The Renaissance 1450-1527
Unit EQ:
Why does the Renaissance mark the
beginning of the modern era?
What are the indexes of modernity?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pressures for increased democracy
Loosening of old customs
Questioning of ancestral religions; increased secularization
Demands for individual liberation
Expectation of a higher standard of living
Drive for more equality (gender, race, class, religious,
nationalities)
Elaborate means of transportation and communication
Advanced science, medicine, hygiene, agriculture
Sophisticated means for fighting or negotiating peace
Complex networks of finance and trade
“Open the door and a few flies come in”
- Deng Xiaoping on China’s modernization
Renaissance: the 5 W’s
• WHAT?
• WHEN?
• WHERE?
• WHO?
• WHY?
WHAT was the Renaissance?
The Late Middle Ages: Cathedrals
After 1450: Humanism revived
revival of Greco-Roman
classics
power of the
human mind
liberal arts
education
beauty
and
materialism
Renaissance Ideals
Humanism:
- Individualism
- Secularism
-Materialism
virtu: Civic Humanism –
applying humanist values to
the improvement of public
virtue
Expectation of a
better life in this world
for future generations
Humans have power to
improve and achieve
progress
Civic humanism
Essential Understanding:
Time, Continuity & Change
Medieval legacies:
Renaissance departures:
WHEN? A Movable Feast
A Movable Feast:
1350-1600
Beginnings
1350-1453
Late Middle Ages
Revival of Classical Texts
Height
1453-1527
Refinement of a Style
Leonardo, Michelangelo
Diffusion:
Northern Renaissance
Ren Ideals Inspire Ref
No. Ren. artists perfect techniques
The Late Middle Ages: Prelude* to
the Modern World 1100-1350
• Magna Charta, 1215: limits the arbitrary rule of
monarchs
• Cities emerge around cathedrals and universities
• Scholasticism revives the study of logic and
reason
• Trade picks up between Italy and the non-western
world
*prelude = beginning that transitions to a main event
Medieval legacies:
(5th – 14th C)
“In innumerable ways today’s
world is linked to the Middle
Ages”:
• Technological lead of the West
• Higher law of God
• Sacred worth of individual
Renaissance departures:
(15th – 18th C)
“Although the elements of
continuity are clear, the
characteristic outlook of the
Middle Ages was as different
from that of the modern age as
it was from that of the ancient
world”
• Human intellect/reason CAN
interpret the natural world
through science
• The ideal of the noble warrior
• Nature is a unified field, not a
hierarchical one
• Government by consent and
rule by law (Magna Charta,
1215)
• Nationalism replaced personal
& feudal allegiances
• Science and possibility of
human progress replace faith
and a sinful individual
Medieval legacies:
(5th – 14th C)
“In innumerable ways
today’s world is linked to
the Middle Ages”:
Renaissance departures:
(15th – 18th C)
“Although the elements of
continuity are clear, the
characteristic outlook of
the Middle Ages was as
different from that of the
modern age as it was from
that of the ancient world”
WHERE: city states and principalities
of the Italian peninsula
• Continuous trade with the
Mediterranean world
during the Middle Ages
• Urban centers emerge
• Commercial classes in city
states emerge as a vibrant
force, patronize art
• Greek scholars flee there
after 1453
• Legacy of Rome’s glory
and civic pride
WHO?
• Humanist scholars
• Wealthy patrons
• Philosophers
• Historians
• Artists and poets
• Government officials &
civil servants
WHO:
Petrarch, Bruni,
Valla, Mirandola
Humanists create
A New Set of Values
• Transition from Scholasticism
to philology and liberal arts
• Revival of classical texts,
Latin language, Greek
philosophy from Byzantine
Empire after 1453
• Use of objective historical
analysis
• Intellectual curiosity glorified
WHY IMPORTANT?
