Hinduism Festivals Module for HUM 111
Learning Objective:
The student in the Hinduism Festivals module will understand Diwali and the Festival of Lights by answering the six prompts during the video.
Assessment:
The professor will verify the learning objective by responding individually to the student, correcting if necessary, and answering any additional questions the student has about Diwali.
Technology tool:
edpuzzle
https://edpuzzle.com/
G. Mick Smith, PhD, Senior Educational Technology Executive: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gmicksmith/
Monday, February 12, 2018
HUM 111 Week 7 Winter 2018
The presentation may contain content that is deemed objectionable to a particular viewer because of the view expressed or the conduct depicted. The views expressed are provided for learning purposes only, and do not necessarily express the views, or opinions, of Strayer University, your professor, or those participating in videos or other media.
One 15-minute break at 8:00; roll taken before dismissal at 10:00 pm.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gmicksmith
To join our Slack HUM 111 group: send me your email address so I can invite you to Slack.
Blackboard is not smart enough to reveal email addresses.
For example: gmick.smith@strayer.edu
https://hum111.slack.com/
How have you used the Orai app?
https://www.oraiapp.com/
How about trying it for the Discussion?
Boost Linguistics
The Boost Editor improves language communication that is written by students.
Sign up at:
boost-ling.com/boost-text-editor/
There you’ll be able to copy and paste any text (email, article, assignment, blog, etc.) and improve the language for the emotion of JOY.
http://boost-ling.com/app/
Side note:Video of V1 to be released in June
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B63nNuIP9mzpLXN3RER4cXlvN28/view
strayer.edu analysis
Alternative presentation site:
haikudeck.com
Tools:
https://elearningindustry.com/18-free-digital-storytelling-tools-for-teachers-and-students
Some tools (like Google StreetView, which has been used to verify geographical data) are fairly well-known. Others, like Google’s Public Data Explorer are a bit more obscure. This can be a “hidden gem” in Google’s toolkit.
https://www.google.com/publicdata/directory
http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/12/18/uninsured-map/
https://www.google.com/streetview/
https://www.google.com/publicdata/directory
Not one of these tools require a master’s degree to use. It’s about figuring out what is valuable to you.
https://images.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl
Review
What caused the end of the Khmer Empire?
For social and religious reasons, many aspects contributed to the decline of the Khmer empire. The relationship between the rulers and their elites was unstable – among the 27 Angkorian rulers, eleven lacked a legitimate claim to power, and civil wars were frequent. The Khmer empire focused more on the domestic economy and did not take advantage of the international maritime network. In addition, the input of Buddhist ideas conflicted and disturbed the state order built under the predominant Hinduism.
The last Sanskrit inscription is dated 1327 and describes the succession of Indrajayavarman by Jayavarmadiparamesvara.:228 Historians suspect a connection with the kings' adoption of Theravada Buddhism: they were therefore no longer considered "devarajas", and there was no need to erect huge temples to them, or rather to the gods under whose protection they stood. The retreat from the concept of the devaraja may also have led to a loss of royal authority and thereby to a lack of workers. The water-management apparatus also degenerated, meaning that harvests were reduced by floods or drought. While previously three rice harvests per year were possible – a substantial contribution to the prosperity and power of Kambuja – the declining harvests further weakened the empire.
Looking at the archaeological record, however, archaeologists noticed that not only were the structures ceasing to be built, but the Khmer's historical inscription was also lacking from roughly 1300–1600. With this lack of historical content, there is unfortunately very limited archaeological evidence to work with. Archaeologists have been able to determine that the sites were abandoned and then reoccupied later by different people.
There is evidence that the Black Death had affected the situation described above, as the plague first appeared in China around 1330 and reached Europe around 1345. Most seaports along the line of travel from China to Europe felt the impact of the disease, which had a severe impact on life throughout South East Asia.
