Western Civilization I
Chapter Ten
“The Renaissance”
A
“Rebirth”
l The
term “Renaissance” means “rebirth.”
l The
Middle Ages was primarily a stagnant period in regards to learning and culture.
l During
the 14th and 15th centuries, there was an awakened interest in knowledge, and
the studying of the past.
l New
experiments in writing, painting, science, and invention also occurred.
l Man
became bold, he was not longer satisfied with his current situation.
l He
knew that things could be better and worked to make them better.
Vernacular
Languages
l Early
medieval man spoke and wrote mostly in Latin.
l However,
most of the people of Europe couldn’t read or write in Latin.
l During
the Renaissance, books were begun to be written in the vernacular.
l Vernacular
language is the dialects spoken in various localities.
l As
books became more available to the common person ideas will begin to spread
quite rapidly.
Humanism
l During
the Middle Ages, mankind was concerned with what was needed to get to heaven.
l During
the Renaissance, man became concerned with his life here on earth.
l Learned
men began reading the works of classical Greece and Rome.
l These
people were called “Humanists.”
l Rather
than just accept the teachings of the Church, humanists turned to the ideas of
Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle to show them how man can solve his earthly
problems.
The
Rise of Humanism
l
The collection of ancient manuscripts.
l
The revival of antiquity.
l
Emphasized “Human Beings.”
l
Achievements
l
Interests
l
Capabilities
l
Skeptical of Authority
l
A “critical” method of research.
l
An emphasis on “This World.”
l
The writer as a craftsman – importance of style
Where Did The
Renaissance Begin?
Early
Beginnings
l The Renaissance will begin in Italy.
l During the 14th century, Italian city-states traded
with the Middle East and in this way became prosperous.
l Because of this wealth and since Italy had been the
home of the ancient Roman Empire, humanist scholars went there to study.
l Italy was also the center of the Church which used its
wealth to promote art, learning, and writing.
l This new wealth, along with their contact with
superior civilizations, as well as the power of the Church, lead to the formation
of the Renaissance in Italy.
Florence
and the de Medici Family
l Florence was probably the center of the early
Renaissance.
l Florence was controlled by the de Medici family.
l The most famous member of this family was Lorenzo de
Medici, also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent.
l The de Medicis would become one of the leading patrons
of the arts during the early stages of the Renaissance.
Italian Renaissance Writers
Italian
Renaissance Writers
l Many of the early Italian Humanists are known more for
their scholarship and teaching than for writings of their own.
l Some however, created original works of importance,
and began the Renaissance as a literary movement.
l Francesco
Petrarch is often called the “Father of Humanism.”
–
A master of lyric
poetry.
–
Had considerable
influence on later Humanist writers.
l His
work, “The Song Book,” dealt with the importance of people and helped to
spread humanistic ideas throughout Italy.
Italian
Renaissance Writers
l Giovanni Boccaccio
–
Most famous work is his “Decameron.”
l A collection of stories of people who stayed outside
of Florence during the Black Death.
l Baldassare Castiglione
–
Authored “The Courtier.”
l This handbook described the well-rounded gentleman.
l Niccolo Machiavelli
–
Wrote the famous essay
called “The Prince.”
l Described government as it truly was in his day.
l Power counts more than ideals.
l Today, the adjective Machiavellian is used to describe
people who use deceit and are unconcerned with morality in getting what they
want.
l To found a new republic, or to reform entirely the old
institutions of an existing one, must be the work of one man only
The
Italian Renaissance in Art
l Great
literature was only one aspect of the Renaissance; another was art.
l The
Renaissance in art was one of the greatest creative outbursts the world has
ever known.
l Innovations
in painting and sculpture, like Humanism began in Italy.
l The
most noticeable characteristic of Renaissance painting is its realism in
representing natural life and forms.
–
Perspective
l The use
of lines and shadows to give the appearance of depth to a picture.
Early
Realists
l Giotto
–
Considered the first
Renaissance painter.
–
Main works were frescoes
(wall murals)
–
One of his works was so
lifelike that a person attempted to brush a fly off of it, but the fly was part
of the painting.
l Masaccio
–
Used light and shade to
give the effect of thickness to objects.
–
He also was a pioneer in
the technique of perspective.
l Fra Angelico
–
A Dominican friar who
began his career by illuminating manuscripts.
l Sandro Botticelli
–
Known for his
mythological subject matter
l “Birth of Venus” & “Allegory of Spring”
Giotto
Masaccio
Fra
Angelico
Sandro
Botticelli
Donatello
l Donatello is
considered to be one of the greatest sculptors of all time.
l His techniques are still used by sculptors today.
The
High Renaissance
l Italian
painters of the late 1400s and early 1500s displayed such genius that this
period is often called the “High Renaissance.”
l Four
men were outstanding:
–
Leonardo da Vinci
–
Michelangelo
–
Raphael
–
Titian
l These
men were known as “The Four Giants.”
