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Renaissance and Humanism

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Renaissance

Origins: A Historiographical Analysis

The problem of explaining the clustering of so many outstandingly creative individuals in this
period – as in the case of ancient Greece and Rome – is one which has concerned
historians since the Renaissance itself. The humanist Leonardo Bruni believed that politics
was the key to the problem. Like Tacitus, he thought that the end of the Roman Republic had
meant the decline of Roman culture. ‘After the Republic had been subjected to the power of
a single head, those outstanding minds vanished, as Tacitus says.’ Conversely, he
suggested (at least by implication) that the literary achievements of the Florentines were the
result of their liberty.1 A hundred years later, Machiavelli remarked that letters flourish in a
society later than arms; first come the captains, then the philosophers.

It was only in the eighteenth century, however, that what contemporaries called the ‘history
of manners’, which more or less coincides with what we describe as cultural and social
history, became the object of systematic study. Voltaire, for example, tried to shift the
attention of historians from wars to the arts. His Essay on Manners (1756) made the point –
in language not unlike Vasari’s – that the sixteenth century was a time when ‘nature
produced extraordinary men in almost all fields, above all in Italy’.

Enlightenment writers offered essentially two explanations for this phenomenon: liberty and
opulence.Lord Shaftesbury explained the ‘revival of painting’ by the ‘civil liberty, the free
states of Italy as Venice, Genoa and then Florence. A common Enlightenment view was that
liberty encouraged commerce, while commerce encouraged culture. As Charles Burney, the
historian of music, put it, the arts were "companions, if if not products, of successful
commerce".

Discussing the Renaissance, Hegel suggested that the flowering of the arts, the revival of
learning and the discovery of America were three related instances of spiritual expansion.
Karl Marx was also interested in the place of the Renaissance in world history. Rejecting
Hegel’s emphasis on consciousness (‘life is not determined by consciousness, but
consciousness by life’), he returned to the eighteenth-century concern with the relation
between the arts and the economy, though he showed more interest than Ferguson or even
Adam Smith in the precise relationship between material production and what he called
‘cultural production’

Jacob Burckhardt’s famous study of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, first
published in 1860 and still influential, stands in a long tradition of attempts to relate culture to
society. Like Voltaire, he emphasized the importance for Renaissance culture of the wealth
and freedom of the towns of northern Italy. His study, as Peter Burke suggests, along with
the works of most Marxist scholars of the time, did not place enough emphasis on the
economy of the period and the art of thee Renaissance.

Another attempt was made in the 1930s to fill the gap between the social and cultural history
of the Renaissance by Alfred von Martin. Like Burckhardt, von Martin was concerned with
the themes of individualism and the origins of modernity, but he placed much more emphasis

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than Burckhardt on the economic basis of the Renaissance and its ‘curve of development’
through time. Alfred von Martin’s Renaissance is a ‘bourgeois revolution’

Frederick Antal’s Florentine Painting and its Social Background (1947). Is another attempt at
the study of the origins of Renaissance. It starts with a vivid contrast between two
Madonnas, hanging side by side in the National Gallery in London, both of them painted
between 1425 and 1426, one by Masaccio and the other by Gentile da Fabriano. Antal went
on to explain the differences by the fact that the works were intended for ‘different sections of
the public’, more exactly different social classes, with different worldviews. Antal however,
uses anachronistic terms such as "class" to describe 15th century Florence.

The most powerful critique of the Marxist approach has come from Sir Ernst Gombrich, who
argued that the formation of the modern world was based on physical science, and hence the belief
that Renaissance helped create a modern world cannot be accepted. Other scholars, like Gombrich,
not only reject the importance given to the Renaissance, but also contend that there never was any
such thing as the Renaissance

A more political explanation of the Renaissance has been put forward by Hans Baron. He argued that,
around the year 1400, Florentines suddenly became aware of their collective identity and of the
unique characteristics of their society. This awareness led them to identify with the great republics of
the ancient world, Athens and Rome, and this identification with antiquity led in turn to major
changes in their culture.

While different perspectives have sought to understand the origins of the Renaissance, Peter Burke
argues for a pluralistic approach which attempts to test the broader theories, old and new, and to
weave empirical studies into a general synthesis..

Social and Economic Base

In Italy, feudalism was not strong enough and centralised. Amd though it had been the
centre of the Roman Empire, it had never witnessed parcellized sovereignty and
fragmentation of land. Northern and central Italy had an exceptionally large number of towns
where urban life was very sophisticated compared to the rest of Europe. Italy thus developed
a polity based on city states. During the 9th and 10th century, the “commune” gave birth to
city-states, whose economy was based on trade and commerce, and never lost its urban
character. As communes got political autonomy, it got charters to substantiate and legalise
this autonomy. Smaller city states or “contado” rose from the commune, and thus, the city
state became the absolute political authority.
The communes which developed was both the cause and effect to a loose centric polity.

As in Roman times, the mediaeval Italian town lived in close relation to its surrounding rural
area, or contado; Italian city folk seldom relinquished their ties to the land from which they
and their families had sprung. The most powerful groups living in these communes were
Grandi, the older elites and the Popolo, the new emerging elites. Various councils were also
emerging at this point like the Council Signoria, oligarchy of nobles or Grandi’. Popolo were
of two types: the Popoplo Grasso (wealthy elites with strong guild backing) and Popolo

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Minuti (artists without guild support). The office of Podesta also rose which was a contractual
post given to non-citizens to protect the cities.

In Italy, growing towns demanded self-rule and developed into city-states. Each city
consisted of a powerful city and the surrounding towns and countryside. Italian city-states
conducted their own trade, collected their own taxes, and made their own laws. Some
city-states, such as Florence, were governed by an elected council. During the Renaissance
groups of guild members, called boards, often ruled Italian city-states. Some wealthy
families gained long-term control; city-states were ruled by a single family, such as the
Medicis.

Polity and Society

The principal social groups particularly in Florence consisted of three categories. At the top
of the social strata were the ‘first citizens’ or the nobli/prinicpali who monopolised the political
power and kept all the principal posts to themselves. Members of this group were well
educated and travelled and usually lived in the urban spaces. Below the nobli were the
people of modest wealth- the mezzani or populari, the bakers, wine-sellers, artsits, lawyers
and civil servants. They however, functioned within guilds and these guilds had their own
distinction and gradation. The top guilds were of cloth merchants (calimala), wool
manufacturers (arte della lana), silk manufacturers (arte della seta) and bankers (cambio)
were monopolised by the grandi. The mezzani were decently educated and the propertied
classes though their participation in the government was limited. The lowest strata consisted
of the poor- the poveri, who also made up the masses. Many of them were domestic
servants or manual workers and some of them also worked in the guild of cloth
manufacturers. They were excluded from political power.
In the late 14th century, there were five important city states- Milan, Venice, Florence, Papal
states and Naples. In 1454 the Peace of Lodi was the first peace treaty signed between
these five city states which organised them into a loose diplomatic alliance. The Lega Italica
was a collective defence which would be formed when other city states were attack. This
was significant as a situation was created where no individual ruler could assert complete
political authority over the other city states. The presence of many city states led to a
cultural and political competition between them. For Denys Hay, it was polity of the Italian
city states that acted as a stimulus for cultural change. It resulted in cultural and intellectual
diversity fuelled by patronage and a competition among the nobli to hire the best people for
the development of their cities.
If we observe political structures of the city states we note that the autonomy of cities and
towns varied from state to state. Towns might have a considerable degree of independence,
for the region was a loose confederation of some hundreds of different political units, some
of them independent cities. But all cities and towns possessed certain shared characteristics:
collective authority exercised by a group which was selected or elected, and not hereditary.
Political historians of the19th century saw in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the
emergence of phenomenon of ‘modern’ nation states with a bureaucracy, secular values in
public policy and balance of power. Peter Burke referred to it as the ushering in of a modern
age. We shall look at briefly, the history of these city states.
Venice was an important coastal trading centre. Being a republic, it controlled other regions
like Verona, Padua, etc. By the 14th century, the Popolo mercantile faction ruled the city. The
Venetian constitution was celebrated for its stability and balance, thanks to the mixture of

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elements from the three main types of government, with the doge representing monarchy,
the Senate aristocracy, and the Great Council democracy. The doge had little power, though
he appeared on the coins and outward respect was paid to him. However, Peter Burke calls
this ‘balance’ to be a myth and says that the state had its own share of conflict between
these three power groups.
Florence, the “birthplace of the Renaissance” controlled small city states like Pizza and its
polity can also be recognised as a republic. By the 14th century, the Medici banking family
established firm control of the state. Cosimo de Medici was an early leader and Pope Leo X
also came from the Medicis. However, Florence was witness to political instability and Burke
compares its political system to the dystopia portrayed in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Offices in
Florence rotated more rapidly than those in Venice, the chief magistrates, or Signoria, were
in office for only two months at a time. The minority of Florentines involved in politics was
much larger than in Venice, with more than 6,000 citizens eligible for the chief magistracies
alone.
Milan was the primary trading route to France and Germany. Before the 14th century, the
Visconti family protected Milan. Francesco Sforza who was hired as Podesta later turned
despotic and the office of Podesta became hereditary. Its primary rival was Venice.
Papal states had their capital in Rome and emerged from a feudal pontifical setup. The pope
was the supreme nominal head but local dukes and nobles also used to rule. During the 14th
century, the Pope had to leave Rome and the centre of the Papacy was in France, called the
Avignon Papacy. From 1378 to 1417 there was the Great Schism, during which multiple
Pope rose, it was only in the fifteenth century that the Papacy was regained.
Naples was the most targeted area of foreign attack and was organised on feudal lines and
had a hereditary monarchy.
In smaller states like Ferrara, Mantua and Urbino, the key institution was the court and
Norbert Elias's pioneering work on the court culture gives us a key understanding to the
roots of the Renaissance. Courts numbered hundreds of people: in 1527 the papal court, for
example, was about 700 strong. From this point of view, the small circle surrounding Lorenzo
de'Medici, the first citizen of a republic, does not qualify for the title of 'court' at all. This court
population was extremely heterogeneous, and ran from great nobles holding offices such as
constable, chamberlain, steward or master of the horse, through lesser courtiers such as
gentlemen of the bedchamber, secretaries and pages right down to servants. There were
also artists, musicians and sculptors who were patronised by the court.
The court served two functions- public, where it was the seat of administration and private,
where it was the household of the prince. If the ruler decided to move, an entrouge, which
Burke describes as big as a small town would follow him. The cultural importance of the
court as an institution was that it brought together a number of gentlemen — and ladies — of
leisure. It was crucial to what Elias calls 'the civilizing process'. Like elegant manners, an
interest in art and literature developed and showed the difference between the nobility and
ordinary people. Courts existed all over Europe, and there were city-states, in practice if not
always in strict political theory, in Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. Courts followed
their own decorum, and patronage on the behalf of the scholars was seen as important
according to the records of Baldassare Castiglione.

The Italian historian Federico Chabod asked, 'Was there a Renaissance state?' which he
answered in the affirmative and pointed it to the rise of the bureaucracy. Max Weber
substantiates this with his argument of a patrimonial or bureaucratic state. In brief, a
bureaucratic state is formal, impersonal, where a public space is demarcated and marked by

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professionals where merit is the base of promotion and is based on a system of division of
labour and law and reason. Some states due to urbanisation and presence of organisations
like the Catholic Church were bureaucratic in nature. There was an institutional means of
preventing officials confusing public and private to their own advantage: the sindacato. When
an official's term of office expired in Florence, Milan and Naples, he had to remain behind
until his activities had been investigated by special commissioners or 'syndics'. It was in
Renaissance Italy that diplomacy first became specialized and professionalized (Mattingly,
1955). The importance of written records in administration was increasing. The most striking
examples of the collection of information come from the censuses, notably the Florentine
catasto of 1427, dealing with every individual under the rule of the Florentine Signoria.

