his101cd

HIS 101 – Western Civilization I
Lecture 11-- The Renaissance

I. The Italian Renaissance

The Renaissance was an intellectual movement that began in Italy in the 14th century

two key hallmarks of the Renaissance were:

an extreme hostility to the culture of the Middle Ages
a fascination with the ancient world
The Renaissance was the first, for example, to use the term "Dark Ages" to describe the period after the fall of Rome.

Their love affair with the ancients led to an increasing literacy in Latin and Greek--the term "Renaissance" is this sense refers to the rebirth of the classic Greek and Roman ways
The main emphasis of the Renaissance centered around the individual and the potential of human nature
At first, it was restricted to a relatively small group of educated, self-conscious elites, but especially in the north, it spread out to embrace other social classes which deeply affected the history of Europe
In short, most historians mark the Italian Renaissance as the beginning of the modern world

Why did it begin in Italy?

The northern Italian cities had led the way in the economic revival of the 12th and 13th centuries--art flourishes in a society with money

Florence, especially, at the end of the 13th century became the bankers to the pope, taking a sizable cut out of church transactions for its services.
The Italian middle classes wanted to show off their pride in their city states
Italy had never been completely feudalized either; cities had always survived there and the tradition of lay education remained strong.

Moreover, Italian society of the 14th century was primarily urban

Nobles here lived in cities, a stone's throw from one another, so ideas could spread more rapidly here than in the isolated manors of northern Europe

Finally, Italian artists considered themselves the natural heirs to Roman art because they were surrounded with the remaining monuments
In the Renaissance, Italy would enjoy the prestige that France had had in the Gothic period.

The ideals of the Renaissance centered on individualism, the hallmark of the period

for example, Renaissance writers invented the autobiography, a form which presumes the reader is not only interested in your particular life, but in how you tell it
They were proud of their abilities and scorned the Christian humility that the Middle Ages prized
When the public thought Donatello had sculpted the Pietá, Michelangelo crept into St. Peters at night and carved his name, Michelangelo Buonarotti, across the Virgin's dress, so everyone would know he was the artist

The revival of antiquity led to a copying of the lives of the ancients, including an archaeological zeal in finding old manuscripts and uncovering Roman statues
The Renaissance was secular in orientation, concentrating its attention on the here and now unlike the medieval concern for the world to come

This secularism resulted in extravagant dress as well as greater refinements in manners, as well as an increase in personal hygiene
The contempt for the world theme of medieval religious literature disappeared; instead of the great cathedrals, one sees the private palaces of insecure, social climbing princes
There was, however, little concern for ordinary men

This was no Age of the Common Man, but was instead confined to a cultured elite

The Italian Renaissance thinkers remained good Christians

They were aware of the abuses of the church, but found them a subject of mirth rather than a clarion call for reform

The Renaissance indulged in a consumerism some of the age's admirers have refused to recognize

The elites were very concerned with acquiring and then displaying their wealth
The Virgin Mary was often painted surrounded by desirable worldy objects, reminding the viewer than sanctity would bring one wealth
And paintings became more numerous because they were cheaper to produce than labor-intensive mosaics; the gold leaf that had adorned paintings of the Middle Ages disappeared so that the cost of the painting decreased, thus allowing more people to display more art, thus increasing their social status

The Renaissance was also the first period to embrace quantification

For the first time, clocks helped quantify time with hours of the same length

The medieval belief in the timelessness of the world disappeared to be replaced by the Renaissance's obsession with time and numbers
The new vogue for clocks on the village church helped to educate even peasants about new ideas of time and orderliness

Renaissance thinkers saw numbers as neutral things, rather than imbued with special characteristics and religious meaning

Medieval scholars, for example, saw 6 as a perfect number because it was created by adding the numbers of the Trinity; Renaissance people saw 6 as simply a number like any other

One of the earliest examples of this rage for quantification was music that was now divided into equal measures; music could be "seen."

the musical staff was Europe's first graph

Humanism

The Renaissance ideas all came together in a new philosophy known as humanism

This involved the study of the classics to create a new definition of what made man truly human
To quote Erasmus, "Men are made, not born."
This was far cry from the medieval assumption that man was born with a soul that distinguished him from the animals
Now, to be truly human, one would need to become truly educated

Humanists differed from those who had studied the ancient works before; they did not feel inferior to the ancients, but rather saw themselves as equals

Humanists stressed the dignity of man, the best of God's creatures below the angels
Moreover, they did not interpret these ancient texts for their Christian meaning, but instead tried to see them on their own terms
Aristotle, humanists would argue, was not a proto-Christian, having lived centuries before Christ, but rather a Greek who would have to be understood in terms of his own culture

