AP European History
AP European History
The term “Renaissance” is the creation of the modem Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (writing in 1860). Though the average layperson will tend to view the Renaissance, or rebirth of classical culture, as a distinct break from the Middle Ages, historians often disagree over how useful this term is in describing a specific time period. One of the difficulties is, when do we date the beginning of the Renaissance? Petrarch (1304-1374); the father of humanism, already argued for a new age as early as the 1340s. However, this was before the Black Death, so does that mean the Black Death defines the Renaissance? In addition, one of the great painters of the late medieval period, Giotto, influenced later Renaissance painters. So where do we put Giotto? Even if there is much wisdom in viewing the Renaissance as a continuation of medieval trends, there is little doubt that a new self-consciousness regarding human beings and a new self-assertion is evident in Italy by 1350.
As the name suggests, humanists were fascinated by humans and their potential. The fabric of humanism is woven of several important strands:
SECULARISM Humanists focused their attention on the here-and-now, and less on the afterworld, as had been the tendency during the Middle Ages. Education, self-help manuals, and treatises on civility all reinforced the notion that humans stood to gain rewards-wealth, status, prestige, fame-in the temporal world. Even in religious paintings, humans take on increased significance, while painting itself becomes more an exercise to glorify the artist than to glorify God.
CLASSICS Ancient Greece and Rome formed the moral center of many humanists’ outlook. Collectors of manuscripts, such as Poggio Bracciolini, scoured monasteries, ruins-anywhere-to find evidence of the ancient way of life. For example, the ancient Roman Vitruvius’s On Architecture provided a guide to the creation of buildings that imitated a coherent system of columns, arches, and pillars. Also, the recovery of the long-lost Hellenistic sculpture Laocoön in the early 16th century inspired Michelangelo to create his masterpiece, David. Ancient values and aesthetics, as pre-Christian, told a captivating story with humans at the center, from which humanists took inspiration.
INDIVIDUALISM By “individualism,” humanists meant not a narrow, selfish conception of human actions, but rather that learning and human affairs should concern the individual. It was as if humanists had just discovered mankind and could not tear themselves away. This attitude can be seen in the self-consciousness of Petrarch’s verse as well as Castiglione’s suggestions for achieving fame, wealth, and position.
POWER Amid the inspiring philosophy and mesmerizing art, it is easy to forget that the Renaissance was at its heart about human control of the environment. A central humanist aim was to provide society with intellectual tools that could be used to master everything from the globe (cartography), to sound (musical notation), to abstract space (three-dimensional perspective in painting), to business (double-entry bookkeeping), and finally politics. It’s no coincidence that along with the great works of art came exploration and colonization, the centralization of New Monarchs, and urban planning.
Humanism found many expressions-literature, philosophy, education, politics, and, of course, art. As you review the list of representative figures below, keep in the mind the principles to which they connect above.
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527): One of the most famous figures of the Renaissance, Machiavelli’s claim to fame is The Prince. Dedicated to the Medici family, the book serves as a manual for the pragmatic ruler who must appear virtuous, wise, and courageous (like a “lion”), and at the same time ready to be ruthless and cunning (like a “fox”). Machiavelli denies the traditional notion that the political realm must uphold the laws of God. Politics follows its own logic in the hard-headed rules of power, or raison d’etat (reason of state), which is why The Prince is often considered the first modern work of political science. It is important to remember the context for Machiavelli’s writing-the invasion of Italy and its subsequent domination by foreign powers. The Prince, as well as Machiavelli’s other writings endorsing citizen militias and republican government, can be seen collectively as patriotic appeals for a free and united Italy. After being tortured and losing his position in government, Machiavelli tried desperately to win back his influence, with little success. Fairly or unfairly, Machiavelli’s name is associated with a brand of amoral politics both condemned and practiced since the 16th century.
Petrarch (1304-1374): Often called the Father of Humanism, Petrarch helped popularize the notion that Italy was entering a new age of learning and individualism, distinct from the “ignorance” characteristic of the Middle Ages. Petrarch revived a more pure form of Latin and, as such, spent his literary energies composing verse in the language, much of it related to a psychological portrait of humans and the theme of love, wherein he wrote of his beloved Laura.
Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529): Castiglione first gained fame as a diplomat, but is most known for his Book of the Courtier, a how-to manual on winning fame and influence among the rich and powerful. To gain position and fortune, Castiglione counsels the Renaissance Man to be widely read in the classics, including history, poetry, music, and philosophy, as well as to know how to conduct himself in public. The courtier will be skilled in the military arts and cultured and polished. In addition, Castiglione advocated education for women, but of a particular kind: a musical instrument, poetry, and literacy. Abstract subjects such as math and science were reserved for men.
The Renaissance achieved fame for its production of renowned works of art. Several. developments mark the upward trend of Renaissance art:
OIL-BASED PAINTS Historically, artists had used tempera paints with an egg base, yet with oil-based paints (from the Low Countries), artists could achieve more startling effects with light and shadow by applying layer after thin layer of paint.
