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Doctor Faustus
By Christopher Marlowe
The Renaissance
• The Renaissance was a cultural
movement that affected European
intellectual life in the early modern period.
• Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the
rest of Europe by the 16th century, its
influence was felt in literature, philosophy,
art, politics, science, religion, and other
aspects of intellectual enquiry.
The Renaissance cont.
• Renaissance thinkers sought out learning
from ancient texts, typically written in Latin
or ancient Greek
• They found a desire to improve and
perfect their worldly knowledge
• An entirely different sentiment to the
transcendental spirituality stressed by
medieval Christianity.
The Renaissance cont.
• They did not reject Christianity; quite the
contrary, many of the Renaissance's greatest
works were devoted to it, and the Church
patronized many works of Renaissance art.
• However, a subtle shift took place in the way
that intellectuals approached religion that was
reflected in many other areas of cultural life.
The Renaissance cont.
• The Renaissance could be viewed as an
attempt by intellectuals to study and
improve the secular and worldly, both
through the revival of ideas from antiquity,
and through novel approaches to thought.
The Renaissance cont.
• Best known for its artistic aspect and the
contributions of Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo, who have inspired the term
"Renaissance Men"
• A “Renaissance Man” is related to terms
that describe a person who is well
educated, or who excels, in a wide variety
of subjects or fields.
Raphael’s School of Athens
School of Athens
• It was painted between 1510 and 1511.
• Part of Raphael's commission to decorate
with frescoes the rooms that are now
known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the
Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.
School of Athens
• The subject of the painting is an imagined
convocation of famous Greek
philosophers.
• Nearly every great Greek philosopher and
scientist can be found within the painting
• Alexander the Great; Pythagoras;
Socrates; Plato; Aristotle; Euclid; and
Ptolemy
Michaelangelo’s Last Judgement
The Last Judgement
• A mural on the altar wall of the Sistine
Chapel in Vatican City.
• It took six years to complete.
• He began working on it three decades
after finishing the ceiling of the chapel.
The Last Judgment
• A depiction of the second coming of Christ
and the apocalypse.
• The souls of humans rise and descend to
their fates, as judged by Christ and his
Saintly entourage.
Signorelli’s The Damned be
Plunged into Hell
The Damned…
• The infernal scenes are remarkable for
their imaginative evocation of fiends and
tortures of Hell.
DaVinci’s The Last Supper
The Last Supper
• a 15th century mural painting in Milan
• The Last Supper specifically portrays the
reaction given by each apostle when
Jesus said one of them would betray him.
• All twelve apostles have different reactions
to the news, with various degrees of anger
and shock.
Da Vinci’s Vetruvian Man
Vetruvian Man cont.
• Created by Leonardo da Vinci around the
year 1492
• It depicts a nude male figure in two
superimposed positions with his arms and
legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in
a circle and square.
• The drawing and text are sometimes
called the Canon of Proportions
Vetruvian Man cont.
• This image exemplifies the blend of art
and science during the Renaissance
• This picture represents a cornerstone of
Leonardo's attempts to relate man to
nature.
• It is also believed by some that Leonardo
symbolized the material existence by the
square and spiritual existence by the
circle.
Vetruvian Man cont.
• It may be noticed by examining the
drawing that the combination of arm and
leg positions actually creates sixteen
different poses
• The pose with the arms straight out and
the feet together is seen to be inscribed in
the superimposed square
• the "spread-eagle" pose is seen to be
inscribed in the superimposed circle
Marlowe cont.
• English dramatist, the father of English
tragedy, and inventor of dramatic blank
verse
• He was christened at St George's Church,
Canterbury, on the 26th of February,
1563/4, some two months before
Shakespeare's baptism at Stratford-onAvon.
Marlowe cont.
• The dramatist received the rudiments of his
education at the King's School, Canterbury
• He went to Cambridge as one of Archbishop
Parker's scholars from the King's School, and
matriculated at Benet (Corpus Christi) College,
on the 17th of March 1571, taking his B.A.
degree in 1584, and that of M.A. three or four
years later.
Marlowe cont.
• Of Marlowe's career in London, apart from
his four great theatrical successes, we
know hardly anything
• He seems at any rate to have been
associated with what was denounced as
Sir Walter Raleigh's school of atheism,
and to have dallied with opinions which
were then regarded as putting a man
outside the pale of civilized humanity.
Marlowe cont.
• We really do not know the circumstances of Marlowe's
death.
• The probability is he was killed in a brawl.
• A few months before the end of his life there is reason to
believe that he transferred his services from the Lord
Admiral's to Lord Strange's Company, and may have
thus been brought into communication with
Shakespeare, who in such plays as Richard II and
Richard III owed not a little to the influence of his
romantic predecessor.
Marlowe cont.
• Marlowe's career as a dramatist lies
between the years 1587 and 1593
• The four great plays : Tamburlaine the
Great (1587); Dr Faustus (1588); The
Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta
(1592); and Edward the Second (1593)