Renaissance

Factors that Contributed to the Beginning of the Renaissance

• Trade and commerce increased• Cities grew larger and wealthier• Newly wealthy merchants and bankers supported the

growth of the arts and learning• The Renaissance was an age of recovery from the disasters

of the 14th century, such as the plague, political instability, and a decline of Church power

• Recovery went hand-in-hand with a rebirth of interest in ancient culture (e.g., ancient Greece and Rome)

• A new view of human beings emerged as people in the Italian Renaissance began to emphasize individual ability

The Renaissance was a cultural movement and a time of renewal

(Europe was recovering from the Dark Ages and the Black Death/Bubonic

Plague)

Renaissance means ““rebirth”rebirth” of classical knowledge and “birth”“birth” of the modern world (new intellectual and artistic ideas that developed

during the Renaissance marked the beginning of the modern world)

What was the Renaissance?

Where did the Renaissance begin?

•Italy

•Italian Cities

•Urban Societies

•Major Trading Centers

•Secular Movement

•People lost their faith in the church and began to put more focus on human beings and material possessions

WhenWhen did the Renaissance Take did the Renaissance Take Place?Place?

Roughly the 14th to the 17th century

How did the Crusades contribute to the Renaissance?

Crusades (1095 – 1291) = Religiously sanctioned military campaigns waged by Roman Catholics against Muslims

who had occupied the near east since the Rashidun Caliphate (founded after

Muhammad’s death in 632, the Rashidun Caliphate was one of the largest empires of the time period)

Increased demand for Middle Eastern products

Stimulated production of goods to trade in Middle Eastern markets

Encouraged the use of credit and banking

The Black Death: Bubonic Plague• 1330s - An outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in China

• Mainly affects rodents, but fleas can transmit the disease to people

• Once people are infected, they infect others very rapidly

• Plague causes fever, painful swelling of the lymph glands, and spots on the skin that are red at first and then turn black = Black Death

• Since China was one of the busiest of the world's trading nations, it was only a matter of time before the outbreak of plague in China spread to western Asia and Europe

• In 1347, Italian merchant ships returned from a trip to the Black Sea, one of the key links in trade with China. When the ships docked in Sicily (Italy), many of those on board were already dying of plague.

• Within days the disease spread to the city and the surrounding countryside

Bubonic Plague Continued

• After five years 25 million people were dead--one-third of Europe's population.

• Even when the worst was over, smaller outbreaks continued, not just for years, but for centuries. The survivors lived in constant fear of the plague's return, and the disease did not disappear until the 1600s.

• The disease took its toll on the church as well. People throughout Christendom had prayed devoutly for deliverance from the plague. Why hadn't those prayers been answered? A new period of political turmoil and philosophical questioning lay ahead.

Political Ideas of the Renaissance

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)

An Italian Philosopher and Writer based in Florence during the Renaissance

The Prince (Published in 1532)

Machiavelli believed:

“One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit”

Machiavelli observed city-state rulers of his day and produced guidelines for how to gain and maintain power.

Absolute Rule

He felt that a ruler should be willing to do anything to maintain control without worrying about conscience.

• Better for a ruler to be feared than to be loved• Ruler should be quick and decisive in decision making

• Ruler keeps power by any means necessary• The end justifies the means

• Be good when possible, and evil when necessary

Today, the term “Machiavellian” refers to the use of deceit in

politics

Major Italian City-States

MilanMilan VeniceVenice

FlorenceFlorence

Milan

One of the richest cities, it controls trade through the Alps.

Venice

Located on the Adriatic Sea, it is a major trade route between

Asia & Europe.

Florence

Controlled by the Medici Family, who became great patrons of the

arts.

Genoa

Genoa

Had Access to Trade Routes

All of these cities:

• Had access to trade routes connecting Europe with Middle

Eastern markets

• Served as trading centers for the distribution of goods to northern

Europe

Rome

Headquarters of the Catholic Church

Rome

Italian City-States

Because Italy failed to become united during the Dark Ages, many independent city-states emerged in Italy.

Each city-state was controlled by a powerful family and dominated by a wealthy merchant class. Their interest in art and emphasis on personal achievement helped to

shape the Italian Renaissance.

Example: The Medici family of Florence ranked among the richest merchants and bankers in Europe; they

ruled Florence for over 70 years.

Centralized Power

One governing authority (ex. U.S. Federal Government; principals) controls power over several smaller entities (ex. State

governments; teachers)

Reminder

Renaissance means “rebirth” of interest in ancient culture (Greece and Rome)

28.4 The Influence of Italian City-States

28.3 The Growth of Trade and Commerce

The Renaissance produced new ideas that were reflected in the arts,

philosophy, and literature.

Patrons, wealthy from newly expanded trade, sponsored works which glorified city-states in northern Italy. Education

became increasingly secular.