The western neighbour of the Khmer, the first Thai kingdom of Sukhothai, after repelling Angkorian hegemony, was conquered by another stronger Thai kingdom in the lower Chao Phraya Basin, Ayutthaya, in 1350. From the fourteenth century, Ayutthaya became Angkor's rival.:222–223 Angkor was besieged by the Ayutthayan king Uthong in 1352, and following its capture the next year, the Khmer monarch was replaced with successive Siamese princes. Then in 1357, the Khmer king Suryavamsa Rajadhiraja regained the throne. In 1393, the Ayutthayan king Ramesuan besieged Angkor again, capturing it the next year. Ramesuan's son ruled Khmer a short time before being assassinated. Finally, in 1431, the Khmer king Ponhea Yat abandoned Angkor as indefensible, and moved to the Phnom Penh area.
The new centre of the Khmer kingdom was in the southwest, at Oudong in the region of today's Phnom Penh. However, there are indications that Angkor was not completely abandoned. One line of Khmer kings may have remained there, while a second moved to Phnom Penh to establish a parallel kingdom. The final fall of Angkor would then be due to the transfer of economic – and therewith political – significance, as Phnom Penh became an important trade centre on the Mekong. Besides, severe droughts and ensuing floods were considered as one of the contributing factors to its fall. The empire focused more on regional trade after the first drought. Overall, climate change, costly construction projects, and conflicts over power between the royal family sealed the end of the Khmer empire.
Ecological failure and infrastructural breakdown is a new alternative theory regarding the end of the Khmer Empire. Scientists working on the Greater Angkor Project believe that the Khmers had an elaborate system of reservoirs and canals used for trade, transportation, and irrigation. The canals were used for harvesting rice. As the population grew there was more strain on the water system. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, there were also severe climatic changes impacting the water management system. Periods of drought led to decreases in agricultural productivity, and violent floods due to monsoons damaged the infrastructure during this vulnerable time. To adapt to the growing population, trees were cut down from the Kulen hills and cleared out for more rice fields. That created rain runoff carrying sediment to the canal network. Any damage to the water system would have enormous consequences.
Faith, foreign pressure, and ecological breakdown have all been advanced for the decline. No one theory has proved convincing or it may simply be a combination of all of these factors.
Angkor Adventure - The fall of the Great Khmer Empire re-edit, 4:15
Our tour guide explains the reason for the fall of the Great Khmer Empire that built the magnificent temples at Angkor Wat, the ancient city and seat of one of the Hindu kingdom and of the greatest empires of the 12th century.
https://youtu.be/O_zQMAbCmWc
Can you say more about the Benin Kingdom?
The Benin Empire was a pre-colonial empire located in what is now southern Nigeria. Its capital was Edo, now known as Benin City, Edo. It should not be confused with the modern-day country called Benin, formerly called Dahomey. The Benin Empire was "one of the oldest and most highly developed states in the coastal hinterland of West Africa, dating perhaps to the eleventh century CE", until it was annexed by the British Empire in 1897.
A Brief History of the Benin Empire, 4:09
https://youtu.be/vazknOVzZ_c
Were there any major civilizations in the Amazon or in Russia?
There is no record of a civilization in the Amazon.
The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of Varangians, the traders, warriors and settlers from the Baltic Sea region. Primarily they were Vikings of Scandinavian origin, who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas.[47] According to the Primary Chronicle, a Varangian from Rus' people, named Rurik, was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882 his successor Oleg ventured south and conquered Kiev,[48] which had been previously paying tribute to the Khazars, founding Kievan Rus'. Oleg, Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar khaganate and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.
In the 10th to 11th centuries Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe.[49] The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, particularly to the area known as Zalesye.
The age of feudalism and decentralization was marked by constant in-fighting between members of the Rurik Dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, Novgorod Republic in the north-west and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west.
Ultimately Kievan Rus' disintegrated, with the final blow being the Mongol invasion of 1237–40[51] that resulted in the destruction of Kiev[52] and the death of about half the population of Rus'.[53] The invading Mongol elite, together with their conquered Turkic subjects (Cumans, Kipchaks, Bulgars), became known as Tatars, forming the state of the Golden Horde, which pillaged the Russian principalities; the Mongols ruled the Cuman-Kipchak confederation and Volga Bulgaria (modern-day southern and central expanses of Russia) for over two centuries.[54]
Galicia-Volhynia was eventually assimilated by the Kingdom of Poland, while the Mongol-dominated Vladimir-Suzdal and Novgorod Republic, two regions on the periphery of Kiev, established the basis for the modern Russian nation.[20] The Novgorod together with Pskov retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongol yoke and were largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky, Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240, as well as the Germanic crusaders in the Battle of the Ice in 1242, breaking their attempts to colonize the Northern Rus'.
