Where Are the Middle Ages?

Renaissance

Allowed rich and tyrants to feel good about themselves

Come to terms with individualism 

Not secular

• Not anti-clerical either 

Liberated romantic

not a reorder of the world, just a shift in vibe and mood

Petrarch

Father of humanism 

• Moved away from medieval scholastism towards study of human experience 

Sparked movement by searching for lost classical text

Called the ages before “the dark ages” 

Was a devote catholic 

Humanists

Christians

Return to the classics

Intellectual movement focused on studying classical greek and roman literature, grammar, rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy

Acted as a precursor to the renaissance

Rhetoric vs. Scholasticism

Scholasticism 

• Logic and faith based method used to reconcile christian doctirine with philosophy 

• Prioritized dialectic (reason) for solving contradictions 

Rhetoric 

• rhetoric focused on persuasive style and was largely subordinated to theological logic

• Inherited classical traditions 

• Part of the trivium

  • With grammar and logical

Medium Aevum

Middle ages 

• Come to mean the time btwen the fall of rome and the renaissance

Medici

Cosmo de medici 

• A very rich dictator family in italy 

• Ruled florence like a dictator 

  • If he didnt like someone he would tax them into oblivion 

• But a patron of the humanists 

Lorenzo de medici 

• Worse businessman than his father 

• But a man of the arts

Donatello’s “David”

Not radically new 

• But the first naked cast sculpture since the classical times

Confidence in the human and individual

Comissioned by medici to put in own ouse 

Behold, a boy overcame the great tyrant.

• “Conquer, o citizens”

  • Called on the people of florence to fight the duke of milan

  • Good tactic because it turned people away from the medicis who are also tyrants 

  • Saying theres worse out there to fight brings the people together 

Da Vinci, “The Last Supper”

Painted patrons across from the last supper painting 

• Shows that people really wanted to be apart of the art and history especially if they commissioned it

Ottoman Empire

“Holy war state”

All power into war

Mehmet II the Conqueror

Captured constantinople and ended the byzantine empire

Turned it into instabul 

• Became a thriving imperial hub

• Encouraged scholarly work 

• Practiced religious tolerence

Gentile Bellini

A renissance painter 

• Did portraits 

Went to constantiople or istanbul to paint mehmed II 

• Bridged italian and ottoman art

Van Eyck, “The Man in the Red Turban”

Individualism

Art fir arts sake 

Renaissance not a reorder of the world just a shift of vibe and mood

• Liberal arts

• Learning for learning sake