Continuation of lecture for History 306.

1. History of Europe:
Renaissance to 1815

2. Nature is the source of all
true knowledge. She has her
own logic, her own laws, she
has no effect without cause
nor invention without
necessity.
∼ Leonardo da Vinci

3. The Italian Renaissance
The Arts, Politics, & Civic Humanism

4. Renaissance
• Renaissance Humanism
• A “spirit of inquiry” influenced artistic development
• Painters, sculptors used
• Knowledge of anatomy, mathematical perspective
• To create convincing, realistic view of nature
• Realistic depiction of human figure in the arts
• Art focused more on worldly concerns
• Reflected the new interest in classical learning
• Enhanced the status of the individual artist

5. Renaissance
• Renaissance Patronage
• Throughout Northern Italy: City-States
• Prosperous merchants, guilds, princes
• Used their wealth to support artists,
scientists, philosophers
• Spurred on new ideas & artistic
movements
• In turn, Renaissance art glorified wealth,
power of rulers, merchant princes
• Reflected positively on individual
patrons & their city Ghirandaio’s The Confirmation of the Rule

7. Renaissance
• Michelangelo
• Long life: 1475-1564
• Worked in Florence, Rome
• Focus on art – fresco painting,
sculpture, architecture
• Recognized as a genius in his lifetime
• Mixing religion with mythology
The Crucifixion of St. Peter,
Michelangelo’s final fresco painting, located in the Vatican

8. Renaissance
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
• Epitome of the “Renaissance Man”
• Artist, inventor, scientist, student of
human form
• Apprenticed with Verrocchio in
Florence
• Learned discipline
• Importance of quality, execution in
depicting the human form
Da Vinci’s earliest known drawing: the Arno Valley, 1473

9. Renaissance
• Andrea del Verrocchio
• Number of famous artists
trained at his Florence
studio
• Including da Vinci
• Few paintings attributed to
him definitively
• Madonna with Seated Child
accepted as an early
Verrocchio
• Baptism of Christ collaboration
of Verrocchio & da Vinci

10. Renaissance
• Leonardo da Vinci
• And several other artists
• Used linear perspective
• Objects appear smaller in proportion
• As they move farther away
• Pietro Perugino’s use of perspective
• Fresco from Sistine Chapel

11. Renaissance
• Use of Perspective in Painting
• Leonardo da Vinci took this a step further
• Aerial Perspective
• Distant objects aren’t just smaller, they
are muted in color, less distinct
• The Virgin and Child with St. Anne (1510)

12. The Last Supper

13. Da Vinci’s Humanism
The Virgin of the Rocks of 1482-1483

14. Da Vinci’s Humanism
La Scapigliata (1508)
Heads of an Old Man
and a Youth (1495-1500)Da Vinci Self-Portrait

15. Renaissance
• Da Vinci: Mona Lisa
• Depicts sitter in front of imaginary landscape
• Use of aerial perspective
• Bears resemblance to depictions of Virgin Mary
• Ideal of womanhood in Renaissance

16. Renaissance
• Da Vinci’s Notebooks
• Renaissance Humanism
• Everything connected to everything else
• Didn’t separate spheres of sciences, arts
• Da Vinci (like other Renaissance artists)
engaged in multiple fields of study
• Took it to a whole new & expansive level
• Broad sphere of interest for Da Vinci

17. Renaissance
• Vitruvian Man
• Late 15th c. pen, ink, metalpoint drawing
• Exploring ideas of proportion
• Part art, part mathematical diagram
• Nude male standing in a square and circle
• Using 4 arms, 4 legs
• 16 poses simultaneously

18. Renaissance
• Vitruvian Man
• Two blocks of backwards-written text
• In the 1st (top), Leonardo notes:
• The measurements of ideal body
• According to Vetruvius, ancient
Roman author, engineer,
architect
• In the 2nd (below), describes the
model body in fractions
• Incredible detail

19. Renaissance
• Da Vinci’s Notebooks
• Anatomy & Medicine
• Corpse dissection
• Study for painting
• And medical knowledge

20. Renaissance
• Da Vinci’s Notebooks
• Engineering
Top: Flying Machine Design
Left: Applied Mechanics

21. Renaissance
• Da Vinci: Military Engineer
• Milan: applied to Sforzas
• Touting ability to deal with siege
warfare
• Venice – devised methods to
protect city from naval attack

