Chapter 16Classical Humanism

in the Age of the Renaissance

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, The Effects of Good and Bad Government in the Town, 1337-39. Palazzo Pubblico, Siena http://www.all-art.org/history194-18.html

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government in the City, from the Allegory of Good Government, Sala della Pace, Palazzo, Siena 1338-1339.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government in the Country, from the Allegory of Good Government, Sala della Pace, Palazzo, Siena 1338-1339.

Bad Government by Ambrogio LorenzettiFresco, Palazzo Publico, Sienahttp://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/Religion402/Architecture/BadGovernment.htm

Renaissance•1300~1600

•= revival of classicism

= rebirth

Myths• 1. “Death” of classical learning in

the Middle Ages.

• 2. A medieval “age of faith” vs. “Renaissance paganism”

• 3. There exists one single Renaissance position.

Classical Humanism

• An elitist educational and cultural program based on the study of ancient Greek and Latin classics.

Food for thought• Where were Greco-Roman texts

preserved during the Middle Ages?

• How many times did classical revival take place during the Middle Ages?

• How did the Renaissance revival of humanism differ from that of its medieval counterparts?

• “Renaissance humanists discovered in the Greek and Latin classics a rational guide to the fulfillment of human potential” (Fiero 369).

Renaissance Classicism• 1. A greater quantity and variety of

classical texts were available.

• 2. Classical models were adopted in art, not to glorify God, but for their own sake—for its clear and graceful style and for its insight into human nature.

• 3. The culture was more worldly and overtly materialistic.

Individualism• In contrast to medieval thinker, who

emphasized the Christian belief in human sinfulness, Renaissance figures revived the classical confidence in human capacities to achieve excellence.

Influences• The ideal of the “universal man,” or

the “Renaissance man.”

• Emphasis on the pragmatic use of knowledge: rhetoric, science, and art

• A revolutionary view of history: the belief in progress

Food for thought• Why Italy?

Italy• South: Kingdom of Naples

• Middle: the Papal States

• North:

–Venice: merchant oligarchy

–Milan: dynastic despotism

–Florence: a republic in name only, actually ruled by the Medici

Florence

Europe's First Euro The Florin of Florence

http://www.umilta.net/wellesley.html

Cosimo de’ Medici

• 1434-1464• pater patriae

Lorenzo de’ Medici

• 1469-1492

• The Magnificent

Petrarch• 1304-1374

• Father of Humanism

• “When it comes to thinking or speaking of religion, that is, of the highest truth . . . I certainly am not a Ciceronian or a Platonist but a Christian.”

• Famous as a forerunner of Christian humanists and for his sonnets

poet laureate

Petrarchan Sonnet• An octave (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6

lines).

• Subject matter: the hopes and pains of an adoring male lover

• Conceit: a figure of speech which establishes a striking parallel, usually ingeniously elaborate, between two very dissimilar things or situations.

Ficino

• 1433-1499

• Translated the entire corpus of Plato’s writings from Greek into Latin

• Cosimo de’ Medici established the Platonic Academy in Florence.

• Renaissance Neoplatonism

• Platonic love: a major theme in art

Two Theories of Art• Da Vinci believed that "the most praiseworthy pa

inting [was that] which has the most conformity with the object imitated.“

• • Michelangelo believed that: "the greatest artist h

as no conception which a single block of marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand which obeys the intelleto [i.e. the deep knowing of reality] can accomplish that."

http://hercules.gcsu.edu/~dvess/micel.htm

Pico• 1463-1494

• Translated a lot of ancient literary works in Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, and Greek

• The manifesto of humanism: Oration on the Dignity of Man

•“What a great miracle is man” (Pico, Oration)

Alberti• 1404-1474

• On the Family

“Man can do anything he wants.”

• Virtù: “power,” describes the self-confident vitality of the self-made Renaissance individual

Alberti• “Only my books and records and those of

my ancestors did I determine to keep well sealed . . . . These my wife not only could not read, she could not even lay hands on them. I kept my records at all times . . . Locked up and arranged in order in my study . . . . I never gave my wife permission to enter that place, with me or alone . . . .”

Alberti• “[Husbands] who take counsel with

their wives are madmen if they think true prudence or good counsel lies in the female brain . . . .”

• “I made it a rule never to speak with [my wife] of anything but household matters or questions of conduct, or of the children.

Castiglione• 1478-1529

• The Book of the Courtier

• L’uomo universale: the Renaissance man; the well-rounded person

Female Humanists• Laura Cereta (1468-1499)

Defense of Liberal Instruction of Women

• Lucretia Marinella (1571-1653)

The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects of Vices of Men

Female Humanists

• "Did Women Have a Renaissance?"

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sister/Renaissance.html

Machiavelli• 1469-1527

• The Prince• politics divorced from ethics

• The pragmatic use of power for state management

• The end justifies the means.

•The End