THE RENAISSANCE

Building the Background to Dr. Faustus

RENAISSANCE DEFINED

The term Renaissance (" New Birth"), used in its narrower sense, is meant that new enthusiasm for classical literature, learning, and art which sprang up in Italy towards the close of the Middle Ages, and which during the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries gave a new culture to Europe.

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RENAISSANCE DEFINED

Using the word in a somewhat broader sense, we may define the Renaissance as the reentrance into the world of that secular, inquiring, self-reliant spirit which characterized the life and culture of classical antiquity. This is simply to say that under the influence of the intellectual revival the men of Western Europe came to think and feel, to look upon life and the outer world, as did the men of ancient Greece and Rome; and this again is merely to say that they ceased to think and feel as mediaeval men and began to think and feel as modern men.

The Creation of Adam is perhaps the most famous section of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.

T H E C R U S A D E S I N T H E I R R E L AT I O N T O T H E R E N A I SS A N C E .

Many agencies conspired to bring in the Renaissance. Among these were the Crusades. These long-sustained enterprises . . . contributed essentially to break the mental lethargy that had fallen upon the European mind, and to awaken in the nations of Western Europe the spirit of a new life. Before the Crusades closed, the way of the Renaissance was already prepared. In every territory of human activity the paths along which advances were to be made by the men of coming generations had been marked out, and in many directions trodden by the eager feet of the pioneers of the new life and culture.

TOWN LIFE AND LAY CULTURE

The spirit of the new life was nourished especially by the air of the great cities. In speaking of mediaeval town life we noticed how within the towns there was early developed a life like that of modern times. The atmosphere of these bustling, trafficking cities called into existence a practical commercial spirit, a many-sided, independent, secular life which in many respects was directly opposed to medieval teachings and ideals.

RENAISSANCE AND ART

Raphael, School of Athens, fresco, 1509-1511

RAPHAEL’S SCHOOL OF ATHENS

The School of Athens represents all the greatest mathematicians, philosophers and scientists from classical antiquity gathered together sharing their ideas and learning from each other. These figures all lived at different times, but here they are gathered together under one roof.

The two thinkers in the very center, Aristotle (on the right) and Plato (on the left, pointing up) have been enormously important to Western thinking generally, and in different ways, their different philosophies were incorporated into Christianity. Plato holds his book called The Timaeus.

Michelangelo’s Last Judgment.The work took four years to complete and was done between 1536 and 1541 (preparation of the altar wall began in 1535.)

One view of the nature of grace and salvation

The picture radiates out from the center figure of Christ, and Michelangelo has chosen to depict the various saints included in the work holding the instruments of their martyrdom rather than the actual scenes of torture.

LAST JUDGMENT

Christ, the Judge

Angels and Saints

The Damned and the saved

The Damned are cast into the underworld

The resurrection of the dead

Luca Signorelli’s ,The Damned Being Plunged into Hell 1499-1502FrescoChapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto

THE DAMNED BEING PLUNGED INTO HELL

The scene of the Damned is constructed around the visionary, almost surrealistic, idea of these crowds of naked figures jostling for space along the banks of the Acheron.

In this representation, at the foot of two big mountains, along the shore of the Acheron, a devil with a white banner leads a group of damned. Other damned are in despair since they see Charon's boat getting near. Below there is Minos punishing a damned man. Above, two angels, one wearing a breast-plate and the other covered with veils, are watching the scene.

DA VINCI’S VITRUVIAN MAN

The Vitruvian Man, is a drawingg created by Leonardo da Vinci in1490.

It illustrates the Renaissance blended in art and science.

TIME TO PONDER…

The paintings shared depict the Renaissance controversy between religion and science. Share your reactions. Reflect on the significance of these works. Do they share any patterns in style, subject, or theme? What are some themes that are central to Dr. Faustus?

Salvation Through striving, Quest for knowledge, Deception, Life is worth living, Lack of fulfillment.