However, Burke points out that this state though bureaucratic, still ran on loyalty and
personal favour. At the court of Rome, official positions were regularly sold, especially in the
reign of Leo X, and the department of the Datary grew up to deal with this business. Offices
were also sold in the states of Milan and Naples. In Venice, for example, some offices were
bought, sold and given as dowries. Thus, it was important to have connections with the right
people at this time, like the Medicis who received countless letters from people who wanted
to gain their support.

Many of the political conflicts of the time were struggles between rival 'factions', in other
words between groups of patrons and clients. Local rivalries continued to give some
substance to the venerable party terms 'Guelf (originally a supporter of the pope) and
'Ghibelline' (a supporter of the emperor) as late as the sixteenth century. The patronage of
artists and writers formed part of this wider system. The fact that the two great republics,
Florence and Venice, were the cities where most artists and writers originated leads Burke to
argue that the arts flourished in these republics since they are organized on the principle of
competition. One might also expect this drive to be stronger in Florence, where the system
was more open, than in Venice, where major public offices were virtually monopolized by the
nobility. In republics there was civic patronage, at its most vigorous in Florence in the early
fifteenth century, when artisans still participated in the government, and Brunelleschi was
elected to one of the highest offices, that of 'prior', in 1425. Civic patronage was weaker in
the later fifteenth century and weaker in Venice than in Florence.

Looking at the social structure of the time, a few factors need to be taken into account- the
population was low in the city-states. Only Naples and Venice had populations crossing
100,000. There were strong ties to the local part of town individuals were from, the village
and neighbourhood became very important. Official impersonality was hindered by the fact
that citizens might know officials in their private roles. Renaissance Florence seems in some
ways more like a village than a city, in the sense that so many of the artists and writers with
whom we are concerned knew one another, often intimately.
However, there was great disparity with regard to income and distribution of wealth. Peter
Burke illustrates how the servant received only 40 lire and the Venetian cardinal, 140,000
lire. Burke questions if the society was bourgeoisie or not.
The literature of Renaissance Italy suggests a society which was unusually concerned with
social mobility. Individual cases of upward mobility are striking. Nicholas V, the so-called
'humanist pope', lived in poverty in his student days, although he was the son of a
professional man, a physician. Bartolommeo della Scala was a miller's son who became
chancellor of Florence. There was considerable interest in ancient Greek and Roman

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examples of men of humble origins rising to high place. However, this theory has been
contested by later American scholars and Burke also accounts that the evidence is indeed
fragmentary at this stage. All the same there are good reasons for asserting that social
mobility was relatively high in the cities of fifteenth-century Italy, and above all in early
fifteenth-century Florence, with 'new men' coming in from the countryside and becoming
citizens and holding office which alarmed the old nobility. By the later fifteenth century,
however, the ranks had closed. In Venice itself there was little opportunity for new men to
enter the patriciate throughout the period, whatever mobility there may have been at lower
levels.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Italy was one of the most highly urban societies in
Europe. In 1550, about 40 Italian towns had a population of 10,000 or more. Of these, about
20 had a population of 25,000 or more, including Milan, Rome, Venice and Naples. In the
rest of Europe, from Lisbon to Moscow, there were probably no more than another 20 towns
of this size. It must not be assumed that all these townsmen were bourgeois. Renaissance
Florence and other cities rested on the backs of what contemporaries called the popolo
minuto, the 'labouring classes'. All the same, the relative importance of Italian towns is
obviously linked with the relative importance of merchants, professional men, craftsmen and
shop-keepers. All these groups are sometimes called 'bourgeois'; none of them fits the
traditional model of a society divided into clergy, nobles and peasants. Machiavelli is a
master of political calculation, but he expressed contempt for Florence as a city governed by
shop-keepers and he described himself as 'unable to talk about gains and losses, about the
silk-guild or the wool-guild'.

There are other links between the social structure of Renaissance Italy and its art and
literature. The importance of the lineage and the value set upon its cohesion, in noble and
patrician circles at least, helps explain the importance of the family chapel and its tombs, the
focus of a kind of ancestor worship. Large sums of money were spent on palaces partly
because they were a symbol of the greatness of the 'house' in the sense of the family. On
the other hand, a breakdown of the cohesiveness of the extended family may well have
encouraged Renaissance 'individualism'. The idea of patronage was a very important

aspect of the Renaissance, which was often motive driven. Guilds, nobles, municipality and
churches were important patrons. There were two kinds of systems of patronage- scholars
and artists who could work generally on a regular basis for the patron, and creative artist and
scholars like da Vinci who had to be hired.

There were two interesting trends noticed in the arts. One was classism wherein, classical
knowledge, that is from Greco-Roman texts was taken as the highest form of knowledge,
and the Classical form was also imbibed in the painting style and structure. There was also a
move, called scholasticism which brought in Christian theology- logic was applied in the
manner prescribed by the Aristotelian school and became a form of studies.

The ambiguous status of the painter, the musician and even, to some extent, of the humanist
are special cases of a more general problem: that of finding a place in the social structure for
everyone who was not a priest, warrior or peasant. If the status of the artist was ambiguous,
so was that of the merchant. It is probably no mere coincidence that it was in cities of
shop-keepers, Florence in particular, that the artist was accepted most easily. It was easier
for the artist to excel with the right patronage. Thus, it is no surprise to find a relatively

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mobile society like Florence associated with respect for achievement and also with a high
degree of creativity.

Economy: Robert Lopez was the earliest writer to see economic and cultural growth as an
inverse thesis, and said due to economic stagnation between 1350s to 1520s, wealth was
distributed equally. Long distance trade declined, and the only option that was there was to
develop culture through patronage of art and architecture to gain status. Carlo Cippolla also
agrees that trade and commerce was on the decline bur he criticises Lopez on basing his
argument on limited sources. Centres like Florence didn’t experience decline, and hence, it
want a general decline, he believed that it was a decline in population and hence,
demographic factors which led to an increase in the standard of living.

Economic changes were integral to these states in bringing about a new and changing
context for the cultural movement. There was a commercial revolution in economy with the
destruction of the old feudal system and the emergence of a new elite based on wealth
rather than birth. Social and economic changes were a necessary prelude to the
Renaissance. These changes can be seen as part of the great expansion of 1000-1300,
which was accompanied by the monetarization of the economy, commercialization and
growth of industry. The leading sectors in development after the11th century were towns,
and international trade. In the 13th century, much of Europe experienced strong economic
growth. By the 15th century, cities such as Florence and Venice had achieved material and
artistic sophistication. According to Hale, the Italian economy began to decline starting even
in the14th century when there was a decline of communes, establishment of signori, decline
in social life, alienation of classes from public administration, political adherences and
favoring of tradition over merit and initiative. In fact, as Hale explains, that the second half of
the16th century was called the Indian Summer of the Italian economy.

We now look briefly at what were the elements that led to the commercial revolution. The
principle factor was the emergence of commerce and banking. In the13th century states like
Piacenza and Lucca took the lead in establishing business connections. The travelling
merchant was replaced by the sedentary businessman who operated through agents. By
1300, Italian mercantile and banking companies were set up all across Europe in cities like
Paris. Italy became the birthplace of innovations in business techniques, organization of
fairs, manuals of commerce, techniques of accounting, check, double entry book-keeping,
joint stock companies, systematized foreign exchange market governmental endorsement
and marine and land insurance. There were other financial devices also like arrangements
for sharing profits with partners or depositors, accounting systems, letters of exchange etc.
There was an efficient system of mail with the use of private and company letters and
couriers for contact and notarized agreements. There was a building up of uniform customs
and rules of law as the spread of Italian business methods took place all over Levant and
Western Europe. The existence of these institutions encouraged a mode of thought
characterised by numerate mentality.

As a result, banking became an Italian specialty. The leading firms were Bardi, Peruzzi,
Naples etc. Banking and credit were the most rewarding forms of investment. Credit
operations included loans to government; bankers came to dominate business of exchange
in 16th century Europe. There were also communal pawnshops, which could borrow and
lend money with the pay of a regular interest. Florence also had something called a dowry

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fund where the investor received money back with interest on marriage of daughter. It was
also possible to insure against loss of ships in Venice especially. In Genoa on the wife’s
death in childbirth.

We now turn attention to trade which was integral to urban revolution. The Crusades had
built lasting trade links to the Levant, and the Fourth Crusade had done much to destroy the
Byzantine Empire as a commercial rival to the Venetians and Genoese. The main trade
routes from the east passed through the Byzantine Empire or the Arab lands and onwards to
the ports of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. Luxury goods bought in the Levant, such as spices,
dyes, and silks were imported to Italy and then resold throughout Europe. From France,
Germany, and the Low Countries, through the medium of the Champagne fairs, land and
river trade routes brought goods such as wool, wheat, and precious metals into the region.
The extensive trade that stretched from Egypt to the Baltic generated substantial surpluses
that allowed significant investment in mining and agriculture. Thus, while northern Italy was
not richer in resources than many other parts of Europe, the level of development, stimulated
by trade, allowed it to prosper. The trade routes of the Italian states linked with those of
established Mediterranean ports and eventually the Hanseatic League of the Baltic and
northern regions of Europe created a network economy in Europe for the first time since the
4th century. Florence became the centre of this financial industry and the gold florin became
the main currency of international trade.

Towns were the main center of the commercial revolution as urban life contributed to
commerce. Cities and towns were centers of wealth production and of creativity. In the 10th
century the first mercantile towns such as Bari came up. By the end of the 11th century, the
crusades led to the development of maritime cities of Northern Italy, Venice Pisa and Genoa
who were engaged in trade with areas like the eastern Mediterranean which brought wealth
to towns Expenditure was not just a personal matter; it was a matter of corporate status as
well. In the towns that emerged we look at the importance of new families from among
wealthy merchant bankers and industrialists who dominated the city’s politics. The new
mercantile governing class, who gained their position through financial skill, adapted to their
purposes the feudal aristocratic model that had dominated Europe in the Middle Ages. In
much of the region, the landed nobility was poorer than the urban patriarchs in the High
Medieval money economy whose inflationary rise left land-holding aristocrats impoverished.
The decline of feudalism and the rise of cities influenced each other; for example, the
demand for luxury goods led to an increase in trade, which led to greater numbers of
tradesmen becoming wealthy, who, in turn, demanded more luxury goods
The siting of the major urban centers of Renaissance Italy owed a good deal to the
communication system inherited partly from nature and partly from ancient Rome, Genoa,
Venice, Rimini, Pesaro, Naples, Palermo. Rivers were the easiest way to move goods so
towns along the rivers grew as important trade centers also. The Danube, Rhone and Rhine
rivers all became important trade routes and the towns along their banks grew. The towns
also developed in response to demands from other places for which services were
performed. In pre-industrial Europe, Burke distinguishes three types of service and city. The
first kind is a commerce city with a port, like Venice. The second is a craft-industrial town,
like Milan or Florence. The third is a service city, which is most profitable.

The fact that towns were larger and more numerous in Italy than elsewhere does a good
deal to explain the importance in the social structure of the different 'middle classes', such as

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the craftsmen, merchants and lawyers. Once established, towns were able to maintain their
position by their economic policies. Cities generally controlled the countryside around them,
their contado, and they might enforce at the expense of the countryside a policy of cheap
food for their own inhabitants. The contado was also forced to pay more than its share of tax,
which must have been an incentive for the more prosperous peasants to migrate to the city.
Citizens also enjoyed legal and political privileges which inhabitants of the countryside
lacked.

