Defining the Renaissance
HUM 2052: Civilization II
Summer 2010
Dr. Perdigao
May 20, 2010
Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas (The Maids in Waiting) (1656)
Those in the court of Philip IV:
Margarita, the daughter of Philip IV,
her maids in waiting, two dwarfs, and
a dog.
“Some suggest that it is a self portrait
of the artist or a portrait of the artist in
his studio. Others suggest that it is a
portrait of Margarita, to be used to
arrange a marriage. The painting on
the back wall may be a mirror
reflecting the images of Philip and the
Queen. If that is so, then are they the
subject of the canvas in the painting or
are they simply watching the events of
the day? One last suggestion is that
this was a tribute to a dead prince,
whose room the artist's studio now
occupies. While multiple suggestions
persist, the painting remains a
realistic view of life in the Spanish
court.”
http://webed.vw.cc.va.us/vwbaile/pages_art1
02/102distance/Lectures/102dbarq.html
http://mediastudiesendicott.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/velazquez-lasmeninas1.jpg
Some Contexts
1138-1453
1348-1350
1428
1473
1492
1503
1512
1513
1521
1532
1580
1588
1597-1604
1600
1611
1641
1655?
1655
Hundred Years’ War
The Black Death
Joan of Arc is burned at the stake for heresy after
liberating Orléans from the British
Printing
Columbus discovers America
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
Michelangelo completes the Sistine Chapel ceiling
Luther’s Ninety-five Theses denounces abuses of the
Roman Catholic Church
Luther is excommunicated
Machiavelli’s The Prince
Montaigne’s Essays (books 1 and 2)
Montaigne’s Essays (complete publication)
Cervantes’ Don Quixote: part 1 published in 1605;
part 2 in 1615
Shakespeare’s Hamlet
King James’ Bible published
Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy
Milton’s Paradise Lost: published in 1667
Velazquez’s Las Meninas
Shifts in Science, Faith
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543): Theorizes that the earth moves around the sun
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642): Repudiates Copernicus’ theory at 1633 Inquisition
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506): Discovers that the earth is round
Uncertainty of time; questions of self, world
Renaissance melancholy (1889)
Center on religion but turn from Dante’s world order:
As the geometer who tries so hard
to square the circle, but cannot discover,
think as he may, the principle involved,
so did I strive with this new mystery:
I yearned to know how could our image fit
into that circle, how could it conform;
but my own wings could not take me so high—
then a great flash of understanding struck
my mind, and suddenly its wish was granted.
At this point power failed high fantasy
but, like a wheel in perfect balance turning,
I felt my will and my desire impelled
by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.
(Dante, Paradiso, Canto XXXIII, 1597)
Defining the Period
Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century: Age of Enlightenment of eighteenth
century
Shift from Middle Ages: commerce and industry expands, capitalism develops;
central government replaces feudalism; rise of Protestantism and
fragmentation of Christendom; shift from theology to science, from revelation
to reason (Perry 293)
Renaissance—rebirth, return to classical Greece and Rome, from 1350-1600 (in
Italy until late fifteenth century)—from science to arts to politics; “birth of
modernity—in art, in the idea of the individual’s role in history and nature,
and in society, politics, war, and diplomacy” (Perry 311) ; the “cult of the
individual” (Perry 313)
Struggle, like with the ancients, between tradition and modernization, what to
retain and what to alter—as story of evolving civilizations
Weakening of Holy Roman Empire and papacy leads city-states of northern Italy
to become autonomous political entities
Conceptual shifts
Wealth of cities like Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice, Mantua, Ferrara, Padua, Bologna,
and Genoa due to commerce and industry, weakening of feudal structure and feudal
nobility, but still unstable government
Leads to experimental forms of government during the period (and beginnings of political
philosophy, i.e., Machiavelli, Montaigne)
Republicanism (1300-1450); Despotism (1450-1550)
Although Florence retains republican ideas and practice, rise of Medici family changes
structure while Venice is the only city-state to maintain republicanism (Perry 297)
Urban, commercial oligarchies become the new model but retain some aspects of the
feudal codes
Shift from birth as basis of merit system to effort, talent, creative genius (Perry 298); honor
shifts from warrior code of ancients to include citizen, creative genius; ideal as
meritocracy (Perry 313)
Nouveaux riches—new form of elitism
Evolving Systems
Art—political function: civic pride, patriotism, power (Perry 299); benefactors,
investment; development of portraiture as genre
Secularism, individualism
Humanism—return to the classics, study of ancient Greek and Roman literature,
return to study of Greek; key figures Petrarch (1304-1374) and Boccaccio
(1313-1375)
“Humanist educational ideal” included a “radical transformation of the medieval
(Augustinian) view of humanity” (Perry 300)—rather than divine will, return
to Greek notion of arêté
Mastery of nature as desired end—magus (magician); Scientific Revolution
begins with Italian humanists (Perry 300)
Changing Values
As “rebirth” (1884)
As a “movement”: visual arts (Italy); literature (England)
As “enlightened” by contemporaries (1886)
Renaissance “code of behavior” (1886): not right and wrong, good and evil, but
“concrete validity and effectiveness,” “delight it affords,” “memorability and
its beauty”
“The leaders of the period saw in a work of art the clearest instance of beautiful,
harmonious, and self-justified performance” (1889).
