european society in the age of the renaissance, part 1
TRANSCRIPT
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE, PART 1
KEY TOPICS:
• Characteristics of the Italian Renaissance• Renaissance Society• The Italian States• The Intellectual Renaissance• Art in the Renaissance• European States in the Renaissance• The Church
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE:
• 1350 – 1550• Means “Re-birth” of Greco-Roman civilization• Jacob Burckhardt
– Created modern concept of Renaissance– Too much emphasis on secularism & individualism
• Urban movement• Age of recovery• Distinct emphasis on human ability & achievement
– What is this called? …. Come on I know you know it!
• Upper class movement (elite)
RENAISSANCE SOCIETY: ECONOMICS• Manufacturing & trade• Hansa = Hanseatic League
– Military & commercial association formed by coastal towns in North Germany
– Began its decline in the 15th century
• Textile industry recovered –luxury textiles boomed• New industries developed
– Printing– Mining– Metallurgy (what on Earth is this??)
• Banking = Florence … this was a BFD– Lorenzo de Medici—high point in 15th century
RENAISSANCE SOCIETY: SOCIAL CHANGE• Nobility
– Dominated everyone– Held military & political posts– Education was key– Nobles must serve their leader
effectively & honestly– Baldassare Castiglione
• The Book of the Courtier (1528)• How-to guide to being a noble
• Peasants & Townspeople– Composed of several groups
• Patricians• Petty burghers• Wage workers without property• Unemployed
1514-15Oil on canvas, 82 x 67 cmMusée du Louvre, Paris
RENAISSANCE SOCIETY: SOCIAL CHANGE• Slavery
– Slaves used as skilled workers– Slave trade boomed for a while, but then died out in 15th
century
• Family– Key role in Renaissance world– Included: parents, children, grandparents, widowed
mothers, unmarried sisters– Old family names = good things– Arranged marriages– Patriarchal system (anyone know what this means??)
THE ITALIAN STATES:• Independent City-states
– Several smaller states– Mantua– Ferrara– Urbino (condottiere … what is this?)
• 5 major states– Milan– Venice– Florence– The Papal States– Naples
ITALIAN STATES - RIVALIRIES
• Florence– Oligarchy– Medici family
• Milan– Condottiere - mercenaries– Spanish empire
• Venice– Great Council
• Doge - leader– Monopoly on spice and
luxury trade
• Papal States– Renaissance Popes
(Italian)– Borgias (Spain)
1492• Kingdom of the
Two SiciliesPoor landSpanish empire
THE ITALIAN STATES:
• Warfare– Key concept: balance of power
• Designed to prevent the Aggrandizement of any one state at the expense of the others
– Aggrandizement … what does this mean
– Peace of Lodi• 1454-1494• Stopped 50 years of unremitting war
– Powerful monarchies• Italy: battle ground for France & Spain
– Regional loyalty as opposed to national loyalty
THE ITALIAN STATES:
• Modern Diplomacy– Product of Italian Renaissance– Change in concept of ambassador
• MA: everything for the sake of the church• R: everything for the sake of the state
– Interests of the state take precedence over all others
• Machiavelli– Very important diplomat– Wrote The Prince (1513) to get on the Medici’s good side– Serviced the family that kicked out the Medici
MACHIAVELLI: EXCERPT FROM THE PRINCE
• Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you.
MACHIAVELLI: EXCERPT FROM THE PRINCE
• And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE, PART 2
THE INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE:• Italian Renaissance Humanism—the basics
– Faith = good
– Church = bad
– Human ability/achievement = good
– Individualism• Emphasis on the unique traits/contributions of each person
– Secularism• The process of becoming more concerned with the material/temporal
world …. Less with spiritual & religious world
THE CHURCH:• Papacy = Bad Times
• Leo X = BAD, BAD pope; good for Artists, bad for Church
• Pope Julius II (1503-1513)
• Loss of influence over European nation-states
• Decline in moral prestige and leadership
• Nepotism used to promote family interest
EFFECTS OF THE PRINTING PRESS:
• Communal knowledge possible
– Scientists could form distant communities
• Page numbering and indexes invented and used
– Standardization in form and spelling
• Reading moves from communal to private activity;
• Authorship becomes more important and profitable.
