The Renaissance Flashcards
1
Q
Origins of the Renaissance:
A
- Said to have started in Italy in 1494 (Burckhardt) *many critic argument suggesting too modernist and Eurocentric
- Renaissance start = 14th century
- Renaissance ends = 16th century
- Difficult to put dates on Renaissance as countries experienced Renaissance at various times
- Many argue simply continuation of medieval Renaissance
2
Q
Petrarch:
A
- Renaissance father, father of the European Renaissance
- Born in Tuscany
- Moved to France, studied in Montpellier
- Famous for his poetry
- Had many interests and talents
- Insatiable desire for books – mid 14th century he began to collect manuscripts, particularly of those believed to be lost
- Took Cicero ideas about letter writing
- Idea of the Renaissance as different to what came before
- Entering a new era of learning, out of the dark ages
- Dark ages vs Renaissance
3
Q
Florence:
A
- Centre of Renaissance
- No university = greater chance of change
- Trade city = allows for exchange of ideas (e.g. Burgundy)
- Italy = hot bed of the Renaissance
- Destination for young scholars to learn about culture meaning when they returned would spread Renaissance
- Countries with links to Italy brought Renaissance ideas to their own
- Strong banking capital – Medici, Italian banking family that were doing well in Florence
- Display of wealth and excess wealth that could go towards artists and writers
- Burckhardt’s reasons for the Renaissance in Florence = Openness of political and social structures which encouraged patronage and status symbols
- Petrarch successor Coluccio Salutati was based in Florence
4
Q
Art and Architecture:
A
- Art = attempt to return to classical ideas
- Realism = prominent Renaissance art – nature, science and maths
- Development in art = drama, emotion, spatial depth, classical themes and settings, expressions of weight and force, pure colours and imitation of nature
- Architecture = emulate classical structures
- Features = rounded arches, columns, domes, proportion, symmetry and exactness
- Walls of the Vatican – Rafael’s the school of Athens 1509 to 1511 – often said to be the perfect embodiment of the classic Renaissance, shows Plato and Aristotle having discussion
5
Q
Music:
A
- Music linked to art and architecture
- Pan European style
- Spread due to print revolution = much wider audience
- Further developments of polyphony, new instruments
- Music was part of education of man or women’s repertoire – Henry VIII composed and played music
- Family educated in classical philosophy and other form of Renaissance culture such as music
- Music of period took same rules of proportion as art and architecture thus clearly linked
6
Q
Literature:
A
- Father of the Renaissance, Petrarch, ultimately a poet
- Changes in literature due to revival of classical sources
- Growth in secular poetry and prose
- New poetry in the vernacular – local languages
- Poetry addressed everyday or human themes
- Satire
- Standard form of poetry in the Renaissance was the sonnet = 14-line poem, iambic pentameter, refers to rhythm of the poem
- Petrarchan sonnet – two separate stanzas one of 8 and one of 6 lines
- Shakespearean sonnet – 14 lines
- Classical interest in dramas and plays – very popular in England
- Iconography and symbolism – Renaissance literature would have been understood e.g. emblem books
7
Q
Multiple Renaissances:
A
- Northern Renaissance, Burgundy, France and England – European Renaissance was different to that of Italy, Italy had independent Renaissance
- Distinct features in different countries
- Renaissance individual to each country
- Non-European Renaissance present
- European Renaissance influenced by many cultures
- Religious crisis = lack of tradition
- Renaissances = multiple
- Broader than just Europe
- Connections between Renaissances
- Single movement?