Renaissance ideals live on in
the indexes of modernity
• Respect for dignity of the
individual and liberty
• Science replaces faith as source
of material knowledge
• Expectation of a decent standard
of living and growth of middle
class
• Diplomacy and balance of power
deployed
• Centralized state authority serves
as a buffer against feudalism and
disorder
“What needs to be explained is not the existence of a
Leonardo or a Michelangelo but their co-existence”
- KGO
What are the indexes of modernity?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pressures for increased democracy
Loosening of old customs
Questioning of ancestral religions; increased secularization
Demands for individual liberation
Expectation of a higher standard of living
Drive for more equality (gender, race, class, religious,
nationalities)
Elaborate means of transportation and communication
Advanced science, medicine, hygiene, agriculture
Sophisticated means for fighting or negotiating peace
Complex networks of finance and trade
Medieval & Renaissance painting compared:
•
•
•
Subject matter:
Purpose:
Techniques:
The Renaissance:
A New Age by Self-Assertion
Gothic Cathedrals
• Long naves to the alter
• Flying buttresses for
support
• Stained glass windows
• Statues of saints
• Towns grow up around the
cathedrals
Brunelleschi:
-revived classical elements
- synthesizes classical architecture with gothic
cathedral structure
Prague, Czech Republic
Florence, Italy
Alberti
“A building, like a body,
needs an even number
of supports and like a
head, an odd number
of openings”
Painting: Medieval versus Renaissance
Massacio:
“The Expulsion of Adam
And Eve” (ca. 1425)
-used shading to create light
and shadow
-used linear persepctive
Classical themes admired : architecture, heroes, education.
Massacio: linear persepctive
Leonardo da
Vinci:
• Sfumato
• Chiarrascurro
The creation of
naturalism.
• Proportionality
• Humanistic subject matter
• Meticulous observation of
what occurs in nature
• Mathematical perspective
to create the illusion of 3
dimensionality
Raphael’s “The Three Graces”
Emphasis
on beauty
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
Individualism
Materialism
and luxury:
The beginning
Of the
Bourgeoisie =
Urban upper
Middle class
Two different visions of sculpture:
Two different visions of scultpture:
Gargoyle on cathedral,
Medieval:
Abstract
Spiritual only
Embedded in cathedral
Michelangelo’s Pieta,
Renaissance:
Naturalistic
Humanistic
Free-standing
Donatello
• Revived free-standing
sculpture
• Studied human
anatomy
Renaissance
sculpture:
• Contraposto
• Free-standing
• Proportional
• anatomy studies and
mathematics
• Bold attitude
PURPOSE: naturalism
as a metaphor for
humanism
The Middle Ages
=
A “Dark Age” ?
The Renaissance:
A New Age by Self-Assertion
15th century society
The Gate to
The Market,
Krakow,
Poland
Continuity…….and…..Change
in Renaissance Society
• Agriculture and rural
society predominate
• Family relationships most
important
• Importance of the church
in daily life
• Patriarchy
• Disparity rich/ poor/small
middle class
• Short life expectancy
• “The Great Chain of
Being” dominates
religious values & beleifs
• Revival of cities
• More consumer goods
available to all
• More luxury goods
available to some
• Expectation of a better
SOL for future generations
emerges
• Beginning of the
bourgeoisie (=middle
class)
Medieval v. Renaissance ideals
MEDIEVAL LIFE
Christianity central to
society, culture, and
education;
Strict feudal hierarchy
Decentralized authorities
Local, agrarian economies
and customs (the lord’s
manor)
Classical Mythology
Medieval v. Renaissance ideals
MEDIEVAL LIFE
Christianity central to
society, culture, and
education;
Strict feudal hierarchy
Decentralized authorities
Local, agrarian economies
and customs (the lord’s
manor)
SUBJECT MATTER:
SACRED, SECULAR, AND CLASSICAL
Classical humanism in art
• Revered both secular and sacred subjects
• Used Greek and Roman art as models
• Heightened awareness of individualism,
beauty, the dignity of man
• Used the human form as a metaphor for the
potentiality and power of the human mind
• Required the support of wealthy patrons
Renaissance Humanism
Emphasized:
• Reverence for Classical civilization
• Beauty of human mind and body
• Civic humanism: Power of individual to
improve, excel and create progress
• A liberal arts education was the means to
individual fulfillment and social progress
Materialism
and luxury
DOC. #1
DOC. #2
Objective
Studies of
Nature and
Objects
“The Hare” by
Albrecht Durer
What was “Italy” in the 15-16C?