History of Europe #10 - Kievan Rus', England and Norse! 5:10
https://youtu.be/vntfSGJfqXM
Why did the Mayan sharpen their teeth?
Human tooth sharpening is the practice of manually sharpening the teeth, usually the front incisors. Filed teeth are customary in various cultures. Many remojadas figurines found in part of Mexico have filed teeth and it is believed to have been common practice in their culture. The Zappo Zap people of the Democratic Republic of Congo are believed to have filed their teeth.
Historically it was done for spiritual purposes, with some exceptions, but in modern times it is usually aesthetic in nature as an extreme form of body modification.
In Mayan culture, the teeth were sharpened, and sometimes had designs carved into them, to distinguish those in the upper-classes.
Stained glass: how long to clean, how removed?
1:52 How to Clean a Stained Glass Lead Panel
Delphi Artist Steena Gaut demonstrates how to clean cement off of a lead stained glass panel using whiting powder. http://bit.ly/pPnlKa
https://youtu.be/CL6lEeYmwYs
To clean the glass is not necessarily removed and cleaning is done slowly and carefully.
Careful cleaning of stained glass can be a very effective means of improving its overall condition, because its appearance and function are so heavily dependent on its ability to transmit light.
Unfortunately, owing to the fragility of corroded glass, nearly all cleaning treatments can cause changes in the surface of the glass that can expedite corrosion rates, or damage delicate paint layers (Romich et al. 2000). Thus, cleaning efforts should not necessarily be concerned with the complete removal of all encrustrations, but rather the careful thinning of these layers to a point where light can be transmitted through the glass at an acceptable level (Rauch 2004, 5). The simplest cleaning can be performed using carefully applied deionised water, although other mechanical or chemical means are often necessary, and must always be done slowly, in a controlled and focused manner (Rauch 2004, 5-6; Vogel et al. 2007, 9-10). Scalpels or a micro-jet process* can be used to gradually, mechanically thin out these encrustations layer by layer, in the lab. Conversely, poultices or gel pads steeped in a non-ionic detergent or EDTA can be applied to the surface of the glass for long periods of time for “deep, focused cleaning” (Rauch 2004, 6). With any of these methods, care must be taken to ensure the stability of painted layers, before treatment can take place. In the event that these layers appear particularly friable, it is necessary to clean the glass delicately with cotton swabs, and in more extreme cases, manually affix the original paint lines to the surface, under a microscope, by applying small tiny drops of resin at specific points (Rauch 2004, 6; Vogel et al. 2007, 10). Care should be taken not to remove any later over-painting without due consideration, as such layers may have historic value, in their own right (Rauch 2004, 7).
Within conservation, repairs are meant to last, but should also be as reversible as possible, in keeping with the general ethical guidelines of modern conservation practice (Sloane 1993, 13). In the context of stained glass, repairs can involve treatment of the glass itself, treatment of missing areas, or structural consolidation of the matrix or surrounding architectural fabric.
Broken glass is typically repaired in one of thee ways: copper foiling (thin copper tape that is applied to both sides of the break and then soldered); epoxy edge-gluing; and silicone edge-gluing. Each of these has its own inherent benefits and problems. For instance, copper foiling produces a strong, reversible, attractive repair, but is unsuitable for use with unstable glass because of the heat involved in the application process. Epoxy edge-gluing on the other hand is strong and nearly invisible, but deteriorates in direct sunlight, while silicone edge-gluing dries clear and is easily reversible, but unfortunately refracts light differently from glass, making such repairs more readily apparent (Vogel et al. 2007, 12).