Classical art showed the importance of people and leaders, as well as gods and goddesses

Medieval art and literature focused on the Church and salvation

Renaissance art and literature focused on the importance of people and nature, along with

religion

Classical ArtHistory Alive! Pg. 316 ‘Discobolus’

• Figures were lifelike but often idealized (more perfect than in real life)

• Figures were nude or draped in togas (robes)• Bodies looked active, and motion was believable • Faces were calm and without emotion• Scenes showed either heroic figures or real people

doing tasks from daily life

Medieval ArtHistory Alive! Pg. 317 ‘Narthex Tympanum'

• Most art was religious, showing Jesus, saints, people from the Bible, and so on

• Important figures in paintings were shown as larger than others around them

• Figures looked stiff, with little sense of movement• Figures were fully dressed in stiff-looking clothing• Faces were serious and showed little feeling• Paint colors were bright

Renaissance ArtHistory Alive! Pg. 317 ‘The School of Athens’

• Artists showed religious and nonreligious scenes• Art reflected a great interest in nature• Figures were lifelike and three-dimensional, reflecting an

increasing knowledge of anatomy• Bodies looked active and were shown moving• Figures were either nude or clothed• Scenes showed real people doing everyday tasks• Faces expressed what people were thinking• Paintings were often symmetrical (balanced, with the right

and left sides having similar or identical elements)

Renaissance artists embraced some of the ideals of ancient Greece and Rome in their art.

The purpose of art would no longer be to glorify God, as it had been in Medieval Europe.

Artists wanted their subjects to be realistic and focused on humanity and emotion.

New Techniques also emerged.

Art and Patronage

Italians patrons (financial supporters) were willing to spend a lot of money on art

– Art communicated social, political, and spiritual values and therefore, the consumption of art was used as a form of competition for social & political status.

What was different in the Renaissance?

Realism

Perspective

Emphasis on individualism

Geometrical arrangement of figures

Light and shadowing

Softening of edges

Artist able to live from commissions

Characteristics of Renaissance Art

1. Realism & 1. Realism & ExpressionExpression

Expulsion from the Garden

Masaccio

1427

First nudes since classical times.

2. Perspective

Perspective!Perspective!PerspectivePerspective!!Perspective!Perspective!

PerspectivePerspective!!PerspectivePerspective!!

First use First use of linear of linear

perspective!perspective!

PerspectivePerspective!!PerspectivePerspective!!

The Trinity

Masaccio

1427

What you are, I once was; what I

am, you will become.

4. Emphasis on Individualism

Batista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre: The Duke & Dutchess of Urbino

Piero della Francesca, 1465-1466.

5. Geometrical Arrangement of Figures

Leonardo da Vinci

1469

The figure as architecture!

The Dreyfus Madonna with the Pomegranate

6. Light & Shadowing/Softening Edges6. Light & Shadowing/Softening Edges

Chiaroscuro:use of light and shade

Sfumato:gradual blending of one area of color into another without a sharp outline

Ginevra de' Benci, a young Florentine noblewoman who, at the age of sixteen, married Luigi Niccolini in 1474.

Born in 1475 in a small town near Florence, is considered to be one of the

most inspired men who ever lived; he was a sculptor, painter, engineer, architect,

and poet.

David

Michelangelo created

his masterpiece David in

1504.

The Biblical shepherd, David (who killed Goliath) recalls the harmony and grace of ancient Greek tradition

15c15c

16c 16c

WhatWhat

aa

differencedifference

aa

centurycentury

makes!makes!

Sistine ChapelAbout a year after

creating David, Pope Julius II summoned

Michelangelo to Rome to work on his most famous project, the ceiling of the Sistine

Chapel.

Depicts the biblical history of the world from the Creation to the Flood

Creation of Eve Creation of Adam

Separation of Light and Darkness

The Last Judgment

Pieta 1499Marble Sculpture

Captures the sorrow of the Virgin Mary as she cradles her dead son, Jesus on her knees

Moses

1452-1519

Painter, Sculptor, Architect,

Mathematician, Engineer

Mona Lisa(1503-1506)

The Last Supper(1495-1498)

Jesus and his apostles on the night before the crucifixion

Notebooks

Leonardo da Vinci dissected corpses to learn how bones and muscles work

RaphaelPainter

1483-1520

The School of Athens

1510 FrescoVatican City

An imaginary gathering of great thinkers and scientists

Perspective

Subjects are mainly secular, but can be religious

Figures look idealized, but can also look like everyday ordinary people

Bodies are active

Clothed or unclothed

Faces are expressive

Detail

Pythagoras

Socrates

Plato and Aristotle

Euclid

Zoroaster & Ptolemy

Raphael (back)

Northern RenaissanceNorthern RenaissanceThe Renaissance in northern Europe (outside Italy)

• There was increased cultural exchange between European countries

• Printed materials helped to spread ideas

• Centralization of political power made the northern Renaissance distinct from the Italian Renaissance (e.g., nation-states instead of Italian city-states)

• Growing wealth in Northern Europe supported Renaissance ideas.