There was a lot of migratory movement of population, with an influx from rural areas. The
reason for this was attraction and repulsion; the “frontier” was a new and dynamic world
which could break ties with an unpleasant past and had opportunities for economic and
social success. The town would fill with people who left the feudal world without regret. The
walls of the town became a boundary between two cultures in conflict. The cities controlled
the countryside around them, their Contado, at the expense of the country. The Contado
paid more than its share of taxes which became an incentive for prosperous peasants to
migrate. Citizens had political and legal privilege which inhabitants of the country lacked.
Pregnant women from Lycca would travel to the city so that their children would be born in
city.

Despite the growing importance of grain imports urban structure rested on foundation of
agriculture particularly the fertile Po valley. By 1500, 85% of land between Pavia and
Cremona was under cultivation. Dairy farming was becoming important. South of Po valley
picture is less rosy. By 14th and 15th centuries it was going out of cultivation with 10 %
villages disappearing. Southern agriculture was in decline and the landlords abandoned
estates to the managers’ care in order to settle down in the towns. Economic oragnisation in
the towns, according to Burke, remained traditional with small workshop within a family
business. Economic oragnisation within towns was usually through guilds. Within the guild,
masters protected their position against apprentices and journeymen; the very small scale of
most industry facilitated this kind of control. Relationships between guilds were also far from
equal. Merchants belonged to elite guilds whose economic power was protected by the
urban government (which of course they constituted) or the state; artisans belonged to less
prestigious guilds which had far less stake in urban government and whose activities were
closely overseen by the urban magistrates.
One important question discussed by Burke is whether the economy is capitalist. There were
rich entrepreneurs like Averardo Di Bicci De Medici which showed that it was possible to
accumulate wealth. As in some leading industries like cloth many workers were employed
who were no longer independent craftsmen. There was a division of labour of the most
highly developed kind involving men who were paid by day. In Genoa and Lucca, silk
merchants provided raw material and spinning machines which were hired out to spinners
and looms to weavers. This system was different from the industrial capitalism of the 19th
century as it was not large scale and lacked direct control of manufacturer but it was clear
that the manufacturer played a central role in the control by indirect means.

According to Peter Burke, In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, a number of
citystates lost their independence, and in the 1340s Italians, like people elsewhere in Europe
and in the Middle East, were hit by slump and plague. However, the tradition of the urban

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way of life and of an educated laity survived and was central to the Renaissance, a minority
movement that probably meant little or nothing to the majority of the population

Renaissance in Italy sprang from the urban environment that existed in the cities of northern
and central Italy. These regions had an exceptionally large number of towns where life was
very dynamic. The principal social group, particularly in Florence, consisted of three
categories
■ The first citizens or nobli/grandi - at the top of the social strata who
monopolised political power and kept all the principal official posts under
them. They were well-educated, widely travelled, experienced, and lived in
magnificent houses
■ Men of moderate means or mezzani/populari - shopkeepers, bakers, wine
sellers, teachers, etc. they functioned within respective guilds like the guilds
of cloth merchants (the calimala) and the bankers (the cambio). They were a
propertied class of people but their participation in government functioning
was extremely limited.
■ The poor people or the masses called Poveri - lowest strata, consisted of
domestic servants and manual workers. They were almost excluded from
political power.
■ The upper section of the society brought about the Renaissance and quite
often the wealth was provided by the second category.
The Italian Renaissance was also the product of a century of civic autonomy. The peace treaty
of Lodi (1454) created a situation in which no individual ruler could assert complete political
authority over any other city states. At the same time, no individual could fall prey to an
aggressor. This was an important factor in the development of the Renaissance.
■ It led to a remarkable diversity of cultural and intellectual activities and
provided multiple sources of patronage, and a constant competition to hire
the most talented people to work for the development of their own cities.
■ This competition also elevated the standards of perfection and flooded the
Italian cities with personalities of high reputation.
Economic growth laid the material basis for the Italian Renaissance. For centuries Italy had
been an important region for business and manufacturing. The italian merchants,
particularly in Florence, possessed a large reservoir of liquid capitals for investment which
was utilized in real estate, trading, and even on art projects.
■ The continuous warfare among the Italian state also created a demand for
military and hydraulic engineers. The large scale construction work due to
the accumulation of wealth created a demand for quality architects and
painters. Hence, the cities in Italy provided a suitable climate for the
Renaissance.

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Unlike in the rest of feudal Europe, the aristocrats in Italy preferred to live in the urban
centres and involved themselves in the civic affairs of their towns. Instead of living in the
rural chateaux, they built palaces in the cities. The Italian landed classes were increasingly
drawn into town life on equal terms with leading commercial and industrial families. It was
this integration of rural society with the world of merchants and industrialists that separated
Italy from the other regions of Europe. The amalgamation of these two important sections
and leading commercial and industrial groups led to the formation of a relatively integrated
civil society.
The presence of wealth in the Italian towns was another important factor in the emergence
of the Renaissance. By the 13th century, the Italian economy, because of its large-scale
commercial activities, had become the most prosperous region in the whole of Europe. The
heavy and intensive investment in culture from the late medieval period was probably due to
urban pride and the concentration of per capita wealth.
■ On the other hand, scholars like Robert Lopez and Carlo M. Cipolla
questioned the links between economic prosperity and cultural progress,
since the period between 1330-1530 was of economic depression. They
believe that in this period, the political elite competed with each other for
patronage and turned culture into an economic value.
■ Others suggest that the presence of a large number of princess ruling so
many Italian cities provided greater possibility for patronage.
Patronage too played a part in the origins and maturing of the Renaissance. Individual
artists, architects and scholars did not usually possess the funds needed to carry out projects
on a large scale. Most of them had to depend on patrons for financial security.
■ Some scholars believe that the principal factor for the revival of classical art
was the fact that the towns could offer an entirely fresh source of patronage.
■ Along with this, another source of patronage developed in the form of
individual bankers, merchant princes, and various groups interested in
commissioning works of art.
■ Patrons invested in art for social fame and immortality. In fact, aristocrats
competed with each other to become patrons of the arts. Peter Burke
identified three motivations behind this - piety, prestige, and pleasure
Religion too played a major role in the emergence of renaissance. Many of the gigantic
buildings were the combination of piety, civic pride, and religious patronage. The
governments of the city states built city halls to promote civic pride. In Florence, public art
was often organised and funded by guild organisations. These guilds enjoyed significant
political influence.
■ However, during the 15th century most of the princely families and the
princely aristocracy monopolised patronage. Hereafter, renaissance
flourished only in the courts of Italian rulers and in the Papal court.

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Origin of Humanism

The Italian Renaissance owes its success to the spread of humanism as well as the
development of high visual cultures. Thus, in order to understand the development of the
Renaissance, it is important to trace the origin of Humanism

Niccholas Mann draws a connection between the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th
century and the later spread of Humanism during the Italian Renaissance to suggest the role
of the former as a portend to the latter. The need for a centralised regime for educated
administrators outside the narrow sphere of the monasteries pushed Charlesmange to
summon the greatest scholar from York. His advice was taken to establish schools for the
secular clergy attached to the cathedral. These schools, whose aim was perhaps no greater
than to guarantee the spread of basic literacy, none the less helped to create a literate class
outside the monasteries and, in generating an increasing need for books, widened the circle
of readers for the texts that they contained

Even if with the decline of Charlemagne's empire the flourishing literary culture that had
accompanied it at its height did not survive, the pattern which it had established for the
spread of education to cities was to be of the greatest significance. Major monasteries
continued to be centres of scholarship and book-production, and to promote interest in
classical literature. For example, the Benedictine mother-house of Monte Cassino worked to
preserve key texts and manuscripts.

During the twelfth century, classical literature underwent a new revival, this time labelled as
the twelfth-century Renaissance; at the courts and in the cathedral schools (some of them
destined to become universities) of southern Italy and Sicily, of Spain, of Bologna and
Montpellier, of northern France and Norman England, scholars turned their knowledge of the
classics not only to literary ends but also to more practical and above all secular ones. In
addition to men of letters and philosophers, society needed lawyers, doctors and civil
servants, and for them the study of the writings of antiquity assumed the role of professional
training. The range of texts available had not only expanded considerably in the field of
literature, grammar and rhetoric, but now included Latin translations of Greek scientific and
philosophical texts: medical treatises, Euclid, Ptolemy and some works of Aristotle

In Italy it developed along different lines and particularly in the direction of rhetoric as a skill
for contemporary life. The study of what in classical times had been the art of public
speaking had by the twelfth century in Italy become the ars dictaminis, the art of
letter-writing; those who practised it, the dictatores, applied their knowledge to the needs of
their patrons and the legal profession. They were not initially classical scholars in any
profound sense, but rhetoricians who drew upon ancient models to achieve eloquence in the
writing of letters and speeches; yet they held positions of influence as teachers, secretaries
or chancellors to rulers and communes, and were consequently involved in, and influential
upon, affairs of state. We can see in dictamen one of the roots of humanism, reaching deep
into the past: the letter, thanks above all to Petrarch, was to become one of the most
favoured and versatile literary genres of the Renaissance, encompassing private and
political discourse, scholarly and philosophical enquiry, and all manner of literary enterprises.

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Another main root of humanism which may be observed in thirteenthcentury Italy, closely
entwined with, and sometimes inseparable from, the activities of the dictatores, was the
study of Roman law in its philological and practical aspects From at least the twelfth century
onwards, and notably at the University of Bologna, there had been a revival in legal
education. The glossing and interpretation of the great texts of Roman law, the Code and the
Digest, with a view to applying them to current legal problems, combined with an awareness
of historical origins no doubt reinforced by the presence of many physical remains of
antiquity, helped to give a sense that the civilization of the past was still alive, and this in turn
led to curiosity about that civilization. The lawyers who studied legal texts and adapted the
precepts of Roman law to the needs of a fundamentally different society thus also became
interested in other aspects of their classical heritage, and in particular in history and moral
philosophy; they even resorted to the recreational writing of Latin verse. Lovato Lovati is the
earliest figure who exemplifies these tendencies. A judge and a notary, his real achievement
were his Latin verse epistles. His works display three major concerns that develop with
humanism - the obsession with classical texts, the need to correct them and imitate them.
Lovati's enthusiasm was echoed by several other lawyers of the period including Albertino
Mussato and Giovanni Mansionario.

The revival of the Greek language was perhaps the most essential doctor in the rise of
humanism. A significant portion of Greek scientific writings, and in particular much of the
work of Aristotle, had been translated into Arabic and had found its way to the Latin west via
north Africa and Spain, where many translations into Latin were made between the eleventh
and thirteenth centuries. But the Greek language itself was virtually unknown in Italy (and
indeed in the rest of Europe) in the early fourteenth century.

There are fragmentary pieces of evidence suggesting that in Padua towards the middle of
the century certain teachers and lawyers possessed Greek manuscripts and even
understood them; there are likewise signs that during the reign of King Robert I, the Angevin
court of Naples was a centre for the translation into Latin of Greek texts contained in
manuscripts in the royal library amassed by Charles I of Anjou (who conquered the Kingdom
of Sicily in 1268) and his successors. These contacts, deriving from the Angevin court, were
at best hesitant beginnings in the history of the recovery of Greek.

Humanism

The term Humanism owes its origin to the Latin word humanitas, used by Cicero for those
cultural values which were derived from liberal education and eventually assumed the nature
of the academic movement educated elite and the intellectuals. The term umanista was used,
in fifteenth-century Italian academic jargon, to describe a teacher or student of classical
literature and the arts associated with it, including that of rhetoric. The English equivalent
'humanist' makes its appearance in the late sixteenth century with a very similar meaning.
Only in the nineteenth century, however, and probably for the first time in Germany in 1809,
is the attribute transformed into a substantive: humanism, standing for devotion to the
literatures of ancient Greece and Rome, and the humane values that may be derived from
them.

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Humanism was a basic source of inspiration for all the cultural changes of the Renaissance,
heavily influencing literature, history, painting, sculpture and political ideas. Humanist
scholars devoted themselves to the studia humanitatis by examining the texts of antiquity
with renewed interest.Increasing emphasis was laid on understanding the classics in their
original form, and this was inevitably accompanied by an insistence on grammatical
precision and stylistic purity.

