The Concept of the Renaissance

1
The Concept of the Renaissance

• Federico Chabod

2
The Traditional Concept

• The problem of Continuity
• Fustel de Coulanges and his theory on the
  Barbarian invaders (tabula rasa)
• The theory of continuity against the theory of
  things as they have occurred (effects and
  dangers of each theory in itself) p. 151
• The traditional concepts Middle Ages and
  Renaissance
• The praesens tempus and media aetas according to
  Italians of the XIV and XV (Boccaccio, C.
  Salutati, L. Valla, L. Bruni)

3

• As the city of Rome perished at the hands of the
  perverse and tyrannical emperors, so did Latin
  studies and literature undergo similar ruin and
  diminution . . . And Italy was invaded by the
  Goths and Longobards, barbarous, uncouth people,
  who practically extinguished all knowledge of
  literature.
• 
  Leonardo Bruni
• All statues and paintings were smashed and
  torn . . . And thus were destroyed not only
  statues and paintings, but the books and
  commentaries and handbooks and rules on which men
  relied for their training in this great and
  excellent and gentle art
• Lorenzo
  Ghiberti

4

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5

• Vasari criticism of the Christians but not of
  the faith. His is an aesthetic criticism
• Voltaire antipathy for Catholicism it is the
  guilt of religion, responsible for medieval
  obscurantism (furor against the papacys power
  during the Middle Ages - spirit of the
  Reformation)
• Voltaire echoes Ghibertis and Vasaris opinions
  about the fall of the Roman empire, the advent of
  Christianity and the barbarism of the northern
  invaders
• These opinions are amplified by modern
  historians Michelet, Burckhardt, Spaventa,
  Dilthey and Gentile
• Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien represents
  the period as a sudden emergence of genius in the
  middle of a cultural and artistic desert.
  Isolation of the Renaissance (no sense of
  historical continuity)

6
Imitation of Classical Models

• Opinion expressed by the artists of the time. The
  Renaissance has its origin when the
• glorious minds that sprang from the soil
  of Tuscany . . .
• (turn to the ancient ruins of Rome and
  start)
• distinguishing very clearly the good
  from the bad and
• forsaking the old styles, they began
  once more to imitate,
• to the limit of their energies and
  abilities, the styles
• affected by the ancients . . .
  Giorgio Vasari
• Belief that the ancients had exercised a
  direct
• influence on the rebirth of Art and
  Literature
• was general (a direct consequence of
  numerous
• archeological excavations)

7
New Critical Approaches

• The theory of continuity applied to the Middle
  Ages and Renaissance
• Middle Ages rich in variety, stimulated by many
  problems, interests and aspirations a restless
  age, full of exuberant life
• Is the Renaissance a new phenomenon, with
  features of its own, or is it a broadening (not
  very original) of already present motifs and
  ideals?
• First step distinguish between every-day-life
  and the LIFE OF THE MIND, the theoretical
  formulation of a CONSCIOUSNESS (mans thoughts
  and ideas)

8
Renaissance

• The term is used to describe a MOBILIZATION OF
  IDEAS which is primarily
• ARTISTIC
• LITERARY
• CULTURAL
• The Renaissance as an INTELLECTUAL reality, not
  as a PHYSICAL one
• An intellectual construction in which human
  designs and actions conform to an ideal system,
  to a spiritual creed, to a program of life
• Only when transformed in a complete, theoretical
  affirmation, a practical truth becomes a
  theoretical precept, a law explicitly credited
  with a universal validity

9

• Vix scio quae fuerim, vix Roma recordor vix
  sinit occasus vel neminisse mei. Par tibi, Roma,
  nihil cum sos prope tota ruina.
  Hildebrand de
  Lavardin (Le Mans, 1106)
• Nichil actum fore potavi, si que legendo
  didiceram, non aggrederer exercendo.
  Cola di
  Rienzo (1350)
• Nos . . . Volentes et desiderantes . . .
  Voluntates, benignitates, et liberalitates
  antiquorum romanorum principium . . . imitari.
  