Leonardo
da Vinci
l Leonardo
da Vinci was a versatile man
–
Artist, musician, architect, mathematician, scientist
and inventor.
–
A “Renaissance Man”
l As a
painter he made use of his experiments in science: his study of anatomy helped
him in drawing the human figure, and he used mathematics to organize the space
in his painting, “The Last Supper.”
l Probably
his most famous painting is the portrait called “Mona Lisa.”
Michelangelo
l Another
master of Renaissance art was Michelangelo Bounarroti.
l Michelangelo
preferred sculpture to painting, and his stone carvings of such Old Testament
figures as David and Moses have a massive dignity.
l Thousands
of people had viewed his works on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
–
Imagine an area of 6,000 sq, ft. painted by one man in
only four years.
l Michelangelo,
almost as versatile as da Vinci, was a poet and an outstanding architect.
–
Designed St. Peter’s Church in Rome.
Raphael
l Raphael
did much of his work in Rome.
–
Commissioned by the pope to beautify the Vatican.
l His
frescoes in the papal library include:
–
“School of Athens.”
l Raphael
is also noted for his several Madonnas.
–
Representations of the Virgin Mary.
l The
“Sistine Madonna.”
Titian
l Titian
spent most of his life in Venice.
l His
works are noted for their rich color.
–
Worked with oil based paints.
l A
vivid sense of drama characterized his paintings of religious subjects, such as
his “Assumption of the Virgin.”
l Titian
was one of the few painters of the period to acquire a fortune through his
work.
Cellini
l One other famous Renaissance sculptor was Benvenuto
Cellini.
l He worked with gold and silver and disregarded all of
the accepted traditions and standards.
l His most famous works are the bronze statues of
Perseus and the Rape of the Sabine Women.
Women
Artists
l Some
women did become successful artists during this period.
–
Sometimes they would have their husbands claim the
works to that it may be accepted.
l Sofonisba
Anguissola
– The
Artist’s Sisters Playing Chess
l
Artemisia Gentileschi
– Judith
and the Maidservant
Architecture
l Renaissance
architecture rejected the Gothic style of the late Middle Ages.
l Copied
the classical style of ancient Greece and Rome.
l Filippo
Brunelleschi
–
Designed the cathedral in Florence with a great dome to
copy that of the Pantheon in Rome.
l Michelangelo
–
His design of the dome for St. Peter’s Church in Rome
served as a model the U. S. Capitol building in Washington D.C.
The Renaissance Outside of Europe
Northern
Humanism
l As a central figure of the northern Renaissance,
Johann Reuchlin tried to introduce a humanistic university curriculum and
failed.
l John Colet, a member of a group of Oxford professors,
was able to implement a humanistic curriculum in England.
l The most famous English humanist was Thomas More and
his work on an earthly paradise , Utopia.
l Towering over all of the Northern Renaissance men was
Desiderius Erasmus.
l He was able to popularize humanistic
l humanistic learning in the north through his book, Praise
of Folly, and through his personal charm.
l Erasmus was also significant for two other reasons.
–
His influence on
religious and social reform.
–
His efforts to humanize
and intellectualize Christianity.
The Dutch Renaissance
l The Renaissance in the rest of western Europe was less
classical in its emphasis, as well as more influenced by religion, particularly
that of Christian humanists.
l In the Low Countries, artists still produced works on
religious themes but the attention to detail in the paintings of Jan van Eyck
(1385-1440) typifies Renaissance ideas.
German
Renaissance
l In Mains, Germany, around 1450, the invention of
printing with movable type, traditionally attributed to Johann Gutenberg,
enabled new ideas to be spread throughout Europe more easily.
l The significance of the printing press was that it
gave people access to secular and religious literature which was crucial to the
spread of ideas during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.
l Later artists include Pieter Brueghel (1520-1569) and
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669).
•
Dance Around the May
Pole
l Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) gave realism and
individuality to the art of the woodcut.
French
Renaissance
l Many Italian artists and scholars were hired in
France.
l The Loire Valley chateaux of the 16th
century and Rabelais’ (1494-1553) Gargantua and Pantagruel reflect Renaissance
tastes.
l The Essays of the skeptic Michel de Montaigne
rejected all absolutes and distrusted the authority of human reason.
English
Renaissance
l Interests in the past and new developments did not
appear in England until the 16th century.
l Queen Elizabeth was educated according to the precepts
of the Renaissance which were reflected in the literary outpouring in England
l Edmund Spenser and Christopher Marlowe were two of the
outstanding writers of the time.
William
Shakespeare
l Drama, culminating in the age of William Shakespeare,
is the most pronounced accomplishment of the Renaissance spirit in England.
l His plays exemplified the secular spirit of the
Renaissance with their emphasis on rugged, individual personalities.