Virtue, fame, glory
For Machiavellian prince, not goodness, temperance, clemency but “whatever
forces and skills may help him in the efficient management and preservation
of his princely powers” (1887)
Losing Centers
Renaissance melancholy: “The Renaissance coincided with, and perhaps to some
extent occasioned, a loss of firm belief in the final unity and the final
intelligibility of the universe, such belief as underlies, for example, The Divine
Comedy. . .” (1889).
“Thus while on one, and perhaps the better-known, side of the picture of human
intellect in Renaissance literature enthusiastically expatiates over the realms of
knowledge and unveils the mysteries of the universe, on the other it is beset by
puzzling doubts and profound mistrust of its own powers” (1890).
Printing press as new source—for Renaissance epics, “what is gained and lost in
achieving that crystallization of the civilizing process”; Machiavelli’s “amoral
ideas about the effective (rather than ideal) prince” (1890).
As “early modern”
Returns
Humanists: Return to the classics
Renaissance: Rebirth—from science to arts to politics
______________________________________________________
Machiavelli’s The Prince and Montaigne’s Essays: question of the
constitution of man. Is he idealized or villainized?
Question of fear or love, the Duke’s example
Power and Ideology
Santo da Tito’s Machiavelli and Altissimo’s Portrait of
Machiavelli
Adapting Machiavelli
Tupac, Makaveli: the Don Killuminati
Framing the Text
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), born in Florence, public life as clerk in 1494
and 1498-1512 as secretary to second chancery of the commune of Florence
(internal and war affairs), missions to King Louis XII of France, Cesare
Borgia, duke of Valentinois (1945)
Work at strengthening Florentine republic, establishing a militia; end of
republican regime, exile from Florence (like Dante, from civil war within
Guelphs, between blacks and whites—papal power at center)—in
Machiavelli’s case unable to leave Florentine territory after accusation of
conspiracy from Medici regime
Aim of work to lead to restored position, obtaining public office from Medici
After collapse of Medici regime, Machiavelli seen as Medici sympathizer
Division in book between first 11 books: dominions and how they are
constructed, preserved and 12-14: problems of military power and 15-end: the
“virtues” of the prince
Fame derived from final part—with attributes and virtues
Call to liberate Italy by end
Questions of Context
Written for Lorenzo de’ Medici the Younger (de facto ruler of Florence) though
originally written for Giuliano de’ Medici (brother of new pope Leo X)
Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy—preference for republics
Question if The Prince is satire—at least play with treatises, “mirrors of princes,”
those formulas
Publication in Rome in 1532—five years after his death—while circulated in
Florence around 1516; attempts to destroy manuscript before his death
Printed with privilege given by Pope Clement VII—but a few decades later
(1559), the Catholic Church puts The Prince and his other works on the
papacy’s Index of Forbidden Books
Question if published because of its use of the Florentine dialect
Machiavelli’s The Prince: Power and Authority
Exercise like Plato’s Republic on ideal ruler but replaces philosopher king:
“If men were all good, this advice would not be good, but since men are
wicked and do not keep their promises to you, you likewise do not have
to keep yours to them” (1956).
Virtues: Compassionate; Trustworthy; Humane; Honest; Religious
Chapter 17—Virtues called into question in Machiavelli’s text:
“Is it better to be loved than to be feared, or the reverse?” (1954)
“men forget the death of a father more quickly than the loss of their
patrimony” (1955)
“I conclude that since men love as they please and fear as the prince
pleases, a wise prince will evidently rely on what is in his own
power and not on what is in the power of another” (1955).
