Unit 2B: Renaissance Culture and Politics

Secular

The target of different arts such as writing, painting, etc, not focusing on Christianity (as with the Middle Ages) but rather focusing on the other worldly or human issues.

Examples: Birth of Venus, School of Athens, Mona Lisa

Classical Greece & Rome

The works of classical writings by authors such as Virgil, Homer, Ovid, etc. People believed these works to be brilliant and wished for them to be taught in every school across Europe.

Year of Renaissance

1350-1550

Petrarch (1304-1374)

An early Italian scholar who technically came before the Renaissance, he had searched many different ruins of the Roman Empire and monasteries for classical manuscripts of Latin texts. He had become obsessed with the classical ideas of the ancient past and had a newfound idea that the recovery of classical texts would bring a new golden age of intellectual achievement, an idea that many others came to share. (Pg 51)

Around 1350, he proposed a new type of education to help people learn about the ancient writers. This study was a study of classics to help understand and write better. It was called studia humanitatis (Usually translated as liberal arts).

Humanism (Northern and Italian)

Humanism is the main intellectual idea that advocates for people studying ancient writers from Greece and Rome. This philosophy had a pre-baked premise, that premise being that:

That human nature and human achievements, evident in classics, were worthy of contemplation.

Although in Italy, this seemed more secular, with an emphasis on humans specifically. While in the north, humanism was integrated with the belief in Christianity.

Machiavelli (1469 – 1527)

A political theorist of the Renaissance.

Machiavelli served at the Florentine Republic, which ruled after the invasion of the French in 1492. He served as a diplomat and organized the citizen army. Machiavelli was beaten and exiled after the return of the Medici Family, and wrote The Prince (a political guide to a ruler) in 1513.

Virtu

The quality of being able to shape the world according to ones will, and ability.

Early 15th century. (1400’s)

The opening of different humanistic and liberal art’s schools across the Italian Peninsula

Early 16th Century (1500’s)

The opening of Humanist Schools across the Northern States.

Female Role in the Renaissance

Humanists disagreed about education for women, most believed that exposing women to education would be good, although some pondered if it overstepped their boundary of the roles of traditional house wives. Although, some women were educated some classics and wrote in Latin, etc.

Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529)

A Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.

He is famous for his work The Courtier (1528). Which had a lasting impact on Renaissance Society, and people’s visions and expectations of gender roles. According to Castiglione, an educated man should have a broad background in many academic subjects and should train his spiritual and physical faculties as well as his intellect. The court lady should also be educated, able to dance, paint, she should be beautiful and meek.

Last quarter of the 15th century. (1475-)

Students from the Low Countries, France, Germany, and England flocked to Italy, absorbed ‘new learning’ and returned to their own states.

Christian Humanists

Northern Humanists who interpreted Italian ideas and attitudes towards classical ideas and humanism in terms of their own religious tradition.

Thomas More (1478-1535)

A man who began as a lawyer, studied classics, and entered government services. He wrote despite his work; his most famous piece of writing was Utopia (1516). Thomas defines a community somewhere in the middle of Europe, where all children have a good education (humanist), and adults divide their days between manual labor and intellectual activities. All the world's problems have been solved by a government; people are religious, and because the government is perfect, there are no disagreements that are acceptable.

(NORTHERN)

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

Erasmus was a Dutch Christian humanist, theologian, and Catholic Priest. He wrote a lot, but his most famous work is The Education Of A Christian Prince, which explains a prince’s character based on the bible and classical authors, and The Prince of Folly (1504 and 1509), a satirical attack on Religious Institutions, politics, and economics. He also translated the bible, and believed all women and all people should be able to read it.

Individualism

The idea that a individual should be celebrated, that a persons ideas are valued over the collective, that one should author their work; in other words focus on the individual over the collective.

Artistic themes and styles

In the Middle Ages, the point was to convey a moral message. Either the birth of Christ, or the covenant with Moses, but in the Renaissance the point was rather more secular, worldly, either to express a new idea, or to make patronage for a ruler, or to perhaps even convey the power of classical values. People also used traditional styles such as the Greek pillars and domes. They also drew in perspective and realism.