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Chapter 10
• The Renaissance was an age of rapid
change during which people turned from
medieval values of hierarchy, community,
and authority to embrace individualism
and realism.
• The Renaissance: a Controversial Idea
– Medieval Antecedents
The Renaissance
• The cultural movement of the Renaissance emphasized the
achievements of individuals, often at the expense of the majority of
people. The artists, writers, and scholars of this rebirth looked to the
Greek and Roman classics for inspiration, but at the same time,
expressed an interest in the world around them. The Renaissance
first emerged in the Italian city-states, the product of political turmoil
and opportunities for individuals. As it spread northward, it was
transformed by monarchies seeking to bolster their authority in the
wake of the breakdown of the old feudal order. The greatest
achievements of the Renaissance were in the fields of art, literature,
and architecture, but the movement influenced politics as well.
Rulers developed new military and diplomatic strategies, but often
neglected the poor. This era constituted a break with the Middle
Ages, and Europe stood on the threshold of the modern period.
Why Italy?
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The Renaissance originated in Italy for several reasons.
The most fundamental reason was that Italy in the later Middle Ages was the most
advanced urban society in all of Europe.
Unlike aristocrats north of the Alps, Italian aristocrats customarily lived in urban
centers rather than in rural castles and consequently became fully involved in urban
public affairs.
Moreover, since the Italian aristocracy built its palaces in the cities, the aristocratic
class was less sharply set off from the class of rich merchants than in the north.
Hence, whereas in France or Germany most aristocrats lived on the income from
their landed estates while rich town dwellers (bourgeois) gained their living from
trade.
In Italy so many town-dwelling aristocrats engaged in banking or mercantile
enterprises and so many rich mercantile families imitated the manners of the
aristocracy that by the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the aristocracy and upper
bourgeoisie were becoming virtually indistingguishable.
Why Italy?
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There was also a great demand for an education in the skills of reading and counting
necessary to become a successful merchant but the richest and most prominent
families sought above all to find teachers who would impart to their sons the
knowledge and skills necessary to argue well in the public arena.
Italian schools created the best-educated upper-class public in all of Europe, along
with a considerable number of wealthy patrons who were ready to invest in the
cultivation of new ideas and new forms of literary and artistic expression.
Ancient Roman monuments were omnipresent throughout the peninsula, and
classical Latin literature referred to cities and sites that Renaissance Italians
recognized as their own.
Italians were particularly intent on reappropriating their classical heritage in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries because they were also seeking to establish an
independent cultural identity in opposition to a scholasticism most closely associated
with France.
Why Italy?
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Roman literature and learning took root in Italy, so too did Roman art and
architecture, for Roman models could help Italians create a splendid artistic
alternative to French Gothicism.
The Italian Renaissance could not have occurred without the underpinning of Italian
wealth.
The Italian economy as a whole was probably more prosperous in the thirteenth
century than it was in the fourteenth and fifteenth.
In late medieval Italy, intensive investment in culture arose both from an
intensification of urban pride and the concentration of per capita wealth.
During the fourteenth century, cities themselves were the primary patrons of art and
learning.
Among these great princes were the popes in Rome, who based their strength on
temporal control of the Papal States. The most worldly of the Renaissance popesAlexander VI(1492-1503); Julius II(1503-1513); and Leo X(1513-1521), son of the
Florentine ruler Lorenzo de’ Medici-they employed the greatest artists of the day and
for a few decades made Rome the artistic capital of the Western World.
A New Spirit Emerges: Individualism,
Realism, and Activism
• Humanism: The Path to Self-Improvement
– Humanist Curriculum
– Self-Improvement Books
– Women Humanists
• The Generosity of Patrons: Supporting New Ideas
– Religious Patronage
• The Invention of the Printing Press: Spreading New
Ideas
Chapter 10
• The struggle between popes and
emperors allowed the Italian city-states the
opportunity to govern themselves
independently, using a variety of
governments ranging from republic to
hereditary monarchies.
The Politics of Individual Effort
• The Italian City-States
• Florence: Birthplace of the Renaissance
– The Medici
– Sovonarola
• Venice: The Serene Republic?
