Download European Renaissance and Reformation: 1300

European Renaissance and Reformation: 1300 - 1600
Chapter 17a, Pages 492 to 503
World History: Patterns of Interaction
McDougal-Littell 2007
The Middle Ages produced great cultural treasures: the world’s first universities
and the vast libraries in monasteries. The scholars had not only preserved the
treasures of Greco-Roman antiquity, but added Gothic architecture and
philosophical scholasticism’s logical foundations for mathematics and physics. But
war and plague would endanger this heritage. Could civilization survive?
The Christian faith had empowered people to survive war and plague; but those
who survived began to wonder if the Church was a suitable container for this faith.
The term ‘Renaissance’ means rebirth, and the people of this era used this term to
describe themselves and their artistic styles – although it was not clear exactly
what was being reborn.
The classical heritage of Greece and Rome had been center of Medieval education,
and so the people of the Middle Ages were very familiar with ancient art and
literature. Yet in using the word ‘Renaissance,’ the next era wanted to claim that it
was more in tune with the Greco-Roman spirit. In any case, we can identify clear
styles which distinguish Renaissance music, painting, sculpture, and architecture
from those produced during the Middle Ages.
In Italy, cities grew and trade increased. A merchant class arose, and dominated
politics. The Medici family gained control of Florence, which had been a republic,
in 1434. The Medici operated as a dictatorship, keeping up the appearance of a free
republic, but controlling the city behind the scenes. They were also patrons of the
arts.
When Muslims attacked and destroyed the city of Constantinople in 1453, large
numbers of educated people fled for safety to Italy. They brought with them their
artistic styles, technical expertise, and manuscripts of books not previously
common in Europe. They arrived and were influenced both by the magnificent
Roman buildings, and by the vast medieval libraries. The fleeing intellectuals had
arrived in a place filled with the cultural products of the Middle Ages. This new
mixture would trigger creativity in the arts.
As Europe made economic progress, more money was available to fund art. People
who support artists are called ‘patrons,’ and they can support an artist simply by
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buying his work or by hiring him to create a work. The most significant patrons
were the Church, the aristocrats, and merchants. The distinctions between
‘religious’ and ‘secular’ were blurred: the Church might pay an artist to create
worldly art, and a banker or a lawyer might support sacred art.
With more funding, artists explored new techniques, especially perspective, and
strove for realism. In the late 1400’s and early 1500’s, artists studied biology to
accurately depict humans, animals, and plants. Both Michelangelo and Donatello
sculpted statues of the Israelite king David. Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel. Raphael painted The Marriage of the Virgin and The School of
Athens. Leonardo da Vinci painted both The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Like
many artists, da Vinci was also interested in engineering, and excelled at it,
designing a helicopter and military equipment.
In literature, authors wrote less often in Latin, and more often in the common
“vernacular” languages of the people. Writers of the early Italian Renaissance
include Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Machiavelli wrote about political science,
advising rulers how to govern well; he is known for his harsh recommendations.
The southern Renaissance gave way to the northern Renaissance: Germany’s
Albrecht Dürer, for example, visited Rome in 1494, studying painting and drawing
techniques. Returning home, Dürer took those ideas to the next level. His works
display detailed knowledge of anatomy, and precise control of his medium. Hans
Holbein the Younger worked in the early 1500’s; the realism of his painting is
photographic.
In Flanders, Jan van Eyck refined methods for exactly producing various color
shades in oil paint in the 1400’s. Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel, whose images are
often lifelike renderings of daily peasant life, did his work in the mid-1500’s.
The writers of the northern Renaissance wanted to inspire people to live a Christian
life. They started a movement called “Christian humanism” to reform society, and
to educate girls, boys, men, and women. One leader of this movement was
Erasmus; he believed in a Christianity of the heart, not one of ceremonies and
rules.
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