Early%20Renaissance

1
Early Renaissance

• Literally, re-birth
• 1400-1494
• Renaissance values emerge in different places at
  different times.

2
Renaissance Culture

• Rebirth Implies some dead cultural element
  is reborn
• Classical learning
• Humanism and humanistic values
• Scientific method
• Classical forms of literature (epic poetry)
• Public theatre (secular comedy and tragedy)
• Classical forms of sculpture
• Classical orders of architecture

3
Renaissance Culture

• But if some Classical elements were reborn,
  other aspects of medieval culture doubtless
  continued into the Renaissance
• Christianity
• Social class hierarchy
• Patriarchal values

4
Renaissance or Early Modern?

• Scholarly debate over whether the period is
  characterized by a re-birth of ancient values, or
  by the appearance of modern values.
• Rise of the nation-state
• Rise of early capitalism
• Rise of the rule of law
• Rise of a paid military
• Rise of secularism

5
Renaissance Literature

• Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529)
• The Courtier (1528)
• Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
• The Prince (1513)

6
Castiglione, The Courtier

• a guide to courteous behavior or conduct book
  for the upper classes
• composed as a set of after-dinner conversations
  between ladies and gentleman
• a continuing debate over the traits that define
  the ideal courtier and lady

7
Castiglione, The Courtier

• The gentleman
• education in the arts and humanities
• skill in horsemanship and swordplay.
• a man of letters
• proficient in music, drawing and dance.
• ready for war / athletics

8
Castiglione, The Courtier

• The Lady
• a civilizing influence
• consummate hostess
• charming, witty, graceful
• physically attractive, utterly feminine
• well versed in the same areas as men, except for
  athletics and arms
• --p. 323

9
Castiglione, The Courtier

• Question Whats missing from these lists of
  attributes of the ideal gentleman and lady?
• status as faithful Christians
• Is Christianity assumed? Yes, somewhat but no
  longer a central item of emphasis.

10
Castiglione, The Courtier

• Question Who is the audience for this text?
  That is, who needs a guide to the characteristics
  and appropriate behaviors of the aristocracy?
• The upwardly mobile mercantile class.

11
Machiavelli, The Prince (1513)

• the first modern text of statecraft and
  political science
• a kind of guidebook for princes, or anyone
  leading a state
• primarily concerned with pragmatic leadership,
  not with ideals
• See Readings, pp. 17-20.
• See p. 323-324 in text.

12
Machiavelli, The Prince

• Famous (or infamous) advice
• It is better to be feared than loved.
• Rulers should cultivate a public image and
  reputation suggesting their virtue, but should be
  prepared to act otherwise when necessary.
• If it were possible to change ones character to
  suit the times and circumstances, one would
  always be successful.

13
Machiavelli, The Prince

• Real truth, rather than imagination
• gulf between how one should live, and how one
  does live.
• A man who wants to act virtuously in every way
  necessarily comes to grief among so many who are
  not virtuous.

14
Machiavelli, The Prince

• Since ecclesiastical principalities are
  controlled by a higher power, which the human
  mind cannot comprehend, I shall refrain from
  discussing them. Since they are raised up and
  maintained by God, only a presumptuous and rash
  man would examine them. Nevertheless, one might
  ask how it has happened that the temporal power
  of the Church has become so great.

15
Machiavelli, The Prince

• As a work of history, the emphasis is on
  causation, and it does not look to the workings
  of Providence.
• As a work of philosophy, it assumes that mankind
  cannot live up to the stated ideals of virtue and
  right behavior.
• Anticipates late-Renaissance Skepticism
  (Montaigne, Shakespeare)

16
Secularism in Renaissance lit.

• Castiglione
• Concerned with ideals of courtly behavior
• Concerned less with religion than with social
  class and accomplishments.

• Machiavelli
• Concerned with pragmatic rules of governing
• Little concerned with religion, except to dismiss
  it.

17
Origins of the Renaissance

• Medieval crusades had been launched from Venice
• development of Venetian naval power, shipping
  routes (and wealth!)
• Finance for the crusades was done in Florence
• development of banking (and wealth!)

18
Origins of the Renaissance

• Rome, Florence, Venice (to a lesser extent other
  Italian cities)
• Engaged in a rivalry for prestige.
• Each wants to be known as a city of art, culture,
  and learning.
• Each governed by non-feudal oligarchy or
  autocracy
• Lots of patronage for artists, scholars,
  composers, etc.

19
Renaissance Humanism

• Humanism the revived Classical notion of the
  value and dignity of mankind chief
  characteristic of the Renaissance
• Reflected in the studia humanitatis
• A response to the growing interest in and
  availability of Classical texts.
• Revived interest in Greek, as well as Latin.
• Educational curriculum grew beyond the medieval
  liberal arts to include such fields as history
  and poetry.

20
Renaissance Humanism

• One of the chief philosophical pursuits of
  Renaissance humanism was Neo-Platonism (Ficino,
  the leading voice of Florentine Neo-Platonism
  his student Pico della Mirandola)
• Brings Plato in line with Christianity, including
  Platos idea of the immortality of the soul
• The importance of mankinds free will (dignity)
• The notion of Platonic love All love on earth
  is an echo of the divine idea of love. Images of
  beauty (visual, musical, poetic) are pleasing to
  the senses. But the soul also associates those
  images with a higher level, with the beauty of
  divine love. So all beauty, all love, becomes a
  metaphor for divine love.

21
Renaissance Humanism

• Great Chain of Being
• A means of understanding how humanity fits into
  the plan of Gods creation.

22
Aesthetic Principles

• A return to Classical principles balance,
  symmetry, control, thought, simplicity
• In architecture
• Revival of the Greek architectural orders
• Use of mathematics to determine harmony and
  proportion

23
Aesthetic Principles

• In sculpture
• revival of free-standing figures
• revival of the contrapposto stance,
• nudes
• equestrian statues

24
Aesthetic Principles

• In painting
• invention of perspective the illusion of
  creating a three-dimensional space in a
  two-dimensional artwork. Giving depth to a
  two-dimensional work.
• Linear perspective as objects move away (toward
  the horizon) size gets smaller objects tend to
  converge at a vanishing point.
• Atmospheric perspective as distance increases,
  clarity and color decreases.

25
Renaissance Architecture

• Architecture Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446),
  representing the Early Renaissance style, wanted
  to make a complete break with the Late Gothic
  style. Leone Batista Alberti was the theoretician
  of the Early Renaissance style who wrote about
  the mathematical aspects of painting.
  Brunelleschi also invented linear perspective
  (achieving the illusion of depth on a two
  dimensional surface, by organizing the picture
  space around a center point, or vanishing point).

26
Renaissance Architecture

• Brunelleschis studies led to the concept of the
  Renaissance space (the notion that a composition
  should be viewed from one single position). After
  four hundred years, the renaissance space as well
  as linear perspective was challenged by Manet in
  the 19th century.

27
Renaissance Painting

• The genius of the revolution in painting in the
  early Florentine school was Masaccio (1401-1428).
  In the history of Western painting, Masaccios
  Holy Trinity fresco is the first example of the
  Renaissance space.

28
Renaissance Painting

• Another masterpiece by Masaccio is The Tribute
  Money. In the 1480s, Florentine school was moving
  toward its culmination in the early works of
  Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
• It is with Giovanni Bellini that Venice becomes
  another center of Renaissance art comparable to
  Florence