Transcript Ch.17.1 PPT Italian Renaissance

Italy:
Birthplace of the Renaissance
Ch.17.1 Essential Questions
• What conditions existed in Italy that gave rise to
the Renaissance?
• What values and ideas were prized during the
Renaissance?
• What were some of the artistic breakthroughs
and achievements of Renaissance artists?
• What were some of the influential literary works
and techniques of key Renaissance writers?
‘Renaissance’ means rebirth and refers to the period of
about 1300-1600 that was a new period of learning and
creativity in Europe. Artists and scholars of the time
began to rediscover the genius of classical Greece and
Rome. People began to question the established
authority of the time- both religious and political.
• As some historian critiques note, this doesn’t mean
that medieval period was a dark age. There was still
culture, learning, and such going on then. At this time,
however, there’s a sudden explosion of it and it takes a
markedly different form from what was seen during the
Middle Ages.
• Other critics argue that this period only introduced
change for the upper classes while the lower classes
largely led the same miserable existence as they
always had.
When we talk about the Renaissance, it largely began in
Italy, especially northern Italy.
• Why there? Good question.
• One big reason was economics.
• Trade was very important the Italian city-states.
Demand for luxury goods increased trade.
Increased trade led to more tradesmen becoming
wealthy and wanting more luxury goods, and on and
on.
• It wasn’t uncommon for the merchants to be richer
than the local nobles.
• Due to the power and wealth of the merchants and
guilds, the feudal system broke down here. Feudal
lords didn’t run the show here, which helped to
secure money and remove laws that inhibited
commerce.
• The trade-based economy also meant that cities
were dominant.
• Northern Europe was also embroiled in the Hundred
Years War in the early-going.
It was primarily the northern Italian city-states that
dominated the Italian Renaissance. The central and
southern cities remained backwards.
• Note that each citystate, as a city-state,
was independent of the
others. Also, they
controlled the
surrounding region.
• They would sometimes
go to war with each
other.
Florence is the city-state in which the Renaissance was
most prominent. Considered the “cradle” of the
Renaissance
Florence
• Center of art, literature,
and culture.
• Florence became
wealthy from the
manufacturing of wool.
• Later Florence became
the banking center of
Italy.
• The Medici family were
the greatest bankers in
Florence.
Rome- Would
replace Florence as
“the place to be”
• Home of the Catholic
Church
• Popes commissioned
famous artists and
architects to beautify
Rome. Michelangelo,
Raphael, and Botticelli
all produced major
works in Rome.
Rome
• The popes employed the best artists and
architects
of the Renaissance to build and decorate the most
opulent churches in in the world.
• Michelangelo designed the finest example of
Renaissance architecture in Rome, the Piazza del
Campidoglio (bottom left). He also designed the
dome of St. Peter’s Basilica (bottom right).
Venice
• Venice was the wealthiest citystate of the Renaissance.
• It was a port city on the
Mediterranean.
• Venice maintained hundreds of
merchant ships and warships,
and thousands of sailors.
Genoa
• Genoa is located on the
Mediterranean.
• Genoa was one of two
main port cities in Italy
during the Renaissance.
• Genoa was one of the
wealthiest city-states of
the Renaissance.
• Dominated trade in the
western Mediterranean
Genoa
Harbor
• Milan dominated the inland trade
routes because it was the
gateway to Italy from the north.
• Milan is the site of Santa Maria
delle Grazie, the cathedral
where Leonardo da Vinci
painted The Last Supper in the
dining hall.
Milan
Going back to the ancients (Classical Civilizations)
• One aspect of the Renaissance was reading these
ancient works.
• While some ancient authors, especially Aristotle,
were very well known and were used for medieval
thought as well as Catholic theology and cosmology,
many others had fallen by the wayside.
• There were several reasons for this:
• There was the general decline in literacy and
learning during the medieval period, but, more
importantly, Greek and proper Latin were no
longer spoken or read. Therefore, most people
couldn’t read the ancient works even if they had
them.
• Another reason is that many of the works were
lost to western Europe.
• Once the Renaissance was under way, people
started hunting them down.
• Some were found in monastery libraries where
they had gathered dust for centuries.
• Many others came via Muslims. They had
preserved many works that started finding
their way back to Europe due to trading and
also because of the Reconquista of Spain.
• The influence came not just from the
original works, but also from Muslim
commentaries on the works.
• Still others came from the conquering of
Constantinople in 1453.
• The Byzantine scholars escaped
Constantinople to Italy and brought with
them not just the ancient works, but also
the ability to read them, which they taught
to others.
• Another factor that helps focus people on the
ancients was observing all the ancient Roman stuff
around them.
• Much of it had fallen into disrepair and some had
even been used as quarries.
This focus on the classics led to humanism.
• Humanism focused on what humans could do. It was
in opposition to the divinely based thought of the day.
• It also advocated reason and the evidence of senses
over traditional Christian introspective values.
• Along with this was the clarion call, ad fontes, which
meant ‘to the sources.’ The humanists believed in
going directly to the primary sources instead of just
looking at what people said. This contributed to the
drive to get those original works.
