1 / 32

Humanism and Renaissance

Humanism and Renaissance. From last time. Late-medieval Europe: a time of crisis Examples of crisis: Black Death, Hundred Years’ War, the crisis of the Papacy, etc. But some HUGE novelties are in store, and with those novelties we will see the Medieval World coming to an end

trent
Download Presentation

Humanism and Renaissance

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Humanism and Renaissance

  2. From last time • Late-medieval Europe: a time of crisis • Examples of crisis: Black Death, Hundred Years’ War, the crisis of the Papacy, etc. • But some HUGE novelties are in store, and with those novelties we will see the Medieval World coming to an end • Before we bid farewell to the Middle Ages, however…

  3. A great opportunity to continue your study of the Middle Ages

  4. Two technological inventions: instead of parchment…

  5. …now paper from rags! (actually invented in China, it became popular in Europe by the end of 14th c.)

  6. ..and in the 18th century in America the paper-making became automatic!

  7. Gutemberg invents the Printing Press: 1453

  8. Consequences of the technological innovations: • Books are cheaper, and therefore more widely available • Less time to copy, more time to think! • And what is it that we are thinking exactly?

  9. The re-discovery of antiquity and the development of the sense of historical change Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

  10. Flavio Biondo, De Roma instaurata, 1444-1446 Etienne Dupérac, I vestigi dell’antichità di Roma, Rome 1575

  11. If we put it all together… • Change in ‘technical’ mode of study: • Paper from rags • Printing press (1453) • Interest for antiquity, both for the architecture and the language • The birth of ‘Humanism’

  12. Humanism • Studying the ‘Humanae Literae’, that is, the ‘Human Texts’ • Re-evaluation of antiquity • Humanism and Humanities • ‘Ad Fontes’: to the sources • ‘Philology’: the love for words • Style and content should not be separate • But was Humanism ‘anti-religious’? NO!

  13. Humanism and Religion: not in contradiction! • ‘Ad Fontes’ applied to Christianity (Lorenzo Valla and the donation of Constantine) • Biblical philology, or how to study the Bible as a TEXT • Erasmus from Rotterdam

  14. The Bible: Old Testament • Hebrew Text (difficult to date, some books written around the 6th-7th centuries BC but older versions have been found, for instance, in the fragments contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls) • Greek Text (I-II century BC, called ‘Septuagint’, partially different from the Hebrew) • Latin Text, IV century A.D., translated from the Greek and from the Hebrew by Jerome (“Vulgata”)

  15. The Bible: New Testament • Original Greek text, I century AD • ‘Vetus Latina’, I century AD • St.Jerome’s ‘Vulgata’, IV century AD, which became the standard text but contained many mistakes…

  16. What do you see? Michelangelo, Moses, 1513-6, St.Peter in Chains, Rome

  17. Jerome’s Latin version and Moses’s horns • Exodus 34: in the Hebrew Moses is described as descending from Mount Sinai in a path of light: Jerome misunderstood and wrote that Moses came down with a pair of horns in his head!

  18. This and other mistakes fixed by Erasmus: • In 1516 he published a critical edition of the New Testament: what is a critical edition? • What did Erasmus’ text look like?

  19. Erasmus’ ‘New Testament’, 1516

  20. Erasmus’s Humanism • The fundamental importance of Christianity • The fundamental importance of classical heritage • The link between form and content • In your reader you will find The Godly Feast, one of the most beautiful examples of link between classical values and Christian values --attention to the form as well, a dialogue, which should remind you of… • Socrates! Another link between classical antiquity and Christian humanism • Erasmus’s political theory: Christian values, ‘imperial’ identity, faith in the link between morality and successful and effective politics

  21. Renaissance: old models and new art

  22. Renaissance Architecture Ospedale degli Innocenti, Filippo Brunelleschi, ca 1420-1440s

  23. Renaissance Sculpture Donatello, David, ca 1440s

  24. Renaissance Sculpture Michelangelo, David, ca 1501-4

  25. Renaissance painting • The visual perspective: a more realistic view on humans • The figure of the ‘patron’: art and ‘artisans’

  26. Renaissance art and politics: Lorenzo de’ Medici, il Magnifico

  27. Lorenzo il Magnifico and art

  28. The Renaissance manLook at your first source! • What are Pico’s sources? • What are the fundamental themes of Pico’s Oration? • Is there religion? • What kind of religion? • How about the purpose of man? • Finally, ATTENTION, NO INDIVIDUALISM!!!

  29. The Renaissance woman: look at your second source! • What are the values associated with women? • What is the difference between women and men? • What impression do you get about gender relationship in the Renaissance?

  30. Did women have a Renaissance? • J. Kelly, 1970: ‘Did women have a Renaissance’? • Not really… • Patriarchal society • Wives in the shadow of their husbands with one exception: widows • Gender and Class difference • Attention to generalizations! Humanism and Renaissance as essentially ELITIST phenomena

  31. So… • Humanism • Renaissance • The role of antiquity • The impulse to ‘novelty’ • Religion still very important • Attention with generalizations!

More Related