Missing areas can be filled or replaced but should be done so with caution. All additions must be marked as such, and documented. Ultimately, “it is nearly always better to use an imperfect original piece of glass than to replace it” (Vogel et al. 2007, 12). Modern replacement of glass with “exact” replicas is virtually impossible, and goes against conservation philosophy by potentially clouding viewers’ perception of the original. Instead it is preferable to use similarly coloured, but clearly differentiated glass in order to preserve the aesthetic effect of the stained glass without sacrificing the integrity of the original (Rauch 2004, 7; Vogel et al. 2007, 11).
Structurally speaking it is most important to keep the frame intact and in good condition, to ensure the overall safety of the window (Vogel et al. 2007, 10). That being said, the original materials that make up this matrix are also integral aspects of the historic value and artistic design of the panel and should be preserved. Steps should always be taken to ensure that panels retain their current matrix whenever possible, rather than opting for replacement (CVMA 2004).
Where did the idea of cleaning arise and who was the first to complete a stained glass?
Coloured glass has been produced since ancient times. Both the Egyptians and the Romans excelled at the manufacture of small coloured glass objects. Phoenicia was important in glass manufacture with its chief centres Sidon, Tyre and Antioch. The British Museum holds two of the finest Roman pieces, the Lycurgus Cup, which is a murky mustard colour but glows purple-red to transmitted light, and the Portland vase which is midnight blue, with a carved white overlay.
In early Christian churches of the 4th and 5th centuries, there are many remaining windows which are filled with ornate patterns of thinly-sliced alabaster set into wooden frames, giving a stained-glass like effect.
Evidence of stained glass windows in churches and monasteries in Britain can be found as early as the 7th century. The earliest known reference dates from 675 AD when Benedict Biscop imported workmen from France to glaze the windows of the monastery of St Peter which he was building at Monkwearmouth. Hundreds of pieces of coloured glass and lead, dating back to the late 7th century, have been discovered here and at Jarrow.[5]
In the Middle East, the glass industry of Syria continued during the Islamic period with major centres of manufacture at Raqqa, Aleppo and Damascus and the most important products being highly transparent colourless glass and gilded glass, rather than coloured glass. The production of coloured glass in Southwest Asia existed by the 8th century, at which time the alchemist Jābir ibn Hayyān, in Kitab al-Durra al-Maknuna, gave 46 recipes for producing coloured glass and described the technique of cutting glass into artificial gemstones.[6]
In the Romanesque and Early Gothic period, from about 950 AD to 1240 AD, the untraceried windows demanded large expanses of glass which of necessity were supported by robust iron frames, such as may be seen at Chartres Cathedral and at the eastern end of Canterbury Cathedral. As Gothic architecture developed into a more ornate form, windows grew larger, affording greater illumination to the interiors, but were divided into sections by vertical shafts and tracery of stone. This elaboration of form reached its height of complexity in the Flamboyant style in Europe, and windows grew still larger with the development of the Perpendicular style in England.
Integrated with the lofty verticals of Gothic cathedrals and parish churches, glass designs became more daring. The circular form, or rose window, developed in France from relatively simple windows with openings pierced through slabs of thin stone to wheel windows, as exemplified by the West front of Chartres Cathedral, and ultimately to designs of enormous complexity, the tracery being drafted from hundreds of different points, such as those at Sainte-Chapelle, Paris and the "Bishop's Eye" at Lincoln Cathedral.
While stained glass was widely manufactured, Chartres in France was the greatest centre of stained glass manufacture, producing glass of unrivalled quality.
Were Gothic Cathedrals used for a different purpose than Romanesque Cathedrals?
Theologically, no, but they were characteristically different.
Romanesque: simpler rounded arches weight was on walls Gothic: more complex pointed arches weight was on columns, pilasters (rectangle column) and arches more buttresses
Complete and submit Week 7 Quiz 6: Chapters 11 and 12
The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia [diˈviːna komˈmɛːdja]) is an epic poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
On the surface, the poem describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven;but at a deeper level, it represents, allegorically, the soul's journey towards God. At this deeper level, Dante draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy and the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called "the Summa in verse".