• It concentrated on the traditional liberal arts: rhetoric,
grammar, philosophy, ethics, poetry, and history.
Focus on the good things in life
• Breaking with Christianity that focused on self-denial,
the humanists liked the finer things: entertainment,
art, good food, good company, etc. They embraced a
secular lifestyle- being concerned with the here and
now rather than the afterlife.
• This was partially due to the effect of the Black
Death. Life was seeming too short not to enjoy it if
you could.
Insert scanned table
While there were several
powerful families in
Florence, the one that
emerged as the leader was
the Medici family.
• This is primarily due to the
skill of Cosimo de Medici.
• Cosimo was a brilliant
political tactician and also a
brilliant businessman.
• He amassed a huge fortune
in banking and used it to
buy political power as well
as financing art projects in
Florence.
A few years after Cosimo
dies, his grandson Lorenzo
takes power (Cosimo’s son
Piero takes power first,
but he was sickly and
didn’t live long).
• Lorenzo, of course, comes
to be known as Lorenzo
the Magnificent
• And why was Lorenzo magnificent?
• One big reason is the massive effect he had on
Florentine Renaissance.
• He sponsored a great deal of art and literature with
the Medici fortune.
• A few of the artists who enjoyed his patronage were
Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello.
• He also helped to start philosophical academies that
reexamined ancient works and philosophies.
Competition breeds Jealousy!
• A rival family was so jealous of Lorenzo’s power and wealth
that they attempted to assassinate him and his brother while
they were at mass. His brother was killed, but Lorenzo was
able to fight off the attackers. Eventually they were captured
and publicly executed.
When it came to art, it had to be funded and that was
done by patrons – typically local wealthy merchant
families such as the Medici.
• They would sponsor art for themselves and for the city.
They liked having portraits of them done, among other
things.
Unfortunately, they were, for lack of a better word, pugly!
However, being
rich was not
enough! To be a
universal man
(or Renaissance
man), like
Lorenzo here,
you strove to
become expert
in the liberal
arts as well as
learn to sing,
dance, and
write poetry.
New art
• The Renaissance saw a flourishing of new artistic
techniques.
• Medieval art tended to be very flat and nearly always
had religious overtones.
• The art that started developing in the Renaissance,
however, was different.
• The biggest innovation was the use of perspective.
• When you look at a scene, parallel lines seem to get
closer to each other the farther in the distance they
go until they meet at a vanishing point. Think of
standing on a railroad track and looking down them.
• Renaissance artists started exploiting this optical
illusion in their art. The advantage of it is that you
created the illusion of a three dimensional image on
a flat, two dimensional surface.
• Interestingly,
perspective can
also be used as
to create false
perspective, such
as here.
• Or in M.C. Escher’s works (though he wasn’t
Renaissance).
You also start to see the use of light and shade
(chiaroscuro) and blurring outlines so it seems that
tones imperceptibly meld in to each other (thereby
creating volume: this is sfumato).
Carvaggio’s Crucifixion
of St. Peter. An
example of
Chiaroscuro.
Actually an example from Caravaggio, a Baroque artist- The Calling of St. Matthew
Close-up of Mona Lisa’s
face. Notice the sfumato
blurring, especially around
the eyes, and how it
creates a 3D illusion.
• You also see a renewed interest in some classical forms
in sculpture that are at the same time using realism.
• Examples are Donatello’s bronze David and
Michelangelo’s marble David.
• Even Lorenzo got into it:
• There’s also a greater plasticity and animation to the
characters in the paintings. They feel like they’re in
mid-movement and not just in some stone-like pose.
• Architecture changed during the Renaissance too.
• It was more symmetrical and centrally planned than
Gothic architecture was. Use of the blueprint comes
about. Also, the architect comes into being.
• The dome of the basilica reaches 448 ft. The Statue
of Liberty, from the ground to the tip of the torch, is
305 ft.
• There’s also the Sistine Chapel. Not much to look at
from the outside:
• But inside…
Renaissance Literature
• Previously, writing was done in Latin. Advantage: it
was the scholarly language that scholars knew even
when their respective local languages were different.
• Disadvantage: the commoners didn’t know it.
• So, authors started writing in the vernacular (the
common language of their regions). This allowed
literature to have a more popular bent. It also
stagnated Latin.
Influential Renaissance Writers
• Petrarch- the “Poet Laureate” of Rome;
known for his sonnets (Laura)
• Boccacio- best known for The Decameron,
a series of realistic, often off-color stories
• Niccolo Machiavelli- best known for writing
The Prince; it served as a political
guidebook for rulers, often examining the
imperfect conduct of human beings.
– “the ends justify the means”
– “It is better to be feared than loved”
The most influential change that took
place during the Renaissance?
• a change in the way people thought…
– People began to question authority,
particularly the Catholic Church, and the world
around them. They wanted to find things out
for themselves (remember the term
“ad fontes”) rather than being told what was
truth and what was not.
– In short, people were now “dying to live”
rather than “living to die”