Renaissance Italy THE EXAM SECTION A

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Renaissance Italy THE EXAMSECTION A B
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THE EXAM

• The exam has 4 sections
• 30 minutes for each section

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Unit 3 Outcome 1.Study Design

• This Outcome focuses on the different types of
  city-states that existed on the Italian
  peninsula, their diverse physical, political and
  economic structures and the different ways in
  which city-states interacted.
• The nature of the artistic and intellectual
  changes of this period

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Preparation for this sectionLook at the
Assessment Criteria

• You need to be able to write about the structure
  of a diverse number of city states
• Republics, despotisms, principalities, duchies
  and the Papal States
• The range of trade and industry
• The idea of the Renaissance, the changes in art
  and learning
• Patronage

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• You must
• master the detail, the examples, the dates and
  places concerned with political and economic
  structures
• You need to find the connections between the
  different dot points and master these connections

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Ferrara

• Ferrara was a small independent city state
  (Hole). Growth of the city was entwined with the
  rise of the Este family to hereditary lordship
  over Ferrara (Grendler).
• In 1332 the Este family earned the title of
  Marquis and Burkhardt refers to the Este as
  princes of Ferrara
• Due to its situation in the Po Delta region
  conditions for a successful agricultural economy

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the key ideas of the study design

• Take notice of
• The connection between the economic success, the
  political stability and the development of the
  Renaissance
• The connection between the revival of classical
  ideas and the concept of the Renaissance
• The wide appeal of humanist studies and the
  connection to the ruling elites

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Differences between the city states

• Geography is an important factor
• Venice was located on the swamps and marshes of
  the lagoon
• Florence was inland but on the River Arno
• Naples and Sicily in the South which was far less
  fertile

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Trade

• Venices geography meant the development of a
  Maritime Empire and therefore the development of
  the Republic as an entrepot
• Whereas Florence was on a trade route and the
  river facilitated transport.

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The Geography of a state influenced its economic
and commercial development

• Kingdom of Naples and Sicily
• In contrast to the wealthy northern city states
  the south was less fertile and poor
• Hale argues that Naples was politically,
  culturally and economically backward

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How did the city states on the Peninsula interact?

• Politically
• As the Italian peninsula was made up of a number
  of different states, there were at any one time a
  number of states at war.
• Peace treaties and alliances formed another
  political interaction.
• The painting The Consignment of the Sword by
  Bassano represents one of these political
  interactions

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How did the city states on the Peninsula interact?

• Economically
• There were well established trading relations
  between the different city states on the
  Peninsula.
• eg
• Florence exported wool and silk and the
  Florentine banks had branches in cities like
  Venice, Ferrara and Rome
• Venice was an entrepot so goods came through
  Venice to other states
• Milan traded in weapons and armour

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How did the city states on the Peninsula interact?

• Culturally
• Artists and writers sought wealthy patrons
• Leonardo and Michelangelo worked in Florence,
  Rome and Milan
• Petrarch travelled and worked in Florence and
  Venice as well as throughout Europe

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Cultural Connections

• Connections between the wealth of the Northern
  Italian states and the rise of a new class of
  patron
• The patronage of the wealthy family and
  individual but also of the smaller courts like
  Bologna and Rimini

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Patronage

• Identify who the patrons were.
• The Church
• The State
• Corporations
• Families
• Individuals

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Outcome 1. Study Design

• The political stability and economic success
  achieved by some city-states contributed to the
  emergence of distinct Renaissance styles in art,
  the sharing of and competition for cultural,
  artistic and architectural ideas and the
  patronage of individual artists, architects and
  humanists.

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The idea of the Renaissance

• The term Renaissance was coined by French
  historian Jules Michelet in the eighteenth
  century and the literal translation of rebirth
  related to the reignited interest and rediscovery
  of classical ideas.
• This idea is contested
• Burkhardt saw it as the beginning of the modern
  era

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The Renaissance

• Kristeller argues that the Renaissance was a
  period which understood itself as a rebirth of
  letters and of learning
• Marsilio Ficino, For this century, like a
  golden age, has restored to light the liberal
  arts which were almost extinct.