22. Renaissance
• Da Vinci and the Borgias
• Commission from Cesare
• Son of Pope Alexander VI
• Map of city of Imola
• Cesare’s stronghold
• Maps extremely rare at time
• Hired da Vinci
• Assist in military innovations

23. Florence & the Medici Family

24. Renaissance
• The Republic of Florence
• 12 artist guilds regulated trades
• Formed basis for city’s commercial success
• 12th c: Florentines overthrew the royal ruler
• Established a republic
• Governed by a council called the Signoria
• Every two months, guild members elected a
governor or gonfaloniere
• Who appointed members to the Signoria
• By 1425, population of 60,000

25. Renaissance
• The Republic of Florence
• Important guilds: textiles, esp. wool
• Much of the process done in Florence
• Creating jobs & vibrant merchant economy
• Not a port city – sea trade not key to its economic
success
• Many families of Florence were bankers
• Reputation throughout Europe
• Florentine gold florin: standard coinage in Europe

26. Renaissance
• The House of Medici
• Florence family from 12th century
• 13th c.: 1st attained wealth & political power
• Through success in commerce, banking
• From 1434, support for arts & humanities
• Made Florence into cradle of the Renaissance
• Cultural rival to ancient Greece
• Produced key members of early modern Europe
• 4 popes & numerous royal families

27. Renaissance
• The House of Medici
• Notable contributions to the Renaissance
• Financed
• Invention of the piano and the opera
• Funded notable architectural projects
• St. Peter’s Basilica, Santa Maria del Fiore
• Patrons of Da Vinci, Michelangelo,
Machiavelli, Galileo

28. Renaissance
• The House of Medici: Banking
• Moved from Rome to Florence in 1397
• Branches opened in Rome, Venice, Genoa
• Later expansion throughout Europe
• London, Pisa, Avignon, Bruges, Milan, Lübeck
• One of the most prosperous & respected
institutions in Europe
• During bank’s successful years, Medici family
among wealthiest in Europe

29. Renaissance
• The Medici Bank
• Among the earliest to use general ledger system
of accounting
• Through development of double-entry
bookkeeping
• System used for tracking debits and credits
• Bank branches throughout Europe
• Geographic decentralization
• But also legal and financial decentralization

30. Renaissance
• The Medici
• Giovanni de’Medici (1360-1429)
• Founded the Medici Bank, using wealth from
the woolen trade
• Largest, most respected bank in 15th c. Europe
• Early supporter of arts in Florence
• Served on panels to choose artists for major
building projects
• Contributed to funding

31. Renaissance
• Cosimo de’Medici: (1389-1464)
• A political dynasty
• Pretended to have no political ambition
• Tremendous political power, not absolute
• Florence proud of its “democracy”
• Florence’s legislative councils were a check
• At times
• “First Among Equals” – but bought votes
“Political questions are settled in [Cosimo’s] house. The man
he chooses holds office… He it is who decides peace and
war… He is king in all but name.”
Aeneas Sylvius, Bishop of Siena

32. Renaissance
• Cosimo de’Medici
• Vast fortune also used for arts, patronage
• Enriching civic life of Florence
"All those things have given me the greatest
satisfaction and contentment because they are not
only for the honor of God but are likewise for my
own remembrance. For fifty years, I have done
nothing else but earn money and spend money;
and it became clear that spending money gives me
greater pleasure than earning it."

33. Renaissance
• Cosimo de’Medici
• Renaissance flourished under Cosimo
• And next two generations
• Especially Lorenzo the Magnificent
• Sponsored orators, poets, philosophers
• Culture and the Arts
• Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatella, Fra
Angelico

34. Renaissance• Cosimo de’Medici
• Concept of civic duty
• Sponsored orators, poets, philosophers
• Culture and the Arts
• Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatella
• Fra Angelico
• Architecture
• Palazzo Medici
Renaissance

35. Renaissance
• Cosimo de’Medici
• Palazzo Medici
• Magi Chapel
• Frescoes
• Gozzoli
Procession of the Magi

36. Renaissance
• Cosimo de’Medici
• Founded 1st “public” library in Florence
• Grounds of Dominican convent of San Marco
• Prototype of Renaissance libraries
• Not for the general public, controlled who
could use
• But scholars used old manuscripts, newly
printed books
• And helped preserve works of ancient
learning

37. Renaissance
• Cosimo de’Medici
• Cosimo grew to love the Humanist movement
• Financed humanist scholars in preserving books
• Sponsored effort to renew Greek, Roman
civilization
• Especially through literature
• Including collection of books