• Northern Renaissance thinkers merged humanist ideas with Christianity.

• The movable type printing press and the production and sale of books (Gutenberg Bible) helped disseminate ideas and allowed more people to become educated.

•Cultural and educational reform

•The study of classical culture (ancient Greece and Rome), in contrast with the study of things related to

the church and religion

• Celebrated the individual

•Was supported by wealthy patrons (financial supporters)

Literature flourished during the Renaissance and spread Renaissance ideas, which can be greatly attributed to Johannes Gutenberg.

In 1455 Gutenberg printed the first book produced by using moveable type, The

Bible, and started a printing revolution that would transform Europe.

Literacy rates increased

PetrarchPoet, Humanist

scholar

Francesco Petrarch 1304-1374

Assembled Greek and Roman writings

Wrote:

Sonnets to Laura

(Love poems in the Vernacular)

Influenced William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare1564-1616

• English poet and playwright

• Well-known plays include: Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet

• Influence and Impact on the Renaissance: He expanded the dramatic potential of characterization (his

characters were very complex), plot, language (creative), and genre

Erasmus(1466-1536)

Dutch humanist

Pushed for a Vernacular form of the Bible

“I disagree very much with those who are unwilling that Holy Scripture, translated into the vernacular, be read by the uneducated . . . As if the strength of the Christian religion consisted in the ignorance of it”

Wanted to reform the Catholic Church

Wrote: The Praise of Folly

Used humor to show the immoral and ignorant behavior of people, including the clergy. He felt people would be open minded and be kind to others.

Sir Thomas More(1478-1535)

English Humanist

Wrote: Utopia

A book about a perfect society in which men and women live in harmony, there is no private property, no one is lazy, all

people are educated and the justice system is used to end crime instead of executing

criminals

Important to Remember

• Accomplishments in the visual arts – Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael

• Accomplishments in literature (sonnets, plays, essays) – Petrarch, Shakespeare

• Accomplishments in intellectual ideas (humanism) – Erasmus

The Protestant Reformation (1450-1565)

Key Concepts

• End of Religious Unity and Universality in the West

• Attack on the medieval church—its institutions, doctrine, practices and personnel

• Not the first attempt at reform, but very unique• Word “Protestant” is first used for dissenting

German princes who met at the Diet of Speyer in 1529

• A convergence of unique circumstances

I. The Church’s Problems• Charges of greed• Worldly political power

challenged• Weariness of dependence

on the Church and the constraints it enforced

• Growing human confidence vs. “original sin”

• Catholic church becomes defensive in the face of criticism

• The confusing nature of scholasticism

I. The Church’s Problems (cont)• The corruption of the

Renaissance Papacy

--Rodrigo Borgia• European population

was increasingly anti-clerical

• Absenteeism of church leaders

--Antoine de Prat• The controversy over

the sale of indulgences

II. Convergence of Unique Circumstances

A. Cultural• Better educated, urban

populace was more critical of the Church than rural peasantry

• Renaissance monarchs were growing impatient with the power of the Church

• Society was more humanistic and secular

• Growing individualism

--John Wyclif

B. Technological: Printing Press• Invention of movable

type was invented in 1450 by Johann Gutenberg

• Manufacture of paper becomes easier and cheaper

• Helped spread ideas before Catholics could squash them

• Intensified intellectual criticism of the Church

• Protestant ideals appealed to the urban and the literate

C. Political

(1) England• Notion of the

Renaissance Prince• Recent War of the

Roses created a sense of political instability for the Tudor dynasty

--Henry VIII• The significance of a

male heir to the Tudors

(2) The Holy Roman Empire• Decentralized politics• Pope successfully

challenged the monarch here

• New HRE, Charles V, is young, politically insecure and attempting to govern a huge realm during the critical years of Luther’s protest

• Charles V faced outside attacks from France and the Turks

• Circumstances favor Luther

D. Spiritual• Growing piety, mysticism

and religious zeal among European masses

• Dutch Christian humanist Erasmus inadvertently undermines the Church from within--In Praise of Folly (1510)

• Call for a translation of the New Testament into Greek

• Call for a return to the simplicity of the early Church

• Millenarian “fever”

III. The Emergence of Protestantism in Europe

A. Germany (Northern)• Luther troubled by the

sale of indulgences• Dominican friar Tetzel

was selling indulgences in Wittenberg in 1517

• Luther posts his 95 theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517