– Who wrote it becomes important
– Early copyright and intellectual property laws established
• Decline of Latin and move towards vernacular language use
– Contributed to growing nationalism
PRINTING PRESS
• Explosion of printed materials
• By 1500– 40,000 titles printed
– Between 8-10 million copies
THE INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE:• Emergence
– Petrarch = Father of Humanism• Characterized the middle ages as “The Dark Ages”• Established emphasis on classical Latin• Rediscovered lost manuscripts
• 15th Century Italy– Florence
• Humanists movement tied with Civic virtue• Civic humanism
– Duty of an intellectual to live an active life serving the state
– Emphasis on Classical Greek Civilization
THE INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE:• Humanism & Philosophy
– Plato = very popular• Florentine Platonic Academy
– Marsilio Ficino• Translated Platonic dialogs &
made them accessible to contemporaries
• Synthesized Christianity and Platonism into a single system
– Not really … don’t worry I’ll explain
– Pico della Mirandola• Student/friend of Ficino
– Hermeticism• Introduced
THE INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE: EDUCATION• Emphasis on Greco-Roman Curriculum
– Latin grammar & rhetoric– History & political philosophy– Greek Language– Liberal Arts
• Emphasis on Greco-Roman authors/works/artists
• To educate women … or not to educate women … that is the question!
RENAISSANCE EDUCATION AND PHILOSOPHY
• Humanistic age
• Various types of humanism– Secular– Christian– Civic
• Great fervor displayed in finding and collecting old documents
• Leads to critical examination of documents--Lorenzo Valla
• Education produces moral uplift
RENAISSANCE EDUCATION AND PHILOSOPHY
• First influenced secondary education
• Extreme vanity of Renaissance scholars
• The importance of law and rhetoric in Renaissance education
• Classical political ideals were cultivated
• Knowledge needed to be useful
PETRARCHPOET, HUMANISTSCHOLAR
Francesco Petrarch 1304-1374
Assembled Greek and Roman writings
Wrote:
Sonnets to Laura
(Love poems in the Vernacular)
Influenced William Shakespeare
ERASMUS(1466-1536)
Dutch humanist
Pushed for a Vernacular form of the Bible
“I disagree very much with those who are unwilling that Holy Scripture, translated into the vernacular, be read by the uneducated . . . As if the strength of the Christian religion consisted in the ignorance of it”
Wanted to reform the Catholic Church
Wrote: The Praise of Folly
Used humor to show the immoral and ignorant behavior of people, including the clergy. He felt people would be open minded and be kind to others.
ENGLAND
• Decline in Population?• Tudors restored royal prestige, crush power of
nobility, and establish local order• Tudors, except Henry VIII, stayed away from
expensive wars• The royal council was filled with common
lawyers, not nobles – The Star Chamber• When Henry VII dies (1509), England is at
peace, wealthy from trade, and the royals are well respected
Italy’s trade carried the new Renaissance ideas to France, England, Spain and the German States from when the Renaissance began in Italy in roughly 1400 A.D until Italy lost its trading dominance in the 1500’s.
TRADE ROUTES FROM ITALY TO THE REST OF EUROPE
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
• In France the Renaissance is most obvious in architecture and some of the paintings.
• The Chateau de Chambord was built during the French Renaissance, using columns, domes and varying shapes that were used in ancient times in Italy.
FRANCE
• Black Death and 100 years war left France depopulated
• Charles VII revived the monarchy, expelled the English, strengthened finances thru salt and land taxes.
• Charles VII created the first permanent royal army
• Concordant of Bologna (1516) – Frances I and Pope Leo X agreed to allow French kings to appoint bishops – set church policies
THE GERMAN RENAISSANCE
• German painting is combination of Renaissance realism and German religious feeling.
• This portrait of the Madonna and Child was painted by Albrecht Durer around 1520 and is a fine example.
THE RENAISSANCE IN SPAIN
• The Spanish Renaissance mostly showed up in scholarship and architecture.
• The Escorial Palace was built by Philip II in the late 1500’s showing the domes and various shapes used in ancient Italian architecture.
SPAIN
• Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon unite the royal houses, but not the two peoples – Spain not united
• They weaken the power of the aristocracy – excluded from royal council
• They secured the power to appoint biships in colonies
• Anti-Semitic pogroms – 40% of jews killed or forced to convert (conversos)- “purity of blood”
SPAIN
• Inquisition – Expell all Jews• Hapsburg dynasty continues with Charles V and
Philip II• Charles V – inherits the Netherlands and Holy
Roman Empire• Philip II – Unites Spain in 1580
THAT’S IT FOR NOW! SEE YOU IN PART 3 ….
