Download Renaissance Thinkers and Their Values

Renaissance Thinkers and
Their Values
What the Renaissance Was
NOT
• Not an immediate interest in classical
Greece and Rome since that had been
going on since 12th century.
• NOT a total rejection of medieval values or
a sudden return to the world view of
Ancient Greece and Rome.
• NOT a sudden abandonment of Christian
beliefs.
Essence of the Renaissance
• The essence of the Renaissance lay in the
use of models of behavior and actions from
classical Greece and Rome to test the
wisdom and tastes of Late Medieval Europe.
• The Renaissance would not have occurred
had not the Church fallen into disrepute
during the Middle Ages. As a result, some
Europeans began questioning the Church as
the source of all authority.
Renaissance Led to Other
Movements
• The Renaissance would later lead to other
movements in the history of Europe.
• It was the first stage in the evolution that
would lead to the Reformation and the
Scientific Revolution and to the
Enlightenment.
• The Renaissance would gradually give
birth to ‘modern Europe.’
Independence of Mind
• The Church was “corralled” into strictly
religious spheres, as limits were placed on
religion’s influence over a human being’s
private conscience.
• Thus, scientists, philosophers, artists, and
authors, and rulers were freed from the control
of the Church.
• The ideal person was one who, by mastering
all branches of art and thought, need depend
on no outside authority for the formation of
knowledge, tastes, and beliefs.
Self-Confidence
• The new way of thinking led to a growing belief
that humanity was capable of mastering the
world in which he lived.
• The great Renaissance figures were filled with
self-confidence.
• They felt that God-given ingenuity could, and
should, be used to unravel the secrets of
God’s universe; and that, by extension, man’s
fate on earth could be controlled and
improved.
The Medieval Mentality
• The mentality (way of viewing the world) of
the Middle Ages was that men and women
were helpless pawns of God’s will. Thus,
Europeans felt that overwhelmed by the
incomprehensible workings of their
environment and of their nature.
• Medieval attitudes were dominated by a
paralyzing anxiety about human inadequacy,
ignorance, impotence—by the concept of
original sin.
Renaissance Attitudes
• In contrast, Renaissance attitudes were
bred by a sense of liberation and
refreshment, deriving from the growing
awareness of human potential.
• Speculation, initiative, experiment, and
exploration could surely be rewarded with
success.
Three Novel Features of
Renaissance Learning
1.Cultivation of long-neglected classical authors
such as Cicero and Homer who had not
attracted Medieval schoolmen
2. Cultivation of ancient Greek as an essential
partner to Latin.
3. Rise of biblical scholarship based on the
critical study of the original Hebrew and Greek
texts. This last activity provided an important
bond between the secular Renaissance and the
religious Reformation.
The Renaissance Values:
• Humanism:
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The recovery and study of
classical authors and writings
Secularism: The emphasis on the here andnow rather than on the spiritual and
otherworldly.
Individualism: The emphasis on the unique
and creative personality
Rationalism: The application and use of
reason in understanding and explaining events.
Virtu: The striving for personal excellence.
Renaissance Humanism and
the Classical World
• The words humanism and humanist were
used by Cicero to mean the literary culture
needed by anyone who would be
considered educated and civilized.
• Humanists studied the Latin Classics to
learn what they reveal about human
nature. Humanism emphasized human
beings, their achievements, interests, and
capabilities.
Classical Greece and Rome
and Medieval Thought
• Medieval scholars studied in order to know
God. Medieval thinkers held that human
beings noblest of God’s creatures, and
that though they have fallen, they are still
capable of regeneration and thus
deserving of respect. Ancient texts from
Greece and Rome were interpreted in a
Christian sense and with Christian
meanings.
Humanism not in Christian
context
• Renaissance philosophers and poets
emphasized human dignity but usually not
in a Christian context. For example,
Mirandola in “On the Dignity of Man”
maintained that man’s place in the
universe may be somewhere between
beasts and angels but that there are no
limits to what he can accomplish.
Latin
• Latin was used in Medieval times, yet in
the ancient writers, like Cicero and Virgil,
the humanists discovered a new range on
interests, a new sensibility, discussion of
political and civic questions, a world
presented without the overarching
framework of Christian belief.
