WHAT WAS “REBORN” IN THE RENAISSANCE?

A cultural movement arose in northern Italy in the late 14th century to challenge the central doctrines of medieval “scholasticism” and the conventions of medieval art.

1.Scholars began to study ancient Greek and Hebrew as well as Latin, and to emphasize the importance of “the humanities.”

2.The scholastics used Aristotle to define the one “correct” answer to every question, but Renaissance “humanists” understood that ancient authorities often quarreled with each other.

3.Artists rediscovered the ancient love of the beauty of nature and powerful techniques to depict them.

Dominant powers

in Italy in 1494:

Republic of Venice

Republic of Genoa

Republic of Florence

Duchy of MilanPapal States

Naples & Sicily

“Charlemagne Window,” Chartres Cathedral, c. 1225:

Emperor Constantine greets Charlemagne (medieval Europeans lacked a sense of history)

Dante (1265-1321) and his “Inferno”

(following the teaching of “scholasticism”)

Petrarch (1304-1374), “father of humanism,”

and his MS. of the poetry of Virgil

Petrarch, “On His Own Ignorance andThat of Many Others” (1368)

[Petrarch replies to his critics, who argue for the superiority of the study of “philosophy”:]

“I have read all of Aristotle’s moral books…. Sometimes I have become more learned through them, but not better, not so good as I ought to be…. I see virtue, and all that is peculiar to vice as well, very well defined and distinguished by him and treated with penetrating insight. When I learn all this, I know a little bit more than I knew before, but mind and will remain the same as they were, and I myself remain the same…. What is the use of knowing what virtue is if it is not loved when known? What is the use of knowing sin if it is not abhorred?”Petrarch argued for study of the HUMANITIES, i.e., languages, rhetoric, literature, and history. His favorite author was the great orator and statesman, Cicero.

Pico della Mirandola(1463-1494),

fluent in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic,star of the Platonic

Academy of Florence (founded by Lorenzo de Medici in 1464,

led by Marsilio Ficino).

Pico published his “Oration on the Dignity of Man”

in 1486

Raphael, The School of Athens (Vatican, 1509)

Plato & Aristotle

THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Pioneering artists of Florence:• Giotto: 1266?--1337• Masaccio: 1401--1428• Leonardo da Vinci: 1452--1519• Michelangelo Buonarotti: 1475--1564• Raphael Sanzio: 1483--1520

Renaissance Popes:• Alexander VI (Borgia): 1492-1503• Julius II (the warrior pope): 1503-1513• Leo X (Medici): 1513-1521

A medieval Madonna and

Child (by Duccio, late 13th century),

painted against the gold

background of heaven, situated

in eternity

Medieval art often sought to

tell stories:Simone Martini, Blessed Agostino Novello

Altarpiece, Siena, 1324

Florence: The Palazzo Vecchio and Duomo

The Pantheon in Rome, built 118-128 A.D.Since then nobody had built a dome in Europe.

Interior of the Pantheon

The Dome of the

Cathedral of Florence (1420-36),

designed by Filippo

Brunelleschi

Giotto, “The Kiss of Judas” (1305)

Masaccio,The Trinity(1425-28):

Fresco in Santa Maria Novella,

Florence

The “vanishing point:”

Masaccio’s scheme of

perspective for “The Trinity”

Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin of the Rocks

(ca. 1485)

Map of Tuscany, drawn for Cesare Borgia by Leonardo in 1502

Raphael(1484-1520),The Canigiani

Madonna (1507)

Venus de Milo (Greek marble

statue of Aphrodite,

ca. 100 B.C.)

Michelangelo, David (1504):

Mascot of theRepublic of Florence

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FLORENCE

13th century: pro-papal Guelphs vs. pro-German Ghibellines (exile of Dante)

1378: Revolt by the proletarian wool-combers to demand inclusion in the guild system.

1462-92: Effective rule by the “first citizen,” Lorenzo de Medici, Lorenzo “the Magnificent”

1494: Exile of Piero de Medici and restoration of the Republic

1502-09: Height of Machiavelli’s influence (embassy to Cesare Borgia; conquest of Pisa)

1511/12: Triumphant return of the Medici & exile for Machiavelli (who then wrote The Prince)

1527: Medici banished again; Republic revived1537: Medici return; Florence becomes a hereditary

duchy

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527):

Appointed secretary to

the Florentine Chancery,

1498; banished by the Medici in

1512

The execution of Savonarola in 1498

Pope Alexander VI

(Borgia), reigned

1492-1503

Cesare Borgia (1475-1507)

“Portrait of a Woman” (Lucrezia Borgia? 1480-

1519)

Raphael, Portrait of Pope

Julius II (1511/12):The warrior

pope, nearing death

Medal of Pope Julius II (1506), with plan for a newSt. Peter’s Cathedral