Download Renaissance was it truly a Rebirth?

Renaissance was it truly a
Rebirth?
• Some have see it as the dawn of modern
European history. It marks the transitional
period between the end of the Middle
Ages and the start of the Modern Age.
• While a more modern assessment
views this period as a gradual but
significant change in cultural and
intellectual ideas and trends
Why did the
Renaissance
start in Italy?
6 reasons ….
Possible TEST
QUESTION!
But what is Italy?
1
• Italy was
the site
of the
Old
Roman
Empire
2.
• Rome was the
seat of the
Roman
Catholic
Church, a
unifier in
Europe
3.
• Italians had contact with
Byzantine civilization
where Greek and
Roman ideas were
preserved by scholars
• These scholars fled to
Italy once the Ottomans
took Constantinople
4.
•
•
Italian scholars developed an
interest in classic Greek and
Roman literature - looked to
classical literature as a guide
for living; saw Greek polis
and republican Rome as
models for their lifestyle
Renaissance Italians saw the
Middle Ages as a period
mired in ignorance
5.
• Italy was the departure
site for the Crusades
and was closest to
African and Asian
markets, exposing
Italians to new ideas
and advances in
medicine and science –
Trade dominates its
economy
6.
• Italian cities were home
to many wealthy,
educated merchants who
became patrons of artists
Review the video
Causes
of the
Renaissance
G
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t
h
i
c
Architecture
• Originally a disparaging term applied by later
neoclassical (18th century) artists who
regarded this architectural style as heavy,
dark and grotesque.
• Walls seemed to disappear, replaced by tall,
seemingly weightless, stained glass windows
(“light” as divine substance in medieval
philosophy).
• The Gothic cathedral: a metaphor for the
synthesis of faith and reason.
H
e
I
g
h
t
2 main characteristics of Gothic Architecture?
Roman Basilica – design of most
cathedrals
Characteristics of Gothic
Architecture
Flying Buttresses
• In order to reach the
heights they desired their
construction techniques
had to be modified
• Supports designed to
relieve the stress of all
the weight of the tall
cathedrals
Ribbed Vault
• Supports
designed to
relieve the
stress of all
the weight
of the tall
cathedrals
Here’s some famous gothic churches
What is this famous Cathedral?
4 aspects of artistic
values of the
Renaissance
1. Celebration of the individual –
INDIVIDUALISM; each has unique
value, work at self-improvement
2. Movement towards secular themes
3. Love for classical learning
4. Enjoyment of worldly pleasures
Art serves as a reflection of the time and
also as an agent of social commentary
Medieval vs. Renaissance Art
Medieval
Renaissance
• Religious themes • Religious and Human
only
themes
• Use of flat, 2 • Use of perspective and 3
dimensions
dimensions
• Heavenly
• Earthly backgrounds
backgrounds • Praises the human form
Medieval Example...
The 3 Graces
Classical Renaissance
Medieval
What figures are
included? What
about their size
and placement?
How realistic are
they? What is
the setting and
background?
What values do
you think the
artists was trying
to convey?
What figures are
included? What
about their size
and placement?
How realistic are
they? What is
the setting and
background?
What values do
you think the
artists was trying
to convey?
Now, lets look at
an example from
the Renaissance:
Do you notice a
difference?
Birth of the Virgin
Fra Carnevale
1467
Renaissance
Art
Can you name 4 Renaissance artists?
*Leonardo
*Raphael
*Donatello
*Michelangelo
Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo
School of Athens - Raphael
This is considered one of the best examples of Renaissance art. In 1508 Pope Julius II
commissioned Raphael to paint a series of frescoes in the Vatican papal chambers. He painted
this at the same time that Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel. The piece shows a
gathering of leading ancient Greek philosophers. Plato & Aristotle appear in the center. Art
historians believe that Michelangelo is portrayed in the foreground as the man write on a stone
block. How are the values of the Renaissance reflected in this?
Like a kid in a candy store!
The School of Athens
•
This portrays a collection of thinkers from
across an historical spectrum, each
represented in an animated scene of
discussion. The perspective of the piece and
its use of both Greek and Roman principles of
art mark it as an important piece of
Renaissance art.
•
At the center of the work, Raphael frames
Plato and Aristotle beneath a Roman arch.
Plato, points upward, gesturing toward one of
two important themes of the Renaissance,
Faith. Aristotle's hand motions downward
with an open palm, making reference to
Reason, the second theme of the Renaissance
– On Plato's side, there was a statue of Apollo,
the god of poetry. On Aristotle's side there was
one of Athena, goddess of reason. Spreading
outward on either side were groups
corresponding to the separate schools of
thought within the two major divisions
Causes
of the
Renaissance
Lets break it down and
look at the types of
Renaissances experienced
Economic
Renaissance
Economic Renaissance
All linked to the urban revival of the Latin West – cities had the ability to
determine their own economic future
1.