PERSPECTIVE For centuries, artists had attempted to achieve a realistic effect of three-dimensional space, but their methods tended to be haphazard and approximate. With the rediscovery of theories of optics and perspective geometry, Renaissance painters were able to achieve a strikingly realistic view of a visual plane.
NATURALISM The Renaissance preoccupation with the human body was reflected in its portrayals on canvas and in stone. Painters and sculptors gave increased attention to musculature and movement of the human body. This emphasis is clearly seen in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, where the master achieves a heroic view of humans, and also in da Vinci’s sketches based on anatomical dissections.
SUBJECT MATTER While artists continued to focus on religious paintings, human beings, nature, and ancient architecture played a more central role in these works. In addition, artists began to experiment with classical scenes, landscapes, and portraits.
ORDER AND SYMMETRY In all three media, Renaissance artists placed great importance on orderly composition. Architects employed proportion in their use of classical motifs such as the column, dome, and arch.
STATUS OF THE ARTIST Because they were considered craftsmen, most artists of the Middle Ages were anonymous. As patronage by wealthy merchants and the church increased during the Renaissance, the reputation of artists as creative geniuses –people set apart – became the standard.
Donatello (1386-1466): Donatello revived the free-standing sculpture. His depiction of David represents the first full-size statue cast in bronze since ancient times. The sculptor imbued his forms with psychological detail and expression, representing Renaissance naturalism.
Masaccio (1401-1428): Masaccio employed perspective geometry for the first time in his Holy Trinity, and also realized a depth of realism and three-dimensional space in a series of frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, of which the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden is a highlight for depicting the agony and shame of the couple. Unfortunately, this master died young.
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446): Though an architect, Brunelleschi expressed interest in all the arts, including cast bronze and painting-it was he who helped develop the use of perspective geometry in painting. By far, Brunelleschi’s primary achievement is the massive dome (Il Duomo) he created for the Cathedral of Florence, a feat of artistic vision and engineering.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519): Perhapps the foremost Renaissance Man, da Vinci gained fame for just a few paintings – Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, Madonna of the Rocks. His diverse interests led him into science, engineering, and anatomy. Da Vinci introduced the notion of systematic observation, which he tracked in his notebooks, written backwards to make it difficult for imitators to steal his ideas.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564): Bearing a name synonymous with genius, Michelangelo excelled in all the artistic media-sculpture (David, Pieta), painting (Sistine Chapel, Last Judgment), and architecture (St. Peter’s Basilica Dome, Laurentian Library). The master’s nudes offer a heroic vision of the human form influenced by neo-Platonic philosophy, though his later works express a darker vision. In addition, Michelangelo composed poetry and was working on another Pieta at the age of 89 when he died.
Raphael (1483-1520): The youngest of the great masters, and considered a rival of Michelangelo’s, Raphael often sought artistic patronage in Rome, where the Renaissance refocused after about 1490. Raphael’s School of Athens honors ancient learning and his fellow artists, as the Greek philosophers take on the physical appearance of his contemporaries. In addition, Raphael painted numerous portraits of the Madonna, the Mother of Jesus.
Renaissance humanism spurred education. Humanists founded schools for both boys and girls, though the latter tended to focus more on keeping appearances rather than mastery of abstract subject matter. Latin and Greek were prized by scholars of the 15th and 16th centuries, yet a truly well-rounded person needed to be conversant in all the liberal arts-grammar, music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, rhetoric, and logic-not to mention poetry, horsemanship, and military arts. Renaissance schools provided structure and regular promotion of pupils from one level to the next, and in that sense, have influenced the values and curricula of schools today.
Though there were several well-regarded female humanists, women faced significant barriers to their intellectual pursuits. The prevailing notion held that women’s focus should be directed toward the domestic sphere. More enlightened humanists favored education for women, but it never equaled the type of learning available to men. Nonetheless, women often played key political roles, especially when their statesmen-husbands were off at war, and several gained fame for sponsoring the forerunners to the salons of the Enlightenment. In some ways, the status of women declined from the Middle Ages, as they came to be viewed as objects of art or pawns in marriage alliances, a fact accentuated by the gap in average ages between husband and wife. Some famous humanists and early feminists did leave a mark:
Christine de Pisan (1364-1431): A French noblewoman, de Pisan published one of the first modem statements of feminism, The City ofLadies, which defends women’s intellectual capabilities against anti-female bias. After her husband’s death, de Pisan fought to retain her property and turned to writing to support her family; she may have been the first woman in European history to m~ea living through her writings ..
Isabella d’Este (1474-1539): Often called the First Lady of the World, d’Este married into the famous Gonzaga family of Mantua. After her husband departed for war, d’Este conducted diplomacy on his behalf (and sometimes behind his back). She also found time to establish schools for girls, attract humanists to her court, and write hundreds of letters of literary merit.
Laura Cereta (1469-1499): Cereta’s life again illustrates the importance of marriage and early mortality. Her husband died after 18 months of marriage, and rather than enter a convent or remarry, Cereta wrote works advocating equality of opportunity for women. She, too, died young, however.