The RenaissanceDarkness and Light

Renaissance Essentials After St.Thomas Aquinas, there were

cracks in the unifying culture of Christianity Rebirth of humanism: everything revolved

around man again, as in Greece and Rome We have to be educated to be human

beings Compass, firearms, printing press

Transition from a minimum-level economy to a middle class based on banking/trade

Individual can achieve wealth through diligence, innovation, and education

Man is now infinitely great and valuable Pico della Mirandola Oration on the Dignity

of Man

Baldassare Castiglione Renaissance social

ideal: poet, scholar The Courtier: nobleness of birth, wit

comely shape of person and countenance, grace, capable in arms, ingenuity and loyalty, pleasant, discreet

                                                              

                                                                                         

Plotinus – 3rd Century Egyptian-born neoplatonist

Plotinus’s Belief: a mystical union between the individual soul and “the One.”

Union achieved by soul’s ascent through levels of spiritual purification

Christians’ Modification: substituted “God” for the “One.”

Christians: Soul is eternal

Marsilio Ficino, Humanist Philosopher Translated Plato’s writings into Latin (after fall of

Constantinople to Ottoman Turks 1453) Platonic Academy in Florence (Cosimo financed,

Ficino led) “Platonic” (or spiritual) love attracts the soul to

God Renaissance painters: spiritual love inspired by

physical beauty led to beautiful paintings

Ficino: “She was the very embodiment of “Humanitas…her Soul and mind are Love and Charity, her eyes Dignity and Magnanimity, the hands Liberality and Magnificance, the feet Comeliness and Modesty. The whole, then, is Temperance and Honesty, Charm and Splendor”

Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538-1539 Oil on Canvas. 3 ft. 11 in. x 5 ft. 5 in