Humanism
Main article: Renaissance humanism
In some ways Humanism was not a philosophy but a method of learning. In contrast to the
medieval scholastic mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors,
humanists would study ancient texts in the original, and appraise them through a
combination of reasoning and empirical evidence. Humanist education was based on the
programme of 'Studia Humanitatis', that being the study of five humanities: poetry,
grammar, history, moral philosophy and rhetoric. Although historians have sometimes
struggled to define humanism precisely, most have settled on "a middle of the road
definition... the movement to recover, interpret, and assimilate the language,
literature, learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome".[43] Above all, humanists
asserted "the genius of man ... the unique and extraordinary ability of the human
mind."[44]
Portrait of Sir Thomas More, 1527
Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape throughout the early modern period.
Political philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More revived the ideas of
Greek and Roman thinkers, and applied them in critiques of contemporary government.
Pico della Mirandola wrote what is often considered the manifesto of the Renaissance, a
vibrant defence of thinking, the Oration on the Dignity of Man. Matteo Palmieri (1406–
1475), another humanist, is most known for his work Della vita civile ("On Civic Life";
printed 1528) which advocated civic humanism, and his influence in refining the Tuscan
vernacular to the same level as Latin. Palmieri's written works drawn on Roman
philosophers and theorists, especially Cicero, who, like Palmieri, lived an active
public life as a citizen and official, as well as a theorist and philosopher and also
Quintilian. Perhaps the most succinct expression of his perspective on humanism is in a
1465 poetic work La città di vita, but an earlier work Della vita civile (On Civic
Life) is more wide-ranging. Composed as a series of dialogues set in a country house in
the Mugello countryside outside Florence during the plague of 1430, Palmieri expounds
on the qualities of the ideal citizen. The dialogues include ideas about how children
develop mentally and physically, how citizens can conduct themselves morally, how
citizens and states can ensure probity in public life, and an important debate on the
difference between that which is pragmatically useful and that which is honest.
The humanists believed that it is important to transcend to the afterlife with a
perfect mind and body. This transcending belief can be done with education. The purpose
of humanism was to create a universal man whose person combined intellectual and
physical excellence and who was capable of functioning honorably in virtually any
situation.[45] This ideology was referred to as il uomo universal, an ancient Greco-
Roman ideal. The education during Renaissance was mainly composed of ancient literature
and history. It was thought that the classics provided moral instruction and an
intensive understanding of human behavior.
Art
Main articles: Italian Renaissance painting, Renaissance painting, and Renaissance
architecture
The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo
The Renaissance marks the period of European history at the close of the Middle Ages
and the rise of the Modern world. It represents a cultural rebirth from the 14th
through the middle of the 17th centuries. Early Renaissance, mostly in Italy, bridges
the art period during the fifteenth century, between the Middle Ages and the High
Renaissance in Italy. It is generally known that Renaissance matured in Northern Europe
later, in 16th century.[46] One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was
its development of highly realistic linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337)
is credited with first treating a painting as a window into space, but it was not until
the demonstrations of architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) and the subsequent
writings of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) that perspective was formalized as an
artistic technique.[47] The development of perspective was part of a wider trend
towards realism in the arts.[48] To that end, painters also developed other techniques,
studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy.
Underlying these changes in artistic method, was a renewed desire to depict the beauty
of nature, and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics, with the works of Leonardo,
Michelangelo and Raphael representing artistic pinnacles that were to be much imitated
by other artists.[49] Other notable artists include Sandro Botticelli, working for the
Medici in Florence, Donatello another Florentine and Titian in Venice, among others.
Concurrently, in the Netherlands, a particularly vibrant artistic culture developed,
the work of Hugo van der Goes and Jan van Eyck having particular influence on the
development of painting in Italy, both technically with the introduction of oil paint
and canvas, and stylistically in terms of naturalism in representation. (see
Renaissance in the Netherlands). Later, the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder would
inspire artists to depict themes of everyday life.[50]
Leonardo da Vinci Self-portrait, his Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and Vitruvian Man are
examples of Renaissance art
In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient
classical buildings, and with rediscovered knowledge from the 1st-century writer
Vitruvius and the flourishing discipline of mathematics, formulated the Renaissance
style which emulated and improved on classical forms. Brunelleschi's major feat of
engineering was the building of the dome of Florence Cathedral.[51] The first building
to demonstrate this is claimed to be the church of St. Andrew built by Alberti in
Mantua. The outstanding architectural work of the High Renaissance was the rebuilding
of St. Peter's Basilica, combining the skills of Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael,
Sangallo and Maderno.
Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is a masterpiece of Renaissance and world art
The Roman orders types of columns are used: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and
Composite. These can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or
purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters. During the Renaissance,
architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an integrated system.
One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the Old
Sacristy (1421–1440) by Filippo Brunelleschi.[52]
Arches, semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental, are often used in arcades,
supported on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a section of entablature
between the capital and the springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use
the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do not have ribs. They are semi-circular
or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault which is frequently
rectangular.
The Renaissance artists were not pagans although they admired antiquity and they also
kept some ideas and symbols of the medieval past. Nicola Pisano (c. 1220–c. 1278)
imitated classical forms by portraying scenes from the Bible. The Annunciation by
Nicola Pisano, from the Baptistry at Pisa, demonstrates that classical models
influenced Italian art before the Renaissance took root as a literary movement [53]
Science
Main articles: History of science in the Renaissance and Renaissance technology
1543' Vesalius' studies inspired interest in human anatomy.