2.
3.
4.
Revival of trade & commerce
Wealthy Italian city-states
Banking
Hanseatic League
Possibly #1: Primary motivating factor which cause
men to act - Self interest GREED
Banking
Hanseatic League
• An alliance of
trading cities that
established and
maintained a trade
monopoly over most
of Northern Europe
and the Baltic for a
time in the later
Middle Ages and the
Early Modern period
(ie between the 13th
and 17th century).
Political
Renaissance
Political Renaissance
1. Re-conquest of Iberia and Byzantine
collapse
2. Rise of nations & monarchs
3. Nationalism
4. 100 years war
5. Longbow & cannon
Comparison from
Medieval
to Renaissance
• Nation states formed from
formerly independent
locales
–divine right of kings empowers
royals
–nobility loses power
–growing middle class of
merchants, doctors, lawyers,
clergy, etc.
The
Hundred
Years’ War
1337-1453
Conflict between England and France over title
to French throne
The Course of the War
• The English army was
much smaller than the
French, but was better
organized and better
led. The English won
most major battles
• England was too small
to exploit its advantage;
French kings would
recover after defeats
•French nobles played off one side against the other, trying to
come out on top
The Outcome of the War
• By 1453, French had driven
English out of France
• French monarchy was
strengthened by long conflict
• English monarchy also
powerful, but Parliament
continued to exercise
influence over taxation
• Long war exacerbated
famine and plague in France
The Hundred Years War
led to...
• The end of Feudalism because...
– New weapons made armored knights on
horseback useless
• Longbow
• Cannon
• Nationalism
• People began to feel a sense
pride to a country instead
feudal lord
of
of a
Henry V
Started
nationalistic
pride in the
English.
Joan of Arc
Woman who united the French by attempting to
remove the English from French lands. She heard
voices while tending her father’s sheep which told
her to drive the English out. Began the feeling of
nationalism in France.
Spain
Two Powerful Monarchs
Isabella
Ferdinand
The Reconquista
• Ferdinand and Isabella married
and combined two major
kingdoms. They were both
Catholic and wanted to end
Muslim influence in Spain.
– The Reconquista or re-conquest
was a push to drive the Muslims
out of Spain
– This recapturing of formerly Muslim
lands allowed much “lost info” to
return to Europe
Intellectual
Renaissance
Intellectual / Artistic Renaissance
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Printing Press
Aristotle’s ideas
Mechanical Devices
Universities
Dante & Humanism
Patronage of Medicis
Humanism
• Literary movement which studied
and appreciated the classical
periods
• Stress on potential good of
humanity, as contrasted with
medieval outlook that saw humans
as inherently sinful
– Renaissance artists saw the human body
as beautiful and good, rather than sinful
and evil
• Italian humanists saw the intellect as
a way of improving civic life and
society
Mechanical Devices
• Mills
• The Mechanical Clock (early 14th
Century)
– Time was no longer the province of
God or the church. It was now
controlled by man for his profit
• Printing Press
• Longbow & Cannon
• Gunpowder
Printing Press
Moveable type!
1450
Printing Press
• Johannes Gutenberg brought together many
contemporary technologies to produce books printed
from moveable type
• In early printing, type was set by hand; locked into
frames from printing
• Printing made possible a great increase in the number
of books and information available to people
• With increased access to literacy...
Knowledge could spread beyond the Church
– Complex ideas of the Renaissance & Reformation thinkers
could be written and widely disseminated
Literary Differences
• Medieval literary forms
– epic poetry
– ballads, poems, songs
– romances--courtly love
tales
– religious drama
– saints’ lives
• More literate than
ancient world
• Renaissance - New
literary forms
–
–
–
–
sonnet
letter
secular drama
political, reformatory.
theological tracts
• nonfiction prose
– novel
• fictional prose
• More literate than
medieval world
Vernacular
using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than
a literary, cultured – i.e. LATIN
• Dante’s Divine Comedy (1321)
– Using Roman poet Virgil as a guide through the
after world
• Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1387-1400)
• Vernacular Translations of the Bible
• Here are some of the major Renaissance
writers
Thomas More
•Became one of Henry VIII’s most
trusted diplomats but crossed the
king on the Act of Supremacy
(King making himself Head of the
Church in England – then
divorces his wife
•More’s protests lead to his
execution soon after
• Wrote Utopia in 1516
• In it he criticized English
society. He depicted an
imaginary society based on
reason and tolerance that
overcame social and political
injustice by holding all property
and goods in common and
requiring everyone to earn their
bread by their own work.
