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Medieval to Renaissance

The Course of EmpireThe Course of Empire is a five-part series of paintings created by Thomas Cole in the years 1833-36. It is notable in part for reflecting popular American sentiments of the times, when many saw pastoralism as the ideal phase of human civilization, fearing that empire would lead to gluttony and inevitable decay.

The series of paintings depicts the growth and fall of an imaginary city, situated on the lower end of a river valley, near its meeting with a bay of the sea. The valley is distinctly identifiable in each of the paintings, in part because of an unusual landmark: a large boulder is precariously situated atop a crag overlooking the valley.

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The Savage State3

The Arcadian or Pastoral State 4

The Consumation of Empire 5

Destruction 6

Desolation 7

Morphology

Oswald Spengler:Civilization as an organism

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HegelDialectical MaterialismInfinite “Progress” through REASON.

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Robert McCall

A secular “New Jerusalem”

There are NO limits to growth or “progress”.The Universe is infinite and the Earth must be transcended.MAN has ultimate control of his destiny.Things only get better and better and better and……

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Europe in the late 5th Century CE 13

The Dark Ages…..were really this dark?

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those who work, those who fight, those who pray15

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Determinism

“learned helplessness”Is this necessarily “Fatalism” ?

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Christian CosmologyThe Ptolemaic World“The World Dome”

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St. Augustine of Hippo354- 430 CE

“The City of God”

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Asgard

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Saṃsāra

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This World is less Real than the Next

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St. Mark, Venice 1063

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Italy Around 1400

The Black Death

Estimated to have killed 30% – 60% of Europe's population, reducing the world’s population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in 1400. This has been seen as creating a series of religious, social and economic upheavals which had profound effects on the course of European History. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover.

Because the plague killed so many of the poor population, wealthy land owners were forced to pay the remaining workers what they asked, in terms of wages.

Because there was now a surplus in consumer goods, luxury crops could now be grown. This meant that for the first time in history, many, formerly of the peasant population, now had a chance to live a better life. Most historians now feel that this was the start of the middle class in Europe and England.

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yersinia pestis

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A “black swan”

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St. Thomas Aquinas“Summa Theologica”Aristotle

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The Great Chain of Being

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Fall of Constantinople 1453

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Marsilio FicinoTranslated Plato into Latin (from Greek)

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Niccolò Machiavelli“The Prince”

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Giordano Bruno“infinity”

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Renaissance Humanists

• Petrarch• Giovanni Boccaccio• Cosimo de Medici• Marsilio Ficino• Niccolò Machiavelli• Baldassare Castiglione• Giordano Bruno

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Humanism

• A cultural and intellectual movement during the Renaissance, following the rediscovery of the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome.

• It is a philosophy or attitude concerned with the interests, achievements, and capabilities of human beings rather than with the abstract concepts and problems of theology and science.

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HUMANISM a Focus on Human Beings:

Education that perfected humans through the study of past models of civic and personal virtue.

Value system that emphasized personal effort and responsibility.

Physically and intellectually active life that was directed at a common good as well as individual nobility .

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Humanism through the AGES

Humans can solve their own problems and don’t have to turn to a higher authority. This thought began in Florence, Italy then spread all throughout Europe.

Modern humanism is the belief that no supernatural being can help us, such as God but relies mainly on reason, science, democracy, and human compassion.

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BONAVENTURA BERLINGHIERI, panel from the Saint Francis Altarpiece, San Francesco, Pescia, Italy, 1235. Tempera on wood, 5’ x 3’ x 6”.

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CIMABUE, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets, from Santa Trinità, Florence, Italy, ca. 1280–1290. Tempera and gold leaf on wood, 12’ 7” x 7’ 4”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

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GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Madonna Enthroned, from the Church of Ognissanti, Florence, Italy, ca. 1310. Tempera and gold leaf on wood, 10’ 8” x 6’ 8”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

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Giotto di Bondone, Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni; interior looking west), Padua, Italy, 1305–1306.

Lapis lazuli

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GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Lamentation, Arena Chapel, (Cappella Scrovegni), Padua, Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, 6’ 6 3/4” x 6’ 3/4”.

GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Entry into Jerusalem, Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni), Padua, Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, 6’ 6 3/4" X 6’ 3/4".

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GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Betrayal of Jesus, Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni), Padua, Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, 6’ 6 3/4" X 6’ 3/4".

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BARTOLOMEO DI FRUOSINOInferno, from the Divine Comedy by Dante (Folio 1v)1430-35

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Siena

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DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints, principal panel of the Maestà altarpiece, from the Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1308–1311. Tempera and gold leaf on wood, 7’ x 13’ (center panel). Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.

DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, Life of Jesus, 14 panels from the back of the Maestà altarpiece, from Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1308–1311. Tempera and gold leaf on wood, 7’ X 13’. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.

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DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, Betrayal of Jesus, detail from the back of the Maestà altarpiece, from Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1309–1311. Tempera and gold leaf on wood, detail 1’ 10 1/2” x 3’ 4”. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.

DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, Entry into Jerusalem, panel from the back of the Maestà altarpiece, from Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1308–1311. Tempera and gold leaf on wood, 3’ 4 1/2" X 1’ 9 1/8”. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.

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SIMONE MARTINI AND LIPPO MEMMI(?), Annunciation, altarpiece, from Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1333 (frame reconstructed in the19th century). Tempera and gold leaf on wood, center panel 10’ 1” x 8’ 8 3/4”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

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PIETRO LORENZETTI, Birth of the Virgin, from the altar of Saint Savinus, Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1342. Tempera on wood, 6’ 1” x 5’ 11”. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.

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Aerial view of the Campo with the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1288–1309.

• INSERT FIGURE 19-15

AMBROGIO LORENZETTI, Allegory of Good Government, north (left) and east (right) walls of the Sala della Pace, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1338–1339. Fresco, north wall 25’ 3” wide, east wall 46’ wide.

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Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Peaceful City, detail from Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country, Sala della Pace, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1338–1339. Fresco.

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Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Peaceful Country, detail from Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country, Sala della Pace, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1338–1339. Fresco.

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Condottieri

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Francesco Traini, Triumph of Death.

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Francesco Traini, Triumph of Death.

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Francesco Traini, Triumph of Death.

Florence CathedralThe “Duomo”

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