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE, PART 3
ART!
CLASSICAL ART
• Figures were lifelike but often idealized (more perfect than in real life)
• Figures were nude or draped in togas (robes)
• Bodies looked active, and motion was believable
• Faces were calm and without emotion
• Scenes showed either heroic figures or real people doing tasks from daily life
MEDIEVAL ART
• Most art was religious, showing Jesus, saints, people from the Bible, and so on
• Important figures in paintings were shown as larger than others around them
• Figures looked stiff, with little sense of movement
• Figures were fully dressed in stiff-looking clothing
• Faces were serious and showed little feeling
• Paint colors were bright
RENAISSANCE ART• Artists showed religious and nonreligious scenes
• Art reflected a great interest in nature
• Figures were lifelike and three-dimensional, reflecting an increasing knowledge of anatomy
• Bodies looked active and were shown moving
• Figures were either nude or clothed
• Scenes showed real people doing everyday tasks
• Faces expressed what people were thinking
• Paintings were often symmetrical (balanced, with the right and left sides having similar or identical elements)
ART IN THE RENAISSANCE:
• Northern Renaissance– Gothic cathedrals were the focus– Flanders—center of Northern Artistic Renaissance– Painters were masters of detail– Jan van Eyck
• Music– Guillaume Dufay
• Used secular tunes to replace Gregorian chants
– Madrigal• Poems set to music
ART IN THE RENAISSANCE:
• Leonardo da Vinci• Giotto• Masaccio• Paolo Uccello• Antonio Pollaiuolo• Sandro Botticelli• Donato di Donatello• Filippo Brunelleschi
CHARACTERISTICS OF RENAISSANCE ART• Realism & Expression
• Perspective
• Emphasis on Individual
• Geometry
• Light/Shadowing & Softening of edges
Realism & Expression
Expulsion from the Garden
Masaccio
1427
First nudes since classical times.
Perspective
Perspective!Perspective!
Perspective!Perspective!
Perspective!
First use of linear
perspective!
Perspective!Perspective!
The Trinity
Masaccio
1427What you are, I once was; what
I am, you will become.
Emphasis on Individualism
Batista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre: The Duke & Dutchess of Urbino
Piero della Francesca, 1465-1466.
Geometrical Arrangement of Figures
Leonardo da Vinci
1469
The figure as architecture!
The Dreyfus Madonna
with the Pomegranate
6. Light & Shadowing/Softening Edges
Chiaroscuro:use of light and shade
Sfumato:
gradual blending of one area of color into another without a sharp outline
Ginevra de' Benci, a young Florentine noblewoman who, at the age of sixteen, married Luigi Niccolini in 1474.
Born in 1475 in a small town near Florence, is considered to be one of the most inspired men who
ever lived; he was a sculptor, painter, engineer, architect, and poet.
Michelangelo
DAVID
Michelangelo created his
masterpiece David in
1504.
The Biblical shepherd, David (who killed Goliath) recalls the harmony and grace of ancient Greek tradition
15c
16c
What
a
difference
a
century
makes!
SISTINE CHAPELAbout a year after creating David,
Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo to Rome to work on
his most famous project, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Depicts the biblical history of the world from the Creation to the Flood
Creation of Eve Creation of Adam
Separation of Light and Darkness The Last Judgment
PIETA 1499MARBLE SCULPTURE
Captures the sorrow of the Virgin Mary as she cradles her dead son, Jesus on her knees
MOSES
1452-1519
Painter, Sculptor, Architect,
Mathematician, Engineer
Leonardo da Vinci
MONA LISA(1503-1506)
THE LAST SUPPER(1495-1498)
Jesus and his apostles on the night before the crucifixion
NOTEBOOKS
Leonardo da Vinci dissected corpses to learn how bones and muscles work
RAPHAELPainter, 1483-1520
SCHOOL OF ATHENS• Perspective
• Subjects are mainly secular, but can be religious
• Figures look idealized, but can also look like everyday ordinary people
• Bodies are active
• Clothed or unclothed
• Faces are expressive
• Detail
1510 FrescoVatican City
An imaginary gathering of great thinkers and scientists
Pythagoras
Socrates
Plato and Aristotle
Euclid
Zoroaster & Ptolemy
Raphael (back)
MANNERISM (1520-1600) – THE ARTISTS DID NOT FOCUS ON NATURE, MORE ON STYLE
El Greco, ResurrectionTintoretto, The Last Supper
THAT’S IT FOR NOW! SEE YOU IN PART 4 ….