In a profound way, the humanists and the Renaissance invented history. Humanists were excited by the purity of ancient Latin, scorning the barbaric Latin of the medieval church

Their insistence on going back to the original texts helped them to expose errors in translation, not just of Aristotle and Cicero, but more importantly of the Latin Vulgate Bible then in use in the Catholic Church

Renaissance art

One place that clearly demonstrates the ideas of humanism is Renaissance art

Most art was now bought by patrons who were not churchmen, but rather important secular people like bankers
This freed art from service to religion, permitting themes and treatments that would have been off limits in a church
The emphasis on individualism led to the development of the individual portrait, where the sitter was presented warts and all, not idealized but realistically

Even the human body was presented in a more scientific and natural manner
One thinks of Michelangelo dissecting bodies to discover how muscles were connected so he could draw everything exactly (dissection was very much against church doctrines and law at the time.)

Perhaps most important, artists were now regarded as intellectual geniuses, not simply craftsmen

Some became quite wealthy; Michelangelo was paid 3000 ducats to decorate the Sistine Chapel when a man could live like a prince on 300 a year
He even refused payment for working on St. Peters Basilica because he was already so rich

New technological advances made much of Renaissance art possible

Oil painting allowed richer, deeper colors, and required much less speed to produce than frescoes which had to be painted while the plaster was still wet
Oil paintings could be done in the north where wetter, colder climates caused frescoes to pop off the wall, something which bedeviled Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper painted in wet Milan rather than drier Rome
Brunelleschi's Dome of the Cathedral Santa Maria del Flore in Florence as an engineering marvel

Renaissance artists were interested in making money and changed their style and production techniques to maximize their profit

Albrecht Durer, for example, refused to do more oil paintings because they were so time consuming, and he concentrated instead on wood block prints that were quick and more profitable
More painters entered the middle classes as a result of their improved fortunes
Patron consumerism was reflected in the popularity of tapestries
Such works ostentatiously displayed the owner's wealth and erudition, and moreover the tapestries could easily by moved if the owner changed residences in a way a fresco could not

Niccolo Machiavelli

the key political thinker of the Renaissance
The Prince

written as a how-to manual for his Florentine patrons
Machiavelli focuses on the individual qualities needed to rule
The Prince is filled with harsh advice--murder, intrigue, betrayal--basically describing what it takes to gain power and stay in power
there are no notions of rulership by "divine right" in Machiavelli's writing, simply a naked truth about what it took to be a ruler in those times

The Renaissance may have begun in Italy, but as it spread north, it changed in ways that would have a profound impact on the development of Protestantism
As many historians have noted, once you had the Renaissance with its ideals of individualism, historical precision, and understanding people in the context of their original cultures, the Protestant reformation was inevitable.

II. Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance spread north about 1500

Students from the North carried the ideals of the Italian Renaissance back with them
Spanish and French armies invading Italy were exposed to new theories before returning home
More important was printing with moveable type, invented in the mid-15th century, which made printing easier and cheaper; this helped spread books and knowledge of Renaissance ideals as well

But soon differences developed between the northern and southern Renaissance

In the north, the prime patrons were kings of the new nation states, not the wealthy burghers of Italy adding prestige to their cities
The northern Renaissance had a more Christian, religious aspect than did the more Greco-Roman, pagan aspect of Italian Renaissance

The north had always stressed theology in its universities, while Italy had trained lawyers and administrators in its schools
In the north, they edited the commentaries of St. Paul, in the south, Plato; both were Greek writers, but one was a father of the Christian church and the other a pagan philosopher

Northern humanists tended to be of a more varied social background as well, unlike the elites of Italy

Perhaps because of this, northern Renaissance thinkers were more willing to write for a lay audience, not just the educated intelligentsia

Erasmus

An example of the northern Renaissance is Erasmus, a Christian humanist who sought to blend the humanities with the Christian tradition

To the stoical patience, calmness and broadmindedness of the classical period, Erasmus sought to add the Christian virtues like love, faith, and hope
He faced up to the serious ills of his time, becoming a reformer, especially of religion
His ideas are characterized by a tolerant view of man

He was horrified by the intolerance of Luther, for example

Erasmus was interested in developing ethical purity of religion which the Italians by and large were not, and he showed great faith in education to prepare people for a pious life
He was impressed with the purity and simplicity of the early Christians, as opposed to the formalism and complexities of the Renaissance church

Art of the Northern Renaissance

Northern Renaissance painting reflected these differences in ideas of the Italian and Northern Renaissances

