Back to Index of Lecture Notes Europe: 14th Century; Italian Renaissance I. End of the Middle Ages--The Calamitous 14th Century

• A. The Black Death, 1347-48
  • 1. occurs after a period of population growth in the MA
  • 2. 1/3 of population dies: immense suffering
  • 3. labor shortage creates opportunities for those alive
    • a. peasants unwilling to bear all the burdens
    • b. English Peasants' Rebellion
    • c. French Jacquerie
    • d. earlier marriages, new gender roles during regrowth after the plague
  • 4. those who lived were strong
  • 5. land fell fallow, regenerated
• B. European wars of destruction--100 Years War (1337-1453)
  • 1. England took France in early 15th C.
  • 2. Joan d'Arc helped rally France, turned tide: 1429
  • 3. France left prostrate, England not much better
  • 4. Where would be the leadership of Europe now?
• C. New Pressure from the Moslems in the Middle East
  • 1. failed crusades
  • 2. Constantinople fell to Muslims in 1453
  • 3. Greek elites moved westward, bringing ancient culture
  • 4. Muslim/Western contact brought new interest in ancients
    • a. medieval world was Xtian, not classical
    • b. muslims kept ancient culture & it wafted back
  • 5. Irony--Enemies helped to create a self-conscious Europe; also transmited the Europeans' own history back to them.
• D.Paris fallen, Constantinople had fallen, leaving possibility of renewal of Italy, papacy.
  • 1. Avingnon (French) Papacy, 1305-78
  • 2. "Great" Schism of French v. Italian popes 1378-1418
  • 3. fall of papal prestige

II. Defining the Renaissance

• A. A Historical Period (circa 1400-1600) concerned with
  • 1. importance of the individual
  • 2. common kinds of politics (ie. city states in Italy)
  • 3. time of economic growth, rebirth after 14th C.
  • 4. this definition very limited
    • a. only the elites know the ancients
    • b. NOT necessarily a popular movement
      • (1) didn't happen the same way all over Europe
      • (2) peasants didn't live much differently
      • (3) eg. peasantry still highly religious
  • 5. moves center of learning out of Paris to Italy
• B. Renaissance as a state of mind: Humanism
  • 1. Petrarch (1304-1374)--perhaps 1st humanist
    • a. First to call the medieval period the "dark ages"
    • b. claims it had no knowledge of ancient texts
    • c. ransacks libraries for ancient, not "barbaric" Latin
    • d. revives Platonic philosophy
    • e. "I am a Man and nothing human do I consider alien to myself"
  • 2. Humanism in elite life--opening up to the human world
    • a. material wealth increasingly acceptable
    • b. wealth brings pleasures of the body, mind
    • c. importance placed on this world not the afterlife
    • d. importance of human desires, not self denial
  • 3. New emphasis on civics of the city-state
    • a. Petrarch calls for the training of good citizens
    • b. Classics give guide to living the good life, and teach how to convince others to live the good civic (not Xtian) life.
    • c. Humanism is ethical
    • d. creates new emphasis on
      • (1) clarity of expression
      • (2) contrast between secular and spiritual life
• C. Renaissance as a "style"
  • 1. An artistic style
  • 2. Creation of a "high style"
  • 3. Desire to show oneself as a "Renaissance Man"
    • a. wearing a sword
    • b. having the wealth to have leisure to learn - involvment in many fields
    • c. become refined: use your fork! place of manners

III. Politics of the Early Italian Renaissance

• A. Importance of city-states
  • 1. Unlike the structure of the rest of Europe
  • 2. Each city a nation in itself (no "Italian" identity)
  • 3. Most important were Milan, Venice, Florence, Papal States, Kingdom of Naples
• B. Italian class system
  • 1. Aristocrats (old elite)
  • 2. Merchants (new rich who aspire to noble rank, status)
  • 3. Artisans in the cities, work, live together
  • 4. Rural peasants (largest % of population, untouched)
  • 5. Slaves (with no power, but being reintroduced)
• C. Change in power base from republican cities to despots
  • 1. Milan: non-legitimate rulers seize power
  • 2. new rulers try to achieve legitimacy in each city
    • a. Interested in how to create, maintian power.
    • b. highly secular
    • c. amoral
    • d. importance of art, displays of wealth as advertisement of power
    • d. Machiavelli, (1513 - The Prince) shows these preoccupations

IV. Intro to Art of the Renaissance

• A. Expressed major ideas of the Renaissance
  • 1. individuality
  • 2. secularism
  • 3. humanism
• B. Renaissance famous for its
  • 1. sculpture
  • 2. painting
  • 3. architecture

V. Description to Renaissance art

• A. Change from "honest mediocrity" of Middle Ages
• B.Polarization between great and poor artists
  • 1. higher skills = more personal prestige
  • 2. cult of the artist (Michelangelo 1475-1564), no anonymous works for God
  • 3. artist as scientist
• C. Art showed the Renaissance interest in the classics
  • 1. Secularized art: not just in churches anymore
  • 2. Individualized art, made for important, rich patrons
  • 3. Naturalistic art, that is based on portraying reality
• D. Linear perspective
  • 1. Gives the illusion of depth, the third dimension
    • a. scientific basis, mathematical
    • b. naturalistic
  • 2. Three points of perspective
    • a. harmony
    • b. balance
    • c. moderation

IV. Art & Power

• A. Patronage and power
  • 1. Early patrons: guilds, not people
  • 2. Later patrons: wealthy patrons with reputations
    • a. Especially in Florence (the "Queen")
      • (1) Cosimo de Medici (1434-1464)
      • (2) Lorenzo de Medici (1469-1492)
      • (3) "Secular" Renaissance popes (Medicis)
  • 3. Art shows the position of both patron and artist
  • 4. Art therefore must show the patron actually in it
• B. Art had moved from the Church, where it had been used for the beautifying of God's house, into more secular matters. Even churches had a very human-centered philosophy, as did religious painting.

V. Conclusions

• A. Italian Renaissance is partly the result of the calamitous 14th C.
• B. Change from religious to secular values
• C. Irony of Renaissance-- Artistic flowering, Dignity of the Individual accompnied by Secularism, Greed, Power Struggle

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