They performed a service of inestimable value for the arts either by opening the renaissance
world to the influence of little known Greek and Roman writers or by re-examining, in the
original, works which had already had an impact on the Middle Ages. The result was the
emergence of humanism as a broader intellectual influence which was more significant than
the sum of its humanist parts. . Following the maxim of the Greek, Protagoras, that ‘man is
the measure of all things’, it focused attention on the nature, achievements and potential of
humanity rather than on the power and mystery of divinity.

It was not necessary to be a member of a humanist academy to be influenced by

humanism. Painters expressed it when they represented the human figure with greater
accuracy and grace, made possible by a more extensive anatomical knowledge. Architects
incorporated it into the circular and domed structures so characteristic of Italy in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. Writers emphasized it through introspective analysis of the
emotional and rational sides of man’s nature. Historians reflected it in their conception of the
past, which underwent a radical change in the fifteenth century

Humanism in Italy

Dignity of Man

The dignity of man was the privileged position of man in the world represented by writings
and literature of scholars like Alberti but even in the works of arts. Emphasis was put on the
relationship of harmony between man and universe. Man’s potential and uniqueness was put
on a pedestal. The renewed emphasis on the individual’s ability and honing mental faculties
to create new social ideas. Many humanists like Nicolaus Cusanus believed that god created
and sustains this universe, this view eventually being diverted to studying man, considered
the best creation of god. Religious studies and humanism did seem to converge on some
ground and were not seen as mutually exclusive however they diverge on the premise put
forth by humanists on man being responsible for his own will. In this way they paved the way
for secularism in which civic life was freed from ecclesiastical domination.

Revival of Antiquity

Mann's definition of Humanism makes clear its inherent connection with the revival of
humanity- is that concern with the legacy of antiquity - and in particular, but not exclusively,
with its literary legacy - which characterizes the work of scholars from at least the ninth
century onwards. It involves above all the rediscovery and study of ancient Greek and

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Roman texts, the restoration and interpretation of them and the assimilation of the ideas and
values that they contain. It ranges from an archaeological interest in the remains of the past
to a highly focused philological attention to the details of all manner of written records - from
inscriptions to epic poems - but comes to pervade, as we shall see, almost all areas of
post-medieval culture, including theology, philosophy, political thought, jurisprudence,
medicine, mathematics and the creative arts

Medieval scholars had regarded their world as existing on a higher plane than antiquity,
suffused with the glow of Christianity and solidly based on political institutions and social
structures which were permanent because they had divine authorization. Antiquity, by
contrast, had been insecure and unenlightened, certainly until the Christian faith had
established itself in the Roman Empire. By the fifteenth century, however, humanist
historians had permanently reversed the entire emphasis. The medieval world was now
associated with a superstition and barbarism that choked the more positive achievements of
antiquity; the Middle Ages had been superseded by a better era.

A particularly important development was the revival of Greek. This language, which had
virtually disappeared from the West during the Middle Ages, spread during the fifteenth
century not, as is often supposed, with the flight of scholars from the East after the Turkish
capture of Constantinople in 1453, but as a result of invitations extended to Byzantine
scholars like Manuel Chrysoloras to lecture in Florence and Rome in the 1390s. A
widespread search for Roman and Greek manuscripts followed. By the end of the fifteenth
century interest had reached dramatic proportions, with 27 principal editions of Greek works
published between 1494 and 1515.

Civic Humanism

Civic humanism, or the replacement of asceticism by active involvement in civic affairs as

the most worthwhile of human endeavours. Many humanists were appointed as leading
officials in town governments and chanceries, a situation openly applauded by Palmieri
(1406–75) in his De vita civile. Others became extensively involved in business transactions,
accumulating considerable wealth and property. Such activities, it was argued, enhanced the
human potential for achievement, whereas poverty, traditionally regarded as a Christian
virtue, stunted the complete development of the personality.

Vernacular language

The humanist emphasis on classical Latin led to its widespread use by scholars, theologians
and lawyers, which had an influence on the vernacular languages, which were promoted by
humanists. Petrach’s Africa and The Second Punic War marked the emergence of Italian as a
language of the people, which evolved out of the old Tuscan language, which was picked up
by the academic circle in Florence to give rise to the Italian language. Petrarch was followed
by a period of Greek and Latin scholarship that lasted almost a century. Italian vernacular
literature of a very high quality emerged in the later half of the fifteenth century.

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Humanism and History

Civic humanism, in turn, contributed to a fundamental revision of the approach to historical

study. No longer was history regarded merely as an illustrative adjunct to theology; the
efforts of Leonardo Bruni and Flavio Biondo in the fifteenth century, together with those of
Machiavelli and Guicciardini in the early sixteenth, enabled it to emerge as a discipline within
its own right. The emphasis was switched from exemplifying divine direction of human affairs
to providing narrative accounts of human political developments, devoid of divine planning or
intervention. The study of the past, particularly the classical past, could also be used to
make deductions about the feasibility of present political actions. Machiavelli, for example,
observed that ‘for intellectual training the prince should read history, studying the actions of
eminent men to see how they conducted themselves during war and to discover the reasons
for their victories or their defeats, so that he can avoid the latter and imitate the former.
Above all, he should read history so that he can do what eminent men have done before
him.

should read history so that he can do what eminent men have done before him.’8 The
influences of humanism which showed particularly strongly in Machiavelli’s works were the
considerable debt to classical writers like Livy, a belief in the importance of public life, and an
uncompromisingly secular approach to history and statecraft. He brought all his knowledge
to bear on examining the political chaos in the Italy of his day, although some of the
conclusions he reached were considered too extreme by most contemporary humanist
scholars. He sought, in his Discourses and The Prince, to examine, by historical references,
the forms of political and military action which were most likely to ensure a ruler’s political
survival. Openly abandoning any religious connection, he emphasized the importance of
virtù (courage and vigour) in taking advantage of the opportunities and overcoming the
obstacles presented by fortuna (the unpredictable form of change). The activity urged by
Machiavelli was generally incompatible with Christianity, although not with the beliefs of the
ancient

Humanist Education

Humanists considered education an important means to propagate a new view of man and
introduced changes in the curriculum. Based on the premise of Greek and Latin literature’s
superiority, an elitist movement became part of intermediate and advanced education of the
upper-middle class male population in private, municipal and provincial schools. The
humanists considered education in the classics as the best form of education to pursue
political careers as advisers to princes or diplomats, such an education prepared the pupils in
the art o f speech, arguments, public Writing in the civic spheres so that they could develop
into good public or civil servants. The (gothic script, characterized by angularity and
compression was replaced by the humanist cursive script along with the development of the
Caroline minuscule. Humanists like Vittorino developed treatises on educational theory.
Lorenzo Valla, laid emphasis on education in the form of historical- textual research and he
lectured at the courts and universities in different parts of Italy. They emphasized physical
education as well, as they believed in the idea of a sound mind in a sound body. Private
education, like wealth, lineage, public post and family connections, had become a status

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symbol. The biggest limitation of these educational programmes was that girls were not
included in it although the Italian humanists had been propagating the idea of freedom.

Political thought

The only name that stands out among the humanists in the sphere of political thought is that
of Niccolo Machiavelli. The Renaissance humanists were not involved with the subject o f
political theory. Their writings were mainly for the liberally educated people such as rich
merchants, aristocrats and professionals. They contributed not by producing a system of
thought but by creating a climate of thought. Though the Platonic Academy did not become a
formal educational institution, the translation of Plato's philosophy called ‘Neoplatonism’ and
‘Hermeticism’ became an important intellectual system, developed by Ficino, as one of its
patrons.

Pietro Pomponazzi, an Aristotelian, taught at the Padua University. Distinguishing between

faith and knowledge, he pointed out that what could be true for a philosopher may not be true
for a theologian.

Historical principles were applied by Macheievelli to gauge contemporary political scenarios

in his The Prince. This work, dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici, was expressed with simplicity
and clarity, for although Machiavelli was himself a member of the Florentine Platonic School,
he avoided abstruse ideas and all other "charm or superfluous ideas". After categorizing the
different types of state, Machiavelli examined the various methods of achieving power,
before proceeding to offer advice on the maintenance of effective rule. The prince must, in
effect, be ruthless, disposing of all opponents and establishing a powerful army. Indeed, he
should excel in the art of war, for this ‘is all that is expected of a ruler’.8 In diplomacy and in
his relations with his subjects he must be versatile, acting ‘as a fox’ and breaking his word
when necessary. He should cultivate the people’s support by projecting virtues and qualities
which he need not necessarily possess, and, in the true spirit of the Renaissance, showing
‘his esteem for talent, actively encouraging able men, and paying honour to eminent
craftsmen’.12 In his final chapter Machiavelli departed from clinical analysis and launched an
impassioned appeal to Lorenzo de’ Medici to liberate Italy from ‘foreign inundations’ and
‘barbarous tyranny’ which ‘stinks in everyone’s nostrils’.13 This pointed to his higher aim, the
end of political anarchy within Italy and a return to the spirit of ancient Rome.

Art

The Artists

AAs Peter Burke suggests, the population of artists was rather "untypical" to the Italian
population. he most spectacular example of bias, one ‘variable’ in the survey of artists and
writers appears to have been almost invariable: their sex. Only three out of the six hundred
are women: Vittoria Colonna, Veronica Gambara and Tullia d’Aragona. All three are poets,
and all come at the end of the period. Four regions (Tuscany, the Veneto, the States of the

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Church and Lombardy, in that order) produced more than their share of artists and writers,
while the other three, from Piedmont to Sicily, were culturally underdeveloped.

Another striking regional variation concerns the proportion of the elite practising the visual
arts. In Tuscany, the Veneto and Lombardy the visual arts are dominant, while in Genoa and
southern Italy the writers are more important. In other words, according to Burke, he region
in which he (or occasionally she) was born appears to have affected not only the chances of
an individual entering the creative elite but also the part of it he entered. Rome was a poor
producer of artists but people were attracted to the city as a centre of patronage.

It is only to be expected that sculptors and architects tended to come from regions where
stone was plentiful and suitable for carving and building. In Tuscany, Isaia da Pisa did indeed
come from Pisa, near the white marble of the west coast, while four major sculptors
(Desiderio da Settignano, Antonio and Bernardo Rossellino, and Bartolomeo Ammannati)
were all born in Settignano, a village near Florence with important stone quarries.

The contribution of foreign contributors to the Renaissance similarly were quite high. These
people were primarily Flemish, Greek and Spanish. Some of the most distinguished Italian
artists and writers in Italy were ‘foreign’ in another sense – that is, born outside the city in
which they did most of their work. The most famous Venetian painters were not in fact from
Venice itself; Giorgione was born in the small town of Castelfranco, Titian in Pieve di Cadore.
It is possible that as outsiders they were freer from the pressures of local cultural traditions
and so found it easier to innovate.

The creative elite appears to have been biased socially as well as geographically. A note of
caution has to be sounded because the father’s occupation in 57 per cent of the group is
unknown. All the same, the remaining 43 per cent do tend to come from a fairly restricted
social milieu. The majority of the Italian population at this time was made up of peasants or
agricultural labourers, but only seven members of the elite are known to have had fathers
from this class. While the artists tended to be the children of artisans and shopkeepers, while
the writers tended to be the children of nobles and professional men; the contrast is a
dramatic one.1

The arts ran in families as it appears with almost 36 artists from the period, most famously
Raphael. Burke suggests that if one were an artist in the period of the Renaissance, there
was a 50% chance that they would also have relatives practising the arts. The significance of
these "art dynasties" needs to be studied. While the Victorian scientist Francis Galton quoted
some of these examples to support his views on the importance of ‘hereditary genius’, a
sociological explanation suggests that in Renaissance Italy painting and sculpture were
family businesses, like grocery or weaving. There is evidence to suggest that some artist
fathers hoped that their sons would follow them into the craft. Nearly half the artists in the
creative elite are known to have had artist relatives. In the case of literature and learning,
however, which was not organized on family lines, the proportion sinks to just over a quarter
(the exact figures are 48 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively). The difference between the
two groups indicates the strength of social forces. The contrast between the visual arts on
one side and literature and learning on the other supports the sociological against the
biological explanation of artist dynasties.