It is characterized by a deep religious feeling and spiritualism frequently missing in the south
When Hans Memling did a portrait, the sitter was almost always in an attitude of prayer, rather than dressed in Sunday best facing the artist
Even the architecture of the north remained Gothic, a truly "Christian architecture," they believed, as opposed to the pagan Roman building of the south
Towns halls remained mini-cathedrals. The frescoes of Italy were rarely seen in the north, and instead they experimented with oil painting and the meticulous care of miniatures

Durer and Brueghel

The two most famous of these northern painters may be Albrecht Dürer and Peter Brueghel
Durer

Dürer got the idea of perspective, the new use of color and modeling from Italy, but his themes tend to be religious
Primarily an engraver, Dürer remained concerned with outline and extraordinary attention to detail
Many of his drawings could easily be turned into wood block suitable for printing in books

Brueghel

Brueghel shows the religious aspect of the north as well in his Slaughter of the Innocents
Most artists approached this subject by painting a mythical scene of people dressed in vaguely Roman costumes, but Brueghel painted it as a Flemish village being attacked by Spanish soldiers
Flanders were being occupied by the Spanish and the Flemish people resented it greatly
One sees here the close alliance of religion and politics so typical of the north as well as the idea that religion was not far away and irrelevant but contemporary and vital

As historians have argued, the Reformation had to begin in the north

III. Social Life in Renaissance Europe

Marriage and family

Marriage for Catholics was dominated by economic factors, not love or physical attraction

Men needed to have sufficient land before marrying, meaning they usually had to wait until the father died or yielded up the land

That meant people continued to marry late, and this in turn affected the number of children a couple had

Divorce according to the Catholic church simply did not exist except for non-consummation of the marriage
But while divorce was impossible, marriage was easy

All it took was an oral promise between the two partners
The church preferred to have these vows solemnized in the church, but it was not technically necessary
To be sure, difficulties arose when one party claimed such a promise had taken place in secret when the other one denied it
Grievances resulting from these misunderstandings kept ecclesiastic (church) courts busy for years

Protestants changed the concept of marriage, praising it as a noble estate rather than a third best alternative to celibacy

They used the cloister as a symbol of what they saw as the church's anti-feminism
Protestants argued that putting women in a home would liberate them from the sexual repression, cultural deprivation and male clerical rule which characterized the nunnery
Because of their more favorable view of marriage, Protestants made it easier, reducing the number of impediments prescribed by the Catholic church

So successful was this that the Catholic quickly followed suit

Protestants rejected the idea of marriage as a sacrament, and so they permitted divorce

It certainly wasn't easy, however
Protestants argued in favor of the sexual and spiritual equality of the spouses, and so passed tough laws against wife beating
Many women joined the Protestant faiths hoping to escape violent husbands, and in fact much modern research has demonstrated the critical role of women in allowing the new faith to spread

Protestants practiced contraception as well with the aid of botanicals high in estrogen

Pennyroyal, Queen Anne's lace and myrtle, for example, were used, but one needed to know how to harvest and prepare them
Without such knowledge, these botanicals became highly poisonous
Most had as much as a 70% effectiveness rate in preventing or terminating pregnancies

Size of families

Renaissance women bore more babies than women do nowadays, delivering a child on average once every 24-30 months
Ten percent of women died in childbirth, a rate 20 to 24 times higher than in the 19th century
City born babies died twice as fast as country born ones, even though the city baby might be sent to the country within days of its birth
Since daughters in a family dived the family wealth when they received a dowry to marry, "superfluous" daughters were sent to convents which required a dowry but a much smaller one

In 16th century, half of women from elite families ended up in convents

Witchcraft

The witchcraft craze of the early Renaissance pitted women against one another and against the state
From about 1450 to 1625, 200,000 people were killed as witches, 85% of them women
Women's subculture of the Middle Ages which had brought forth the chivalric movement now dissolved under the pressure of the witch hunts; inquisitors pursued women who knew one another, making it dangerous for a woman to have many female friends
For women, the individualism of the Renaissance was based on fear of one another

Food and Eating

Food was a basic concern of all periods

Most food to be preserved over the long winter was either salted or dried, a process based on the Egyptian process of embalming
Especially popular was preserved herring, a trade dominated by the Hanseatic League and the source of its wealth
People depended on preserved foods for winter and spring, before crops began producing fresh food again
Bringing back this salted food was back-breaking work, since the food would have to be soaked in many changes of water, all of which would have to be drawn from a well
Usually, people cooked something along with the food, like beans, to absorb the salt they could not get out by rinsing
The food thus presented was salty and bland, and so it was served with spicy sauces into which the meat or fish, cut into small pieces, was dunked