The work was originally simply titled Comedìa and the word Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio. The first printed edition to add the word divina to the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce,[8] published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.
No, but at the time, there were many ‘cures’ suggested.
Some of the best accounts from the period come from the leading writers.
Giovanni Boccaccio (/boʊˈkɑːtʃiˌoʊ, -tʃoʊ, bə-/; Italian: [dʒoˈvanni bokˈkattʃo]; 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist.
Boccaccio wrote a number of notable works, including The Decameron and On Famous Women.
He wrote his imaginative literature mostly in the Italian vernacular, as well as other works in Latin, and is particularly noted for his realistic dialogue which differed from that of his contemporaries, medieval writers who usually followed formulaic models for character and plot.
Francesco Petrarca (Italian pronunciation: [franˈtʃesko peˈtrarka]; July 20, 1304 – July 20, 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (/ˈpiːtrɑːrk, ˈpɛtrɑːrk/), was an Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Renaissance.
Petrarch is often considered the founder of Humanism. In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch's works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio, and, to a lesser extent, Dante Alighieri.
Petrarch would be later endorsed as a model for Italian style by the Accademia della Crusca. Petrarch's sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. He is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the "Dark Ages."[3] This standing back from his time was possible because he straddled two worlds—the classical and his own modern day.[4]
Geoffrey Chaucer (/ˈtʃɔːsər/; c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to be buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.
While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten-year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Among his many works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. He is best known today for The Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer's work was crucial in legitimizing the literary use of the Middle English vernacular at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
Christine de Pizan (also seen as de Pisan ; French pronunciation: [kʁistin də pizɑ̃] (
listen) ; 1364 – c. 1430) was an Italian French late medieval author.
She served as a court writer for several dukes (Louis of Orleans, Philip the Bold of Burgundy, and John the Fearless of Burgundy) and the French royal court during the reign of Charles VI. She wrote both poetry and prose works such as biographies and books containing practical advice for women. She completed forty-one works during her 30-year career from 1399–1429. She married in 1380 at the age of 15, and was widowed 10 years later. Much of the impetus for her writing came from her need to earn a living to support her mother, a niece and her two surviving children. She spent most of her childhood and all of her adult life in Paris and then the abbey at Poissy, and wrote entirely in her adopted language, Middle French.
Her early courtly poetry is marked by her knowledge of aristocratic custom and fashion of the day, particularly involving women and the practice of chivalry. Her early and later allegorical and didactic treatises reflect both autobiographical information about her life and views and also her own individualized and humanist approach to the scholastic learned tradition of mythology, legend, and history she inherited from clerical scholars and to the genres and courtly or scholastic subjects of contemporary French and Italian poets she admired. Supported and encouraged by important royal French and English patrons, she influenced 15th-century English poetry. Her success stems from a wide range of innovative writing and rhetorical techniques that critically challenged renowned writers such as Jean de Meun, author of the Romance of the Rose, which she criticized as immoral.
In recent decades, Christine de Pizan's work has been returned to prominence by the efforts of scholars such as Charity Cannon Willard, Earl Jeffrey Richards and Simone de Beauvoir. Certain scholars have argued that she should be seen as an early feminist who efficiently used language to convey that women could play an important role within society. This characterization has been challenged by other critics, who say that it is either an anachronistic use of the word or a misinterpretation of her writing and intentions.
The writers of the time tell us a great deal about the period; the most important event of the time was the Black Death.
In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kill 1.5 million people out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350. No medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease. After 1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century. Understandably, peasants were terrified at the news that the Black Death might be approaching their village or town.
https://youtu.be/coDVVsTuEco
Leonardo da Vinci
Full picture, Schematic Diagram of the Last Supper,
Bruce Boucher on The Last Supper (art historian):
Leonardo's composition points, in fact, in another direction, for it conforms to traditional Florentine depictions of the Last Supper, stressing the betrayal and sacrifice of Jesus rather than the institution of the Eucharist and the chalice.
and Dan Brown
Author of The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown's] preposterous theory that the figure of the Apostle John is really Mary Magdalene also founders in the face of the facts.
