Defining the Renaissance

HUM 2052: Civilization IISummer 2010Dr. PerdigaoMay 20, 2010

Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas (The Maids in Waiting) (1656)

Those in the court of Philip IV: Margarita, the daughter of Philip IV, her maids in waiting, two dwarfs, and a dog.

“Some suggest that it is a self portrait of the artist or a portrait of the artist in his studio. Others suggest that it is a portrait of Margarita, to be used to arrange a marriage. The painting on the back wall may be a mirror reflecting the images of Philip and the Queen. If that is so, then are they the subject of the canvas in the painting orare they simply watching the events of the day? One last suggestion is that this was a tribute to a dead prince, whose room the artist's studio now occupies. While multiple suggestions persist, the painting remains a realistic view of life in the Spanish court.”

http://webed.vw.cc.va.us/vwbaile/pages_art102/102distance/Lectures/102dbarq.html

http://mediastudiesendicott.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/velazquez-las-meninas1.jpg

Some Contexts1138-1453 Hundred Years’ War1348-1350 The Black Death1428 Joan of Arc is burned at the stake for heresy after

liberating Orléans from the British1473 Printing 1492 Columbus discovers America1503 Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa1512 Michelangelo completes the Sistine Chapel ceiling1513 Luther’s Ninety-five Theses denounces abuses of the

Roman Catholic Church1521 Luther is excommunicated1532 Machiavelli’s The Prince1580 Montaigne’s Essays (books 1 and 2)1588 Montaigne’s Essays (complete publication)1597-1604 Cervantes’ Don Quixote: part 1 published in 1605;

part 2 in 16151600 Shakespeare’s Hamlet1611 King James’ Bible published 1641 Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy1655? Milton’s Paradise Lost: published in 16671655 Velazquez’s Las Meninas

Shifts in Science, FaithNicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543): Theorizes that the earth moves around the sunGalileo Galilei (1564-1642): Repudiates Copernicus’ theory at 1633 InquisitionChristopher Columbus (1451-1506): Discovers that the earth is round

Uncertainty of time; questions of self, worldRenaissance melancholy (1889)Center on religion but turn from Dante’s world order:

As the geometer who tries so hardto square the circle, but cannot discover,think as he may, the principle involved, so did I strive with this new mystery:I yearned to know how could our image fitinto that circle, how could it conform; but my own wings could not take me so high—then a great flash of understanding struckmy mind, and suddenly its wish was granted.At this point power failed high fantasybut, like a wheel in perfect balance turning,I felt my will and my desire impelledby the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.

(Dante, Paradiso, Canto XXXIII, 1597)

Defining the PeriodItalian Renaissance of the fifteenth century: Age of Enlightenment of eighteenth

century

Shift from Middle Ages: commerce and industry expands, capitalism develops; central government replaces feudalism; rise of Protestantism and fragmentation of Christendom; shift from theology to science, from revelation to reason (Perry 293)

Renaissance—rebirth, return to classical Greece and Rome, from 1350-1600 (in Italy until late fifteenth century)—from science to arts to politics; “birth of modernity—in art, in the idea of the individual’s role in history and nature, and in society, politics, war, and diplomacy” (Perry 311) ; the “cult of the individual” (Perry 313)

Struggle, like with the ancients, between tradition and modernization, what to retain and what to alter—as story of evolving civilizations

Weakening of Holy Roman Empire and papacy leads city-states of northern Italy to become autonomous political entities

Conceptual shiftsWealth of cities like Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice, Mantua, Ferrara, Padua, Bologna,

and Genoa due to commerce and industry, weakening of feudal structure and feudal nobility, but still unstable government

Leads to experimental forms of government during the period (and beginnings of political philosophy, i.e., Machiavelli, Montaigne)

Republicanism (1300-1450); Despotism (1450-1550)

Although Florence retains republican ideas and practice, rise of Medici family changes structure while Venice is the only city-state to maintain republicanism (Perry 297)

Urban, commercial oligarchies become the new model but retain some aspects of the feudal codes

Shift from birth as basis of merit system to effort, talent, creative genius (Perry 298); honor shifts from warrior code of ancients to include citizen, creative genius; ideal as meritocracy (Perry 313)

