Download "Reborn" in the Renaissance?

WHAT WAS “REBORN”
IN THE RENAISSANCE?
A cultural movement arose in northern Italy in the late 14th
century to challenge the central doctrines of medieval
“scholasticism” and the conventions of medieval art.
1. Scholars began to study ancient Greek and Hebrew as
well as Latin, and to emphasize the importance of “the
humanities.”
2. The scholastics used Aristotle to define the one
“correct” answer to every question, but Renaissance
“humanists” understood that ancient authorities often
quarreled with each other.
3. Artists rediscovered the ancient love of the beauty of
nature and powerful techniques to depict them.
Dominant powers
in Italy in 1494:
Republic of Venice
Republic of Genoa
Republic of
Florence
Duchy of Milan
Papal States
Naples & Sicily
“Charlemagne Window,” Chartres Cathedral, c. 1225:
Emperor Constantine greets Charlemagne
(medieval Europeans lacked a sense of history)
Dante (1265-1321) and
his “Inferno”
(following the teaching of
“scholasticism”)
Petrarch (1304-1374),
“father of humanism,”
and his MS. of the
poetry of Virgil
Petrarch, “On His Own Ignorance and
That of Many Others” (1368)
[Petrarch replies to his critics, who argue for the
superiority of the study of “philosophy”:]
“I have read all of Aristotle’s moral books…. Sometimes I
have become more learned through them, but not better,
not so good as I ought to be…. I see virtue, and all that is
peculiar to vice as well, very well defined and distinguished
by him and treated with penetrating insight. When I learn all
this, I know a little bit more than I knew before, but mind
and will remain the same as they were, and I myself remain
the same…. What is the use of knowing what virtue is if it is
not loved when known? What is the use of knowing sin if it
is not abhorred?”
Petrarch argued for study of the HUMANITIES, i.e.,
languages, rhetoric, literature, and history. His favorite
author was the great orator and statesman, Cicero.
Pico della Mirandola
(1463-1494),
fluent in Latin, Greek,
Hebrew, and Arabic,
star of the Platonic
Academy of Florence
(founded by Lorenzo de
Medici in 1464,
led by Marsilio Ficino).
Pico published his
“Oration on the Dignity
of Man”
in 1486
Raphael, The School of Athens (Vatican, 1509)
Plato &
Aristotle
THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
Pioneering artists of Florence:
• Giotto: 1266?--1337
• Masaccio: 1401--1428
• Leonardo da Vinci: 1452--1519
• Michelangelo Buonarotti: 1475--1564
• Raphael Sanzio: 1483--1520
Renaissance Popes:
• Alexander VI (Borgia): 1492-1503
• Julius II (the warrior pope): 1503-1513
• Leo X (Medici): 1513-1521
A medieval
Madonna and Child
(by Duccio, late
13th century),
painted against the
gold background of
heaven, situated in
eternity
Medieval art
often sought
to tell
stories:
Simone
Martini,
Blessed
Agostino
Novello
Altarpiece,
Siena, 1324
Florence: The Palazzo Vecchio and Duomo
The Pantheon in Rome, built 118-128 A.D.
Since then nobody had built a dome in Europe.
Interior of the Pantheon
The Dome of
the Cathedral
of Florence
(1420-36),
designed by
Filippo
Brunelleschi
Giotto, “The Kiss of Judas” (1305)
Masaccio,
The Trinity
(1425-28):
Fresco in Santa Maria
Novella, Florence
The “vanishing
point:”
Masaccio’s scheme
of perspective for
“The Trinity”
Leonardo da Vinci,
Virgin of the Rocks
(ca. 1485)
Map of Tuscany, drawn for Cesare Borgia by
Leonardo in 1502
Raphael
(1484-1520),
The Canigiani
Madonna
(1507)
Venus de Milo
(Greek marble
statue of
Aphrodite,
ca. 100 B.C.)
Michelangelo,
David
(1504):
Mascot of the
Republic of Florence
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE
REPUBLIC OF FLORENCE
13th century: pro-papal Guelphs vs. pro-German Ghibellines
(exile of Dante)
1378: Revolt by the proletarian wool-combers to demand
inclusion in the guild system.
1462-92: Effective rule by the “first citizen,” Lorenzo de
Medici, Lorenzo “the Magnificent”
1494: Exile of Piero de Medici and restoration of the Republic
1502-09: Height of Machiavelli’s influence (embassy to
Cesare Borgia; conquest of Pisa)
1511/12: Triumphant return of the Medici & exile for
Machiavelli (who then wrote The Prince)
1527: Medici banished again; Republic revived
1537: Medici return; Florence becomes a hereditary duchy
Niccolo
Machiavelli
(1469-1527):
Appointed
secretary to the
Florentine
Chancery, 1498;
banished by the
Medici in 1512
The execution of Savonarola in 1498
Pope Alexander
VI (Borgia),
reigned
1492-1503
Cesare Borgia
(1475-1507)
“Portrait of a Woman”
(Lucrezia Borgia? 1480-1519)
Raphael,
Portrait of Pope
Julius II
(1511/12):
The warrior pope,
nearing death
Medal of Pope Julius II (1506), with plan for a new
St. Peter’s Cathedral