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The artists faced two major obstacles, placed at the opposite ends of the social scale and
discriminating respectively against the able sons of nobles and of peasants. In the first place,
a talented but well-born child might be unable to become a painter or a sculptor because his
parents considered these manual or ‘mechanical’ occupations beneath him. At the other end
of the social scale, it was difficult for the sons of peasants to become artists and writers
because they could not easily acquire the necessary training, if indeed they knew that such
occupations even existed.

For the visual arts to flourish in this period, a concentration of artisans was necessary – in
other words, an urban environment. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the most highly
urbanized regions in Europe were in Italy and the Netherlands, and these were indeed the
regions from which most of the major artists came. The most favourable environment for
artists to grow up in seems to have been a city which was orientated towards craft–industrial
production, such as Florence, rather than towards trade or services, such as Naples or
Rome. It was only when Venice turned from trade to industry, at the end of the fifteenth
century, that Venetian art caught up with that of Florence.

The predominance of the sons of nobles and professional men in literature, humanism and
science is not difficult to explain. A university education was much more expensive than an
apprenticeship.

In conclusion, The significance of this information about the geographical and social origins
of artists and writers is that it helps to explain why the arts flourished in Italy. It is unlikely that
social forces can produce great artists, but it is plausible to suggest that social obstacles can
thwart them.

Patronage

As Peter Burke defines, it may be useful to distinguish five main types of patronage. First,
the household system: a rich man takes the artist or writer into his house for some years,
gives him board, lodging and presents, and expects to have his artistic and literary needs
attended to. Second, the made-to-measure system: again, a personal relationship between
the artist or writer and his patron (‘client’ might be a better term in this case), but a temporary
one, lasting only until the painting or poem is delivered. Third, the market system, in which
the artist or writer produces something ‘ready-made’ and then tries to sell it, either directly to
the public or through a dealer. This third system was emerging in Italy in the period, although
the first two types were dominant. The fourth and fifth types – the academy system
(government control by means of an organization staffed by reliable artists and writers) and
the subvention system (in which a foundation supports creative individuals but makes no
claim on what they produce) – had not yet come into existence

The Church was traditionally the great patron of art, and this is the obvious reason for the
predominance of religious paintings in Europe over the very long term (from the fourth
century or thereabouts to the seventeenth). In Renaissance Italy, however, it is likely that
most religious paintings were commissioned by laymen. Just as the laity asked for religious
works, so the clergy commissioned paintings with secular subjects, such as the Parnassus
which Raphael painted for Julius II in the Vatican. It would be interesting to know whether the
laity were more likely to commission secular works, or whether the gradual secularization of

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painting reflected a secularization of patronage, but the evidence is too fragmentary to allow
such questions to be answered.

A second way of classifying patrons is to distinguish public from private. The guild patronage
of early fifteenth-century Florence is particularly well known. Another kind of corporate
patron, still more important if one takes the whole period and the whole of Italy into account,
was the religious fraternity.6 The fraternity was in effect a social and religious club, usually
attached to a particular church, which might perform works of charity and might also act as a
bank. The patronage of the Venetian fraternities, known as scuole, was particularly lavish.
Another kind of corporate patron was the state, whether republic or principality. It was the
Signoria, the government of Florence, which commissioned Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari
and its companion piece, Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina.

Individual patrons came from a wide range of social groups, not just the social and political
elites. Architecture and sculpture were usually expensive, but the evidence of wills shows
that some shopkeepers and artisans commissioned chapels.11 There is also evidence that
some people with modest incomes commissioned paintings. The surviving documents are
concerned mainly with upper-class patronage, but those are the precisely the documents
that are most likely to survive. In any case there are records of some commissions by
merchants, shopkeepers, artisans and even peasants.

It may be useful to distinguish three main motives for art patronage in the period: piety,
prestige and pleasure. If investment in works of art means buying them on the assumption
that they will be worth more in the future, then it is difficult to find evidence for it before the
eighteenth century. Prestige, or what the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called the desire for
‘distinction’ from others, was also a socially acceptable motive, above all in Florence. It is not
infrequently mentioned in contracts.

The prestige acquired by art patronage might be of political value to a ruler. Machiavelli too
saw the political use of art patronage and suggested that ‘a prince ought to show himself a
lover of ability, giving employment to able men and honouring those who excel in a particular
field.’

The third motive for patronage was ‘pleasure’, a more or less discriminating delight in
paintings, statues, and so on, whether as objects in their own right or as a form of interior
decoration. It has often been suggested that this motive was more important as well as more
self-conscious in Renaissance Italy than it had been anywhere in Europe for a thousand
years.

The Art

The conventional nineteenth-century view of the arts in Renaissance Italy (a view still widely
shared today, despite the labours of art historians) might be summarized as follows. The arts
flourished, and their new realism, secularism and individualism all show that the Middle Ages
were over and that the modern world had begun. However, all these assumptions have been
questioned by critics and historians alike. saved, it is only at the price of radical
reformulations. To say that the arts ‘flourished’ in a particular society is to say, surely, that

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better work was produced there than in many other societies, which leads one straight out of
the realm of the empirically verifiable.

Beginnings

The beginning of some new styles in Italian art can be located in the works of artists like
Giotto di Bondone of Florence (1267- 1337) in the late-thirteenth and early-fourteenth
centuries. Boccaccio described him as the founder of a new art. Compared to the late
fully-developed form of art during the High Renaissance, Giotto’s block-like figures and
rudimentary landscapes did not look very realistic. What was original in his work was his
ability to extract from nature its essential forms and reproduce them in a simple and
expressive way. He was in great demand in his time and was patronized by prosperous
bankers like Peruri, Bardi and by King Robert of Anjou. Among his important works were
the frescoes in the Upper Church of the Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi, Arena Chapel in
Padua, Florence Cathedral and his paintings included the Massacre o f the Innocents, the
Lamentations, the Betrayal of Christ and the Death o f Saint Francis.

The art that developed after Giotto successfully established a more realistic relationship
between figures and landscapes. Florence became the most important center of artistic
creations. In no other city was the feeling of confidence and hope more intense than in this
city of wealthy merchants. The revolutionary trends seen in the artistic developments during
the Renaissance is evident from the works of Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), Filippo
Brunelleschi (1377-1446), Masaccio (1401-28) and Donatello (1386?-1466). Their sculpture,
architecture and paintings were based on experiments and in the process they brought about
visual representation of space through the laws of perspective. Mathematical side of painting
such as working out laws of perspective, organization of outdoor space and the use of light
and shade. The second involved the investigation of movements of the human anatomy.

Ghiberti was commissioned to design the door panels of a baptistery in Florence. On the
bronze doors he presented stories from the New Testament and the Old Testament by using a
new technique of linear perspective and created a sense of space in his classically inspired
figures. Masaccio's trinity in the Florentine church depicts a new style of painting
experimenting with linear perspectives. Among the young Florentine artists and architects,
the name of Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) stands out.He was employed to complete the
cathedral o f Florence, a Gothic structure. The Florentines had wanted their cathedral to be
crowned by an imposing cupola which no artists had been able to do as it required spanning
the immense face between the pillars on which this cupola was to be created.He devised new
styles in architecture in which the classical models were freely used to create new forms o f
harmony and beauty.

Just as Brunelleschi was the pioneer architect, Donatello was the greatest sculptor. His work
broke new grounds. His creations were full of energy and spirit. There was realism and vigor
as is evident from his bronze statue of David. Donatello tried to replace the gentle fineness of
his predecessors by a new and vigorous study of nature.

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High Renaissance

Two phenomena are always seen as central to the Renaissance, particularly in Italy: one is
the new interest in classical Latin and Greek associated with humanism; the other the
dramatic change that occurred in the visual arts, characterized by Giorgio Vasari in his Vite
('Lives', 1550 and 1568) as a process of rebirth and development to a level unsurpassed
even by the ancients. These two processes appear to be interconnected, even though
humanism emerged in the fourteenth century and the revival of the arts had begun in the
preceding centuries.According to Charles Hope and Elizabeth McGrath, the interaction could
have occurred in four ways. The ideals of humanists could have influenced artists, by
encouraging them to emulate the achievements of their ancient predecessors. Equally,
artists could have influenced humanists, by opening their eyes to the aesthetic and historical
significance of ancient art and architecture. Again, humanists might have changed the ways
in which contemporary art was discussed and criticized by educated people. Finally, there is
the issue of direct humanist involvement in the production of works of art, particularly in the
employment of learned subject-matter.

There was no sustained effort to recover masterpieces of classical art before the end of the
fifteenth century; and it was only then that artists began to see in ancient art a distinct and
uniquely admirable style. In the case of architecture, the development of a language based
on antique models involved the codification of the architectural orders, rather than the more
or less accurate borrowing of individual motifs. The first architect who came close to specific
imitation of the antique was Leon Battista Alberti, in his facade of the Tempio Malatestiano in
Rimini. Yet Alberti was supposedly not the first to study ancient architecture. According to
Antonio Manetti, writing around 1480, Filippo Brunelleschi had spent many years in Rome at
the beginning of the century, doing exactly this

The last decade of the fifteenth century marked the beginning of major developments in the
field of Indian art. The period from about 1490-1520 is described as the ‘High Renaissance’.
In early Renaissance, the art o f the ancient period was imitated naively and was held up as a
source of beauty and accurate representation. In the period of the ‘High Renaissance This art
was scientifically and critically analysed.The new ideas were particularly understood and
appreciated by the educated humanists and the elite of the city- states. In fact, the change
particularly in the field of painting is noticeable from around the 1450s. The different
disciplines such as the ‘universal man’ of the humanists’ philology, technique of art and
scientific theory, anatomy, the use of geometry to express a sense o f proportion, antiquity
and rhetoric were getting interlocked and became the hallmark of the Renaissance period.

It is not until the first decade of the sixteenth century, in the work of Donato Bramante,
especially in his Tempietto in Rome, that one can talk of a precise scholarly imitation of
ancient buildings. It is only around 1500 too that architects begin to make carefully measured
drawings of antique remains. Before that time, emulation of the antique often amounted to
little more than a rejection of Gothic. But even the idea that pointed arches were alien and
somehow incorrect seems to have been slow to take root and cannot readily be correlated
with the spread of humanism. In Venice, for example, Gothic and round arches were used
even on the same buildings until late in the fifteenth century.