The painting happens to be on the wall in the refectory of the Dominican convent annexed to the church, where the monks ate all their meals. Not only would such a place be ill-suited for subversive art, given that it was never viewed by the public, the Dominican order had the responsibility of seeking out heresy before it spread. Only a colossal fool would paint a heresy where the monks could study it day after day. While no evidence suggest that Leonardo held the church in contempt, proof abounds that he was no fool.
http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/LeonardoLastSupper.htm
The most recent restoration of Leonardo's Last Supper was completed in May 1999. Work on this most recent restoration began in 1979 to repair areas where paint had flaked away, and quickly expanded to uncover fragments of the original painting covered by repainting from the above "early restorations."
Pinin Brambilla Barcilon has conducted this latest restoration of Leonardo's Last Supper under the auspices of Milan's Superintendent for Artistic and Historic Heritage. She is a renowned restoration artist who made use of various new technologies to bring life back into Leonardo's masterpiece.
Brambilla's task was first and foremost to stop further deterioration. Chemical analysis suggested that the over-painting which remained, was still eating away at Leonardo's original paint, and areas that were flaking away were taking parts of Leonardo's work with it as well. So, she decided the most pressing project was to remove everything that had been added after Leonardo finished the painting in 1498.
The restoration therefore demanded accuracy at the micron level, and attention to the smallest details. Microscopic pictures were utilized to magnify most areas of the painting. Such pictures demonstrated how mold, glue, repaint, and smog collected on the painting while infrared reflectoscopy enabled restorers to see the artist's original painting under layers of paint. Small diameter coring surveys also were performed. Samples taken from the corings were analyzed in laboratories to provide information on colors and materials utilized by Leonardo da Vinci. Miniature TV cameras inserted in the boreholes also provided information on the cracks and cavities. Sonar and radar surveys were also taken to provide information about the elastic and structural characteristics of the masonry and base that the painting resides upon.
Therefore using the above technologically advanced techniques for analysis and employing the use of solvents to remove multiple layers, Pinin Brambilla faced an extremely slow and meticulous process. Often, only an area the size of a postage stamp was cleaned each day. The twenty year project has proved to be quite successful however.
Once referring to Leonardo's Last Supper as a sick patient, Brambilla has proclaimed that she and her colleagues have been able to give back a reading of the dimensions, "of the expressive and chromatic intensity that we thought was lost forever." Brambilla, besides letting the original colors come through, added some basic color to blank areas in a way that the addition cannot be confused by the viewer with the original color. In certain areas, blank spots were left and not even painted over. Most importantly, the restorer believes that the luminosity of the original painting has been regained.
Leonardo's Last Supper was reopened to the public in May 1999. The painting is now preserved by a sophisticated air filtration system, moistured monitored environment, and dust-filtering chambers. Visitors must make reservations and groups are limited to 25 people for viewing times of only 15 minutes.
The copy and the original:
http://www.abcgallery.com/L/leonardo/leonardo4.html
Which do you prefer? And why?
To illustrate Renaissance painting to its fullest, and as an expression of Eucharistic, Medieval Christianity, consider two paintings.
http://arthistoryblogger.blogspot.com/2011/09/last-supper-as-painted-by-ghirlandaio.html
http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/models-exhibited/
This is one example of his brilliant anticipation of later, successful inventions; however, he conceived of them centuries before they were possible.
Leonardo tries repeatedly to apply to a flying machine the articulations of a bird's wing in the various phases of flight: he calls this type of mechanical flight instrument flight.
Translation of text:
Recently Roses (came)
as a gift of the Pope,
although in cruel winter,
to you, heavenly Virgin.
Dutifully and blessedly is dedicated
(to you) a temple of magnificient design.
May they together be perpetual ornaments.
Today the Vicar
of Jesus Christ and Peter’s
successor, Eugenius,
this same most spacious
sacred temple with his hands
and with holy waters
he is worthy to concecrate.
Therefore, gracious mother
and daughter of your offspring,
Virgin, ornament of virgins,
your Florence’s people
devoutly pray
so that together with all mankind,
with mind and body, their entreaties may
move you.
