REV: Lesson - The Renaissance: Florence and Italy
The Renaissance: Florence and Italy
If you remember from Module 3, the Crusades dominated Europe for most of the 12th and 13th centuries. While the Crusades weren’t the political success that the popes hoped they would be, one result was a revived trade between Europe and the Middle East. The trade coincided with the Abbasid Caliphate (also in Module 3!) and the Golden Age of Islam. The Italian city-states were some of the closest spots to these population centers, so they enjoyed the most wealth and innovation from the trade.
They also benefited from being near the Papal States, the heart of medieval Catholicism. Catholics tithed (gave a portion of their wealth) to their local church, which in turn gave a portion of the money to the Papal States. Catholics from across Western Europe would also visit the Papal States, which increased the wealth of all of Northern Italy.
The Medicis, a family from the Italian city-state of Florence, set the stage for Western Europe’s transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. They first ruled Florence, but through strategic marriages, the family effectively ruled Rome, the Papal States, France, and even the whole Catholic Church (by getting 3 members elected Pope). Cosimo de Medici, his sons, and especially his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent, dedicated their banking wealth to patronizing artists like Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo.
The painting at the top right of the page shows Cosimo de Medici in a style more realistic and naturalistic than in the Middle Ages. The ¾ angle, the play of light and dark, and the glorification of a “normal” person – not a religious figure – are all hallmarks of Renaissance art.
The Renaissance Spreads
While the Renaissance began in Italy, the new art and ideas did not end there. As France and the Holy Roman Empire (Germanic land) went to war with various Italian city-states, they learned about the Renaissance, and the ideas spread back to their countries. Then it spread throughout Europe. While the Renaissance took slightly different forms in different areas, the many major achievements across Western Europe were considered all one intellectual and cultural movement.
Italian Renaissance
Italy was the heart of the Renaissance, and Leonardo da Vinci was its intellectual master. Previous artists like Brunelleschi and Donatello crafted masterpieces in architecture, perspective, and sculpture. In a quest for even greater realism in his art, Leonardo also studied anatomy, engineering, and other sciences.
To the left is Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa smiling enigmatically. This painting is the most sought-after art in the Louvre Museum. Leonardo da Vinci painted a properly diminished background that helped highlight his subject.
Many of the artists were inspired by Humanism. Petrarch, the Father of Humanism, believed that God created man to be creative and intelligent – humans were worth studying as their own subject. This led to the revived interest in Greek and Roman literature (now available because of trade with the Middle East) not just as counterpoints to Christian theology, but additionally as scientific, medical, philosophical, and rhetorical texts. Additionally, humanism propelled artists out of the role of anonymous craftsmen into celebrities. The most famous four artists from the Italian Renaissance are still known today as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo)!
Unsurprisingly, this chance at fame encouraged other artists to get into the patronized humanist Renaissance business, too. But not all Renaissance masterpieces were the result of patronage. The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli, was a political treatise written in dedication (and perhaps warning) to the Medicis to rule with an iron fist.
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