8
Q
Humanism:
A
- Drawn from revival of classical texts often with an emphasis on Cicero
- Derived from words used in Renaissance
- Used to refer to a curriculum for learning
- A concern with the legacy of antiquity, so the recovery and study of Greek and Roman texts, as well as the values which they contain
- Ideological expression of humanism varied - different ways of reading, studying and teaching – foundation of modern humanity studies today
- Opposed to Scholasticism
- Not interested in a single understanding of texts
- Emphasis on rhetoric and grammar
- Not an ideology more of an activity
9
Q
Florence:
A
- Change from Republic to Medici
- Republic since = 1115
- End of Republic = 1532
- Forefront were the chancellors of the Republic – combined scholarship and politics by drawing from classical texts
10
Q
Civic Humanism:
A
- Put humanism to work – aim was specific active political lives dedicated to their country
- Republic writers like cicero – to take specific lessons about Republicanism
- Civic humanism is a variant of Republicanism, that stresses active citizenship, and the preparation for active citizenship through a humanist education
- Hans Barons = thesis of civic humanism
11
Q
Universities:
A
- Scholastics – different to humanism
- Scholastics views expressed at university
- Large central to scholastic work – focussed on tradition and classical seven liberal arts
12
Q
Erasmus, Education for a Christian Prince:
A
- Dutch humanist and scholar
- Dedicated to sharing learning to put it to use by reforming the corrupting customs of the world around him
- Drew on medieval literature and give advice to Princes to change everything
- Prince = fountain, ideas flow out to all the people, essential to make Prince pure
- Written for Charles V – young European Prince
- Chose who educates the prince – when no opportunity to select the Prince should be able to choose his educator
- Good if we had an elected Republic but as there isn’t the Prince should be taught the humanistic values and principles by the educator
- Educators of Prince should be humanists – creating space in a monarchy for humanist and Republican ideas, active citizen in a monarch, by educating a Prince you contribute to the wellbeing of the community
- Idea echoed by a number of humanists in this period, focus on advisors as well
13
Q
Thomas More, Utopia:
A
- Republican argument, duty of educators to do what is best for the commonwealth
- Humanist – More himself becomes involved in politics
- Reformers of church but against reformation and split of the church
- Debate between two characters – debate over who should become advisors to Prince, duty to be an active citizen and educate Prince
- Selfish if don’t use educated skills for the benefit of the commonwealth
14
Q
Machiavelli, The Prince:
A
- Florence Republic between 1494 to 1512 – Florence Republic for brief period
- Return to republicanism meant that those trained in humanism could take roles in Republic
- Leading diplomat who travelled around Europe and observed politics
- Age of 29, head of the chancery on behalf of Republic
- Captured, tortured and cast out of politics at the end of the Republic of Florence
- 1513 wrote a book called ‘The Prince’ addressed to Medici ruler of Florence Lorenzo Medici
- Different views to Northernism peers such as Erasmus and More
- Rejects idealism and most moral way of politics
- Realistic, Prince cannot be virtuous as no one is
- Prince must lie and cheat and steel as is necessary
- Be virtuous when you can but acknowledge you can’t always be
- Church weakens men’s minds – lost lust for glory
- Humanist – very diverse from others, takes different readings from classical texts
- Realism over idealism – focus on having to be flexible and not virtuous when necessary
- Not printed in his life only passed around as manuscripts
- Seen as an advocator for immoral politics
- Fundamentally change of how to address politics
15
Q
Did women have a Renaissance? (Kelly)
A
- Women disadvantaged women – didn’t have Renaissance in the same way
- Men = pushed liberty and self rule
- Women = curving of previously held power of women
- Sexuality: medieval courtly love tradition gave women power over man, indicating better ideas expressed in poetry regarding women before the Renaissance, as Renaissance poetry took a possessed view of women in Renaissance
- Economic + political roles: increasing institutionalisation pushed women, argues women could hold powerful roles in medieval as more flexible yet bureaucratisation limited opportunities
- Cultural roles: rare for women to be educated humanistically but rather taught about their femininity and feminine virtues such as chastity and humility, mainly male scholars – women did have role as patrons of arts and cultures unlike what Kelly states
- Ideology: women controlled and treated as children even as adults, weaker sex, more irrational sex, less able, needed to be controlled, Machiavelli vilified women