• Some of Luther’s complaints

• Luther slowly but surely is drawn into a heated debate

A. Germany (Northern)• Pope pays little attention

to the Luther at first• Luther attacks the Pope

and his bull of excommunication

• Luther goes into hiding in 1521-- “A Mighty Fortress is our God”

• Constraints against the spread of Luther’s ideas

• The Peace of Augsburg• The Protestant

Reformation further divided Germany

B. England• Henry VIII’s marriage to

Catherine of Aragon• Henry seeks an annulment• Henry creates the Church

of England and establishes his own supremacy over it

• A “political reformation” only at first

• The six wives of Henry VIII

--Anne Boleyn

--Jane Seymour

B. England (cont)• The brief reign of

Edward VI• The rule of “Bloody”

Mary• Return of the Marian

exiles to England from Geneva-- “Puritans”

• Queen Elizabeth I and the “Via Media”

• The attack of the Spanish Armada in 1588-- “The Protestant Wind”-- Guy Fawkes

C. Switzerland

(1) Zurich• Very urban,

cosmopolitan setting• Reformer Ulrich

Zwingli and his Old Testament persona

• “Memorialist” view of the Mass

• Zwingli also opposed purgatory, clerical celibacy, intercession of the saints, and salvation by works

• The death of Zwingli

(2) Geneva (French-speaking)• John Calvin’s leadership

in Geneva from 1541-1564

• Geneva became the model Protestant training center

• Stress on order and rigorous adherence to God’s law

• A “Quasi-theocracy”• Very austere religion

practiced in Geneva• Self-discipline and the

“Protestant Work Ethic”

D. France• King Francis I was

initially sympathetic to Luther as long as his ideas stayed in Germany

• Protestantism made illegal in France in 1534

• Persecution of the Huguenots

• St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

• King Henry and the Edict of Nantes (1598)

E. Other Parts of Western Europe• No Protestant inroads into

Spain or Italy• Protestantism succeeded

only where it was urban and supported initially by the nobility

• After 1540, no new Protestant territories outside of the Netherlands

• Most powerful European nations were Catholic

• Protestants were feuding with each other

IV. Reformation Ideas

A. Martin Luther (1483-1546)

(1) Background• Luther’s early life• Luther’s sense of

unworthiness and his fear of God

• Luther’s understanding of “passive righteousness”

• Luther’s confrontation with the Church

• Luther’s marriage to Katherine von Bora

(2) Luther’s Teachings• “Sola Fidei” (Salvation

by Faith Alone)• “Sola Scriptura”

(Authority of the Scriptures Alone)--Luther’s German Translation of the New Testament

• The Priesthood of All Believers--Peasant Revolt of 1525

• All Vocations are pleasing to God

• Predestination• Some latent Catholicism

B. John Calvin (1509-1564)

(1) Background• More of a scholar than

Luther• More of a systematic

thinker than Luther• Calvin’s Institutes

(1536)• Early legal training• Clear-cut moral

directives for living• Relied on Scripture

and Augustine primarily for his ideas

(2) Teaching• Predestination• The right of rebellion

--English Civil War• More of a stress on

works than Luther• Divine calling to all

sorts of vocations• The “invisibility” of the

True Church• Government serves the

Church--Michael Servetus

• Just war position• Calvin’s positions on

communion and baptism

C. Radical Reformers

(1) Background• Desire to return to the

primitive, first-century Church

• High standard of morality valued and pursued

• Bitterly persecuted by both Catholics and other Protestants

• The descendants of the “Anabaptists”

• Ardent missionaries who were harassed for their zeal

(2) Teaching• Free will—all can be

saved• Adult, “believer” baptism• Social and economic

equality• Pacifism• Separation of Church and

State• Unity of the “visible” and

“invisible” Church• Stressed role of the Holy

Spirit in the life of the believer— “inner light”

• Simplicity of life and millenarianism—living in the last days

V. The Counter-Reformation: The Catholic Response

Ingredients• Reformation shaped the

form and rapidity of the Catholic response

• Council of Trent (1545-1563)

• The Society of Jesus (“Jesuits”)—1534 --Ignatius Loyola

• The Inquisition• The Index• Renewed religious

emotionalism--Baroque Art

• Religious warfare and a new Bible

VI. Results of the Reformation• Germany was politically

weakened and fragmented• Christian Church was

splintered in the West• 100 Years of Religious

Warfare• Right of Rebellion

introduced by both Jesuits and Calvinists

• Pope’s power increased• Furthered societal

individualism and secularism

• Growing doubt and religious skepticism

VI. Results of Reformation (cont)• Political stability valued

over religious truth• Calvinism boosted the

commercial revolution• Witch craze swept

Europe in the 1600’s--Between 1561-1670, 3000 people in Germany, 9000 people in Switzerland and 1000 people in England were executed as witches

• Possible reasons for this witchcraft craze