CIV 101-02November 9, 2015

Class 32

The Early Renaissance: Return to Classical Roots, 1400–1494

Starts in Italy, then spreads:[circa--VERY ROUGH DATES]Germany: 1430-1580 English: 1485-1685Spain: 1492-1580French: 1494-1559Northern Renaissance: 1497-1580

• Urbanization. (We discussed this last time)• Italian City-States and social organization–Esp. the rise of the signori, the patron•Note how similar this is to the rise of

Democracy and rhetoric (to educate the young to keep power) in ancient Greece.

The Spirit and Style of the Early Renaissance

– Resurgence (short lived, but important) of the Papacy CENTERED IN ROME• This concentrates the power and money–Leads to more artistic patronage–The papacy seeks to elevate the core

spirit of the Church; uses ART to help.–Eventually, a centralized Roman Catholic

hierarchy makes breaking away from the Church easier . . . Rome is a target again.

The Spirit and Style of the Early Renaissance

The Spirit and Style of the Early Renaissance

• What changes?– Humanism, Thought, Philosophy– Scholasticism came to it’s logical end a LONG time

earlier• Concept of individual worth–Both of people/person AND of their works

• Developing ways to “finesse” adherence to and loosening of, bonds with the Catholic Church–Notice how humanism does this . . . “well, God

made us so we’re good . . . And we do X, Y, Z in the service of God/the Church so human works are ok too”

The Spirit and Style of the Early Renaissance

• What changes?– Schooling and Scholarship• Exercising the body and mind–Recalls educational techniques of the ancient Greeks

– Classicism: Rediscovery and spread of ancient literature• Neoplatonism• Ciceronianism• Aristotle and logic and rhetoric• Latin, then Greek, then the Vernaculars• Full expression and development of the seven liberal

arts• Continued development of the University

• Recovery of ancient texts– Aristotle

• 12th to 13th c., went from 2 to 42 extant texts.• Often opposed by the Church

– Petrarch, Coluccio Salutati Niccolò de' Niccoli and Poggio Bracciolini scoured the libraries of Europe in search of works by such Latin authors as Cicero, Lucretius, Livy and Seneca.

– the Fall of Constantinople (1453) generated a wave of émigré Greek scholars bringing precious manuscripts in ancient Greek

– Coluccio Salutati's invitation to the Byzantine diplomat and scholar Manuel Chrysoloras (c.1355–1415) to Florence to teach Greek. This legacy was continued by a number of expatriate Greek scholars, from Basilios Bessarion to Leo Allatius.• Much of this work involved re-translating works preserved by the

Arabs/Muslims

The Spirit and Style of the Early Renaissance

• The printing press (we discussed this last time)

The Spirit and Style of the Early Renaissance

• Petrarch– Begins Italian poetic humanism. Extends and

develops classical literature• The Northern Renaissance: Humanism via

Erasmus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yLerAsDNs4– Critiques the corruptions in the Church, without

proposing a break up– Extolls the virtues of moderate human works

The Spirit and Style of the Early Renaissance

The Spirit and Style of the Early Renaissance

• What changes? ALL of the arts – as well as the rest of the needed preparations for the

sciences (toward the scientific revolution). Esp:– Linear and atmospheric perspective• Brunelleschi

– Chiaroscuro (light and shade) • Masaccio

– Perspectivism combined with humanistic and rhetorical thought• Alberti

– The importance of point of view and return to classical balance and elegance and nobility