Uses of works in history, mythology, and theology (real and imagined): Cesare
Borgia, Remirro de Orco, Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus, Caesar, Dido,
Hannibal:
Modeling the Prince
Fox and lion:
“So the prince needs to be a fox that he may know how to deal with
traps, and a lion that he may frighten the wolves” (1956)
Being vs. Seeming to be
Place of Fortune:
“That is, if a prince bases himself entirely on Fortune, he will fall when
she varies. I also believe that a ruler will be successful who adapts his
mode of procedure to the quality of the times, and likewise that he will
be unsuccessful if the times are out of accord with his procedure.” (1958)
On Machiavelli’s Philosophy
The place of the prince within the idealized world of the Renaissance
Machiavelli advocates not humanism which is unattainable but rather the
practical—from abstract to material effects
For Machiavelli, human nature is based on a desire for acquisition
The falls of Medici empire are seen as being true to Machiavelli’s theory
Separates politics from moral law
Fortune always plays a role in politics
Story of world is a story of war
Questions of the relationship between appearance and reality, being and seeming
to be
References works in history, mythology, and theology—Moses, Cyrus, Romulus,
Theseus (real and imagined)
Machiavelli and Popular Culture
From Dean DeFino’s “The Prince of North Jersey”:
Abstract: Although many critics consider Tony Soprano from HBO’s mob
series The Sopranos a troubled Everyman, an emblem of the human need for
redemption, the program reveals a postmodern politician more concerned with
his leadership skills than his humanity. Caught between the Machiavellian
poles of the humane prince and the beastly dictator, Tony is compelled to
more and more beastly deeds in a struggle to achieve and maintain power
among the ruins of a dying mob culture. Tony’s desperate brutality, read
against our surprisingly resilient empathy for him, compels us to ask the very
question his therapist, Dr. Melfi, poses to herself: Are we being conned by a
sociopath? (DeFino 1)
DeFino, Dean. “The Prince of North Jersey.” Journal of Popular Film and Television
(2004). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0412/is_2_32/ai_n6112889/pg_5
A Postmodern Machiavelli?
Models of power abound in the program, from mob hierarchy and law
enforcement to family and religion. In therapy, Tony and Dr. Melfi attempt to
address these models from a series of psychoanalytic, then philosophical
perspectives. When Tony’s son A.J. begins to despair the meaninglessness of
existence after reading Nietzsche in a high school English class, and Tony
finds himself approving what he perceives as the German idealist’s existential
pessimism, Dr. Melfi attempts to guide him toward the central concept of
Nietzschian philosophy, the will to power. This is perhaps a dangerous
approach when dealing with a criminal sociopath, but it is one intended to
encourage Tony toward more constructive forms of agency. Tony also dabbles
briefly in Eastern philosophy while involved with Gloria Trillo, the quasiBuddhist Mercedes saleswoman from season 3. He is particularly drawn to
Sun-Tsu, whose Art of War was recommended to him by Dr. Melfi prior to the
appearance of Gloria. “Most of the guys I know read Prince Matchabelli,” he
tells Dr. Melfi, referring to the Florentine humanist Niccolo Machiavelli,
author of that infamous guide to political expedience, The Prince. But
according to Tony, Sun-Tsu’s text is “much better about strategy.” Ironically,
although Tony claims to dismiss Machiavelli after briefly skimming Cliff's
Notes for The Prince, it is the Machiavellian aspect of Sun-Tsu that attracts
him. “If your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate him,” he advises Silvio
after their psychotic associate Ralphie Cifaretto beats a stripper to death
outside of Silvio’s strip club the Bada Bing. Tony’s own response to these
events is textbook Machiavelli: first to abuse, then to reward (a public
thrashing and shunning, followed closely by a promotion). (DeFino 1)
From Machiavelli to Montaigne
•
Dan Engster’s “The Montaignian Moment” uses J.A. Pocock’s Machiavellian Moment
to define a major shift in thinking about politics to an interest in “fortune” rather than
“timeless values and static ideals”
•
Defines a second shift with Montaigne
•
For Engster, Montaigne “argued that Machiavelli and the civic humanists had grossly
underestimated the capriciousness and uncertainty of fortune. He then challenged the
effectiveness of traditional humanist strategies for establishing order within time and
proposed a new set of principles for taming fortune based upon the concept of ‘nature’
and the values of moderation, restraint, and self-discipline.”