Spices

The yellow sauce, made of ginger and saffron, and the green sauce, made of ginger, cardamom, cloves and green herbs, were as common as mustard and ketchup on a modern American table
Pepper became so valuable it was used as part of a dowry
Europeans, chronically short of hard currency, sometimes used spices to pay their debts
These spices were not always used to cover up the taste of spoiled meat, however; spices were abandoned long before reliable refrigeration came into use that actually retarded spoilage

In fact, these spices were a matter of acquired taste
Spices were also associated with Paradise; Europeans believed that Eden was a real place that simply had to be discovered

The mania for spices thus helps explain the drive to get to the Spice Islands and India by sea
In the beginning, the rich and the poor ate the same food, only the rich ate more of it

But in the Renaissance, the upper and middle class diet began to change
They abandoned spices as old-fashioned and began to present foods in simple sauces that allowed the natural flavor to be revealed
The Italians were the first to emerge from world of medieval spices and cooking
The new Italian cooking techniques were transferred to France when Catherine de Medici arrived from Florence to marry Henry II, carrying with her a battery of Italian chefs
Many of these new cooking ideas were written down in cookery books that were among the earliest printed materials

Table Manners

Table manners were poor by modern standards
People used their fingers to eat, rather than forks that could become dangerous weapons in the hands of easily excitable individualists
Indeed, as late as 1897, British sailors were forbidden to use forks because it was said to do so would damage their manliness
People were always scratching because of fleas and lice, and courtesy books recommended openly washing your hands before choosing your meat so everyone would know your hands were clean

Changes in Warfare and the Printing Press

Social life in the Renaissance was affected by two major changes that helped create the devastating loss of life associated with the wars of religion
These two developments were changes in warfare and the development of printing with movable type
Changes in Warfare

The changes in warfare created the huge population losses we associate with Renaissance war and the need for substantial tax increases to provide for the large armies
Gunpowder was increasingly used with the result that killing now took place at a great distance and indiscriminately

The cannons required mass armies unlike the ragtag bands of feudalism
Each marching square surrounding the cannon batteries contained 3000 men
Thus, Spain by the mid-16th century had an army of 40,000
Gustavus Adolphus, the king of Sweden, developed the salvo in which he fired all his cannons at once instead of in sequence
The Swedes lost continuity of fire but produced a fearsome blast which could shatter an enemy's ranks
By the mid-17th century when Gustavus Adolphus ruled, the Swedish army was 175,000, and Louis XIV of France toward the end of the century considered 400,000 a necessity

Such large armies meant the use of conscription because volunteers were so unreliable, and armies also had to stay encamped year round, instead of just in the summer, since collecting so many men and then dispersing them a few months later was too difficult to do

Such large armies would also have to paid year round, meaning a huge rise in taxes, primarily on the poor who paid most of the taxes and were most of the recruits
Nonetheless, the new armies created some social mobility, especially for artillery officers who needed expertise
Armies in some cases became too expensive to actually risk in battle!
When Sulieman attacked Vienna, for example, he was so deeply in debt he dared not use his army and instead paraded them around the walls of the city in a magnificent show of his power, hoping the city would surrender based only on his displayed might

As the armies became more professionalized, a large bureaucracy was created to mobilize a country for war, a development that spurred absolutism

The Printing Press

Printing also helped spread the Protestant Reformation's ideas and thus helped cause religious divisions which encouraged bloody, Renaissance warfare

Printing with moveable type replaced block printing from China
Paper had not been a problem since the mid-1400s, but wooden blocks had to be individually carved and frequently became saturated with ink making the image blurred
Using individual metal letters allowed many copies to be made from the same setting without smudging

The Italians abandoned the Gothic script first used by Gutenberg for the Carolingian minuscule, which they insisted on calling Roman style, since they would not admit the medieval period could have invented anything worth having
Books, like Renaissance paintings, became a marketable commodity

While books became cheaper to produce using the printing press, they were more lavishly bound to serve as examples of the owner's erudition and wealth

Quantification also increased with the printing press; now uniform page numbers allowed two readers to compare exactly the same passage with ease
Medieval scribes would have been unable to reproduce the complex illustration of machines or maps of the New World which the Renaissance needed to difuse such knowledge quickly and accurately
Printing in a profound way made the Reformation possible, because while challenges to church abuses had popped up before, they had almost always been local phenomena

Luther, by printing his sermons and treatises and spreading them quickly throughout large populations made it impossible for the church to contain his influence in any one area