Humanism’s Admiration for
Cicero
• The ancient Roman writer Cicero once
wrote that “’The whole glory of man lies in
his activity.’” His use of Latin was
emulated and his ideas also penetrated
the culture of the day.
• Indeed, the Renaissance was a period in
which Europe’s heritage (both Greek and
Roman) was reborn, adapted, and
reintegrated into Western tradition.
Petrarch
Petrarch
• Early humanist from Florence who loved
Cicero for his common sense and his
commitment to political liberty. Also, he
admired St. Augustine because of his belief
that the world was not evil.
• He used language not as a political tool but as
a means to communicate with himself, to
convey moods of discouragement or
satisfaction, to clarify doubts, to improve his
own understanding of the choices and options
that life affords.
The Dark Ages
• As a better indication of Petrarch’s view of
the time he lived in, one can look at how
he described the centuries in between the
fall of ancient Rome and the 1300s. He
called the time in between “the Dark
Ages.” For him, there were no glories for
a thousand years until his own time of the
1300s.
The vernacular
• The name for a language of a region is
called a vernacular.
• Petrarch wrote Latin but also in the
vernacular when he wrote in Italian.
• Boccaccio wrote the Decameron in Italian
as well.
• By the way, Dante was the first to write in
Italian.
Secularism
• Secularism involves a basic concern with
the material world instead of eternal and
spiritual interests.
• A secular way of thinking tends to find the
ultimate explanation of everything and the
final end of human beings within the limits
of what the senses can discover.
Secularism: Medieval vs.
Renaissance
• In a religious society, such as the
medieval, the focus is on the other-worldly,
on life after death.
• In a secular society, attention is
concentrated on the here and now, often
on the acquisition of material things.
• The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
witnessed the slow but steady growth of
secularism in Italy.
Secularism Influenced by
Economics
• The late Middle Ages were a time of
dynamic economic growth. This continued
into the Renaissance. Merchants and
bankers prospered with the growth of a
money economy.
• Money allowed greater material pleasures,
a more comfortable life, the leisure time to
appreciate and patronize the arts.
Secular Wants
• What man needs is “’house, property,
shop”—possessions, wealth, the source of
wealth, are essentials of the good life.
• These are focuses not life after death but
on the here and now, on home, on
friendship, on social and economic
success.
A Secularist Thinker
• Lorenzo Valla
actually wrote a book
called On Pleasure.
In it he defended the
pleasures of the
senses as the highest
good.
Caution: Renaissance thinkers
were not atheists
• European art of the time continued to be
devoted to religious themes.
• All the great masters of art were religious
believers.
• In addition, the broad mass of the people
remained faithful to the Church.
Love of Latin and Greek but
also of vernacular languages
• Granted, there was an intense love and
admiration of ancient Latin and of ancient
Greek, but the emphasis on the here and
now also drove the development of
vernacular languages (Italian, French,
English vs. Latin)
Individualism: Why It Was Not in
Middle Ages
• In the Middle Ages individuals thought of
themselves as part of a group—as a
member of a guild, as a resident of a
particular area. Christian humility and the
concept of Western society as an organic
entity encouraged people to define
themselves in terms of a larger religious,
economic, or social group.
Individualism
• The organic view of society eroded in Northern
Italy in the 14th & 15th centuries.
• The Renaissance witnessed the emergence of
many distinctive personalities who glorified in
their uniqueness.
• Italians of unusual abilities were selfconsciously aware of their singularity, and
unafraid to be unlike their neighbors; they had
enormous confidence in their ability to achieve
great things.
Examples of Individualism:
Bernini and Cellini
• Leon Alberti Bernini, a writer, architect, and
mathematician, wrote “Men can do all things if
they will.”
• Completely lacking in modesty, talented
people of the Renaissance were proud of their
abilities and eager for everyone to know about
them.
• Benvenuto Cellini was a talented Florentine
goldsmith and sculptor.
• Individualism stressed personality, genius,
uniqueness, and the fullest development
of capabilities and talents. Artist, athlete,
painter, scholar, sculptor, whatever—a
person’s potential should be stretched until
fully realized.