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In the field of classical sculpture the notion that the Romans had developed a specific style
also emerges in the sixteenth century. The first writer explicitly to assert that the best ancient
sculpture possessed coherent stylistic principles shared by Italian artists of his own day was
the Portuguese Francisco de Hollanda, writing in 1548 and reflecting ideas acquired in Italy a
decade earlier

The High Renaissance in Italy (1490s-l 520s) was dominated by the works of three great
artists - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

One of the first artists to model his own style on this canon of excellence was Raphael, whose
work changed radically after his arrival in Rome in 1508. Raphael Sanzio He was a pupil of
the ‘Umbrian School And had learned his art from a well-known artist of that region Pietro
Perugmo. He attained mastery in painting altar pieces. Raphael died at the age of thirty-seven
but his short life is lull of diverse and great artistic achievements. He designed many
buildings and studied the ruins of Rome. He established contacts with the great dignitaries
and scholars o f his period, and was greatly respected in the Papal court. He painted a fresco
in the villa of a Prosperous banker Agostino Chigi based on a verse from a Florentine poet.
His art reflects not only the quality o f composition but also the beauty of figures, a sincere
portrayal of nature. He is also known for his Tapestry cartoons and Madonna paintings.
Madonna del Granduca was a painting based on classical form and was regarded by several
generations as a standard ol perfection. It reflected the tender feelings of the artist as he
painted the child Christ. He also decorated the walls with frescos and painted the ceilings of
various rooms in the Vatican which displayed his perfect mastery o f design and balanced
composition. His paintings present a synthesis of classical learning and experimentation.
Thus the great Italian masters represented concrete achievements by the discovery o f
scientific perspective, the knowledge o f anatomy to create beautiful human forms, a
knowledge of classical forms representing dignity and sense of proportion, and frequent use
of geometry in artistic creations. One of the most noticeable features of the Renaissance
paintings and sculpture was the creation of nude human forms because humanists considered
man to be the greatest and the most beautiful creation of God.

Raphael, of course, was not the first to borrow from ancient sculpture. Italian artists had long
exploited sarcophagi for drapery, nudes and figures in movement. But none of his
predecessors had the ability or inclination to select the best models, to deduce general
principles from them and to apply these in their own work in a systematic way.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first such figure, probably the greatest artist
produced by Florence, who represented the time period of the High Renaissance. He is
regarded as the most versatile genius who personified in himself the diverse qualities of a
painter, architect, engineer, musician, mathematician, military and hydraulic engineer,poet
and scientist. His work was based on an intensive study o f human anatomy and large-scale
experiments that included dissection of the human body. His creations are divided into four
separate periods. He believed in the most accurate imitation of nature and he himself created
his works on the study o f nature. Llis analysis of human anatomy was remarkable as it was
based on his personal experiments of dissection of human corpses. His love for nature was

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close to worship. His creations depicted not only his extraordinary technical skill and his
understanding of science but also his sense of geometrical composition. The smallest object
in a painting is presented with accurate detail.The Last Supper, painted on the walls of the
refectory in Milan. The treatment of main and secondary characters, the sense o f
composition and the use o f light and shade are the hallmarks o f da Vinci’s art. As an
architect, he built the Medici residence and the Milan cathedral. In 188.3, a notebook was
discovered containing sketches of human anatomy and some other drawings.

Michaelangelo was also a multifaceted genius - a painter, sculptor, architect and a poet - and
possessed an extraordinary power of understanding the unseen truth. Michelangelo
beautifully expressed the humanist fascination for man’s potential. He depicted human
figures, particularly the male as a strong and powerful character. Princes and popes outbid
each other to obtain his services. Michelangelo was temperamental and short tempered which
became worse with age. He was admired and feared for his temperamental outbursts and
unrestrained independence. He was commissioned to build the Pope’s tomb but the work was
constantly disrupted due to his other commitments. His work on the tomb lasted nearly forty
years, affected by the Sack of Rome and the Reformation. His greatest achievement in
painting was the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-12). It depicted a scene from the Book of
Genesis, presenting a concentration of paintings at a single location. While maintaining his
commitment to the Greek style, he retained the principles of harmony, solidarity and dignity.
His famous art piece in the form of the LastJudgment was a fresco on the altar wall of the
Sistine Chapel. Changes in his life and mood seem to have had an enormous effect on his
work. However, he could never complete the tomb that had brought him to Rome.
Michelangelo is also remembered as a talented poet. He wrote a number of poems,
particularly love poems consisting of 343 sonnets, madrigals and satirical pieces. As a
sculptor, his greatest creations were the Rebellious Slave and David. The latter is a statue 5.5
meter in height and presents the best possible expression of beauty of the male figure.

Representation and Religion

The artists of the Renaissance benefited from the humanist influence which greatly
enhanced accuracy and realism. Their aims were not, however, purely representational. As
Leonardo da Vinci suggested, the aim of the artist was the represent "man as well as the
intention of man". Artists used the religious theme as the most popular vehicle for their
idealism. Typical subjects included the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension and,
above all, the Madonna and Child. The last featured in the work of Lorenzo Costa, Signorelli,
Francesco Cossa, Masaccio, Leonardo, Raphael, Correggio, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese,
Bellini and Carlo Crivelli. Old Testament themes were also popular, the best examples being
in the paintings and sculptures of Michelangelo, intricate in their workmanship, accurate in
their observation and idealized in their conception. The religious synthesis with humanism is
apparent in the Creation of Adam on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, where Adam is created
in God’s image, but God is an idealized version of man

Architecture also displayed for all to see the revised connection between God and man. Two
views of the proportions of the Renaissance church illustrate the emphasis on the human
and the divine. Nikolaus Pevsner explains that in the primary function of the elongated

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medieval cathedral is to "lead the faithful to the altar". The new circular Renaissance building
did not allow for this since its full effect was visible only when looked at through one focal
point. Man hence, enjoys the pleasure of being surrounded by glorious beauty and being in
the centre of it. The circle, indeed, had a mystic significance. The renaissance architect,
Andrea Palladio, put forward another explanation for its use. The equidistance of the altar
from all points in the cathedral would demonstrate "extremely well the unity, the infinite
essence, the uniformity and the justice of God".

Innovation

It is more useful to investigate innovation rather than ‘flourishing’ in the arts because the
concept is more precise. In Italy, the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were certainly a period
of innovation in the arts, a time of new genres, new styles, new techniques. The period is full
of ‘firsts’. This was the age of the first oil-painting, the first woodcut, the first copperplate and
the first printed book (though all these innovations came to Italy from Germany or the
Netherlands). The rules of linear perspective were discovered and put to use by artists at
this time.

In sculpture we see the rise of the free-standing statue, and more especially that of the
equestrian monument and the portrait-bust.9 In painting, too, the portrait emerged as an
independent genre.10 It was followed rather more slowly by the landscape and the
still-life.11 In architecture, one scholar has described the fifteenth century as the age of the
‘invention’ of conscious town planning, although some medieval towns had been designed
on a grid plan.12 In literature, there was the rise of the comedy, the tragedy and the pastoral
(whether drama or romance).13 In music, the emergence of the frottola and the madrigal,
both types of song for several voices.14 Art theory, literary theory, music theory and political
theory all became more autonomous in this period.15 In education, we see the rise of what
is now called ‘humanism’ and was then called ‘the studies of humanity’ (studia humanitatis),
an academic package which emphasized five subjects in particular, all concerned with
language or morals: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and ethics.

Innovation was conscious, though it was sometimes seen and presented as revival. The
classic statement about innovation in the visual arts is that of the mid-sixteenth-century
artist-historian Giorgio Vasari, with his three-stage theory of progress since the age of the
‘barbarians’. He makes frequent contemptuous references to what he calls the ‘Greek style’
and the ‘German style’ – in other words, Byzantine and Gothic art.17 Musicians also thought
that great innovations had been made in the fifteenth century.

One reason for the central place of Italy in the Renaissance was the fact that Italian artists
had been less closely associated with the Gothic style than their colleagues in France,
Germany or England. Innovations often take place in regions where the previously dominant
tradition has penetrated less deeply than elsewhere. Germany, for example, was less deeply
affected by the Enlightenment than France, and this facilitated the German transition to
Romanticism. Similarly, it may have been easier to develop a new style of architecture in
Florence in the fifteenth century than in Paris or even Milan

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Revival of the Past

All the same, Renaissance Italians had not lost their reverence for tradition altogether. What
they did was to repudiate recent tradition in the name of a more ancient one. Their
admiration for classical antiquity allowed them to attack medieval tradition as itself a break
with tradition. Tthe enthusiasm for classical antiquity is one of the main characteristics of the
Renaissance movement, which cultural historians have to make intelligible, whether they
discuss it in terms of the affinity between the two cultures, as a means of legitimating
innovation in a traditional society, or as an extension to the arts of the political glamour of
ancient Rome.

The tendency to imitate Greeks and Romans became most obvious in the field of
architecture. Literature exhibited similar imitations. Painting and music are more intriguing
cases because classical models were not available (the Roman paintings now discussed by
scholars were discovered only in the eighteenth century or later). The lack of concrete
exemplars did not rule out imitation on the basis of literary sources. The literary criticism of
classical writers such as Aristotle and Horace was pressed into service to provide criteria for
excellence in painting on the principle that, ‘as is poetry, so is painting’.22 Discussions of
what Greek music must have been like were based on passages in Plato or on classical
treatises such as Ptolemy’s Harmonika. 23 However, this interest in Greek music comes
relatively late, in the sixteenth century

Contemporaries generally claimed to be imitating the ancients and breaking with the recent
past, but in practice they borrowed from both traditions and followed neither completely. As
so often happens, the new was added to the old rather than substituted for it. Michelangelo,
for instance, modelled the Christ in his Last Judgement on a classical Apollo. In
sixteenth-century Venice, inventories of furnishings show that religious paintings in the
‘Greek’ style (in other words, icons) continued to be displayed.25 Architecture in particular
developed hybrid forms, partly classical and partly Gothic

Features

Realism

In the case of the term ‘realism’, several different problems are involved. In the first place,
although artists in a number of cultures have claimed to abandon convention and imitate
‘nature’ or ‘reality’, they have nevertheless made use of some system of conventions.30 In
the second place, since the term ‘realism’ was coined in nineteenth-century France to refer
to the novels of Stendhal and the paintings of Courbet, its use in discussions of the
Renaissance encourages anachronistic analogies between the two periods. In the third
place, the term has too many meanings, which need discrimination. It may be useful to
distinguish three kinds of realism: domestic, deceptive and expressive

‘Domestic’ realism refers to the choice of the everyday, the ordinary or the low status as a
subject for the arts, rather than the privileged moments of privileged people. Courbet’s
stonebreakers and Pieter de Hooch’s scenes from everyday Dutch life are examples of this
‘art of describing’. ‘Deceptive’ realism, on the other hand, refers to style, for example to
paintings which produce or attempt to produce the illusion that they are not paintings.

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‘Expressive’ realism also refers to style, but to the manipulation of outward reality the better
to express what is within, as in the case of a portrait where the shape of the face is modified
to reveal the sitter’s character or a natural gesture is replaced by a more eloquent one. The
example of the same is Leonardo's Last Supper while domestic realism lingers in the
background. While deceptive realism was expressed in Vasari to Ruskin, the notion has
been challenged in recent times.

Secularization

Another distinctive feature of the Italian culture of the Renaissance was that, relative to the
Middle Ages, it was secular.38 The contrast should not be exaggerated. A sample study
suggests that the proportion of Italian paintings that were secular in subject rose from about
5 per cent in the 1420s to about 20 per cent in the 1520s. In this case, ‘secularization’
means only that the minority of secular pictures grew somewhat larger.

onceptual problems become acute, as the case of what might be called

‘crypto-secularization’ illustrates. Pictures which are officially concerned with St George (say)
or St Jerome seem to devote less and less attention to the saint and more and more to the
background; the saints become smaller, for example. This trend suggests a possible tension
between what the patrons really wanted and what they considered legitimate. The difficulty is
that contemporaries did not make the sharp distinctions between the sacred and the secular
that became obligatory in Italy in the late sixteenth century, following the Council of Trent. By
later standards they were continually sanctifying the profane and profaning the sacred

Individualism

A third characteristic generally ascribed to the culture of Renaissance Italy is individualism.

While the term has several meanings, It will be used here to refer to the fact that works of art
in this period (unlike the Middle Ages) were made in a personal style. At all events, the
testimony of contemporaries suggests that, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, artists
and public alike were interested in individual styles. The Portuguese visitor to Italy Francisco
de Hollanda, for example, made a similar point about Leonardo, Raphael and Titian: ‘each
one paints in his own style’ .

