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Chapter 10: A New Spirit
in the West: The Renaissance ca. 1300-1640
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A NEW SPIRIT EMERGES:
INDIVIDUALISM, REALISM, AND ACTIVISM
- The Renaissance: A Controversial Idea
- Medieval antecedents
- Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) wrote letters to Livy (the ancient Roman Historian) because he could find no one who served as a model of Classical virtue.
- Led to others examining the classical models of Greece and Rome examples of virtue in shaping the Renaissance.
- Why Italy?
- Classics: literature from 800 BC to c. AD 400
- The rapid changes from feudalism /medieval hierarchies toward individualism and realism from art to politics
- Many eastern scholars fled to Italy when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
·
A Multifaceted Movement
o Individualism:
optimistic faith in man to choose to do good
o Realism: accurate artistic
representations of the world
o Activism: being wise
is not enough; one must do good works
o A Secular spirit:
believed in God, yet worked in this world
·
Humanism: The Path to Self-Improvement = education
o Curriculum
§ Humanities:
literature, history, and philosophy
o educational theory:
shape students to excel at anything
o
women humanists:
§ Christine of Pizan
(1365-c. 1430) a poetry & prose writer in the French court
o
Civic humanists focused on government
o
Literary Critics
o
Christian humanists transformed Bible study
·
Generosity of Patrons: Supporting
New Ideas
o Wealthy patrons, cities, guilds, and the church
o Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464) manuscripts were collected and purchased
through his patronage; started Platonic (after Plato) Academy to ranslate the
works of Plato, “shaped the glorification of
human accomplishments” 1
o Isbella d’Este (1474-1539) , Duchess of Mantua, diplomat,
and patron of the arts. She implored Leonardo
da Vinici to paint her (He, by delaying, declined.)
o Religious patronage
·
Invention of the Printing Press
o Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1400-1470
§ Fist printed Bible in 1455
POLITICS
OF INDIVIDUAL EFFORT
·
Italian City-States
·
Florence: Birthplace of the
Renaissance
o The Medici
o Savonarola
§ Friar Savonarola Ignites a “Bonfire of the Vanities” document 10.2, p.301
·
Venice: The Serene Republic?
o Overseas Trade
§ Silk loom
·
Milan and Naples: Two Principalities
o Visconti Dynasty in Milan from 1278 to 1447- focus on
military strength
o 1450-early 16th century Sforza family – patrons
of the arts
o Kingdom of Naples
§ King Robert r. 1309-1343 “a friend of learning and virture”
§ Battle ground
§ 1435, King of Aragon, Alfonso the Magnanimous (r. 1435-1458)
reuited Sicily and Naples
·
Papal States
o 1417 was the end of the Great Schism at the Council of
Constance when a Roman cardinal was elected , Pope Marin V
§ Took political control of central Italy
§ Theocracy legitimate rule from God (& elected by a college of
cardinals) so no accusations of tyranny or republicanism.
o Papal patronage
o The Borgia family
o Julius II (r. 1503-1513) made Rome a cultural hub equal to
Florence; military expansion; commissioned Michelangelo to decorate the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel (figure 10.1)
·
Art of Diplomacy
o Machiavelli
§ historian,
politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer.
INDIVIDUALISM
AS SELF-INTEREST: LIFE DURING THE RENAISSANCE
o Rising Crime blamed
on wanderers
·
Growing Intolerance
·
Economic Boom Times
o Wool and silk
o Banking
·
Slavery Revived
o Sources of slaves
·
Finding Comfort in family
o Marriage alliances
·
Children’s Lives
o Childhood hardships
CULTURE
AND SCIENCE
·
Artists and Artisans
·
Architecture: Echoing the Human Form
o Human architecture
o Domes
§ Florence’s Cathedral 1420-1436
§ Brunelleschi’s dome (ribs support height)
o Town planning
·
Sculpture
o Michelangelo’s David
1504
·
Painting
o Linear perspective
§ Raphael (1483-1520) Italian painter
§ School of Athens (1510-1511) commissioned by Pope Julius II for his library on ancient
philosophers: Euclid, Pythagoras, Socrates, with Plato center left pointing in
the air to remind audience of the realm
of ideas and Aristotle right pointing down to represent the world ‘s realm
knowledge. Includes self portrait of himself in a black hat and Michelangelo
front and center. (individualism, perspective, classics appreciated
§ Michelangelo painted the ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel.
·
Celestial
Music of Human Emotions
o Pythagoras (ca 569-476 BC) “music of
the spheres” was the relating of the harmonious relationships of the planets to
the intervals of music=standardized musical notation
o Madrigals, poetic songs about love
for voices
o Courtiers were educated to be
musicians also
·
Science
or Pseudoscience
o Astrology
o Alchemy = early science focus on
changing base metals into gold & finding a common cure for diseases
o Arabic numerals replaced Roman
numerals to aid in larger computations
·
Leonardo
da Vinci: the “Renaissance Man”
o Scientific notebooks
o Mona Lisa, ca
1504 (portrait painting and landscape perspective)
o Notebooks lost for centuries
o Proved man could be multifaceted and
accomplished in many fields (“humanist”)
RENAISSANCE OF THE “NEW MONARCHIES”
OF THE NORTH, 1453-1640
·
France:
Under the Italian Influence
o Louis XI, the Spider, a suspicious
king (doc 10.3)
o Italians in France
·
Visual
Arts in Northern Europe
·
English
Humanism
o Henry VII (r. 1485-1509)
§ Patron: sent scholars to Italy to
study in the new Vatican Library,…
o Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547)
§ Patron of humanist movement
§ “Defender of the Faith”
§ Excommunicated for wanting a divorce
§ Founded Protestant Church in England
o Thomas More wrote Utopia
o Renaissance Queens
§ Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603)
–Renaissance bloomed & England flourished
·
Booming
city of London
o The South Bank (the seedy part of
town; private prisons “click house”, …)
§ Globe Theater (Shakespeare’s) burnt
down in 1613 then rebuilt
·
William
Shakespeare (1564-1616)
o Born at Stratford-upon-Avon
o Married Anne Hathaway at age 18
o 1592 moved to London and wrote
histories, tragedies, and comedies & acted
o Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, …
o His plays dramatically and verbally
expressed human emotions.
Endnotes on Renaissance: Ch. 10
1
Sherman
& Salisbury. The West in the World.
3 study questions, then take the quizzes, email
results
4
Primary source
investigator from McGraw Hill Education
