Station 1-Rome, Italy during the Renaissance

The Philosophy of Humanism

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city of Rome went into a long period of decline during the Middle Ages. Invading armies, disease, a lack of security, feuding families, & government neglect made Rome a city with few advantages and even fewer reasons to attract people. But after the Black Death, traveling artists began to come to Rome as a source for inspiration of their art.

One of the earliest of these was a poet named Petrarch who was known as “the father of humanism” because of his wide ranging intellectual curiosity. He once said in a letter to a friend, “Today I climbed the highest mountain in this region. My only motive was the wish to see what so great an elevation had to offer.” Petrarch’s motivation for climbing the mountain is a good explanation of the philosophy of humanism; he climbed the mountain simply because it was there and because he wanted to achieve greatness. This idea of Humanism, which stressed a more secular ideal of life and encouraged a belief in the potential for all humans to achieve greatness on this earth, was the essential philosophy that sparked the Renaissance, and it was appropriate that Petrarch was crowned the “poet laureate” in 1341.

After Petrarch, a virtual flood of artists made their way to Rome to receive inspiration from the greatness that the Roman Empire had once achieved. The Italian architect Brunelleschi came to Rome to be inspired by the Pantheon to recreate its dome for a cathedral he had been commissioned to build. Donatello came to

be inspired by the great Roman equestrian statues. Masaccio and Masolino came to receive instruction in religious art. When Pope Martin V in 1420 gave the order to relocate all of the Catholic Church’s buildings in a centralized and planned location it was appropriate that he chose Rome as the site of the Vatican. Very quickly, the Vatican became one of the most important patrons of the greatest “Renaissance Men” of the time including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

Station 2-Florence, Italy during the Renaissance

Inspiration from the Classical Greeks and Romans

The Roman general Lucius Sulla established the city of Florence in 80 AD as a settlement for retired soldiers from the legion’s many wars. It quickly grew into a thriving agricultural community, but after the fall of the Roman Empire it entered a long period of decline until the medieval general Charlemagne brought the system of feudalism in 744 AD. With the restoration of law and order, Florence once again thrived as both a stop on several trading networks and eventually became an important location for the manufacture of wool clothing in Europe.

With the rise of commerce came a need for banking, and it was in Florence that the most important bank of the European Middle Ages and Renaissance would be established by the Medici family. This family produced four different popes of the Catholic Church, two queens of France, the invention of accounting systems still in use in banking today. However, for the history of the

Renaissance, the most important contribution of this family came under from the patronage of Lorenzo de Medici.

As a student, Lorenzo became interested in the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. When he assumed the head of the banking family and the political rule of the city of Florence, he used his family’s vast wealth to support some of the greatest artists of the time. His palace would eventually include works by Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Vasari. So important was Lorenzo as a patron that he eventually came to be known as “Lorenzo the Magnificent.” Florence would become the most important city of the Renaissance as it trained generations of artists in the content and style of Classical Greek and Roman artwork.

Station 3-Venice, Italy during the Renaissance

Emotional Content

As a settlement on over 118 different small islands in northern Italy, Venice has been described by the famous travel writer Luigi Barzini as “the most beautiful and romantic city ever built by man.” Venice has always been at the crossroads of historical trade, having been established by the Veneti people in 1,000 B.C. to trade with the Greeks. Because it was a city which grew up on several islands, the inhabitants built a series of canals and

bridges which serve as the setting for many emotional moments—men have been proposing marriage to their ladies aboard one of the Venetian gondolas for centuries.

Venice actually grew after the fall of the Roman Empire because its location made it well protected by the sea, difficult for barbarians to invade, and it attracted refugees from several inland cities. As a city directly on the Adriatic, it became a vital trading port between the Byzantine Empire and Italy, a base from which knights boarded ships bound for the Holy Land during the crusades, and a central spot along the legendary Silk Road travelled by the famous Venetian explorer and merchant trader Marco Polo.

Emotionally, Venice during the Renaissance was a city of great happiness and great sorrow. It reached its high point as an economic trading center at this time, but it was also the location of many wars. In 1453, Muslim Ottoman Turks managed to destroy the walls of Constantinople with their new military invention-the cannon. With the fall of Constantinople, thousands of Christian refugees from the Byzantine empire poured into Venice bringing with them books from ancient Greek and Rome that served as inspiration for Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci.

Station 4-Bologna, Italy during the Renaissance

Realism

When most Americans think of Bologna, the image of a sausage that eventually became known as ‘baloney’ comes to mind. Given that ‘baloney’ is a word you’d say to somebody trying to fool you, it’s ironic that the city from which it came was instead the inspiration for the Renaissance artistic style of extremely realistic anatomical drawing.

Bologna is an ancient city in north-central Italy that predates even the Romans. Sitting at an important crossroads through the northern hills because of its strategic location along two Italian rivers, it became an important location for inland Italian trade during the Middle Ages. This economic activity attracted scholars which led to the founding of the first University in the world--the University of Bologna in 1088 AD.

Because of the intellectual freedom of the university, a number of important artists, architects, and doctors came to both study and teach there. Interestingly, the University of Bologna was also the first in the world to admit women. As a result, several women artists emerged during the Renaissance. The patron saint of artists Saint Catherine of Bologna, Lavinia Fontana, and Sofonisba Anguissola were only a few of the women who came to study, live, and work at a university that gave women far more freedom to study and hone their craft than any other of the era.

Station 5-Milan, Italy during the Renaissance

3D Perspective

The Milanese are people that literally live life in 3D. Built using Roman design, domes, and arches, Milan is today a vibrant center of Italian fashion, design, and sport. In many ways, it has always been this way. Roman Emperor Constantine chose this city from which he would issue his “Edict of Milan” which legalized the worship of Christianity in 313 AD. Even the name Milan comes from dimensionality, having come from the Roman word ‘mediolanum’—the center of a plain.

Sitting at an important spot on the Po river in northern Italy, Milan was during the Middle Ages a fiercely contested city that was fought over in several wars between Kings or lords from France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Nevertheless, economic trade continued to flourish in between these battles for control of the wool industry. Eventually, the Sforza family used skillful diplomacy and intermarriage to establish itself as the dominant political dynasty. Their wealth allowed the Sforza family to become patrons to several important Renaissance artists.

While most would associate Milan immediately with the world famous A.C. Milan soccer team, its three dimensional Renaissance art is perhaps even more important. During the Renaissance, artists including Leonardo da Vinci were called to Milan to create some of the most important works of the time. Architecturally, the city is dominated by one of the most famous Renaissance Cathedrals of the time. For Renaissance invention, Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous collection of perspective drawings, The Codex Atlanticus, is housed in Milan’s Library of

Ambrosia. From any “perspective,” Milan is amongst the most influential of the major Renaissance cities.