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THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
Renaissance: a rebirth of ancient Greek and Roman culture
– A new culture emerges in southern Europe, starts in Italy
• Italy was largely an urban society with powerful city-states
– Intellectuals and artists believed they were part of a new Golden Age
• They wanted to separate themselves from “backwardness” of the Middle Ages, or
Dark Ages
• Economic growth laid the material basis for the Renaissance
– The Italian city-states were involved in trade due to their geography and served as the
economic center of Europe
The Italian City-States
• Italy was divided into several large city-states in the north and various kingdoms in the south
• Florence
– A republic located in northern Italy
– Wealthy due to trade, the wool industry, and banking
• Became tax collectors for the papacy and gave loans to kings
– The powerful and rich de’ Medici family controlled this city-state
• Cosimo de’ Medici and his grandson Lorenzo de’ Medici
– The first artistic and literary beginnings of the Renaissance start here
• Comes to an end when a Dominican friar runs the de’ Medici out of town
• People soon get tired of the friar’s strict ways and he is executed for heresy
• Milan
– Located in northern Italy
– Grew wealthy due to being the crossroads between main trade routes from Italian coastal
cities and the Alpine passes
• Venice
– Located in northern Italy
– Link between Asia and western Europe, traders from all overcame there
– Was an international power due to its trade empire
– Small group of wealthy merchants ran the city to serve their own interests
• The Papal States
– Controlled by the Pope, and, in the pope’s absence, noble families
– Rome became the center of the Renaissance after it declined in Florence and it was called
the High Renaissance
The Three Estates (Social Classes)
• Clergy
• Nobles
– The old landed nobility began to intermarry with the new wealthy merchant families
• Peasants and townspeople
– Three classes of the towns:
• Patricians = wealthy merchants and bankers
• Burghers = shopkeepers, artisans, and guild members who provided goods and
services for the town
• Workers = lives not good, urban poverty begins to increase
• The upper classes were more affected by the Renaissance than the lower classes and more likely
to embrace its ideas
• The upper classes had more rights than the urban underclass, or popolo
– These popolo were heavily taxed and couldn’t vote or hold public office
• Eventually the popolo used armed force and violence to take over the city gov’t
– Starts in Florence and spread
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– The popolo established Republican gov’ts – enduring idea of the Roman Republic
• However they were republics in name only
• Soon replaced by oligarchies and signori (one-man rulers)
Politics and War
• Maintaining the balance of power
– If one city-state seems to get too powerful, the others ally together against the major
threat
– Try to create an alliance against foreign powers, but the breakdown of the alliance will
lead to the domination of Italy by foreign powers
• Invasion of Italy by Charles VIII of France
– Attracted by the riches of Italy, Charles leads an army of 30,000 men into Italy in 1494
• Charles occupies Naples in the south
– Northern Italian states ask Spain for help
– For the next 30 years, France and Spain make Italy their battle ground
– 1527 – thousands of Spanish troops along with mercenaries (hired soldiers) arrive at
Rome to protect it
• They had not been paid for months and demand money
• The leader lets them sack Rome as their payment
• Soldiers go crazy in a frenzy of looting and bloodshed
• The authorities had to establish control
– The sacking of Rome ends the wars and leaves Spain a dominant force in Italy
• It will also bring an end to the High Renaissance
Characteristics of the Renaissance
• Secular society
– People were becoming more concerned with the material world, had more of a worldly
focus
– Still deeply religious, however they concentrated on the here and now, not on life after
death
• Individualism
– People sought to receive personal credit for their achievements
• Personal quest for glory – people want money and success
• This went against the medieval ideal of all glory going to God and contrasted with
Church teachings that individuality and achievement were unimportant
– The Renaissance Man – a person who could do many things well
• The ideal Renaissance man = Leonardo da Vinci
• Humanism
– “new learning” – interest in and study of the Latin classics to learn what they reveal
about human nature
– Studied the original manuscripts
– Petrarch is considered to be the father of humanism
– Civic humanists = used their humanist education to serve the city governments
• Also revived the Greek language
Renaissance Intellectuals
• Machiavelli
– Wrote The Prince, which is the most widely read and studied Renaissance book
– The subject is about how a ruler should gain, maintain, and increase political power
• Machiavelli is about by what he sees as the foreign domination of Italy and he
feels that one ruler needs to unite Italy
– As a humanist, Machiavelli studied human nature
• Concludes that humans are “ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers”
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• Decides that it is better for a ruler to be feared than loved
– Rejects the idea that rulers should be moral and follow Christian principles
• separate morals from politics
• Rulers must do whatever is necessary to maintain power and protect the state
• The end justifies the means
• Castiglione
– Wrote The Courtier, a book on the expected behaviors and education of nobles
– Used as a guide for nobles for the next several centuries
Renaissance Art
• The Renaissance made its greatest impact in the area of art
• New artistic styles: use of oil painting, free-standing sculptures, portraits, nudity, and singlepoint perspective
• Many people sponsored the arts to glorify themselves and their families
• Two major periods:
– Early Renaissance – takes place in Florence
– High Renaissance – takes place in Rome
• Four major artists of the Renaissance:
– Michelangelo – painted the Sistene Chapel, sculptural masterpiece = David
– Leonardo da Vinci – Mona Lisa and the Last Supper
– Raphael – famous for his madonnas (images of Jesus and Mary)
– Donatello – sculptor, lived during the Early Renaissance
The Northern Renaissance
• Late 15th century, the Italian Renaissance begins to affect the rest of Europe
– Moves into northern Europe, is more religious
• Christian Humanism
– People in northern Europe were still seeking ways to deepen their Christian beliefs and
questions
– Christian humanists believed they could achieve this higher understanding by studying
early Christian works along with the Latin classics
– Often criticized the Church
• Erasmus
– The best of the northern humanists, was Dutch
– Criticized the Church and wanted to reform it, but not leave it
– Saw education as the means to reform
• Sir Thomas More
– Englishman, lawyer, and chancellor to King Henry VIII
– Wrote Utopia (“nowhere”) – about an ideal society
– Gave his life for his beliefs
• Northern Renaissance art
– Jan van Eyck – one of the first to use oil paint
– Albrecht Durer – famous for his woodcuts and altar panels
The Elizabethan Renaissance
• The greatest achievement in the arts in northern Europe took place in England
– Most of what is referred to as the Elizabethan Renaissance actually occurred during the
reign of James I
• Geoffrey Chaucer
– The Canterbury Tales consists of a collection of stories told by a group of 29 pilgrims
journeying to the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury
• William Shakespeare
– Wrote many plays that reveal an unsurpassed understanding of the human psyche
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