mmw 13

Renaissance

-the French word for "rebirth" we use the French word because the Renaissance spread from Italy to France, to England

-A historical period generally regarded as an intellectual and educational movement

-The study of studia humanatis

Renaissance humanism

-educated elites felt that classical was superior; reflected the desire to revive ancient (Greek/Roman) culture

-classical learning, and imitation of the classical past

-taking the ideas of ancient authors and putting them into practice, adapting them to early modern circumstances: pagan and Christian images and ideas

-celebrating the human form, human potential, and human achievement in this world

-more optimistic philosophy compared to the idea of humans being limited, sinful

• SIGNIFICANCE: encouraged the notion of productivity and anthropocentrism

studia humanitatis

-scholarly focus born from Renaissance.

-Focused on human activity

-Served as the basis for understanding how to achieve one's human potential )learning/education). The educated should be virtuous and promote the well-being of society (the lower class). In order to accomplish this, get a good education, and engage with literature-- "good letters." The idea as if society had educated leaders, then society would have good citizens. People who are moral and can differentiate truth from untruth should be active participants in civic life.

-Represents a move away from educating people to become religious scholars. Instead, the university got a secular, non-specialized education. Study: Classical Studies-grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, moral philosophy, and ancient Greek and Latin

-Shift away from logic to rhetoric

Petrarch the "Father of Humanism" (1304-74)

-Italian poet who rediscovered works and letters of Cicero, and ancient Roman philosopher and politician who advocated for the study of poetry and letters

-Petrarch viewed the Renaissance as an educational movement focusing on grammar, rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy

Marsilio Ficino (1433-99)

-A Roman Catholic priest, philosopher, and Renaissance Humanist from Florence, Italy

-Revived Plato's ideas in the form of Neo-Platonism, which merged ancient Greek philosophy with Christianity

-Neoplatonism: the idea that beauty, truth, and "the good life" are all linked. Can be attained by climbing the Platonic ladder, or hierarchy of truth-climb from impermanent to eternal/immortal, from physical to spiritual things

-Accused of heresy by the Pope, but he was acquitted

-Wrote, "The Soul Man" (ca. 1474). A highly anthropocentric work. He puts human's capacity to become a god. (Hence the heresy charge.)

-SIGNIFICANCE: ??

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94) and "Oration on the Dignity of Man"

-An Italian nobleman and philosopher and student of Ficino

-He was an eclecticist. His writings incorporated ideas from pagan, Jewish, and Muslim authors

-SIGNIFICANCE: ??

-His 900 Thesis, a series of philosophical questions. The first printed book to be banned and burned by the Roman Catholic Church

-Accused of heresy and imprisoned. Died at age 31 of poisoning

Difference between medieval and renaissance art

-Medieval art portrayed people as stylized and mirrored biblical stories

-Renaissance art often featured specific individuals and was more realistic. Portrayed real people; many works of art were celebrations of the human form (nudity).

Botticelli, Venus and Mars (ca. 1483)

-Painting depicts Venus as alert and fully clothed. Mars is in a drunken stupor-possibly depicting masculine post-coital vulnerability

William Shakespeare

-A Renaissance Author

-Incorporated the renaissance's core values into his plays. This was evident in the new types of plays he developed which focused on more humane characters with increased complexity regardless of superficial attributes like social position

iclicker question

-Renaissance art was not a rejection of Christian subject matter or values. It was mostly an expression of power. Elites could prove their status by patronizing the artist. It was also a display of moral fortitude

Brozino's Allegory of Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time

-Painting has a moral message: Folly is too lustful and foolish. Lust is temporary; rationality is what truly matters

Holbein's portrait of Sir Thomas More

-The Catholic Church attempting to display the impressiveness of Sir Thomas More, a man knighted and considered a saint by the Catholic Church

Michelangelo's The David

-Symbolic of the rising power and aspiration of the rising power and aspiration of Florence, the Italian city-state. based on the story of David and Goliath.

Raphael, The School of Athens (1511)

-A fresco on the papal palace at the Vatican in Rome despite being a piece made for the church, the school of Athens contains references to Greek philosophy along with the glorification of women (which was not common in the church at the time.) Mixture of Christian themes with ancient paganism

Pope Julius II, The Warrior-Pope

-In addition to being a pope, he was also a warrior and had several children. A supporter and patron of the Arts (Michelangelo and Raphael). An example of the Catholic Church being worldly

Basilica of St. Peter (begun 1506 and completed 1615)

-This was built on top of the burial site of St. Peter, who was the first Bishop of Rome

iclicker question

-Which of these didn't happen at the same time as the others?: The Industrial Revolution

Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism

-Not a smooth, unilinear, progressive process. Capitalism is a very aggressive system; coincides with slavery and colonialism. This was a long and gradual transition that went from power based on landholding to power from processing and accumulating capital.

Plantationocene

-Alternate term for the era is usually called the Anthropocene. This centers the era around the effects of plantations (e.g. a racialized elite)

Joint-stock corporations

-Joint-stock corporations were one of the first outcomes of capitalism. these companies allowed many investors with extra money to invest in these companies and this increased their capital property (boats, fuel, food, guns, etc.). These joint-stock companies allowed for people to compete against established merchant families who were prevalent for hundreds of years prior. Investors were entitled to portions of the company's assets.