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The Renaissance

• Others believe that the ideas, innovations and
  cultural developments that characterized this
  period, were actually a development of Medieval
  thought.
• Huzinga argues that classicism did not come as a
  sudden revelation, it grew up among the luxuriant
  vegetation of medieval thought

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Humanism

• You need to be able to write on the growth and
  importance of humanist studies
• Humanism was both a philosophical movement and a
  curriculum

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Stages of Humanism

• Alison Brown says Petrarch acted as the
  movements leader and she says this new movement
  grew out of the wealth of the trade and commerce
  of the city
• Petrarch started the cult of antiquity and
  asked what is history but the study of Rome
• Petrarch collected manuscripts and Coluccio
  Salutati invited the Greek teacher Manuel
  Chrysoloras to teach Greek in Florence

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Stages of Humanism

• Civic Humanism
• Martines says the humanism spoke to and for the
  ruling elites and Baron argues it was Florences
  escape from the threat of imminent invasion in
  1402 that turned the humanists attention to
  civic themes.
• They endorsed the vita activa politica
• Bruni used Aristotles Economics if goods are
  instruments of virtue, great and noble things
  have need of them

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Stages of Humanism

• Neo Platonism
• Petrarch highly regarded the literature of Plato,
  describing him as the prince of philosophy.
• Alison Brown argues that the shift away from
  Aristotelianism towards the Platonic movement was
  the result of the Medicean influence in politics.
  She suggests that the ideas of Plato could be
  used to justify oligarchy in Florence and
  contributed in transforming Cosimos political
  image from republican statesmen to a
  philosopher-ruler.
• Leading Neo platonists were Pico della Mirandola
  and Marsilio Ficino

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Changes in Art

• Two areas of change
• Changes in subject matter
• Man becomes the measure of all things
• A greater naturalism and realism in the depiction
  of the human body
• Classical mythology
• Portraiture

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Changes in Art

• Changes in Techniques
• Rediscovery of perspective
• Use of chiaroscuro
• Casting in bronze
• Growth in the use of oil paints
• You need to be able to cite paintings , sculpture
  and architecture to show these changes in subject
  matter and technique

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Section BThe Florentine Political System

• 1293 -1513
• Political Institutions
• Changes and continuities
• Medicean Florence
• Views of contemporaries and historians

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Significant Dates and Events

• 1293 Ordinances of Justice
• 1342 Walter of Brienne
• 1378 the Ciompi Revolt
• 1433 Exile of Cosimo de Medici
• 1434 Cosimo establishes his regime
• 1464 -1469 Pieros struggle with the Ottimati
• 1478 the Pazzi Conspiracy
• 1492 Lorenzos death and Piero di Lorenzo
• 1494 Piero is exiled and the Savonarolan regime

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Changes in the Organisation and power

• Be clear about the political institutions that
  existed
• Identify the changes to the political system
• Cosimo the Cento
• Lorenzo The Council of the 70, the Eight on War
  and the
• Savonarola the Great Council
• Soderini Gonfalonieri a vita

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Changes in the distribution and use of power

• This section deals with those who took part in
  the political process
• Identify who was eligible
• Identify the changes to the scrutiny lists and
  the use of the accopiatori that the Medici
  madeall three
• Kent argues that a crucial factor in the 1434
  victory of the Medici was due in part to the
  particular nature of their patronage
  network...which was systematically created or
  consolidated ...with the precise purpose of
  increasing their political influence and the
  representation of their supporters in important
  positions.

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• Martines says that in the 15th century there was
  a sharper turn towards oligarchy
• This suggests that the constitutional changes and
  the electoral manipulation of the ruling elite
  and specifically the Medici narrowed the
  participatory base

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• Najemy says that between 1458 -1478 there were
  three major crises which all related to the
  Medici struggles with the Ottimati
• When Cosimo died Parenti said everyone rejoiced
  such is the love and desire for liberty
• Dietsalvi Neroni the citizenry would like a more
  broadly based and freer government

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Savonarola and Soderini

• Pieros expulsion in 1492
• The Cento and the Settanta were abolished and the
  great Council was created
• In the Prologue to the law the Signoria announced
  its intention
• to attend with all its ability and strength to
  the preservation of the liberty that was for so
  long nearly suppressed and has recently been
  recovered

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USE OF SOURCES

• It is very important to try to support your
  writing with a variety of sources.
• Try to provide both written and visual primary
  sources, as well as secondary sources, in support
  of your writing in the last question of Section
  B.
• Use of sources is one of the most important
  discriminators of assessment in this History.