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Italy:
Birthplace of the Renaissance
• ‘Renaissance’ means rebirth and refers to the period of
about 1300-1600 that was a new period of learning and
creativity in Europe.
• As some historian critiques note, this doesn’t mean
that medieval period was a dark age. There was still
culture, learning, and such going on then. At this time,
however, there’s a sudden explosion of it and it takes a
markedly different form from what was seen during the
Middle Ages.
• Other critics argue that this period only introduced
change for the upper classes while the lower classes
largely led the same miserable existence as they
always had.
• When we talk about the Renaissance, it largely began
in Italy, especially northern Italy.
• Why there? Good question.
• One big reason was economics.
• Trade was very important the Italian city-states.
Demand for luxury goods increased trade.
Increased trade led to more tradesmen becoming
wealthy and wanting more luxury goods, and on and
on.
• It wasn’t uncommon for the merchants to be richer
than the local nobles.
• Due to the power and wealth of the merchants and
guilds, the feudal system broke down here. Feudal
lords didn’t run the show here, which helped to
secure money and remove laws that inhibited
commerce.
• The trade-based economy also meant that cities
were dominant.
• Northern Europe was also embroiled in the Hundred
Years War in the early-going.
• It was primarily the northern Italian city-states that
dominated the Italian Renaissance. The central and
southern cities remained backwards.
• Note that each citystate, as a city-state,
was independent of the
others. Also, they
controlled the
surrounding region.
• They would sometimes
go to war with each
other.
• Florence is the city-state in which the Renaissance was
most prominent.
• While there were several
powerful families in
Florence, the one that
emerged as the leader was
the Medici family.
• This is primarily due to
the skill of Cosimo de
Medici.
• Cosimo was a brilliant
political tactician and also
a brilliant businessman.
• He amassed a huge
fortune and used it to
buy political power as
well as financing art
projects in Florence.
• A few years after Cosimo
dies, his grandson Lorenzo
takes power (Cosimo’s son
Piero takes power first,
but he was sickly and
didn’t live long).
• Lorenzo, of course, comes
to be known as Lorenzo
the Magnificent
• And why was Lorenzo magnificent?
• One big reason is the massive effect he had on
Florentine Renaissance.
• He sponsored a great deal of art and literature with
the Medici fortune.
• A few of the artists who enjoyed his patronage were
Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello.
• He also helped to start philosophical academies that
reexamined ancient works and philosophies.
• Going back to the ancients
• One aspect of the Renaissance was reading these
ancient works.
• While some ancient authors, especially Aristotle,
were very well known and were used for medieval
thought as well as Catholic theology and cosmology,
many others had fallen by the wayside.
• There were several reasons for this.
• There was the general decline in literacy and
learning during the medieval period, but, more
importantly, Greek and proper Latin were no
longer spoken or read. Therefore, most people
couldn’t read the ancient works even if they had
them.
• Another reason is that many of the works were
lost to western Europe.
• Once the Renaissance was under way, people
started hunting them down.
• Some were found in monastery libraries where
they had gathered dust for centuries.
• Many others came via Muslims. They had
preserved many works that started finding
their way back to Europe due to trading and
also because of the Reconquista of Spain.
• The influence came not just from the
original works, but also from Muslim
commentaries on the works.
• Still others came from the conquering of
Constantinople in 1453.
• The Byzantine scholars escaped
Constantinople to Italy and brought with
them not just the ancient works, but also
the ability to read them, which they taught
to others.
• Another factor that helps focus people on the
ancients was observing all the ancient Roman stuff
around them.
• Much of it had fallen into disrepair and some had
even been used as quarries.
• This focus on the classics led to humanism.
• Humanism focused on what humans could do. It was
in opposition to the divinely based thought of the day.
• It also advocated reason and the evidence of senses
over traditional Christian introspective values.
• Along with this was the clarion call, ad fontes, which
meant ‘to the sources.’ The humanists believed in
going directly to the primary sources instead of just
looking at what people said. This contributed to the
drive to get those original works.
• It concentrated on the traditional liberal arts: rhetoric,
grammar, philosophy, ethics, poetry, and history.
• Focus on the good things in life
• Breaking with Christianity that focused on self-denial,
the humanists liked the finer things: entertainment,
art, good food, good company, etc.
• This was partially due to the effect of the Black
Death. Life was seeming too short not to enjoy it if
you could.
• This quasi-hedonist focus, along with the revival of
classicism, also led to a revival of homosexuality.
• Florence was well-known for widespread same-sex
relationships.
• When it came to art, it had to be funded and that was
done by patrons – typically local wealthy merchant
families such as the Medici.
• They would sponsor art for themselves and for the city.
They liked having portraits of them done, among other
things.
•To be a universal man
(or Renaissance man),
like Lorenzo here, you
strove to become expert
in the liberal arts as well
as learn to sing, dance,
and write poetry.
• New art
• The Renaissance saw a flourishing of new artistic
techniques.
• Medieval art tended to be very flat and nearly always
had religious overtones.
• The art that started developing in the Renaissance,
however, was different.
• The biggest innovation was the use of perspective.
• When you look at a scene, parallel lines seem to get
closer to each other the farther in the distance they
go until they meet at a vanishing point. Think of
standing on a railroad track and looking down them.
• Renaissance artists started exploiting this optical
illusion in their art. The advantage of it is that you
created the illusion of a three dimensional image on
a flat, two dimensional surface.
• Interestingly,
perspective can
also be used as
to create false
perspective, such
as here.
• Or in M.C. Escher’s works (though he wasn’t
Renaissance).
• You also start to see the use of light and shade
(chiaroscuro) and blurring outlines so it seems that
tones imperceptibly meld in to each other (thereby
creating volume: this is sfumato).
•Carvaggio’s
Crucifixion of St. Peter.
An example of
Chiaroscuro.
•Close-up of Mona Lisa’s
face. Notice the sfumato
blurring, especially around
the eyes, and how it
creates a 3D illusion.
• You also see a renewed interest in some classical forms
in sculpture that are at the same time using realism.
• Examples are Donatello’s bronze David and
Michelangelo’s marble David.
• Even Lorenzo got into it:
• There’s also a greater plasticity and animation to the
characters in the paintings. They feel like they’re in
mid-movement and not just in some stone-like pose.
• Architecture changed during the Renaissance too.
• It was more symmetrical and centrally planned than
Gothic architecture was.
• The dome of the basilica reaches 448 ft. The Statue
of Liberty, from the ground to the tip of the torch, is
305 ft.
• There’s also the Sistine Chapel. Not much to look at
from the outside:
• But inside…
• Renaissance Literature
• Previously, writing was done in Latin. Advantage: it
was the scholarly language that scholars knew even
when their respective local languages were different.
• Disadvantage: the commoners didn’t know it.
• So, authors started writing in the vernacular of their
regions. This allowed literature to have a more popular
bent. It also stagnated Latin.
• The best example of writing in vernacular is Dante’ The
Divine Comedy
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