•
Argues Montaigne is “one of the first early modern writers to suggest that human
beings ought not to focus so much on trying actively to manipulate fortune. Instead, he
felt that the aim should be more on attempting to construct self-sufficient and selfregulating communities that would avoid her blows altogether.”
•
Ultimately sees Montaigne as a “central transitional figure between the activist
humanism of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and the more rationalistic state
theories of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or more succinctly, between
Machiavelli and Hobbes” and creates a “theoretical framework for the development
and justification of the new language of the state.” (Engster 626)
•
Engster, Dan. “The Montaignian Moment.” The Journal of the History of Ideas 59.4
(1998): 625-650.
From Reformation to Revolution
• Protestant Reformation
• Martin Luther (1483-1546), German, studied law, entered monastery,
professor at Wittenburg, preacher (Perry 320); Katharina von Bora (324)
• Selling of indulgences
• Faith, meaning in Bible—moving from centralized authority of Catholicism
• Mysticism, Humanism, Millenarians (Perry 319)
• 1517—Ninety-five Theses
• 1520—Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (urging princes
to break from pope, citing his exploitation) (Perry 323)
• 1521—charge of heresy by Charles V, Holy Roman emperor
• Religious reform to social revolution
• Uses for disenfranchised—peasant revolt in 1524 (Luther disassociates)
From Reformation to Revolution
• Protestantism—Zurich, Germany (Peace of Augsburg in 1555—religion left to
prince)
• John Calvin (1509-1564), French scholar and theologian (and humanist),
preacher of Reformation (Perry 327)—leaves France for Geneva; theocracy
(elders regulating through church courts)
• Predestination
• 1534—Protestantism illegal in France; Huguenots (Calvinist minority), as
underground movement (Perry 329); 1562—civil war between Catholics and
Protestants; 1572, Henry of Navarre (later becomes King Henry IV after
reconverts to Catholicism), failed conciliation with marriage of Protestant
leader into royal family and plot to murder Protestant guests—Saint
Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (Perry 329)
• Henry IV gives Protestants limited toleration; issues Edict of Nantes in 1598;
assassinated in 1610; edict revoked in 1685
Framing Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592); born in Montaigne, to Catholic father and
Protestant mother; studied law, member of parliament; retired from politics at
age 38; after writing for a decade, is appointed mayor of Bordeaux, holds for
two terms until 1585
Question of “Who am I?” as a basis of an existential crisis (later articulated by
theorists such as Sartre and Camus)
“a precursor of modernity, a representative of his time, and an avid student of the
classical past” (2178), detailing the self changing in the world
Existential dilemmas, cultural and psychological identity crises
Idea of self transforming as world around it does
Catholic and Protestant factions—France, divisions—1562-1568 France in civil
war three times
Third party, politiques, party including Montaigne—religious tolerance
Views
“His hatred of political radicalism influenced much of what he saw in ancient
history and in contemporary accounts of New World discovery and conquest.
This alienation from his own political context suggests one cause of his
celebrated doubleness of perspective, which is at once ethnographic (outwardlooking and impartial) and self-critical (introspective and moral).” (2180)
Ethnographer, historian—perspectives in writing: what he sees in conquests in the
New World—from impartial gaze or introspective and moral
Epistemology:
shift during the period to ways of knowing. How do we know what we know?
Like Socrates, emphasizes how knowledge “reveals how little he truly knows”
(2179)
Focus on the “elusive and unstable character of the ‘self’” (2180)
“Of Cannibals” influences the representation of Caliban in Shakespeare’s
Tempest, Shakespeare’s reflections on the “ideal commonwealth, colonialism,
and the nature of savages” (2180).
Barbaric is loosely defined as that which is not ours
Counters that logic by showing how the “Golden Age” is experienced by such
“barbarians”
On Montaigne’s Philosophies
• Barbarians as non-Greeks; “others” considered barbarians
• Of Cannibals raises the question of one’s relation to others
• “whatever is not his own practice”; “very desire of philosophy” (pp. 21922193)
• Yet Montaigne raises the issue that, because we corrupted pure and natural
Nature, we are barbarians
• Education teaches us to die well and live well
• Cannibals fight to know what they are
• Question of virtue raised in a new context
• If the human condition is made to suffer, then life is an exercise in dying well
and living well
• Montaigne stresses the idea of knowing that you are knowing; in this way, he
offers a connection to Plato’s ideas
• Montaigne’s Of Experience and Of Education together offer a means to live
well