Italian Renaissance

1300-1600

Italian States

• The civilization of the Italian Renaissance was urban, centered on towns that had become prosperous from manufacturing, trade, and banking.

• Italians had acquired considerable wealth, and some of this wealth was used to support writers, scholars, and artists.

• During the Renaissance, Italy remained divided politically. In northern Italy, the city-states of Florence, Milan, and Venice became major centers of the Renaissance civilization.

• Rome dominated the Papal States of central Italy, while the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies embraced most of southern Italy.

Italian States• Florence

– Oligarchy– Medici family– Savonarola

• Milan– Condottiere– Spanish empire

• Venice– Great Council

• Doge– Monopoly on spice and

luxury trade

• Papal States– Renaissance

Popes• Julius II

– Kingdom of the Two Sicilies• Poor land• Spanish empire

Renaissance Literature

• Tuscan Triumvirate ---> vernacular– Dante Alighieri

• Divine Comedy

– Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)

• Italian sonnet - poem of 14 lines (8 and 6)

• Literary humanism

– Giovanni Boccaccio• Decameron

• Niccolo Machiavelli– The Prince

• Bladassare Castiglione– The Book of the Courtier

• Benvenuto Cellini– Autobiography

• Lorenzo Valla– Linguistic/historical

analysis

Italian Renaissance Art

• Religious scenes focused on expressions• Holy as human• God’s beauty in world• Neo-Platonism• Nude body• Uniqueness - self-portraits• Pagan myths as Christian icons• Individual-secular-profane

Giotto• Religious subjects in more

human fashion and realistic setting

• Illusion of depth

Masaccio

• Used light and shade to perspective

• The Holy Trinity

Sandro Botticelli• Vivid colors• Classical mythology• The Adoration of the Magi• The Birth of Venus• Primavera

Leonardo da Vinci• First Italian artist to use oil

paints• Mona Lisa• The Last Supper• The Virgin of the Rocks• Religious matter in secular and

humanized fashion

Leonardo da Vinci• Studying fossils• Anatomy from

dissections• First accurate

description of human skeleton

• Remained on paper

Raphael Santi • Humanized Madonna paintings

• Sistine Madonna• School of Athens

Michelangelo Buonarotti• Sistine Chapel

– Nine scenes of OT from Creation to Flood

• The Last Judgment• David• Moses• Pieta• Dying Slave• Night

Michelangelo Buonarotti

Titian

• Tiziano Vecellio• Most famous

Venetian painter• One painting a

month• “Titian” red• The Assumption of

the Virgin

The Northern Renaissance

• The influence of the Italian Renaissance gradually spread northward.

• The Northern Renaissance was infused with a more Christian spirit than in Italy, where there had been often an almost open revolt against Christian ideals.

Renaissance in Germany and Low Countries

• Printing press w/ moveable type– Johannes Gutenberg– 1456 - the Bible– Rapid spread of

knowledge

• Christian Humanism– Unite classical

learning w/ Christian faith

– Erasmus• ‘Prince of the

Humanists’• Praise of Folly• Rejected Luther

Flemish Painting• Jan and Hubert van

Eyck– First to use oil paints– The Adoration of the

Lamb– Giovanni Arnolfini and

His Bride

• Hieronymus Bosch– Nightmarish fantasy

worlds– Garden of Earthly Delight

• Peter Brueghel– Earthly and lively

activities of peasants– Peasant Wedding– Children’s Games

German Painting

• Albrecht Durer– Mastery of

expression– Woodcuts– Self-Portrait

• Hans Holbein the Younger– Portraits

• Henry VIII

• Erasmus

• Thomas More

• The Ambassadors

Elizabethan Literature

• Edmund Spenser– Leading poet

• Christopher Marlowe– playwright– Brief career– Doctor Faustus

• William Shakespeare– Most famous playwright

• Ben Jonson– Last major literary figure

Spanish Renaissance

• Cardinal Fransciso Jumenez de Cisneros

• Miguel de Cervantes– Don Quixote

• Felix Lope de Vega– Most prolific playwright

• El Greco– Greatest painter of SR– Studied with Titian– Intense religious mysticism– Mannerism

• El Escorial

The Protestant Reformation• 1517 - Luther posts 95 Theses• 1534 - Act of Supremacy• 1555 - Peace of Augsburg

Martin Luther• Planned to be a lawyer• Religious conversion to

Augustinian monk• Theology teacher at

university of Wittenberg• “The just shall live by

faith.” Romans (1:17)– Justification by faith

• Johann Tetzel– Indulgence controversy

• 95 Theses• Diet of Worms

Lutheranism

1. “Justification by faith”

2. “Sola scriptura”

3. Baptism and holy communion

4. Priesthood of believers

5. German translation of Bible

6. Abolished monasteries and celibacy of clergy

Lutheranism

Lutheranism• Peasants’ Revolt• Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V• Diet of Augsburg• Peace of Augsburg

– German prince right to determine religion of his state

• Lutheran or Roman Catholic• No recognition of Calvinists

or Anabaptists

– Lutheranism dominant in northern Germany and Scandinavia

Calvinism

• Ulrich Zwingli– Humanist and

Catholic priest– Sacraments only

symbolic ceremonies– Rejected celibacy of

clergy– Emphasized

simplicity in worship– Killed by Catholic

forces

• John Calvin– Protestant– Exile in Geneva– Institutes of the

Christian Religion– Predestination

• Salvation by election

– Puritanism

• Theocracy

Spread of Calvinism

• Switzerland• France

– Huguenots

• John Knox– Presbyterians

• England– Puritans

• Netherlands• Max Weber’s theory of the “Protestant work ethic”

Anglicanism• King Henry VIII

– Divorce of Catherine of Aragon

– Thomas Cramner

• Act of Supremacy– King head of Church of

England– Six Articles

• No papal supremacy

• Sold monasteries• Supported by English

people– Papal taxes– “Babylonian Captivity”– Monastic land

• Execution of Thomas More

• Edward VI– 42 Articles

• More Protestant

• Cramner’s Book of Common Prayer

• Bloody Mary– Executed Cramner– Married Philip II

• Elizabeth I– Last Tudor– 39 Articles– Opposition

• Pilgrims - Separatists

• Mary Queen of Scots

• Philip II

Anabaptism

• Radicals of the PR• Rejection of infant

baptism• Active in Peasants’

Revolt• Thomas Munzer• John of Leyden• Menno Simons

– Mennonites