AP European History
AP European History
Styles of the Italian Renaissance touched the rest of Europe in varying ways. In the Low Countries. artists such as Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) still produced works on religious themes, but the attention to detail in the paintings of Jan van Eyck (1385-1440) typifies the grafting of Renaissance ideas. The works of artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525-1569) show an even stronger turn toward realism, as do those of the Venetian school, with Giorgione and the mannerists active about the same time.
In Mainz, Germany, the invention of printing with movable type in the 1450s, attributed to Johann Gutenberg, facilitated the spread of new ideas throughout Europe, a breakthrough quickly exploited by such Renaissance printers as Aldus Manutius (1449-1515) of Venice. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) gave realism and individuality to the art of the woodcut, where he often combined words and images.
Albrecht Dürer’s Four Holy Men (1526) shows his solid training as a wood engraver as well as the influence of his Journeys In Italy. Durer’s subject, as with those of other northern artists, can be Interpreted as a sign of the preponderance of Christian humanism north of the Alps; like Erasmus, Dürer remained Catholic. The four men are Saints John, Peter, Paul, and Mark, not the evangelists,
Many Italian artists and scholars were hired in France. The Loire Valley chateaux of the sixteenth century and Francois Rabelais’s (1494-1553) bawdy epic Gargantua and Pantagruel reflect Renaissance erudition and tastes.
The new interest in the past and new developments did not appear in England until the sixteenth century. Poetry and drama, culminating in the age of Shakespeare, is the most pronounced accomplishment of the Renaissance spirit in England.
In Spain, money from the Americas supported such building as the Escorial, the new royal palace. as well as El Greco (1541-1614), often considered a mannerist. His work is discussed in chapter 3.
The Renaissance outside Italy emphasized the study of the Bible and the church fathers more than secular authors of Rome and Greece.
Although they used the techniques of the Italian humanists in the analysis of ancient writings, language. and style. Christian humanists were more interested in providing guidance on personal behavior.
Work on Christian sources done between 1450 and 1530 emphasized education and the power of the human intellect to bring about institutional change and moral improvement. The many tracts and guides of Christian humanists were directed at reforming the church, but led many into criticisms of the church, which resulted in the Reformation. In addition, the discovery that traditional Christian texts had different versions proved unsettling to many believers.
Though many Christian humanists were not clergymen, most early reformers of the church during the Reformation had been trained as Christian humanists.
Christian humanism, with its emphasis on toleration and education, disappeared for a time owing to the increasing passion of the Reformation after 1530.
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), a Dutchman and the most notable figure of the Christian humanist movement, made new translations of the Greek and Latin versions of the New Testament in order to have “purer” editions. His In Praise of Folly satirizes the ambitions of the world, especially those of the clergy. A man known throughout intellectual circles of Europe, he emphasized the virtues of tolerance, restraint, and education at the time the church was fragmenting during the Reformation. Erasmus led a life of simple piety, practicing the Christian virtues, which led to complaints that he had no role for the institutional church. His criticisms of the church and clergy, though meant to lead to reforms, gave ammunition to those wishing to attack the church and, therefore, it is said “Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched.”
Thomas More (1478-1536), an English lawyer, politician, and humanist, wrote Utopia (a Greek word for “nowhere”). Mixing civic humanism with religious ideals, the book describes a perfect society, located on an imaginary island, in which war, poverty, religious intolerance, and other problems of the early sixteenth century do not exist. Utopia sought to show how people might live if they followed the social and political ideals of Christianity. Also, in a break with medieval thought. More portrayed government as very active in the economic life of the society, education, and public health. Though a critic of the church and clergy of his day, More was executed by Henry VIII, king of England, for refusing to countenance Henry’s break with the pope in religious matters.
Jacques Lefevre d’Etaples (1455-1536), the leading French humanist, edited and published five versions of the Psalms, an edition that challenged the tradition of a single, authoritative Bible. Also, his work on St. Paul anticipated that of Martin Luther.
Francesco Ximénes de Cisneros (1436-1517), the Grand Inquisitor and thus the leader of the Spanish church, founded a university and produced the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, which had Hebrew. Greek, and Latin versions of the Bible in parallel columns. He also reformed the Spanish clergy and church so that most criticisms of the later reformers during the Reformation did not apply to Spain.