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Chapter 16
Classical Humanism
in the Age of the
Renaissance
Ambrogio Lorenzetti,
The Effects of Good and Bad Government in the Town,
1337-39.
Palazzo Pubblico, Siena http://www.all-art.org/history194-18.html
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government in the City, from the Allegory of
Good Government, Sala della Pace, Palazzo, Siena 1338-1339.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government in the Country,
from the Allegory of Good Government, Sala della Pace, Palazzo,
Siena 1338-1339.
Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti
Fresco, Palazzo Publico,
Sienahttp://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/Religion402/Architecture/BadGovernment.htm
Renaissance
•1300~1600
•= revival of classicism
= rebirth
Myths
• 1. “Death” of classical learning in
the Middle Ages.
• 2. A medieval “age of faith” vs.
“Renaissance paganism”
• 3. There exists one single
Renaissance position.
Classical Humanism
• An elitist educational and
cultural program based on the
study of ancient Greek and
Latin classics.
Food for thought
• Where were Greco-Roman texts
preserved during the Middle Ages?
• How many times did classical revival
take place during the Middle Ages?
• How did the Renaissance revival of
humanism differ from that of its
medieval counterparts?
• “Renaissance humanists
discovered in the Greek
and Latin classics a
rational guide to the
fulfillment of human
potential” (Fiero 369).
Renaissance Classicism
• 1. A greater quantity and variety of
classical texts were available.
• 2. Classical models were adopted in art,
not to glorify God, but for their own sake—
for its clear and graceful style and for its
insight into human nature.
• 3. The culture was more worldly and
overtly materialistic.
Individualism
• In contrast to medieval thinker, who
emphasized the Christian belief in
human sinfulness, Renaissance
figures revived the classical
confidence in human capacities to
achieve excellence.
Influences
• The ideal of the “universal man,” or
the “Renaissance man.”
• Emphasis on the pragmatic use of
knowledge: rhetoric, science, and art
• A revolutionary view of history: the
belief in progress
Food for thought
• Why Italy?
Italy
• South: Kingdom of Naples
• Middle: the Papal States
• North:
–Venice: merchant oligarchy
–Milan: dynastic despotism
–Florence: a republic in name only,
actually ruled by the Medici
Florence
Europe's First Euro
The Florin of Florence
http://www.umilta.net/wellesley.html
Cosimo de’ Medici
• 1434-1464
• pater patriae
Lorenzo de’ Medici
• 1469-1492
• The Magnificent
Petrarch
poet laureate
• 1304-1374
• Father of Humanism
• “When it comes to thinking or speaking of
religion, that is, of the highest truth . . . I
certainly am not a Ciceronian or a
Platonist but a Christian.”
• Famous as a forerunner of Christian
humanists and for his sonnets
Petrarchan Sonnet
• An octave (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6
lines).
• Subject matter: the hopes and pains of an
adoring male lover
• Conceit: a figure of speech which
establishes a striking parallel, usually
ingeniously elaborate, between two very
dissimilar things or situations.
Ficino
• 1433-1499
• Translated the entire corpus of Plato’s
writings from Greek into Latin
• Cosimo de’ Medici established the
Platonic Academy in Florence.
• Renaissance Neoplatonism
• Platonic love: a major theme in art
Two Theories of Art
• Da Vinci believed that "the most praiseworthy
painting [was that] which has the most
conformity with the object imitated.“
•
• Michelangelo believed that: "the greatest artist
has no conception which a single block of
marble does not potentially contain within its
mass, but only a hand which obeys the intelleto
[i.e. the deep knowing of reality] can accomplish
that."
http://hercules.gcsu.edu/~dvess/micel.htm
Pico
• 1463-1494
• Translated a lot of ancient literary
works in Hebrew, Arabic, Latin,
and Greek
• The manifesto of humanism:
Oration on the Dignity of Man
•“What a great miracle
is man”
(Pico, Oration)
Alberti
• 1404-1474
• On the Family
“Man can do anything he wants.”
• Virtù: “power,” describes the selfconfident vitality of the self-made
Renaissance individual
Alberti
• “Only my books and records and those of
my ancestors did I determine to keep well
sealed . . . . These my wife not only could
not read, she could not even lay hands on
them. I kept my records at all times . . .
Locked up and arranged in order in my
study . . . . I never gave my wife
permission to enter that place, with me or
alone . . . .”
Alberti
• “[Husbands] who take counsel with
their wives are madmen if they think
true prudence or good counsel lies in
the female brain . . . .”
• “I made it a rule never to speak with
[my wife] of anything but household
matters or questions of conduct, or of
the children.
Castiglione
• 1478-1529
• The Book of the Courtier
• L’uomo universale: the
Renaissance man; the wellrounded person
Female Humanists
• Laura Cereta (1468-1499)
Defense of Liberal Instruction of
Women
• Lucretia Marinella (1571-1653)
The Nobility and Excellence of
Women and the Defects of Vices
of Men
Female Humanists
• "Did Women Have a
Renaissance?"
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sister/Renaissance.html
Machiavelli
• 1469-1527
• The Prince
• politics divorced from ethics
• The pragmatic use of power for state
management
• The end justifies the means.
•The End