British and Dutch East India Companies

-Joint-stock corporations. Trading corporations that made huge profits from the spice trade

Quentin Matsys's The Money Changer and his Wife

-Depicts a husband and wife counting their money. The Wife is so focused on the money, she is not looking at the religious book in her hand

-Depicts usury or money-lending. At this time usury was a crime.

Capital

-can be money, but it's also the promise that whatever you use as a currency will retain value in the future

-capital includes the assets you use to control means of production (spending money to make money, like buying an oven to produce pizzas.)

-Growth of capitalism (or desire to grow) is limitless but also unsustainable. Driven by the desire to profit but also may fluctuate with time

-Labor produces value by producing goods and services. But labor compensation is often worth less than what is produced. Leads to worker exploitation

iclicker question

-50% of the world's wealth is controlled by 1% of the world's population

Stages of Capitalism

-1300-1750, Early Capitalism

-associated with commodification of labor.

-Trade between working-class and merchant/owner class

-"Primitive accumulation": merchant elites build their power by hoarding wealth (late medieval to early modern)

-Domestic agricultural economy changes (see Commercialization Model below)

-Common lands seized by elites, become private property, and serfs become wage laborers

-Long-distance, maritime brings new sources of wealth

-Capitalism commodifies land and human beings. Creates demand for: Atlantic Chattel Slavery; European need to establish overseas colonies

-leads to long-term, permanent war

-1750-1983, , Industrial Capitalism (modernity)

-the rise of manufacturing/production (via factories)

-quantity over quality (how could goods be produced the fastest=more capital)

-Assembly lines through manufacturing

-changes the working class from a sense of previous

-autonomy (because they could own their own tools

-and etc) to being forced to work one station

-continuously

-Workers were dependent on their ability to sell their labor )changes from the past cottage system where workers had their own land and tools)

-Overall powered by the Industrial Revolution (steam power, water power, flywheels, cogs, etc.)

-Until the end of the 18th century, the work experience of the laboring population in England was predominantly agrarian-based but by the mid 19th century was predominantly urban

-The present-day model of the capitalist exploitation of labor for profit has its origins in the transition of Britain from feudalism to capitalism

-1983-Present, Late Capitalism (Postmodernity)

-Characterized by extreme commodification, investing in random capitalist ventures (aka casino capitalism, speculative investment)

-Transnational organizations hold more power than nations. neoliberal system

The Agrarian Model of Capitalism

-In the Feudal system, manors were self-sufficient and therefore not strongly connected to the large-scale economy. Early capitalists deplored self-sufficiency

-Instead of serfs and the manorial economy under feudalism, move to property, rents, and wage labor for hired agricultural workers

-The new agrarian capitalism made land and labor commodities in a more flexible and unstable marketplace

-And most common lands became private property and labor estates

The Commercialization Model

-Long-distance trade networks began in Northern Italy and spread to England/Low Countries

-Associated with joint-stock corporations, esp. English and Dutch East India Companies

-Modern banking, accounting, double-entry book-keeping, and credit-debit systems

-New capitalist system leads to the establishment of the Atlantic slave trade system and slave labor in the New World colonies

-Globalization: moving cheap goods to where they could attract at high prices, esp. spices and luxury goods from Asia

Political, Ideological, and Cultural Changes that made Europe compatible with Capitalism

-Renaissance humanism embodied the spirit of capitalism. Humanism is about earthly life and possessive individualism. Fit with capitalist values.

-Protestantism: "thrift" as a Christian virtue. Wealth is a sign of goodness.

-Luther believed people should dutifully perform their jobs and gain wealth. In contrast, with Catholic Church disdain for worldly issues

Backlash against capitalism

-Attack on usury, or the charging of interest of loans. For many years, the idea of making money off of money was considered immoral by Christians. Usury harmed communities and was viewed as a sin. This stance was eventually weakened as early modern society and the Catholic Church increasingly accepted and legalized usury until it became "business as usual"

Slavery prior to Atlantic slave trade/Chattel Slavery

-Prior to AST, there were different religious narratives surrounding skin color. (Curse of Ham). Negative attitudes regarding race intensified with capitalism and slavery.

-The notion of blackness/whiteness only became dominant later in the slave trade (through the binary existed prior to this point)

-Slavery existed since ancient times, often with religious justification (WTWA 194)

-The term slave (Slav or Slavos) comes from Byzantine Greek around 580. Slavs became "Slaves" at the beginning of the 9th when the Holy Roman Empire tried to stabilize a German-Slav frontier

Betty Wood article

-Slavery started with the enslavement of indigenous people, but the Great Dying happened, and led to demand for the import of African slaves.

-Early o, however, Europeans used indentured servants Sreeya as labor. They were poor Europeans who signed a labor contract in exchange for passage to the New World and eventually land.

-Demonstrates that the slave trade would not have been possible without the cooperation of local black rulers

Middle Passage

-The route of the former slave trade of Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas. Large maritime trading route that trafficked humans as a previously unheard-of rate

Reconquista

-Battles of Christian States to retake Iberia from the Islamic Moors

Portuguese expansion

-First nation t intensify the slave trade. They circled West Africa (Gold Coast) searching for gold but entered the slave trade instead. Madeira (1420) and Azores (1430's) were islands the Portuguese set up sugar plantations on. 10% of Madeira's population was enslaved. Sugar plantations went bust by the 15th century, and production was replaced with other commodities.

Spanish Expansion (Canary Islands 15th century)

-The Spanish conquered the canary islands in the 15th century

-Sugar production developed by the Portuguese at Madiera and other islands along the African coast