– Overseas Trade
The Politics of Individual Effort
• Milan and Naples: Two Principalities
– Naples
• The Papal States
– Papal Patronage
– The Borgia Family
– Julius II
• The Art of Diplomacy
– Machiavelli
Chapter 10
• The Renaissance encouraged
individualism for some, but the family
remained the most stable structure in
Renaissance life, and freedoms were
limited for some members of society.
– Rising Crime
Individualism as Self-Interest: Life
During the Renaissance
• Growing Intolerance
• Economic Boom Times
– Wool and Silk
– Banking
• Slavery Revived
– Sources of Slaves
• Finding Comfort in Family
– Marriage Alliances
• Children’s Lives
– Childhood Hardships
Chapter 10
• Although some experienced harshness
and inequality during the Renaissance,
this period also produced great artists who
combined classical ideals, the religious
themes of the medieval period, and the
realism of their own era to create works of
enduring beauty.
An Age of Talent and Beauty:
Renaissance Culture and Science
• Artists and Artisans
• Architecture: Echoing the Human Form
– Human Architecture
– Domes
– Town Planning
• Sculpture Comes into Its Own
– Michelangelo’s David
C. 1506-09 MICHELANGELO
DELPHIC SIBYL
An Age of Talent and Beauty:
Renaissance Culture and Science
• Painting from a new Perspective
– Linear Perspective
– Rapheal
• Science or Pseudoscience?
– Astrology and Alchemy
– Mathematics and Anatomy
• Leonardo da Vinci: The “Renaissance Man”
– Painting
– Scientific Notebooks
C. 1506
LEONARDO DA VINCI
MONA LISA
Chapter 10
• As feudalism disintegrated in Northern
Europe, monarchs concentrated their royal
authority and encouraged the
incorporation of Renaissance ideas into
their own cultures.
Renaissance of the “New Monarchies”
of the North: 1453-1640
• France: Under the Italian Influence
• Louis the Spider
– Italians in France
• English Humanism
– Thomas More
– Renaissance Queens
• Renaissance London:
A Booming City
– The South Bank
• England’s Pride: William Shakespeare
C. 1505 RAPHAEL
ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
Critical Question
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A New Spirit Emerges: Individualism, Realism, and Activism
1.Why is the idea of the Renaissance considered controversial?
2.What is a general definition of the Renaissance?
3.What factors might explain why the Renaissance began in the Italian city-states?
4.What were some of the defining characteristics of the Renaissance?
5.What were the interests of the humanists?
6.How were female humanists treated?
7.What was the role of patrons and patronage during the Renaissance?
8.How did the invention of the printing press facilitate the spread of Renaissance
ideas?
The Politics of Individual Effort
9.What made the Italian city-states so prone to conflict?
10.Why did individual effort become so important in this context?
11.What problems did Florence confront in the fourteenth century?
12.What made the republic of Venice more stable than Florence?
13.How did the Visconti and Sforza families rule Milan?
14.What was distinct about Naples' government?
15.How did the popes rule the papal states?
16.What advantages and disadvantages did they face?
17.What were Machiavelli's ideas about diplomacy and political power?
Critical Question
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Individualism as Self-Interest: Life During the Renaissance
18.Why was crime such a serious problem in Renaissance cities?
19.How did Jews experience the growth of intolerance during this period?
20.What were the different sources of economic prosperity for the Italian cities?
21.Why was slavery reintroduced?
22.Where did the slaves come from?
23.What was the significance of the family during the Renaissance?
24.How did the importance of family alliances impact women?
25.How did people raise their children?
An Age of Talent and Beauty: Renaissance Culture and Science
26.What were the origins of the majority of Renaissance artists?
27.What were the sources of inspiration for Renaissance architectural achievements?
28.What did Michelangelo's David symbolize?
29.How did the standing of sculpture as an art form change in this period?
30.What new techniques did painters employ?
31.What were pseudoscientific studies?
32.How did science contribute to innovations in the visual arts?
33.What were the numerous talents and interests of Leonardo da Vinci?
Critical Question
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Renaissance of the "New Monarchies" of the North: 1453 – 1640
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34.How did the Italian Renaissance spread to France?
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35.What was the impact of the Italian Renaissance in England?
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36.How were Renaissance ideas encouraged?
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37.What made London typical of Renaissance cities?
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38.How were Renaissance ideas incorporated by Shakespeare into his plays?