Galileo Galilei. Portrait in crayon by Renaissance sculptor Leone Leoni
The rediscovery of ancient texts and the invention of printing democratized learning
and allowed a faster propagation of ideas. In the first period of Italian Renaissance,
humanists favoured the study of humanities over natural philosophy or applied
mathematics. And their reverence for classical sources further enshrined the
Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of the universe.
Even though, around 1450, the writings of Nicholas Cusanus were anticipating
Copernicus' heliocentric world-view, it was made in a philosophical fashion. Science
and art were very much intermingled in the early Renaissance, with polymath artists
such as Leonardo da Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. He set
up controlled experiments in water flow, medical dissection, and systematic study of
movement and aerodynamics; he devised principles of research method that led to Fritjof
Capra classifying him as "father of modern science".[54]
In 1492 the "discovery" of the "New World" by Christopher Columbus challenged the
classical world-view, as the works of Ptolemy (geography) and Galen (medicine) were
found not always to match everyday observations: a suitable environment was created to
question scientific doctrine. As the Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation
clashed, the Northern Renaissance showed a decisive shift in focus from Aristotelean
natural philosophy to chemistry and the biological sciences (botany, anatomy, and
medicine).[55] The willingness to question previously held truths and search for new
answers resulted in a period of major scientific advancements.
Some have seen this as a "scientific revolution", heralding the beginning of the modern
age.[56] Others as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient
world to the present day.[57] Regardless, there is general agreement that the
Renaissance saw significant changes in the way the universe was viewed and the methods
sought to explain natural phenomena.[58] Traditionally held to have begun in 1543, when
were first printed the books De humani corporis fabrica (On the Workings of the Human
Body) by Andreas Vesalius, which gave a new confidence to the role of dissection,
observation, and mechanistic view of anatomy.,[58] and also De Revolutionibus, by the
Nicolaus Copernicus. The famous thesis of Copernicus' book was that the Earth moved
around the Sun. Significant scientific advances were made during this time by Galileo
Galilei, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler.[59]
One important development was not any specific discovery, but rather the further
development of the process for discovery, the scientific method.[58] It focused on
empirical evidence, the importance of mathematics, and discarded Aristotelian science.
Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus and Galileo and
Francis Bacon[60][61] The new scientific method led to great contributions in the
fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy.
Religion
Main articles: Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation
Alexander VI, a Borgia Pope infamous for his corruption
Adoration of the Magi and Solomon adored by the Queen of Sheba from the Farnese Hours
by Giulio Clovio marks the end of the Italian Renaissance of illuminated manuscript
together with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
The new ideals of humanism, although more secular in some aspects, developed against a
Christian backdrop, especially in the Northern Renaissance. Much, if not most, of the
new art was commissioned by or in dedication to the Church.[16] However, the
Renaissance had a profound effect on contemporary theology, particularly in the way
people perceived the relationship between man and God.[16] Many of the period's
foremost theologians were followers of the humanist method, including Erasmus, Zwingli,
Thomas More, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.
The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The late Middle Ages saw a period
of political intrigue surrounding the Papacy, culminating in the Western Schism, in
which three men simultaneously claimed to be true Bishop of Rome.[64] While the schism
was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), the 15th century saw a resulting
reform movement known as Conciliarism, which sought to limit the pope's power. Although
the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth Council of
the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most famously
in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism and
fathering four illegitimate children whilst Pope, whom he married off to gain more
power.[65]
Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the Church, often based on
humanist textual criticism of the New Testament.[16] It was Luther who in October 1517
published the 95 Theses, challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived
corruption, particularly with regard to its sale of indulgences. The 95 Theses led to
the Reformation, a break with the Roman Catholic Church that previously claimed
hegemony in Western Europe. Humanism and the Renaissance therefore played a direct role
in sparking the Reformation, as well as in many other contemporaneous religious debates
and conflicts.
In an era following the sack of Rome in 1527 and prevalent with uncertainties in the
Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation, Pope Paul III came to the papal
throne (1534–1549), to whom Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated De revolutionibus orbium
coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) and who became the grandfather
of Alessandro Farnese (cardinal), who had paintings by Titian, Michelangelo, and
Raphael, and an important collection of drawings and who commissioned the masterpiece
of Giulio Clovio, arguably the last major illuminated manuscript, the Farnese Hours.
Self-awareness
By the 15th century, writers, artists, and architects in Italy were well aware of the
transformations that were taking place and were using phrases such as, modi antichi (in
the antique manner) or alle romana et alla antica (in the manner of the Romans and the
ancients) to describe their work. In the 1330s Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times
as antiqua (ancient) and to the Christian period as nova (new).[66] From Petrarch's
Italian perspective, this new period (which included his own time) was an age of
national eclipse.[66] Leonardo Bruni was the first to use tripartite periodization in
his History of the Florentine People (1442).[67] Bruni's first two periods were based
on those of Petrarch, but he added a third period because he believed that Italy was no
longer in a state of decline. Flavio Biondo used a similar framework in Decades of
History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire (1439–1453).
Humanist historians argued that contemporary scholarship restored direct links to the
classical period, thus bypassing the Medieval period, which they then named for the
first time the "Middle Ages". The term first appears in Latin in 1469 as media
tempestas (middle times).[68] The term la rinascita (rebirth) first appeared, however,
in its broad sense in Giorgio Vasari's Vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et
scultori Italiani (The Lives of the Artists, 1550, revised 1568).[69][70] Vasari
divides the age into three phases: the first phase contains Cimabue, Giotto, and
Arnolfo di Cambio; the second phase contains Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and Donatello; the
third centers on Leonardo da Vinci and culminates with Michelangelo. It was not just
the growing awareness of classical antiquity that drove this development, according to
Vasari, but also the growing desire to study and imitate nature.
