The Renaissance

History 103Lisa M. Lane

Veronica Francocourtesan extraordinarie, Venice

painting by Tintoretto

The invention of the Renaissance

In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness--that which was turned within as that which was turned without-- lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession, through which the world and history were seen clad in strange hues. Man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation--only through some general category. In Italy this veil first melted into air; an objective treatment and consideration of the State and of all the things of this world became possible.

-- Jacob Burckhardt, "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy" (1860)

The symbolic beginning: classicismFrom To Cicero, by Petrarch

The shame of failing to cultivate our own talents, thereby depriving the future of the fruits that they might have yielded, is not enough for us; we must waste and spoil, through our cruel and insufferable neglect, the fruits of your labours too, and of those of your fellows as well, for the fate that I lament in the case of your own books has befallen the works of many another illustrious man.

Humanismdefinition

civic humanism

individualism

Renaissance culturerealpolitik: Machiavelli

If Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus had been unarmed they could not have enforced their constitutions for long--as happened in our time to Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who was ruined with his new order of things immediately the multitude believed in him no longer, and he had no means of keeping steadfast those who believed or of making the unbelievers to believe. Therefore such as these have great difficulties in consummating their enterprise, for all their dangers are in the ascent, yet with ability they will overcome them; but when these are overcome, and those who envied them their success are exterminated, they will begin to be respected, and they will continue afterwards powerful, secure, honoured, and happy.

Savonarola

Renaissance man PhilosophyPico della Mirandola

The courtier must be:noble, skilled at war, a good dancer, an excellent conversationalist, moderate at all times, graceful, elegant, good with his hands, artistic

... the Great Artisan mandated that...[a]ll All other things have a limited and fixed nature prescribed and bounded by Our laws. You, with no limit or no bound, may choose for yourself the limits and bounds of your nature. We have placed you at the world's center so that you may survey everything else in the world. We have made you neither of heavenly nor of earthly stuff, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with free choice and dignity, you may fashion yourself into whatever form you choose.

-- Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486)

Architecture: Brunelleschi

Church of San Spirito

Church of San LorenzoDuomo, Florence

Optics and Art

perspective andvanishing points

The eye according to Ibn al-Haitham (Alhazen, c. 965–1038)

Massaccio

The Trinity(1427-28)

The David

Donatello

Michaelangelo

The Northern (Christian) Renaissance

Dürer’s Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1498)(conquest, war, famine, death)

And for popes, that supply the place of Christ, if they should endeavor to imitate His life, to wit His poverty, labor, doctrine, cross, and contempt of life, or should they consider what the name pope, that is father, or holiness, imports, who would live more disconsolate than themselves? or who would purchase that chair with all his substance? or defend it, so purchased, with swords, poisons, and all force imaginable?-- Erasmus, In Praise of Folly (1509)

Saint Thomas MoreUtopia (1516)

Sources:

Petrarch image: https://language.uoregon.edu/petrarch/Italy map: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/REN/RENITCIT.HTMDa Vinci man: http://www.centreofcultures.org.uk/attitude.htmCastiglione: http://www.abcgallery.com/R/raphael/raphael54.htmlChurch of San Spirito: http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/graphics/brunelleschione.jpgBrunelleschi: http://www.greatitalians.com/Images/Brunelleschi.jpgPerspective: http://www.webexhibits.org/sciartperspective/raphaelperspective1.htmlEye (Alhazen): http://www.nature.com/eye/journal/v18/n11/fig_tab/6701578f4.htmlThomas More: http://www.thomasmore.org/qry/page.taf?id=53