38. Renaissance
• Lorenzo de’Medici
• Grandson of Cosimo de Medici
• Used cultural works as propaganda even
more than predecessors
• Funded public art school
• Supported both de Vinci and Michelangelo
• Allowed public to enjoy the brilliance of the art
works

39. Renaissance
• Lorenzo de’Medici
• Adoration of the Magi by
Boticelli
• Used members of Medici
family as the Wise Men
• Other generations also
appear

40. Renaissance
• Lorenzo de’Medici
• Less attention to banking business, more on expanding influence
• Especially in the Church
• Bought son Giovanni position of a Cardinal
• As money dwindled, social influence weakened
• Rise of the monk Savonarola, critic of Lorenzo and humanism in general
• Dominican friar with puritanical fanaticism

41. Renaissance
• Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498)
• Dominican friar, arrived in Florence in 1480s
• Dismayed by corruption & lack of morals
• By 1492, preaching fiery, apocalyptic sermons
• By 1493, increasing number of followers
• In 1494, Charles VIII of France led army into
northern Italy
• Many saw as confirmation of Savonarola’s
prophesy

42. Renaissance
• Savonarola
• In 1493, denounced Renaissance art
• Nude art, pagan themes
• Called for Christian renewal
• Destruction of secular art, culture
• Disapproved of jokes, fun, sex (esp.
homosexuality), gambling etc.
• Urged laws prohibiting festivals, carnivals
Illustration from Compendio di revelatione, 1496, by
Savonarola

43. Renaissance
• Savonarola (1452-1498)
• People of Florence fell under his spell
• Formed political party, exiled the Medicis
• Embraced his campaign to rid the city of vice
• New laws passed to forbid sodomy, adultery, public drunkenness
• Street urchins served as “spies” to find luxurious, suspect items
Italian Renaissance Medal of Girolamo Savonarola

44. Renaissance
• Savonarola and Bonfire of the Vanities
• Beginning 1495 – street burnings of
• Packs of cards, gaming tables
• Carnival masks, mirrors, ornaments
• Nude statues, indecent books & pictures
• Musical instruments & ancient texts

45. Renaissance
• Savonarola’s Fall
• Church officials noticed his influence
• Disdain for Church excesses
• Especially of Pope Alexander V I
• Final straw: Florence declined Pope’s call
• To join forces to fight against French invasion
• 1497 – Pope excommunicated Savonarola
• Trial by Fire – Savonarola lost support of Florence
• Executed in Florence in 1498

46. Renaissance
“If Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus had been unarmed
they could not have enforced their constitutions for long—as
happened in our time to Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who was
ruined with his new order of things immediately the
multitude believed in him no longer, and he had no means of
keeping steadfast those who believed or of making the
unbelievers to believe.”
~ Niccolò Machievelli,
The Prince, 16th c. political treatise

47. Renaissance
• Return of the Medicis
• Giovanni de’Medici
• Became Pope Leo X in 1513
• Rebuilt the wealth of the Medici family
• Spent lavishly on art, on charities, family
• Drove papacy into debt within 2 years
• Sale of indulgences, selling of Church
positions
Raphael’s portrait of Pope Leo X, center; to the left is his cousin,
Giulio de’Medici, later Pope Clement VII

48. The Renaissance Outside Florence

49. Renaissance
• Spread of Renaissance Ideals
• From Florence to
• 1st the nearby states of Tuscany such
as Sienna, Lucca
• Tuscan culture became model for
Northern Italian states
• Tuscan dialect became standard
throughout region
• Especially in literature

50. Renaissance
• Rome under Pope Nicholas V
• Rome poor, largely in ruins
• Beginning in 1447, Nicholas V:
• Launched gigantic rebuilding effort
• Defense walls repaired, palaces built, churches repaired
• Carried out work on St. Peter’s & the Vatican
• Preservation of buildings of ancient Rome

51. Renaissance
• Rome
• Papacy fell under control of wealthy families
• Such as the Medici and the Borgias
• Spirit of Renaissance dominated the Vatican
• Part of reestablishing papal supremacy
• Sixtus IV, member of Della Rovere family
• 1471: Founded world’s oldest public art collection
• Increased holdings of Vatican library, made public
• Rebuilt Sistine Chapel (named after him)
Ponte Sisto, first bridge built at Rome since Roman Empire, 1470s

52. Renaissance
• By beginning of 16th c.
• Rome the center of the
High Renaissance
• Pope Julius II
• Patronage of the Arts