WHAT WAS “REBORN” IN THE RENAISSANCE?
A cultural movement arose in northern Italy in the late 14th century to challenge the central doctrines of medieval “scholasticism” and the conventions of medieval art.
1.Scholars began to study ancient Greek and Hebrew as well as Latin, and to emphasize the importance of “the humanities.”
2.The scholastics used Aristotle to define the one “correct” answer to every question, but Renaissance “humanists” understood that ancient authorities often quarreled with each other.
3.Artists rediscovered the ancient love of the beauty of nature and powerful techniques to depict them.
Dominant powers
in Italy in 1494:
Republic of Venice
Republic of Genoa
Republic of Florence
Duchy of MilanPapal States
Naples & Sicily
“Charlemagne Window,” Chartres Cathedral, c. 1225:
Emperor Constantine greets Charlemagne (medieval Europeans lacked a sense of history)
Dante (1265-1321) and his “Inferno”
(following the teaching of “scholasticism”)
Petrarch (1304-1374), “father of humanism,”
and his MS. of the poetry of Virgil
Petrarch, “On His Own Ignorance andThat of Many Others” (1368)
[Petrarch replies to his critics, who argue for the superiority of the study of “philosophy”:]
“I have read all of Aristotle’s moral books…. Sometimes I have become more learned through them, but not better, not so good as I ought to be…. I see virtue, and all that is peculiar to vice as well, very well defined and distinguished by him and treated with penetrating insight. When I learn all this, I know a little bit more than I knew before, but mind and will remain the same as they were, and I myself remain the same…. What is the use of knowing what virtue is if it is not loved when known? What is the use of knowing sin if it is not abhorred?”Petrarch argued for study of the HUMANITIES, i.e., languages, rhetoric, literature, and history. His favorite author was the great orator and statesman, Cicero.
Pico della Mirandola(1463-1494),
fluent in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic,star of the Platonic
Academy of Florence (founded by Lorenzo de Medici in 1464,
led by Marsilio Ficino).
Pico published his “Oration on the Dignity of Man”
in 1486
Raphael, The School of Athens (Vatican, 1509)
Plato & Aristotle
THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
Pioneering artists of Florence:• Giotto: 1266?--1337• Masaccio: 1401--1428• Leonardo da Vinci: 1452--1519• Michelangelo Buonarotti: 1475--1564• Raphael Sanzio: 1483--1520
Renaissance Popes:• Alexander VI (Borgia): 1492-1503• Julius II (the warrior pope): 1503-1513• Leo X (Medici): 1513-1521
A medieval Madonna and
Child (by Duccio, late 13th century),
painted against the gold
background of heaven, situated
in eternity
Medieval art often sought to
tell stories:Simone Martini, Blessed Agostino Novello
Altarpiece, Siena, 1324
Florence: The Palazzo Vecchio and Duomo
The Pantheon in Rome, built 118-128 A.D.Since then nobody had built a dome in Europe.
Interior of the Pantheon
The Dome of the
Cathedral of Florence (1420-36),
designed by Filippo
Brunelleschi
Giotto, “The Kiss of Judas” (1305)
Masaccio,The Trinity(1425-28):
Fresco in Santa Maria Novella,
Florence
The “vanishing point:”
Masaccio’s scheme of
perspective for “The Trinity”
Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin of the Rocks
(ca. 1485)
Map of Tuscany, drawn for Cesare Borgia by Leonardo in 1502
Raphael(1484-1520),The Canigiani
Madonna (1507)
Venus de Milo (Greek marble
statue of Aphrodite,
ca. 100 B.C.)
Michelangelo, David (1504):
Mascot of theRepublic of Florence
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FLORENCE
13th century: pro-papal Guelphs vs. pro-German Ghibellines (exile of Dante)
1378: Revolt by the proletarian wool-combers to demand inclusion in the guild system.
1462-92: Effective rule by the “first citizen,” Lorenzo de Medici, Lorenzo “the Magnificent”
1494: Exile of Piero de Medici and restoration of the Republic
1502-09: Height of Machiavelli’s influence (embassy to Cesare Borgia; conquest of Pisa)
1511/12: Triumphant return of the Medici & exile for Machiavelli (who then wrote The Prince)
1527: Medici banished again; Republic revived1537: Medici return; Florence becomes a hereditary
duchy
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527):
Appointed secretary to
the Florentine Chancery,
1498; banished by the Medici in
1512
The execution of Savonarola in 1498
Pope Alexander VI
(Borgia), reigned
1492-1503
Cesare Borgia (1475-1507)
“Portrait of a Woman” (Lucrezia Borgia? 1480-
1519)
Raphael, Portrait of Pope
Julius II (1511/12):The warrior
pope, nearing death
Medal of Pope Julius II (1506), with plan for a newSt. Peter’s Cathedral