Nouveaux riches—new form of elitism

Evolving SystemsArt—political function: civic pride, patriotism, power (Perry 299); benefactors, investment;

development of portraiture as genre

Secularism, individualism

Humanism—return to the classics, study of ancient Greek and Roman literature, return to study of Greek; key figures Petrarch (1304-1374) and Boccaccio (1313-1375)

“Humanist educational ideal” included a “radical transformation of the medieval (Augustinian) view of humanity” (Perry 300)—rather than divine will, return to Greek notion of arêté

Mastery of nature as desired end—magus (magician); Scientific Revolution begins with Italian humanists (Perry 300)

Changing ValuesAs “rebirth” (1884)

As a “movement”: visual arts (Italy); literature (England)

As “enlightened” by contemporaries (1886)

Renaissance “code of behavior” (1886): not right and wrong, good and evil, but “concrete validity and effectiveness,” “delight it affords,” “memorability and its beauty”

“The leaders of the period saw in a work of art the clearest instance of beautiful, harmonious, and self-justified performance” (1889).

Virtue, fame, glory

For Machiavellian prince, not goodness, temperance, clemency but “whatever forces and skills may help him in the efficient management and preservation of his princely powers” (1887)

Losing CentersRenaissance melancholy: “The Renaissance coincided with, and perhaps to some

extent occasioned, a loss of firm belief in the final unity and the final intelligibility of the universe, such belief as underlies, for example, The Divine Comedy. . .” (1889).

“Thus while on one, and perhaps the better-known, side of the picture of human intellect in Renaissance literature enthusiastically expatiates over the realms of knowledge and unveils the mysteries of the universe, on the other it is beset by puzzling doubts and profound mistrust of its own powers” (1890).

Printing press as new source—for Renaissance epics, “what is gained and lost in achieving that crystallization of the civilizing process”; Machiavelli’s “amoral ideas about the effective (rather than ideal) prince” (1890).

As “early modern”

Humanists: Return to the classics

Renaissance: Rebirth—from science to arts to politics

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Machiavelli’s The Prince and Montaigne’s Essays: question of the constitution of man. Is he idealized or villainized?

Question of fear or love, the Duke’s example

Power and Ideology

Returns

Santo da Tito’s Machiavelli and Altissimo’s Portrait of Machiavelli

Adapting Machiavelli

Tupac, Makaveli: the Don Killuminati

Framing the TextNiccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), born in Florence, public life as clerk in 1494

and 1498-1512 as secretary to second chancery of the commune of Florence (internal and war affairs), missions to King Louis XII of France, Cesare Borgia, duke of Valentinois (1945)

Work at strengthening Florentine republic, establishing a militia; end of republican regime, exile from Florence (like Dante, from civil war within Guelphs, between blacks and whites—papal power at center)—in Machiavelli’s case unable to leave Florentine territory after accusation of conspiracy from Medici regime

Aim of work to lead to restored position, obtaining public office from Medici

After collapse of Medici regime, Machiavelli seen as Medici sympathizer

Division in book between first 11 books: dominions and how they are constructed, preserved and 12-14: problems of military power and 15-end: the “virtues” of the prince

Fame derived from final part—with attributes and virtues

Call to liberate Italy by end

Questions of ContextWritten for Lorenzo de’ Medici the Younger (de facto ruler of Florence) though

originally written for Giuliano de’ Medici (brother of new pope Leo X)

Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy—preference for republics

Question if The Prince is satire—at least play with treatises, “mirrors of princes,” those formulas

Publication in Rome in 1532—five years after his death—while circulated in Florence around 1516; attempts to destroy manuscript before his death

Printed with privilege given by Pope Clement VII—but a few decades later (1559), the Catholic Church puts The Prince and his other works on the papacy’s Index of Forbidden Books

Question if published because of its use of the Florentine dialect

Machiavelli’s The Prince: Power and AuthorityExercise like Plato’s Republic on ideal ruler but replaces philosopher king:

“If men were all good, this advice would not be good, but since men are wicked and do not keep their promises to you, you likewise do not have to keep yours to them” (1956).

Virtues: Compassionate; Trustworthy; Humane; Honest; Religious

Chapter 17—Virtues called into question in Machiavelli’s text: “Is it better to be loved than to be feared, or the reverse?” (1954) “men forget the death of a father more quickly than the loss of their

patrimony” (1955) “I conclude that since men love as they please and fear as the prince

pleases, a wise prince will evidently rely on what is in his own

power and not on what is in the power of another” (1955).