Spanish
Renaissance
l In Spain, money from the American conquests supported
much building, such as the El Escorial, a palace and monastery, and art, such
as that by El Greco (1541-1614), who is considered to work in the style of
Mannerism.
l A famous writer of the Spanish renaissance was Miguel
de Cervantes, who is best known for his work, “Don Quixote”.
l Don Quixote is not only a satire on chivalry but
probes the balance between the idealism of Quixote and the realism of Sancho
Panza.
l Lope de Vega wrote at least five hundred plays whose
hero was the secular person.
l The intellectual and cultural themes would continue to
be felt in European politics, commerce, and society in the 16th, 17th,
and 18th centuries.
Western Civilization
CHAPTER
TEN
“CONQUEST
OF THE AMERICAS”
VOYAGES
OF EXPLORATION BRING CHANGE
l Late
in the 15th century, European adventurers began to make daring voyages
that, in only about thirty years, changed forever what people knew and thought
about the rest of the world.
l The
Portuguese took the lead, and other Western European nations soon followed them
in seeking new lands and riches.
l Under
the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator, Portugal will dominate the early
years of exploration.
The
Portuguese
l Portuguese
sailors spent nearly 70 years exploring the coast of Africa to find an eastern
route to India.
l In
1488, Bartholomeu
Dias was carried by a storm around the southern tip of Africa (Cape of
Storms)
–
They became the first Europeans to sail around the
southern tip of Africa.
l When
the king of Portugal heard the good news from Dias, he renamed the area, the
Cape of Good Hope.
Vasco
da Gama
l Dias’s
discovery of a sea route into the Indian Ocean encouraged Portugal to send Vasco
da Gama on a diplomatic mission to the Indies.
l Da
Gama’s fleet was armed however, and carried goods to trade.
l Da
Gama first landed at the Muslim city of Mozambique.
l A
Muslim pilot guided da Gama’s fleet on to Calcutta, India.
l Because
of Da Gama’s voyage Portugal will dominate the trade routes with the East for
several decades.
Spain
in the Western Hemisphere
l Portugal’s
main interest lay in finding an eastward passage to India around Africa.
l In
1484 an Italian mariner, Christopher Columbus proposed to sail westward to
India, but King John II of Portugal rejected the idea.
l Columbus
had seriously underestimated the circumference of the globe and thought that
his proposed voyage would cover about 2,500 miles.
l The Portuguese
naval advisers were skeptical of his figures, for they believed it to be about
10,000 miles.
Christopher
Columbus
l Columbus now took his proposal to Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain.
l In 1492, Spain had driven the Moors from the peninsula
and was now ready to embark on overseas ventures.
l Providing funds for a small fleet (Nina, Pinta, and
Santa Maria) Columbus set sail for the west.
l Though pressured by his men to turn back, on October 12, 1492, they landed
on what is probably San Salvador.
–
Columbus actually kept
two records to deceive his men on how far they had actually traveled.
l Columbus believed he had reached the outer islands of
Asia.
l After exploring the islands in the area, Columbus
returned to Spain, with some Arawak natives which he called “Indians.”
Columbus
Made Later Voyages
l Still
convinced he had found Asia, Columbus returned to the Caribbean in 1493 and
1498.
l In
1493, he and his two brothers brought 17 shiploads of settlers to Hispaniola
and established the first European colony in the Americas.
l Due
to their poor administrative ability, Columbus and his brothers were arrested
in 1500 and sent back to Spain.
l Ferdinand
and Isabella pardoned Columbus and financed one more voyage in 1502.
The
Spaniards Explore the Caribbean
l Columbus had established a base for further Spanish
exploration of the Caribbean area.
l In 1508 Juan Ponce de Leon, who had sailed with
Columbus explored the island of Puerto Rico and founded a colony.
l Searching for the legendary “Fountain of Youth,” Ponce
de Leon discovered and named the Florida peninsula on Easter Sunday, 1513.
l Vasco de Balboa,
a settler in Hispaniola, went to look for gold on the mainland and established
a settlement in what is now Panama.
l Upon crossing the isthmus of Panama, Balboa became the
first European to see the Pacific Ocean.
Spanish
Conquests
l The
first settlers from Spain stayed mainly on the Caribbean islands.
l Soon,
however, the Spaniards’ desire for gold led them to the mainland where they
encountered and soon overthrew the rich, powerful Aztec and Inca states.
l Many
of the Spanish conquerors, or conquistadores, were sons of aristocratic
families.
l They
were seeking fame, gold, land, and adventure.
l Some
were motivated by religious reasons as well.
Cortez
and the Aztecs
l Hernando
Cortez landed on the Gulf of Mexico in 1519 with over 500 men and arms.
l The
Aztec ruler Montezuma believed that the unfamiliar Europeans might be gods or
at least their messengers.
l Though
his army could have destroyed the Spaniards, Montezuma greeted them.