  Decree of the sovereignity of the Roman People I
  August 1347
• Imitatio - legere becomes exercere. Instead of an
  elegy, there is a determination to revive the
  ancient splendors and glories of Rome
• Men must imitate the ancients in matters calling
  for strength and vigor . . . (they must adopt)
  the true and perfect ways of antiquity, not the
  false and corrupt. Niccolò Machiavelli (Larte
  della guerra)

10

• Limitation of Medieval thought
  a) the relationship between God and
  man b) the Christian and
  Augustinian sense of sin and grace (religious
  conception of the world)
• The Classic authors remained ornaments in the
  works of the Middle Ages, intended to give luster
  to the moral and spiritual ways of the medieval
  philosophers (Dante?)
• Il est remarquable . . . que pendant la période
  la plus radieuse de la Renaissance les types
  iconographiques transmis et donc altérés, -
  soient presque partout abandonnés au profit des
  types retrouvés dans leur pureté première.
  
  J. Seznec, La
  survivance des dieux antiques

11

• For the Medieval scholar, Rome was imitable, but
  only as Christian Rome, capital of Christianity
• The Renaissance viewed Rome as the ideal moment
  in human history, in which the highest
  aspirations of mankind were realized. Imitation
  becomes a pattern of life

12
Realism and Individualism

• In the Middle Ages realism is episodic,
  emotional. The detail is realistic, but the
  general conception is not. The Prime Mover of
  life and human history is located outside the
  world and the destinies of men are determined by
  the will of God.
• The sensibility is human and mundane, but the
  spirit is nourished by an inner life located
  outside carnal humanity
• Medieval and Renaissance historical descriptions?
  What is the difference? (177)
• The conceptual (vs impressionistic)realism of
  Guicciardini and Machiavelli

13

• The realistic description of physical traits is
  undertaken only if it serves to complete the
  moral description (178)
• Renaissance Realism
• Villanis (medieval chronicler) Historiae
  Fiorentine
• a) passionate moral appeals (God, devil
  etc.).
• b) no interpretation, no sense of human
  individuality
• Machiavellis Historiae Fiorentine
  a) no supernatural presence
  b) man is the
  primary agent of history c)
  the supernatural as fatality, casualty
  d) natural deterministic realism
  (sins are political not moral)

14

• Machiavellis political realism is not concerned
  with right and wrong, good and evil
• But since it is my purpose to write what
  may be useful to those who need it, I have
  thought it more fitting to concern myself with
  the effective reality of things than with
  speculation. For many have imagined republics
  (Plato) and principates which have never been
  seen or known to exist in reality.
• 
  Machiavelli Il principe
• Political realism How things are, not how things
  should be
• No supernatural Will to explain the immediate
  causes of events

15
Art in the Renaissance

• Aim of the medieval artist is the glorification
  of the Creator (Theophilus, Schedula diversarum
  artium)
• Renaissance artist (L. B. Alberti, Della pittura)
  
  a) is conscious of the intrinsic merit of an
  artwork b) aims at creating the beautiful
  and immortal c) glorification of humanity
  and its achievements d) Nature is imitated
  (scientifically) per se, not as a mirror of Gods
  power
• Liberation of the artist from every restriction
  that is not dictated by artistic reason
• The world becomes a synthesis of lines, volumes
  and colors

16
Novelty of the Renaissance

• Realism and individualism (from Alberti to
  Machiavelli, Ariosto and Galileo) lead to the
  affirmation of the complete autonomy of art,
  politics, science and history
• Ars gratia artis
• The typically medieval conception of the world in
  which no branch of human activity could be
  considered independent from life as a whole is
  abandoned

17
Man and God

• Main issues raised by the new system
  a) how can Nature be
  reconciled with the excellence of man
  
  b) how to reconcile man and Nature with
  God
• Art and politics are no longer serving a
  supernatural purpose but ethics still is!
• The idea of a purely rational ethic, independent
  from religion, is unthinkable
• Ethics concern itself with the question how
  things ought to be (vs. how things are)
• The need to justify the world and existence,
  nature and creature, will and fortune, brings man
  back to the idea of a transcendent God of humanity

18
The Treatise as Genre

• A treatise is a prose work that analyzes a
  problem in all its aspects. It is the
  demonstration of a thesis whose validity results
  from the confutation of all other antitheses
• The themes can range from politics, to
  aesthetics, to science
• It derives directly from the Greek and Roman
  tradition, from Platos Dialogues, where a group
  of thinkers that debate their individual
  philosophical positions
• The treatise can have a dialogical form, that
  becomes a lively debate, or can be discursive,
  presenting different arguments and contrasting
  perspectives
• Popularity of the treatise a) the rediscovery of
  the classics b) exemplary
  form of discussion and expression of ideas
  c) the necessity to theorize and form a new model
  of man d) the projection on the page of a
  human res publica whose aim is the education of
  free thinking human beings

