature
• Concludes that humans are “ungrateful, fickle,
liars, and deceivers”
• Decides that it is better for a ruler to be feared
than loved
– Rejects the idea that rulers should be moral and
follow Christian principles
• separate morals from politics
• Rulers must do whatever is necessary to maintain
power and protect the state
• The end justifies the means
• Castiglione
– Wrote The Courtier, a book on the expected
behaviors and education of nobles
– Used as a guide for nobles for the next several
centuries
Renaissance Art
• The Renaissance made its greatest impact in the area of
art
• New artistic styles: use of oil painting, free-standing
sculptures, portraits, nudity, and single-point
perspective
• Many people sponsored the arts to glorify themselves
and their families
• Two major periods:
– Early Renaissance – takes place in Florence
– High Renaissance – takes place in Rome
• Four major artists of the Renaissance:
• Four major artists of the Renaissance:
– Michelangelo – painted the Sistene Chapel, sculptural
masterpiece = David
– Leonardo da Vinci – Mona Lisa and the Last Supper
– Raphael – famous for his madonnas (images of Jesus
and Mary)
– Donatello – sculptor, lived during the Early Renaissance
The Northern Renaissance
• Late 15th century, the Italian Renaissance begins to
affect the rest of Europe
– Moves into northern Europe, is more religious
• Christian Humanism
– People in northern Europe were still seeking ways to
deepen their Christian beliefs and questions
– Christian humanists believed they could achieve this
higher understanding by studying early Christian
works along with the Latin classics
– Often criticized the Church
• Erasmus
– The best of the northern humanists, was Dutch
– Criticized the Church and wanted to reform it, but
not leave it
– Saw education as the means to reform
• Sir Thomas More
– Englishman, lawyer, and chancellor to King Henry VIII
– Wrote Utopia (“nowhere”) – about an ideal society
– Gave his life for his beliefs
• Northern Renaissance art
– Jan van Eyck – one of the first to use oil paint
– Albrecht Durer – famous for his woodcuts and altar
panels
The Elizabethan Renaissance
• The greatest achievement in the arts in northern Europe
took place in England
– Most of what is referred to as the Elizabethan
Renaissance actually occurred during the reign of
James I
• Geoffrey Chaucer
– The Canterbury Tales consists of a collection of
stories told by a group of 29 pilgrims journeying to
the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury
• William Shakespeare
– Wrote many plays that reveal an unsurpassed
understanding of the human psyche