–
He had hoped they would take the gifts he gave them and
leave.
Cortez
Gains Indian Allies and Defeats the Aztecs
l To
prevent his troops from leaving, Cortez ordered his ships sunk.
l He
then persuaded the Tlaxcalans, who hated the Aztecs to join him against the
Aztecs.
l In
the first battle between the two forces, the Spaniards and their allies were
defeated.
–
Over half of the Spaniards were killed or wounded.
l After
a lengthy siege on the capital city of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs were defeated
in 1521.
Pizarro
Conquers the Incan Empire
l The great Incan Empire lay south of the Aztec lands,
in what is now Peru.
l The Spaniards conquest of the Incas was quicker than
the defeat of the Aztecs, but equally dramatic.
l Francisco Pizarro had gained permission from Spain’s
ruler, Emperor Charles V to attempt the conquest of the South American coast.
l When he arrived in 1532, the Inca ruler, Atahualpa met
him cordially and was immediately taken prisoner.
l The Incan soldiers in the battle that followed were no
match for the weapons of the Spaniards.
l Not one Spaniard died in the battle that killed
hundreds of Incans.
Western
Civilization I
“REMAKING
THE AMERICAS”
The Spanish
Empire Spreads
l Spain’s
empire in the America’s grew rapidly after Cortez conquered Mexico in 1519.
l With
the conquest of Peru, it spread down the west coast of South America.
l The
viceroyalties of New Spain (Mexico) and Peru became the centers of Spanish
colonial settlements.
l The
southern most limit of Spanish lands lay in what is now Chile.
l To
the north the Spanish Empire continued to grow in what is now the American
West.
Settlers
Bring Spanish Culture to the Americas
l The
rulers of Spain gave large tracts of land to the conquistadores and certain
favored colonists.
l A
class of colonial landowners grew up, who had great wealth but no political
power in the colony.
l Spanish
colonies were ruled by viceroys appointed by the monarch to carry out royal
policies established in Spain by a council.
l In
addition to forms of government and patterns of landowning, the Spaniards also
brought their language and the Catholic religion to the Indians of the lands
they conquered.
The
Spaniards Demand Labor and Tribute from the Indians
l The
Spanish aristocrats (peninsulares) who held most of the land in the colonies
felt it was degrading to work the soil, handle tools, or deal in commerce.
l To do
the hard work on the plantations and in the mines, the settlers and their
descendants called Creoles, used the Indian peasants.
l Forced
labor (encomiendas), particularly in the silver mines of what are now Peru,
Bolivia, and Mexico cost the lives of thousands of Indians.
Protection
for Indians
l Because
the Indians had been converted to Christianity, the Spanish rulers issued
policies designed to protect them.
l Indians
could not be bought or sold as slaves and colonists had to be granted a royal
license to use Indian labor.
l Despite
the royal policies, Indian men and women still could be assigned to a colonist
and forced to work.
Peasant
Life
l Life
for the peasants called peons changed little.
l Before
the conquest, landless peasants had worked for the Aztec and Inca nobles.
l After
that, they labored for the Spanish Creoles.
–
Worked in silver mines,
–
Harvested wheat
–
Wove cotton cloth
–
Built various palaces and cathedrals.
l The
peons were often harshly treated, poorly fed, exhausted and sick.
Spanish
Missionaries
l Catholic
priests and friars accompanied the earliest Spanish explorers.
l One
of the first missionaries was Bartolome’
de Las Casas, who settled in Hispaniola in 1502.
l As a
Dominican friar he spent his life protecting the Indians from the colonists.
l King
Ferdinand supported the work of Las Casas and named him “Protector of the
Indians.”
l Las
Casas also wrote one of the first histories of Spanish colonies.
Jesuit
Missionaries
l Spain
sent many of its best friars to the Americas to convert the Indians to
Christianity.
l They
established schools to teach the Indians to read and communicate so that they
could learn new skills.The most successful schools were those of the Jesuits.
–
Here they learned European crafts and farming methods.
–
The mission schools became very prosperous.
l Spanish
rulers became jealous of the Jesuits and expelled them from the Americas, and
their missions soon collapsed.
The
Portuguese in Brazil
l Pedro Cabral established Portugal’s first colony in
Brazil.
l Most of the settlements in Brazil were founded by
wealthy nobles to whom the Portuguese king gave large grants of land.
l Differing from the Spanish colonies the Portuguese
recruited people from all classes in Portugal to settle in the New World.
–
By the mid 1500s there
were 15 fortified twins along the coast of Brazil.
l Jesuits established mission churches in the interior.
l Portuguese settlers soon followed the missionaries to
find good grazing land , to discover gold, or capture Indians to sell as
slaves.