19
Niccolò Machiavelli

• 1469 Born in Florence
• 1498 Is elected secretary of the Florentine
  Republic
• 1500 Is sent as envoy to the King of France,
  Louis XII
• 1501 Marries Marietta Corsini will have six
  children
• 1502 Envoy to Cesare Borgia, at Urbino and Imola
• 1503 Is sent to Rome for the Conclave (Pious III)
• 1506 Works for the republic and organizes its
  army
• 1507-11 Travels to Tyrol (Maximilian), then to
  Blois, to meet Louis XII. Later he travels to
  Munich and France
• 1512 The Holy League of Modena decides the return
  of the Medici to Florence. He is banned from the
  city for a year
• 1513 Imprisoned and tortured. Begins to write The
  Prince
• 1515-16 Offers The Prince to Lorenzo de Medici
• 1519 Composes The Art of War
• 1525 Completes the eight volumes of the
  Florentine Chronicles
• 1527 After the sack of Rome, Florence returns to
  the Republic. He dies on June 21

20
The Prince and Its Ideology

• A negative evaluation of human nature
• The conviction of human natures immutability
• The necessity to keep these data in mind if one
  wants to enter a political career (Realpolitik)
• The usefulness of examples taken from the past
• At the light of his lucid realism, politica
  activity becomes a science whose core is the
  foundation and maintenance of the state
• Political actions shall not be evaluated on the
  basis of a moral code but keeping in mind the
  principle of utility and congruence with that
  given objective (previous point)
• Virtues are therefore cruelty, dissimulation,
  murder etc.
• Net separation between moral and political
  judgement differentiates The Prince from previous
  treatises (mirror of prince) popular during the
  Middle Ages (catalogues of moral virtues)
• Contrasting aspects of Machiavellis thought
  a) the
  theorization of an absolute power (The prince)
  b) his sympathy for
  the democratic government (The Discourses)

21
The Structure of The Prince
22

• XI Ecclesiastical Principalities
  
  a) Reasons why
  Ecclesiastical Principalities are secure and
  happy
  b) Why
  are E.P. so powerful now when they once were not
  c) Present history Alexander VI - Julius II -
  Leo X
• XII Militia and Mercenary Soldiers
  a) Chief foundations of a
  state
  b) Different kinds of arms
  c) Mercenaries
  (proof of reality)
  d) What
  kind of sins have the Italian princes committed
  e) Overview of the Quattrocento (church and
  princes)
• XIII Auxiliary and Native Troops
  a) Definition
  
  b) Why are they worse than mercenaries
  c) The symbolic meaning
  of Davids biblical story d) But men
  with their lack of prudence initiate novelties
  and, finding the first taste good, do not notice
  the poison within.

23

• XIV The Duties of a Prince in Regard to the
  Militia a) Main objective of a Prince
  b)
  Armed vs unarmed
  c) The art of war in
  peace time
  d) Knowledge of hardship and territory
  e) Imitation and study
• XV Of the Things for which Men, especially
  Princes, are Praised or Blamed
  a)
  Concept of reality
  b) What ought to be
  done (consequences) c)
  Know hows for a Prince
  d) Good and bad virtues
  (reversed value)
• XVI Of Liberality and Niggardliness
  a) Praise of the miserly
  Prince (good vice)
• XVII Of Cruelty and Clemency
  a) Reasons for being cruel
  (consequences of leniency) b) To be feared
  or loved

24

• c) Description of humanity
  d) Hannibals example
  and the historians e)
  Men love of their own free will but fear at the
  will of the prince.
• XVIII In What Way Must Princes Keep Faith
  a) Experience contradicts good
  intentions b) The
  beast and the man
  c) Broken promises
  
  d) Deceivers and deceived
  e) Alexander VIs
  example
  f) It is not, therefore, necessary for
  a prince to have all the above-named qualities,
  but it is necessary to seem to have them.
  g) To be or to appear to be
  h)
  Mercy, faith, integrity, humanity, religion

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Machiavelli and Fortuna

• Fortuna as ambiguous concept in M.?
• Characteristics of Fortuna (images used)
• What is the role of religion in a state (religio
  instrumentum regni)
• What is virtue for Machiavelli?
• Are mans virtue, intelligence, energy enough to
  create and shape history?
• Can man achieve anything by himself?
• Where is God in his philosophy of man