Visual Arts

Few would quarrel with the suggestion that Renaissance Italy was a society where artistic
achievements ‘clustered’.3 The clusters are most spectacular in painting, from Masaccio (or
indeed from Giotto) to Titian; in sculpture, from Donatello (or from Nicola Pisano in the
thirteenth century) to Michelangelo; and in architecture, from Brunelleschi to Palladio. As
Richard Goldthwaite suggests, the production of "more art" was accompanied by "greater
variety".

Naturalism v Idealism
The ‘return to nature’, a favourite formula of modern historians of the Renaissance, does in
fact correspond to a commonplace of the period. There were two different ideas of nature in
the Renaissance: the physical world (natura naturata, as philosophers called it) and the

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creative force (natura naturans). Naturalism in the modern sense involves the imitation of the
first nature, but what some Renaissance writers advocate is the imitation of the second.

Order v. Grace
A second cluster of evaluative terms refers to order or harmony. Order sought to create
certain rational harmony and beauty, in its imagination, coild only be proportional. Oder and
symmetry were hence used not only in architecture, but also in painting. Around the 1520s,
there was a more general rejection of symmetry and artistic rules. Michelangelo’s theory and
practice are the great examples of this reaction, though its violence should not be
exaggerated. Order was replaced by a favourite sixteenth-century term for the beauty which
cannot be reduced to formulas or rules is ‘grace’ (grazia)

Richness v. Simplicity

A third cluster of terms of appraisal centres on the notion of richness in a broad sense which
encompasses ‘variety’ (varietà), ‘abundance’ (copiosità), ‘splendour’ (splendore) and
‘grandeur’ (grandezza). However, the values associated with simplicity also had their
admirers. Alberti, for example, despite his praise of copiousness, was hostile to ornament, a
‘secondary’ kind of beauty as he called it. He attacked ‘confusion’ in architecture, which
sounds like a defect related to the qualities of richness and variety.

Expressionism

For the humanist Bartolommeo Fazio, expressiveness was one of the most important gifts of
a painter. Those painters who could express a variety of emotions as well as those who
could move their audiences were lauded. Leonardo emphasized the need for the painter to
represent emotions such as anger, fear and grief, and his own comments in his notebooks
on the subject of his Last Supper describe not the tablecloth that seems to have impressed
Vasari so much, but gestures and emotions, such as the apostle who makes ‘a mouth of
astonishment'

Literature and Thought

Literature in the vernacular is a more difficult case. After Dante and Petrarch comes what
has been called the ‘century without poetry’ (1375–1475), which is in turn followed by the
achievements of Poliziano, Ariosto and many others. The fourteenth and the sixteenth
centuries are great ages of Italian prose, but the fifteenth century is not (partly because
scholars preferred to write in Latin).5 In the realm of ideas, there are many outstanding
figures – Alberti, Leonardo, Machiavelli – and a major movement, that of the ‘humanists’

A picture is nothing but a silent poem’, wrote Bartolommeo Fazio. If the idea was not already
a commonplace in the early fifteenth century, when he was writing, it rapidly became one.
The analogy, usually supported by a phrase from Horace – ‘as is painting, so is poetry’ (ut
pictura poesis) – was one of which contemporaries never seemed to tire.

Decorum (decoro, convenevolezza) seems to have played a greater part in literary criticism
than in art criticism. In the visual arts, it simply meant avoiding such obvious solecisms as

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placing an old head on an apparently youthful body or, more controversially, giving Christ on
the cross the features of a peasant. In literature, however, decorum was invoked when
discussing the central problem of the relationship between form (forma) and content
(materia).

Following the classical tradition, the Venetian humanist Pietro Bembo, in his authoritative
formulation of what was, or was becoming, the conventional wisdom, distinguished three
styles (maniere e stili) – high, medium and low: ‘If the subject is a grand one, the words
should be grave, stately, sonorous, spectacular, brilliant (gravi, alte, sonanti, apparenti,
luminose); if the subject is a low and vulgar one, they should be light, plain, humble,
ordinary, calm (lievi, plane, dimesse, popolare, chete); if a middle one, the words should be
in between.’ Bembo went on to argue that Dante had broken this rule in his Divine Comedy
because he had picked a lofty subject, yet introduced ‘the lowest and vilest things’.3

Wwhat most pleased the critics, if not the reading public, was a grand subject treated in the
grand style. A whole cluster of terms centres on this idea of grandeur: ‘dignity’, for example,
‘gravity’, ‘height’, ‘majesty’, ‘magnificence’ (dignità, gravità, altezza, maestà, magnificenza).
The contexts in which it was used suggest that the term ‘sublime’ (sublime) had a similar
meaning, without the association with terror which it acquired, or regained, in the eighteenth
century. To write in the grand style involved the exclusion of many topics – most obviously,
ordinary people – and many words, such as ‘owl’ and ‘bat’. Indeed, some critics even
recommended the replacement of the terms ‘sea’ and ‘sun’ by such circumlocutions as
‘Neptune’ or ‘the planet which marks the passage of time’. These phrases, which now seem
unnatural and cumbrous, appear to have struck many readers of the time as elegant and
stylish.

A central concept in literary criticism, corresponding more or less to ‘richness’ in the visual
arts, was that of variety, whether it referred to content or form Ariosto was much praised for
the variety of themes in his Orlando Furioso. Even the Bible was praised, by Savonarola, on
these grounds, for its ‘diversity of stories, multiplicity of meanings, variety of figures’.

Another cluster of terms centred on the idea of giving pleasure (piacevolezza), distinguished
into ‘elegance’ (leggiadria), ‘loveliness’ (vaghezza), ‘sweetness’ and, of course, ‘grace’.
Perhaps the most important remark to make about these terms is that they often referred to
what we might call the ‘second-class’ beauties of the middle style, lyric rather than epic, or
even to the low style.

As in paintings, so in discussions of literature, the critics spoke much of ‘imitation’. Not so

much the imitation of nature, as in art criticism and indeed in the literary criticism of later
periods, but rather the imitation of other writers – how to vary or transform what was
borrowed, and how far to go without being a mere ‘ape’ of Virgil, Horace or Cicero. This
topic, central to the whole Renaissance enterprise of the revival of antiquity, was also a
controversial one. Bembo, writing to Gianfrancesco Pico, favoured the imitation of a
particular author such as Cicero, not in the sense of copying details but in that of absorbing
the essence, of taking that author’s style as a model to emulate. Poliziano, on the other
hand, condemned what he called ‘apes’, ‘parrots’ and ‘magpies’ and declared his belief that
he expressed himself, not Cicero.

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Music and Maths

The most conspicuous gaps in this account of Italian achievements are to be found in music
and mathematics.

Although much fine music was composed in Renaissance Italy, most of it was the work of
Netherlanders, and it is only in the sixteenth century that composers of the calibre of the
Gabrielis and Costanzo Festa appear. It was a Renaissance commonplace that there were
parallels between music and other arts, architecture in particular. Audible and visible
proportions were thought to be analogous. These analogies were treated as more than
metaphors. They had practical consequences, at least on occasion. For example, Franchino
Gaffurio, musical director at the cathedral of Milan, was called in as an architectural
consultant. Analogies between music and the other arts were less precise, but they were not
infrequently drawn, as in the case, already quoted, of the comparison between Michelangelo
and Josquin des Près. The musical taste of the period is harder to reconstruct than its visual
or literary taste. There is no musical equivalent of Vasari’s Lives, and in any case, then as
now, it was more difficult for people to explain why they liked a particular musical
composition than why they liked a particular poem or painting

The most overworked term of praise was ‘sweet’ (soave, dolce), but this tells us little more
about taste in music than a term such as ‘beauty’ does in the case of the visual arts. More
helpful is a cluster of terms centred on ‘harmony’ and having much in common with the
visual cluster centred on ‘order’. Again, the basic idea is that success depends on following
rules

An acute problem for the writers on music of this period was that of the discord. The problem
springs from a fundamental difference between music and the visual arts, a difference
disguised by their use of a common vocabulary of order and harmony. The discords which
occur in the music of the time can be compared either to decoration or to asymmetry in the
visual arts. In the first case they are desirable, but in the second case they are to be
shunned.

Another group of terms centres on the idea of expressiveness. In this case the analogy with
the visual arts will be obvious, but there seems to have been a time lag; it was only in 1500
or even later that the expressive became important, in theory and practice alike. Some music
of the period was clearly composed to communicate emotion, for example to reinforce the
feelings expressed in a text.

In mathematics, the famous Bologna school belongs to the later sixteenth century

Trends

There was, for example, a trend towards greater autonomy, in the sense that the arts were
becoming increasingly independent from practical functions and from one another. Music,
for example, was ceasing to depend on words. Instrumental pieces, such as the organ
compositions of Andrea Gabrieli and Marco Antonio Cavazzoni, were growing longer and
more important. Sculpture was becoming more independent from architecture, the statue
from the niche. There are even a few sculptures, such as the battle scene made by Bertoldo

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for Lorenzo de’Medici, which have no subject in the sense that they do not illustrate a story,
and a few paintings at least which appear to be independent of religious, philosophical or
literary meanings.

It may well be significant that the term fantasia is used in this period of pictorial and musical
compositions alike, to mean a work which the painter or musician has created out of pure
imagination, rather than to illustrate or accompany a literary theme.

Another general characteristic of Italian culture at this time was the breakdown of
compartments, the cross-fertilization of disciplines. The gap between theory and practice in a
number of arts and sciences narrowed at this time, and this was a cause or consequence of
a number of famous innovations. For example, Brunelleschi’s box, which dramatized his
discovery of the rules of linear perspective, was a contribution to optics (called perspective in
his day) as well as to the craft of painting. Leonardo’s studies of optics and anatomy were
used in his paintings. In the history of political thought Machiavelli, a sometime professional
civil servant, bridged the gap between the academic mode of thought about politics,
exemplified in the ‘mirror of princes’ tradition of treatises dealing with the moral qualities of
the ideal ruler, and the practical mode of thought, which can be illustrated in the records of
council meetings and in the dispatches of ambassadors.

Another gap which was closing was the one between the culture of the different regions of
the peninsula, as Tuscan achievements became the model for the rest. The reception of the
Italian Renaissance abroad was preceded by the reception of the Tuscan Renaissance in
other parts of Italy. Florentine innovations were introduced by Florentine artists, such as
Masolino in Castiglione Olona (in Lombardy), Donatello in Padua and Naples, Leonardo in
Milan, and so on, while the dialect of Tuscany established itself as the literary language of
the entire peninsula. Regional variations continued to exist, however, the minor art centres,
such as Siena or Emilia, were gradually attracted into the orbit of the greater ones. The rise
of Rome, a city which lacked a strong artistic tradition of its own but became a major centre
of patronage in the early sixteenth century, encouraged an inter-regional art. Like literature,
the visual arts were more Italian in 1550 than they had been a hundred or two hundred years
before.

"Secular" Influence

The precise influences of humanism in its purely secular form are more difficult to establish.
It is true that the Italian states experienced considerable diplomatic intrigue in the fifteenth
century which was devoid of religious influences and which, many humanists believed, bore
some resemblance to the problems and crises of antiquity. On the other hand, Renaissance
studies in history and statecraft did not themselves secularize Italian politics; rather, they
described and rationalized a process which had been occurring for centuries. Similarly,
Machiavelli did not invent expediency in diplomacy, but he did examine it more scientifically
than ever before, drawing attention to the full range of opportunities which it offered to the
adventurous statesman. It is certain that The Prince was read by some of the leading figures
of the period: W Durant cites Charles V, Henry III and Henry IV of France, Richelieu and
William of Orange, who kept a copy under his pillow. Officially, however, Machiavelli’s
methods were not regarded as legitimate until the eventual emergence of Realpolitik. Before

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the period of Cavour and Bismarck, Machiavelli was often imitated secretly, but always
denounced openly; as Frederick the Great showed in the mideighteenth century, the more
successful the imitation the louder the denunciation.