• Many city states and
kingdoms
• No centralized authority
to create a unified Italy
• While still mostly rural,
the Italian peninsula was
the most urbanized place
in Europe
• Condotierri and diplomats
were the regulators of the
balance of power
• Trade continued
throughout the Middle
ages
What were the characteristics of
Italian city states?
Florence:
The Medicis
• Began as merchants then
took capital & went into
banking
• Became powerful
politicians and married into
royal and papal families
• Lorenzo builds a library of
classical works, patronizes
artists
• Cosimo attempts (but does
not succeed) in bringing
order to Florentine politics
Venice: La Serenissima
• First global mercantile
empire
• Served as conduit
between west and “the
orient” throughout late
Middle Ages
• Aspired to republican
glory through the
Doge and the Great
Council
Balance of
power and
diplomacy used
to prevent
hegemony
among the
Italian city
states:
origins of
modern
international
relations.
The
Ambassadors
by Hans
Holbein
Baldassare Castiglione
• “Let the man we are
seeking be exceedingly
fierce, harsh, and always
among the first,
wherever the enemy is;
and in every other place,
humane, modest and
reserved”
The Prince as the Agent of Change
“Every prince must desire to be
considered merciful and not cruel.
He must, however, take care not to
misuse this mercifulness…A
prince, therefore, must not mind
incurring the charge of cruelty for
the purpose of keeping his subjects
united and faithful…”
Machiavelli v. Castiglione
• What are ethics? Do ethics have a place in
political leadership?
• Is it “better to be feared than loved”?
• What is the most effective type of
leadership?
Machiavelli’s Legacy
• Do the ends justify the means?
• Conflict of western values:
-is the state more important
than the individual?
-is order and stability more
important than individual
rights?
• Is politics divorced from ethics?
• Politics as a “science” :
-leaders can study what worked
in the past as a guide to policy
-leaders must pursue pragmatic
policies, not ethical ideals
Two visions of Civil Society
Machiavelli
Castiglione
• The ends justify the means
• Politics is separate from
Christian ethics
• The prince should prefer
fear to love as a tool of
government
• Centralized authority is
preferable to feudalism
• Leaders should do what is
effective, not ideal
• Leaders are role models
and should act accordingly
to inspire their people
• Ideals DO matter in
government
• The Prince should
cultivate his character to
improve his rule
• Rulers should be
intellectually curious
Two visions of Effective Leadership:
Machiavelli:
Castiglione:
A Movable Feast:
1350-1600
Beginnings
1350-1453
Late Middle Ages
Revival of Classical Texts
Height
1453-1527
Refinement of a Style
Leonardo, Michelangelo
Diffusion:
Northern Renaissance
Ren Ideals Inspire Ref
No. Ren. artists perfect techniques
1453, Seige of Constantinople
• Greek scholars come to Italy
• Mediterranean monarchs
sponsor new trade routes to
avoid trade with Muslim
Constantinople
• Atlantic becomes new market
in global trade
Fall of Rome 1527: Second turning point
• End of Italian Renaissance
• Diffusion of Renaissance
ideals to Northern Europe
• End of Italian political
power until unification in 1870
Connections to Machiavelli’
political philosophy????
Northern
Renaissance
• Emphasis on Christian
Humanism and piety
• Photographic-like naturalism
• Nature and bible themes
The Northern Renaissance and Christian
Humanism lay the foundations for Martin
Luther’s 95 Theses and the Reformation…
Understand the Question:
“Describe the various values and purposes of
Renaissance education.
“Analyze the extent to which these values and
purposes were transformed and challenged over
times”
Document #7:
“At least twice a year...not only for learning
the liberal arts, but also the fear of God,
virtue and discipline…”
From the School of Ordinances of
Wurttemberg, Germany,
1559
Northern Renaissance
Humanistic Art, Christian Subject Matter
Document #12:
Percentage of Justices of the Peace
Who attended University (by county):
Date:
Kent:
Northamptonshire:
Somerset:
The value of the
individual as represented
through portraiture
Intellectual
Curiosity
Encouraged,
Scholars revered,
Latin, Universal
Language of
Scholars
Erasmus of
Rotterdam,
Christian
Humanist (by
Hans Holbein)
Sir Thomas
More,
Christian
Humanist of
England
Painted by
Hans Holbein