Uses of works in history, mythology, and theology (real and imagined): Cesare Borgia, Remirro de Orco, Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus, Caesar, Dido, Hannibal:

Modeling the PrinceFox and lion:

“So the prince needs to be a fox that he may know how to deal with traps, and a lion that he may frighten the wolves” (1956)

Being vs. Seeming to be

Place of Fortune:“That is, if a prince bases himself entirely on Fortune, he will fall

when she varies. I also believe that a ruler will be successful who adapts his mode of procedure to the quality of the times, and likewise that he will be unsuccessful if the times are out of accord with his procedure.” (1958)

On Machiavelli’s PhilosophyThe place of the prince within the idealized world of the Renaissance

Machiavelli advocates not humanism which is unattainable but rather the practical—from abstract to material effects

For Machiavelli, human nature is based on a desire for acquisition

The falls of Medici empire are seen as being true to Machiavelli’s theory

Separates politics from moral law

Fortune always plays a role in politics

Story of world is a story of war

Questions of the relationship between appearance and reality, being and seeming to be

References works in history, mythology, and theology—Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus (real and imagined)

Machiavelli and Popular Culture

From Dean DeFino’s “The Prince of North Jersey”:

Abstract: Although many critics consider Tony Soprano from HBO’s mob series The Sopranos a troubled Everyman, an emblem of the human need for redemption, the program reveals a postmodern politician more concerned with his leadership skills than his humanity. Caught between the Machiavellian poles of the humane prince and the beastly dictator, Tony is compelled to more and more beastly deeds in a struggle to achieve and maintain power among the ruins of a dying mob culture. Tony’s desperate brutality, read against our surprisingly resilient empathy for him, compels us to ask the very question his therapist, Dr. Melfi, poses to herself: Are we being conned by a sociopath? (DeFino 1)

DeFino, Dean. “The Prince of North Jersey.” Journal of Popular Film and Television (2004). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0412/is_2_32/ai_n6112889/pg_5

A Postmodern Machiavelli?Models of power abound in the program, from mob hierarchy and law enforcement to family and religion. In therapy, Tony and Dr. Melfi attempt to address these models from a series of psychoanalytic, then philosophical perspectives. When Tony’s son A.J. begins to despair the meaninglessness of existence after reading Nietzsche in a high school English class, and Tony finds himself approving what he perceives as the German idealist’s existential pessimism, Dr. Melfi attempts to guide him toward the central concept of Nietzschian philosophy, the will to power. This is perhaps a dangerous approach when dealing with a criminal sociopath, but it is one intended to encourage Tony toward more constructive forms of agency. Tony also dabbles briefly in Eastern philosophy while involved with Gloria Trillo, the quasi-Buddhist Mercedes saleswoman from season 3. He is particularly drawn to Sun-Tsu, whose Art of War was recommended to him by Dr. Melfi prior to the appearance of Gloria. “Most of the guys I know read Prince Matchabelli,” he tells Dr. Melfi, referring to the Florentine humanist Niccolo Machiavelli, author of that infamous guide to political expedience, The Prince. But according to Tony, Sun-Tsu’s text is “much better about strategy.” Ironically, although Tony claims to dismiss Machiavelli after briefly skimming Cliff's Notes for The Prince, it is the Machiavellian aspect of Sun-Tsu that attracts him. “If your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate him,” he advises Silvio after their psychotic associate Ralphie Cifaretto beats a stripper to death outside of Silvio’s strip club the Bada Bing. Tony’s own response to these events is textbook Machiavelli: first to abuse, then to reward (a public thrashing and shunning, followed closely by a promotion). (DeFino 1)

From Machiavelli to Montaigne• Dan Engster’s “The Montaignian Moment” uses J.A. Pocock’s Machiavellian Moment

to define a major shift in thinking about politics to an interest in “fortune” rather than “timeless values and static ideals”

• Defines a second shift with Montaigne

• For Engster, Montaigne “argued that Machiavelli and the civic humanists had grossly underestimated the capriciousness and uncertainty of fortune. He then challenged the effectiveness of traditional humanist strategies for establishing order within time and proposed a new set of principles for taming fortune based upon the concept of ‘nature’ and the values of moderation, restraint, and self-discipline.”

