Renaissance & Enlightenment
Renaissance: Reaching Your
Potential (1300-1798)
• Rebirth and return to the classics: learning of
ancient Greece and Rome
• Arts flourished
• Focus on human potential: enlightenment or
Age of Reason
• New views
– Government
– Science
– Arts
• Celebration of the beauty & potential of humans
– Michelangelo’s David
Early Renaissance (1300-1495)
• Italy
– Cities grew & became powerful
– Trade promoted an exchange of ideas
– Merchants had time & money for art and literature
– Ancient Greek and Roman heritage inspired thinkers
• Scholars challenged traditional thinking
• News ideas spread rapidly
• Catholic Church
– Greatly opposed to changes
– Expected all to be more concerned with heaven
– Less concerned about worldly matters
• Discovering a New World - 1492
– Christopher Columbus sailed westward from Spain toward
Asia
– Never reached Asia but opened up European settlement
opportunities elsewhere
Renaissance cont.
• High Renaissance (1495-1530)
– Princes, church leaders, and men of money
dominated politics
• Sponsored artists, ie. Michelangelo & de Vinci
• Encouraged new ways of viewing oneself
• Late Renaissance & Reformation (1530-1600)
– Printing press helped spread new ideas
– Religious reform due to church corruption
– Protestants fought Catholics across Europe
• The Pope’s power declined
• England and Spain took center stage
Battles of Faith
• Catholic church had been the most
powerful spiritual, social, and political force
• Martin Luther posted ninety-five protests
against the church in Germany
• Religious reform, “Reformation,” began
• Wars of words and weapons followed!!
Power of Monarchs
• Renaissance thinkers revived classics &
created the concept of “Nation”
• Powerful monarchs rose to lead new
nations
• Elizabeth I of England (1558-1603)
– Great influence and power
– Renaissance in England is often referred to
as the Elizabethan Age
Age of Kings (1600-1700)
• Monarchs were convinced they had divine right to rule
• Monarchs achieved absolute power
• Spain
– Philip II
• Empire stretched from Africa to the New World
• France
– Louis XIV
• Made France most powerful nation in Europe
• His lavish lifestyle and wars lead to suffering of the people
• Russia
– Peter the Great
• Made isolate Russia powerful
• Able to compete with other European nations
• England
– Government limited the power of the monarch
– Create constitutional monarchy still in place today
Age of Enlightenment (1700-1789)
• Human concerns were subjects of thought
– Government
– Personal happiness
• Thomas Hobbes
– Government must control people’s evil nature
• John Locke
– People are mostly good and can self-govern
• Mary Wollstonecraft
– Argued women’s potential was equal to men’s
• Voltaire and others
– Challenged assumptions of upper-class privilege
– Rights of kings
– Authority of the church
• End of the era lead to new beliefs
– Rights of the individual
• Revolution in America & France
• Change course of Western civilization
Science & Technology
• Scientific Method was developed
• Knowledge in math, physics, astronomy,
etc expanded greatly
• Galileo & others stated the Earth was not
the center of the universe
– He was imprisoned
• Newton used the theories of others to
create the laws of motion
• “Light” was shone on individual rights,
government, and social responsibilities
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The Arts
Literature
– Latin was replaced by native languages
– Spirits of experimentation had influenced
– The novel genre was further developed through the 14th to 18th
centuries
– Lyric poetry was practiced
– Dramatists (Shakespeare, et al) provided entertainment
– 17th & 18th century literature reflected the restraint of ancient Rome
and is referred to as Neoclassical
Painting, Sculpture, & Architecture
– New way of looking at world
– Anatomical studies to create realistic figures neared perfection
Music
– Renaissance
• Sacred mixed with new forms to reflect national tastes
• New types of instrumental music
– Baroque
• Experimentation with complex melodies and dance rhythms
• Drama and music combined to make opera
– Classical
• Tightly structured rhythms and melodies
• Leading instrument was the piano
Society
• Aristocrats
– Not a matter of birth
– Merchants who made fortunes also received titles
– Many self made wealthy promoted culture not self
• Supported artists
• Clergy
– Power forces changed and all examined their roles in
a changing world
– Some brought about reform
• Separated from the church
• Criticized the church from within
• Established alliances with those of power
• Soldiers
– No longer a pass to wealth and influence
– Hard and short life with a dangerous job
Society cont.
• Middle Class
– Thriving class
– Craftsman, shopkeepers, manufacturers, bankers, traders,
etc
– Made money with less back braking work and effort
– Art and literature could not provide a livable wage
• Peasants & Farmers
– Long hours working land they did not own
– Death provided little release, most money went to masters
– Those peasant that became tenant farmers, laborers, or
craftsman still seldom escaped poverty
• Women
– Some powerful monarchs were making changes
– Seldom had voice on their lives, religion, philosophy, or
politics
– Wollstonecraft argued for sexual equality: rights &
education
Reading – Candide by Voltaire
• Pangloss – a true optimist, represents the
“logical errors” of enlightened thinkers of the day
• Candide - illegitimate son of the baroness
adopted into a Baron's family; neither smart or
talented; representative for the attitudes and
events that surround him; romantic and
passionate about Cunegonde
• Cunegonde - the rather bland, daughter of a
German baron; like Candide is neither intelligent
or complex
• Jacques the Anabaptist - cares for Candide and
Pangloss; pessimistic about human nature
• Don Fernando - governor of Buenos Aires; takes
Cunegonde as a mistress
• Cacambo - intelligent and honest; helps and rescues
Candide; is Candide's tailor
Candide by Voltaire cont.
• Vanderdendur - cruel slave owner and corrupt
businessman
• Martin- cynical scholar who becomes Candide's
travel companion; suffered a lot and expects the
worst of the world; preaches unyielding
pessimism; very knowledgeable and intelligent;
believes "man [is] bound to live either in
convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of
boredom."
• Brother Giroflee - unhappy monk; in the monastery
against his wishes; sleeps with the prostitute,
Paquette
• Paquette - chambermaid of Cunegonde's mother;
her affair with Pangloss gives him syphilis; she
turns to prostitution
• Count Pococurante - wealthy Venetian; bored and
critical with everything