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN THE AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE, PART 4
LITERATURE!
Literature flourished during the Renaissance and spread Renaissance ideas, which can be greatly
attributed to Johannes Gutenberg.
In 1455 Gutenberg printed the first book produced by using moveable type, The Bible, and started a printing
revolution that would transform Europe.
Literacy rates increased
Literature
Northern Writers Try to Reform Society
“Northern Renaissance writers also adopted the ideas of Humanism... however, some gave it a more religious slant.”
Desiderius Erasmus – a Christian humanist, wrote “The Praise of Folly” which poked fun at people’s human flaws such as greedy merchants, arrogant priests, etc. He believed mankind could improve society by reading the Bible and that Christianity was about “the heart” and not a bunch of “rules and ceremonies” done in Church.
Erasmus was from the Dutch region of Holland and received many honors in his lifetime. He was often critical of the “mindless” rituals Christians performed during church services and their ignorance about the actual Bible itself.
“It is the chief point of happiness when a man is willing to be what he is - not what others would have him be.” ~ Erasmus, 1527.
Examining a Primary Source: “In Praise of Folly,”
PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins High School
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE1564-1616
• English poet and playwright• Well-known plays include: Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet
• Influence and Impact on the Renaissance:– He expanded the dramatic potential of
characterization (his characters were very complex), plot, language (creative), and genre
Northern Writers Try to Reform Society
William Shakespeare – English playwright whose plays examine human flaws but also express the Renaissance view of humanity’s potential. Many of his plays focus on Greek or Roman subjects and classical plots.
PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins High School
The Globe TheaterShakespeare had this “theater in the round” built on the banks of the Thames River in London, 1599 – 1614.
• Use of language, choice of themes made plays appealing even to uneducated
• Plays helped spread ideas of Renaissance to mass audience
• Focused on lives of realistic characters, unlike morality plays
• By Shakespeare’s death, 1616, London scene of thriving theatre district
Spread Renaissance Ideas
• Many believe English playwright William Shakespeare greatest writer
• Plots not original, but treatments of them masterful
• Drew inspiration from ancient, contemporary literature
• Knowledge of natural science, humanist topics expressed in plays
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare and His Characters
Northern Writers Try to Reform Society
Thomas More – an English humanist concerned about society’s problems. He wrote “Utopia,” about an ideal model of society.
Statue of More in Chelsea, London
More served as Speaker in the House of Commons and Lord Chancellor during the reign of King Henry VIII of England. When Henry began his plan to separate the Church of England from the Catholic Pope, More defended Catholicism and the struggle with his king would lead eventually to his trial for treason and his beheading in 1535 at the Tower of London.
The events are dramatized in a classic film entitled “A Man for All Seasons.”
Utopia is Greek for “no place” – More’s sense of humor is shown since this perfect society he gives this name to clearly did not exist.
PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins High School
UTOPIA
• A book about a perfect society in which men and women live in harmony, there is no private property, no one is lazy, all people are educated and the justice system is used to end crime instead of executing criminals
• Popular publication in the early days of the printing press
Northern humanists expressed their own ideas
Combined interests of theology, fiction and history
Created philosophical works, novels, dramas, and poems
• Combined Christian ideas, humanism
• Wrote of pure, simple Christian life, educating children
• Fanned flames of discontent
• Roman Catholic Church censored, condemned works
Desiderius Erasmus
• More’s best-known work, Utopia, contains criticisms of English government, society
• Presents vision of perfect, non-existent society based on reason
Sir Thomas More
• Italian-born writer focused on role of women in society
• Grew up in French court of Charles V; turned to writing when widowed
• Championed equality, education for women
Christine de Pisan
Philosophers and Writers
SPANISH RENAISSANCE
• Miguel de Cervantes– Don Quixote, 1605
THAT’S IT FOR NOW! SEE YOU IN THE NEXT VIDEO!