Humanism in Europe

Spread

Geographically, humanism originated in Italy, spreading through the peninsula from its
original centre in Florence. During the last decade of the fifteenth century and the beginning
of the sixteenth, its influence had permeated much of Europe beyond the Alps. This was the
result of the extensive contacts between northern and southern Europe by which new ideas
could be readily transmitted. Italian ecclesiastical legates, diplomats, traders and professors
travelled to the north, and there was a corresponding flow from France, Germany and
England into Italy. Italian humanism gradually combined with autochthonous intellectual
developments to produce regional and national variations, the main exponents of which were
Lefèvre d’Etaples and Budé in France, Agricola, Celtis, Reuchlin and von Hutten in
Germany, Ximenes in Spain, Colet and More in England, and, most significantly of all,
Erasmus.

Christian Humanism in North Europe

Christian humanism was undoubtedly the mainstream of renaissance thought, for the
rediscovery of man did not necessarily mean the abandonment of God. Humanism had a
considerable capacity for idealism and its search for ultimate perfection used human
knowledge and skills in a manner which was often religious. This was apparent in the growth
of neo-Platonism, the spread of Biblical study and criticism of medieval theology, and the
strong leaning towards Christianity in the arts.

Neo-Platonism emerged in fifteenth-century Italy. At first it was a philosophical movement,

deriving inspiration from Plato’s Republic and Laws, and contrasting sharply with the
medieval form of theology and philosophy known as Scholasticism. Neo-Platonism was an
attempt to bypass the entire edifice of Scholasticism and to return to the ideas of Plato in
their pure form. Since the hold of Christianity was so powerful, however, neo-Platonism
rapidly assumed a religious tone, although it was not usually sanctioned by the Church.

Christian humanism also developed in northern Europe, taking the form of biblical research
and sustained attacks on Scholasticism. Italian scholars had established a precedent in their
accurate and detailed study of a wide variety of classical texts. By the beginning of the
sixteenth century the same attention was being given to the scriptures, particularly by Colet,
Lefèvre d’Etaples and Erasmus. They believed that classical learning, applied to biblical
study, could provide a greater harmony between faith and intellect, reinforcing the effects of
neo-Platonism by a solid return to scriptural directives. The northern humanists let forth a
blast of satirical invective against the Scholastics.

German Humanism

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In Germany, humanism assumed an anti-Roman character. Since the region lacked an

effective central authority, the church in every state enjoyed relative economic and political
strength and the late blooming universities developed a strong scholastic tradition that
influenced intellectual and religious life. There are two different opinions on the origin of the
tradition.

1. attempts at religious reforms began with movements in the form of devotio moderna
and schools of brotherhood that tried to concentrate on piety.
2. German humanism was an Italian import, introduced by scholars and patrons who had
themselves studied in the Italian centres, linked therefore to the spread of reformation
and secular authorities.

The emergence of humanism in the German states converted the universities into
battlegrounds between scholastic and humanist ideas. Germany had already become a storm
centre of religious controversy with the coming of Martin Luther. This was followed by a
period of civil war. The University of Heidelberg became the centre of humanist learning
where the indigenous model of reform was introduced. Two important branches of
intellectual activities developed. The first was led by Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522) at
Wurttemberg. To study the Christian sources in the original, he embarked on the study of
Jewish mystical writings. Johannes Pfefferkorn, a Dominican priest who opposed Reuchlin’s
use ofJewish traditions in the study of Christian theology, led the second branch. Therefore
German humanism created a congenial atmosphere for religious reformation.

Among the earliest of the famous German humanist scholars was Johannes Wessel. He was
succeeded by Rudolph Agricola and was considered the father of German humanism.

Humanism and the Reformation

According to Stephen Lee, in its synthesis with Christianity the mainstream of humanism led,
indirectly, from the Renaissance to the Reformation. Christianity, for so long assimilated into
an elaborate doctrinal and intellectual structure, now became the focus of reinterpretation
and argument. Neo-Platonism offered a more individual approach to religious belief than had
Scholasticism. Classical research, at the same time, brought a new approach to the
scriptures, calling into question many previously accepted assumptions about their precise
meaning. A considerable hole was therefore knocked in the established thought of the
Church, coinciding, with serious institutional weakness. This provided the opportunity for a
new generation of religiousreformersto re-examine the basis of Catholic dogma and to give
renewed emphasis to the concepts of grace, faith and predestination. Humanism, therefore,
made possible the rise of a more fervent and extreme form of dissent and criticism. The
result, in a metaphor common to the period, was that Erasmus’s egg, when hatched by
Luther, produced a different breed of bird.

Humanism and the Counter-Reformation

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Humanism also had some contact with the eventual revival of the Church and the beginning
of the Catholic Reformation. Huamanis in Spain remained Orthodox Cjristian in character.
Throughout the period of crisis the Spanish Church was strengthened by the reforms and
humanist studies of Cardinal Ximenes. He founded the university of Alcala where the
curriculum concentrated on theology, natural philosophy, Law, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The
movement was used primarily to improve the content of education of church officials to
restore the prestige of the church and to improve the intellectual calibre of the priests. The
greatest work from Portugal in this period was The Lusiads, an epic poem by Luis Vaz de
Camoes. It was a form of epic poem.

Printing Press

The printing press played an important role in the spread of new learning. The introduction of
printing provided a practical way to produce books. Johann Gutenberg had developed the
printing press at Mainz in Germany and printed about 200 copies of the Bible in 1452-3.The
technology o f the printing press began to spread in several parts of Europe and it is estimated
that by 1500 there were over 1,000 printing presses, becoming important vehicles of cultural
exchange and communication.

English Humanism

English humanism developed as an intellectual and artistic movement, assumed the form o f
‘new learning’ and began to influence the field o f education and literature. High Renaissance
in England emerged after a gap of several years throwing up nationalistic literature. Thomas
More is considered the greatest English Humanist and showed a strong disgust towards the
corrupt society. He assumed public office, eventually serving as chancellor and described his
conception of a perfect society in his work ‘utopia’. According to Arvind Sinha, he tried to
display the ills of an autocratic court by creating an equally dominating state whilst
describing a good society as one that saw the evolution of money economy and private
property. Oxford and Cambridge universities became the chief centres of literary and
instructional activities. John Colet soon became the face of English humanism after founding
theSt Paul’s school. A lot of the publications around this time either incorporated historical
themes or were in chronicle form exemplified by Edward Hall's Union of the Two Noble and
Sir Thomas Elyot’s Boke Named the Governour. By 1570, England saw a resurgence in
poetry and drama. The great period of Elizabethan literature began with the publication of
Edmund Spenser’s Shepheardes Calender and John Lyly’s Euphues. Dramas became
extremely popular with the people of London and the nobility and the great public demand
for dramas explains the sudden outburst of plays in the late-sixteenth century. Christopher
Marlowe skillfully used historical narratives and blank verse. Robert Greene, John Lyly, Ben
Johnson, John Fletcher, Thomas Dekker and many others made valuable contributions in the
sphere of English literature. Though not exclusively a humanist, William Shakespeare, the
playwright of comedy as well as tragedy, sentiment and fantasy captured the spirit of
Renaissance. Through history, he reveals a vision of the nation itself rather than the rulers.

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Humanism and France

France was more familiar with the ideas of the Italian Renaissance and with its scholarly
artistic work than any other part of Europe due to their military invasions. .Though French
humanism remained essentially Christian as distinct from the civic humanism of the Italian
states, French literature proved more receptive to the Italian influence. Lefèvre d Etaples and
Guillaume Bude are two important figures of the French humanist scholarly tradition, the
latter known for his mix of christian mysticism and platonic values as seen in Quintuplex
Psalter. The greatest French poet of the Renaissance period was Rabelais. Ronsard was a
leading young poet of the Pleiade, a name given to a group of sixteenth century French
Renaissance poets.

Art

An important center of art and Renaissance culture developed in the court of Burgundy. It
was a small duchy which was trying to free itself of French control. During the mid-fifteenth
century, a number of courtiers and scholars, artists and musicians visited this court.The
Burgundian dukes invited a number of great artists and architects. Jan van Eyck (1390-1441).
He was particularly known for his portrait paintings. He painted a number of courtiers and
even Italian artists appreciated his work. Another center of art developed in the Netherlands.
Jerome Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) was a famous painter who exhibited astonishing
imagination and even in his religious subjects, he focused not on the holy figures but on the
mass of ordinary things. He created caricatures of human sinfulness and depicted the cruelties
o f selfishness. A well-known artist o f the Netherlands was Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-67).
As this was the period of Dutch resistance to Spanish rule and the time of bourgeois victory,
the artistic themes also depicted this aspect of political life. Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) was
another great artist of the northern Renaissance. He was the son of a distinguished master
goldsmith who came from Hungary and decided to settle in the city of Nuremberg in
Germany. He made woodcuts and exquisite engravings o f religious themes. He also
undertook a trip to northern Italy to acquire technical knowledge.

His landscapes inspired several Italian painters. Durer experimented in many media and is
known for his beautiful watercolor paintings of animals and plant life. His art is a blend of
northern and southern traditions, a combination of melancholy and divine passion. He made
several self-portraits by looking into the mirror and his famous paintings include Virgin and
Child, Adam, the Fall o f Man, the Feast o f the Rose Garden and the Self Portrait.

Among the second generation of Renaissance artists, one can include the name of Hans
Holbein (1497-1543), a German artist who left Germany because of the religious turmoil of
the Refor' mation. He settled in London, and became the court painter of Henry VIII, and
died there of plague. In England, his artistic scope remained limited. The task of the court
painter was not to paint Madonnas or objects of natural beauty. His job was to design jewelry

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and royal furniture, costumes and suits for pageantries, decorate royal palaces and its halls
and to display art patterns on royal weapons. Holbein was an astute and ambitious painter.

The Renaissance in France assumed a distinct character of its own. Louis XII and Francis I
were outstanding patrons of scholarship and art. The Dutch portrait painter John Clouet also
lived in France to add to the French art collection. Francis brought many other Italian painters
- Andrea del Sarto, Benvenuto Cellini, II Rosso and Francesco Primaticcio - to decorate the
walls of his palace with frescos. The distinctive architecture in France was reflected in the
chateaux built along the Loire River. Francis and his nobles constructed the famous Chateaux
of Amboise, Chambord and Chenonceau. These structures combined the gothic, which was
extremely popular in late medieval France, with the new Renaissance architecture stressing
on classical horizontality. On the other hand, the new royal palaces of the Louver in Paris
(designed by Pierre Lescot) and Fontainebleau near Paris were some magnificent examples of
Renaissance structures.

During the Renaissance, attention was paid to gardening and horticulture. Crescenzio, a
senator of Bologna, wrote on rural affairs and gardening in the early part of the fourteenth
century that was published in Florence in 1471. The first botanical garden was made at Pisa
in 1543 and another at Padua in 1545. Although the art of gardening developed first in Italy,
it attained perfection in Holland. The garden of Leiden began in 1577 in which new plants
were introduced.

Conclusion

Any account of the past is necessarily coloured by the preconceptions, the aspirations and,
above all, the knowledge or ignorance of the scholar who produces it. The terms and
concepts that historians use to order and explain the objects of their inquiry are neither fixed
nor value-free, but are evolving and often highly subjective elements in that process of
revealing the past that gradually leads us to a better understanding of it. Labels such as
Dark Ages or Renaissance, which are affixed to whole periods of European history, while
they are convenient for the purposes of historiographical exposition, may tell only part of the
truth about those segments of the past that they purport to characterize. The more we learn
about the period following the decline of Rome, the less dark and uncultured it appears; the
more we inquire into what was reborn in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the more we
become aware of vital continuities with the past

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