constitutional oligarchies despotisms Map Link: Renaissance Italy: <http://media.maps.com/magellan/Images/WRLH066-H.gif> Map Link: Europe during the 15th Century: <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/europe_15th_ colbeck.jpg>
Signoria (Council of 9 Guildsmen), incl. “Standard Bearer of Justice” 1283 Merchants of Florence exclude nobles from public office 1402 Florentines defeat Duke of Milan Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464) Albizzi
Fall 1434 Pro-Medici signoria elected. Albizzi and supporters exiled Building power Patronage: Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) Donatello (c. 1386-1466) Cicero (106-43 BC)
Piero “the Gouty” (1416-69) Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-92) Patronage, e.g. Michelangelo (1475-1564) Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510)
Pope Sixtus IV (p. 1471-84) Volterra alum 26th April 1478 Pazzi attempt to kill Lorenzo at Cathedral of Florence excommunication interdict Council of Seventy
Why was Italy (and particularly Florence) the cradle of the Renaissance?
Humanism: Attempt to understand world and human condition through Classical tradition Imitating example of the Classical past, to learn art of civilised living Rejecting medieval scholasticism. Concern with applied wisdom
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) The Divine Comedy (1321) Inferno Purgatorio Paradiso 1290s Involved in politics 1302 Exiled from Florence
Francesco Petrarch (1304-74) Poet and promoter of Latin texts Advocate of study original Classical Latin Seeker of forgotten Latin texts
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75) Writer and diplomat Advocate of study of Classical Greek Decameron (completed 1358)
Isotta Nogarola of Verona (1418-66) “Why then was I born a woman, to be scorned by men in words and deeds?” Guarino da Verona: Set your gender aside and create “a man within the woman.”
1450s Isotta corresponds with Ludovico Foscarini, leading to… Dialogue on Adam and Eve Oration on the Life of St Jerome Lauro Quirini praised her for overcoming her “own nature. For that true virtue, which is essentially male, you have sought with singular zeal.”
Patronage: Giving artists freedom to work Church as major patron from 15th c. Religious and Classical themes
Giotto di Bondone (c. 1266-1337) Scenes from the Life of Christ: 20. Lamentation (1304-6) Fresco Realism Emotion Perspective
Masaccio (“Messy One”, a.k.a. Tommaso Guidi, Lo Scheggia [“The Splinter”], 1401-c. 1428) Trinity (1425-28) chiaroscuro (contrast of light and shade)
Sandro Botticelli (c. 1444-1510) The Birth of Venus (c. 1485) Classical themes
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Self-Portrait (c. 1512) Vitruvian Man (1492) Virgin of the Rocks (1483-86) – sfumato (“smoky”) Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) (c. 1503-5)
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) The Creation of Adam (c. 1510) Nudes Sistine Chapel Julius II (p. 1503-13)
Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) Madonna della Seggiola (Madonna of the Chair, 1516) The School of Athens (1509)
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-c. 1652) Judith Beheading Holofernes (1611-12)
Neoplatonism Michelangelo The Pietà (1498-99) Donatello (1386-1466) David (c. 1430)
Donato Bramante (1444-1514) St Peter’s Basilica, Rome Tempietto, Rome Pythagoras (6th c. BC) Giovanni Palestrina (c. 1525-94) Super Flumina Babylonis
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94) Kabbalah Free will as means to great good or evil Possibility of rising to angelic near-divinity
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Born in Florence. Humanist education Politician and ambassador 1512 Machiavelli forced to retire The Prince Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy History of Florence
The End of the Renaissance: Economic decline: Ottomans, New World trade, competing producers/merchants Wars: Death, destruction, economic damage Results: reduction in patronage, lack of stable environment for artistic activity