• Argues Montaigne is “one of the first early modern writers to suggest that human beings ought not to focus so much on trying actively to manipulate fortune. Instead, he felt that the aim should be more on attempting to construct self-sufficient and self-regulating communities that would avoid her blows altogether.”

• Ultimately sees Montaigne as a “central transitional figure between the activist humanism of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and the more rationalistic state theories of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or more succinctly, between Machiavelli and Hobbes” and creates a “theoretical framework for the development and justification of the new language of the state.” (Engster 626)

• Engster, Dan. “The Montaignian Moment.” The Journal of the History of Ideas 59.4 (1998): 625-650.

From Reformation to Revolution• Protestant Reformation

• Martin Luther (1483-1546), German, studied law, entered monastery, professor at Wittenburg, preacher (Perry 320); Katharina von Bora (324)

• Selling of indulgences

• Faith, meaning in Bible—moving from centralized authority of Catholicism

• Mysticism, Humanism, Millenarians (Perry 319)

• 1517—Ninety-five Theses• 1520—Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (urging

princes to break from pope, citing his exploitation) (Perry 323)

• 1521—charge of heresy by Charles V, Holy Roman emperor

• Religious reform to social revolution• Uses for disenfranchised—peasant revolt in 1524 (Luther disassociates)

From Reformation to Revolution• Protestantism—Zurich, Germany (Peace of Augsburg in 1555—religion left

to prince)

• John Calvin (1509-1564), French scholar and theologian (and humanist), preacher of Reformation (Perry 327)—leaves France for Geneva; theocracy (elders regulating through church courts)

• Predestination

• 1534—Protestantism illegal in France; Huguenots (Calvinist minority), as underground movement (Perry 329); 1562—civil war between Catholics and Protestants; 1572, Henry of Navarre (later becomes King Henry IV after reconverts to Catholicism), failed conciliation with marriage of Protestant leader into royal family and plot to murder Protestant guests—Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (Perry 329)

• Henry IV gives Protestants limited toleration; issues Edict of Nantes in 1598; assassinated in 1610; edict revoked in 1685

Framing MontaigneMichel de Montaigne (1533-1592); born in Montaigne, to Catholic father and

Protestant mother; studied law, member of parliament; retired from politics at age 38; after writing for a decade, is appointed mayor of Bordeaux, holds for two terms until 1585

Question of “Who am I?” as a basis of an existential crisis (later articulated by theorists such as Sartre and Camus)

“a precursor of modernity, a representative of his time, and an avid student of the classical past” (2178), detailing the self changing in the world

Existential dilemmas, cultural and psychological identity crises

Idea of self transforming as world around it does

Catholic and Protestant factions—France, divisions—1562-1568 France in civil war three times

Third party, politiques, party including Montaigne—religious tolerance

Views“His hatred of political radicalism influenced much of what he saw in ancient

history and in contemporary accounts of New World discovery and conquest. This alienation from his own political context suggests one cause of his celebrated doubleness of perspective, which is at once ethnographic (outward-looking and impartial) and self-critical (introspective and moral).” (2180)

Ethnographer, historian—perspectives in writing: what he sees in conquests in the New World—from impartial gaze or introspective and moral

Epistemology:shift during the period to ways of knowing. How do we know what we know?Like Socrates, emphasizes how knowledge “reveals how little he truly knows”

(2179)Focus on the “elusive and unstable character of the ‘self’” (2180)

“Of Cannibals” influences the representation of Caliban in Shakespeare’s Tempest, Shakespeare’s reflections on the “ideal commonwealth, colonialism, and the nature of savages” (2180).

Barbaric is loosely defined as that which is not oursCounters that logic by showing how the “Golden Age” is experienced by such

“barbarians”

On Montaigne’s Philosophies• Barbarians as non-Greeks; “others” considered barbarians• Of Cannibals raises the question of one’s relation to others• “whatever is not his own practice”; “very desire of philosophy” (pp. 2192-

2193)• Yet Montaigne raises the issue that, because we corrupted pure and natural

Nature, we are barbarians• Education teaches us to die well and live well• Cannibals fight to know what they are• Question of virtue raised in a new context• If the human condition is made to suffer, then life is an exercise in dying well

and living well• Montaigne stresses the idea of knowing that you are knowing; in this way, he

offers a connection to Plato’s ideas• Montaigne’s Of Experience and Of Education together offer a means to live

well