• Thirst for fame, a driving ambition, a
burning desire for success drove such
people to the complete achievement of
their potential. The quest for glory was
central to the Renaissance.
Giovanni Pico de la Mirandola
Individualism and Pico della
Mirandola
• What does Mirandola’s “Oration on the
Dignity of Man” say about man’s ability?
• How could his ideas influence the actions
of others?
Individualism and Immortality
• No, people did not seek for their bodies to
never die, but they did wish for their family
names to perpetuate his family’s
greatness.
• Thus you saw paintings of individual
human beings with the purpose of
conferring a lasting view of a man.
• At this time, wealthy individuals
commissioned paintings, statues, and
buildings so as to last long after the
individual died.
• As a further sign of the emphasis on the
individual, statues appeared to be freestanding as opposed to attached to a
church wall. There is much symbolism
behind a free-standing statue vs. a statue
attached to a church.
Rationalism
• In the Middle Ages, events occurred
because it was God’s will.
• The Renaissance sought to understand by
the sheer use of reason.
• For example, Machiavelli’s The Prince he
did not discuss God’s will and whether
there is a right or wrong. Instead the
observer attempts to discover what really
happens when someone rules.
Lorenzo Valla and Literary Criticism
• The Donation of Constantine was
purported to grant vast territories by the 4th
century Roman Emperor Constantine to
the pope. In a scholarly way, Valla
examined the document and by looking at
the Latin of the document, he proved that
it could not have been written in the fourth
century. The document was a fake.
Leonardo Bruni
• Besides coming up with the term
“humanism”, he was also used history for
practical political purpose to show that
Florence had a long tradition of liberty and
possessed values and attainments worth
fighting for. In this sense he was part of a
civic consciousness in Florence.
• In addition, his works displayed rationalism
for he showed the need to use authentic
sources when making an historical
argument.
Virtu
• Individualism influenced a haste to make
one’s mark, to make one’s greatness.
• In the Italian city-states, there grew a cult
of the great individual. This cult gave little
attention to the Middle Ages’ idea of
collective responsibility.
Virtu and the individual
• Renaissance individualism put its emphasis
on outstanding attainments. The great
individual shaped his own destiny in a world
governed by fortune. He had virtu, the quality
of being a man (vir, “man”).
• It was to be expected in the most aggressive
adult males, and it meant the successful
demonstration of human powers.
• A man of virtu, in the arts, in
war, or in statecraft, was a
man who knew what he was
doing, who, from resources
within himself, made the best
use of his opportunities,
hewing his way through the
world, and excelling in all that
he did.
• One can see an example of
this in Cellini’s autobiography.
How so?
Baldassare Castiglione
Castiglione’s The Book of the
Courtier
• A book designed for the upper class male,
it served as a book of etiquette. In it, men
should be well rounded in the arts,
including art, music, and poetry, and also
fighting.
• The Renaissance intensified a new way of thinking. Granted,
a small minority of the Italian and European population came
into contact with this idea, but it at least began. This new
way of thinking held the conviction that humanity was
capable of mastering the world where it lived. Man’s fate on
this earth could be controlled and improved. Out there was
the idea that man is not helpless that man is not a pawn in
God’s hands. The prime quality of the Renaissance has
been defined as “‘independence of mind’”. Its ideal was a
person who, by mastering all branches of art and though,
need depend on no outside authority for formation of
knowledge, tastes, and beliefs. Such a person was a
universal man or a complete man. Prior to the Renaissance,
the Church dictated acceptable ways of seeing the world, of
what knowledge should be learned, and of what art should be
produced. The Renaissance intensified a move toward the
modern notion that we have today. This was a tremendous
break with the mentality of the Middle Ages. Religion was still
very important for individuals, but the move had begun to
keep the Church out of the public arena to where it is today in
the private realm. (Davies pp. 471-3)
The Example of Leonardo Da Vinci
“the Renaissance Man”
A great painter, sculptor,
and architect.
He also made valuable
contributions to art theory,
engineering, military
science, anatomy, botany,
geology, geography,
hydraulics, aerodynamics,
and optics.
Mona Lisa
tank
helicopter
Anatomical studies
Da Vinci’s Vesuvian Man