– Utopia was meant to be a perfect
place… in Latin Utoia means…
NOWHERE
Nicolo Machiavelli
The Prince
* “It is better to be feared
than loved”
* “The ends justify the
means”
These were the
centerpieces of this
handbook called…
• Machiavelli was the key figure in
realist political theory
• Began observation of how people
actually behave, as opposed to how
they ought to behave.
• His two most famous books,
Discources and the Prince were
written in the hopes of improving
the conditions of the Northern
Italian city-states, but became
general handbooks for a new style
in politics.
Papers only $8.95 per page
plus a free bibliography!!!
Artistic
Renaissance
Piero della Francesca, The Flagellation of Christ, 15th c.
City of Florence
De Medicis
• Powerful and influential Florentine family from
the 13th to 17th century
• The family first achieved power through
banking
• Instrumental in the development of Florence
as the epicenter of 15th century Renaissance
Europe
– Patrons of many of the Florentine art &
architecture projects
Donatello’s David
1st free standing nude since
the Roman Empire
Donatello’s
David
Leonardo da Vinci
Renaissance man….
Master of many
qualities; art, science,
war, etc.
Mona Lisa
The last supper
Michelangelo
First really characteristic,
un- mistakably personalized
work of Michelangelo
“energy in reserve”
“action in repose”
Michelangelo’s David
David
High Renaissance con’t
Italy 1500’s- Sculpture
MICHELANGELO
Pieta, Florence
Mannerist
Pieta,
St Peter
High
“the hearts image”
“It is necessary to
keep one’s compass
in ones eyes and not
in the hand, for the
hands execute, but
the eye judges.”
Creation of Adam
St. Peter’s
Basilica
“I regret that I have
not done enough for
the salvation of my
soul and that I am
dying just as I am
beginning to learn the
alphabet of my profession”
Michelangelo
Deathbed statement
Van Eyck begins in Flanders
Pieter Bruegel
Peasant wedding
Social
Renaissance
Social Renaissance
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Black Death
Decline of Serfdom
Vernacular
Rise of cities & towns
Guilds
Lives of women improved
Guilds
A New Ethos (guiding belief)
• Status based on wealth,
not birth
– Helped Italian merchants find
a way to fit in
• Renaissance society
very competitive:
everyone tried to
display their status
– Conspicuous consumption
– Everybody tried to flaunt their
learning
• More mobility
– between places
– between social classes
Decline of Serfdom
The Harvesters
Black Death
the Plague
• Disease named the
Bubonic plague which
spread rapidly through
Europe.
• Death was quick and
gruesome.
• Named after the black
swellings on neck and
joints
• 25 million people died
that about 1/3 the
population!
What caused the plague?
• A bacteria which attacks the
lymph nodes (in neck,
armpits, and groin).
• It was unknown how it
spread in the Middle Ages
but it was their unsanitary
habits which gave rise to
lots of rats.
• But rats didn’t bite people...
The Flea!!!
• The bacteria was in the
fleas blood but would not
kill the flea.
• The flea would feed from a
rat.
• The rat would feed from
the garbage of people.
• The flea would jump onto
people and bite them .
Bubonic
Plague
Or “Black Death”
Social result of
Black Death
• Demand of laborers
for higher pay
• End of serfdom
• Peasant revolutions
Religious
Renaissance
Religious Renaissance
1. Scholasticism & Aquinas
2. Great Schism
3. Gothic Architecture
The Babylonian Captivity (1309-1377)
• Clement V elected pope
• Moves to Avignon, France and the
Papacy too
• Pluralism and absenteeism
– Bishops (et al.) try to hold as many
offices as possible to collect revenues
from them
– These clerics cannot do multiple jobs
and so get lower-paid subordinates to
take over the jobs they do not have time
for
• Criticism of papacy increased
• So those in Rome chose to do
something about it… a Schism
ensues
Clement V
2 Popes
Avignon
Rome
The Great Schism 1378-1417
• 1377 Pope moved
back to Rome and
died
• 1378 Italian elected
Urban VI at Rome;
Frenchman elected
Clement VII at
Avignon
• Church now had two
popes
St. Peter and St. Paul
• The Babylonian Captivity and Great Schism
damaged the spiritual authority of the
papacy, which weakened the political
influence of the popes
• Royal power increased as spiritual authority
of pope decreased
• Popes needed royal support and could not
stand up to kings
• Kings and nobles throughout Europe began
to reassert control over church
Critics of the Church
This leads to a theological
question which won’t be
addressed for another 300
years…
Where was the true religious
power?
The Church or the Bible?
Decline in Church prestige
•
•
•
•
•
Losses in the Crusades
Babylonian captivity & Great Schism
Corruption of the church
Increase in secularism
Questioning attitude that challenged
previously accepted knowledge and
authority