Through your prayer,
your anguish and merits,
may (the people) deserver to receive of the Lord,
born of you according to the flesh,
the benefits of grace
and the remission of sins.
Amen.
Guillaume Dufay’s Motet Nuper rosarum flores was written for the consecration of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Florence, Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (English translation: Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower), on March 25, 1436. The event was monumental in that it was attended by Pope Eugene the IV, who made an offering of a golden rose, to decorate the high altar, a week before the consecration. Both of these events are mentioned in the text of the motet. It is noteworthy that it was very uncommon for the Pope to attend the dedication of a church.
Du Fay uses Terribilis est locus iste, an introit traditionally used for the consecration of churches, as the cantus firmus of his work. These words come from the Book of Genesis (Gen 28:17) and can be translated as “Awesome is this place.”
The piece is written for four voices and the sound is treble dominant, which is common for DuFay’s music. When viewing the score, the upper two voices are the only ones who sing the text. The phrases line up, more or less, at the start and end of each phrase.
Du Fay based the music on elements of the church’s architecture. The dome of the church was designed by architect Filippo Brunelleschi who created the innovative double vaulted design of the cupola. It is believed that Dufay echoed this design in the lower two voices by having them sing the cantus firmus without words. This happens at four distinct times in the piece. The two lower voices are an octave and a fifth apart and their entrances are offset and rhythmically altered with no distinct diminution or augmentation that can quickly be detected. Eye witness accounts of the day’s ceremony state that there were many singers and instrumentalists performing which could suggest that the cantus firmus was played on instruments and/or the voices were doubled by them. The following link is a performance where the cantus firmus is played by organ. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOkf_wxIcfQ
(No longer available)
The word “Successor” stands out a great deal because of Du Fay’s use of canonic imitation in the upper two voices and the stark use of an open perfect 5th, between all four voices, at that point in the music. The following word “Eugenius” is given additional attention through homorhythmic scoring, again in the top two voices. This is the first time in the piece where the voices sing the same rhythm on the same word. The effect is very strong and, aside from Du Fay’s obvious attempt at impressing the Pope, a good indication that variety is a must in good music. The only other place where there is an almost (with some variety) unified rhythmic treatment of a word, this time with all four voices, is at the very end with the word “Amen.”
There is a great deal of structure to Du Fay’s work here. Each phrase has 7 syllables, an obvious nod to the use of the number 7 in the bible.
If the entire piece were to be divided into four parts, each section begins with the upper two voices and is eventually accompanied by the cantus firmus which continues until the final cadence of these sections. In the score each section is represented by 28 measures. Each section is broken into 14 measures of just the upper voices followed by 14 measures with cantus firmus. The duration of each section, however, varies based on their time signatures. If a constant tempo is assumed and the time signatures of the cantus firmus are reduced to having a common denominator then we can see these as being 12/4, 8/4, 4/4, 6/4 or a ratio of 6:4:2:3. This ratio reflects the proportions of the cathedral itself.
These last observations could be seen more as a theoretical analysis than something appropriate for a listening blog. This undoubtedly raises the question “can such organization be depicted aurally?” Whether some people have the ability to hear such things is debatable. Regardless, it is my opinion that every bit of detail that goes into the organization of music has a profound effect on the final product, the sound. It also gives a glimpse into the high level of craftsmanship possessed by these composers which, in my opinion, is so often missing in compositions today, often under the guise of “I just write what I hear.” Wouldn’t it be nice to have composers today give the same devotion to their audience as Du Fay did his, whether it was the church, the Pope, or just the people in attendance for the consecration of this place of worship?
The Chamber Singers of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum perform Dufay's Nuper Rosarum Flores
https://youtu.be/m8hx_hguwTo
https://youtu.be/RADd6Io2WG4
The music for O Rosa bella was written around 1400 by Johannes Ciconia, a Franco-Flemish composer, who worked mainly in Italy. The original singers were probably soloists from the court chapel or cathedral choir. In this recording the piece is performed with two male voices accompanied by a lute. This recording was made by the Royal College of Music especially for the Medieval & Renaissance Galleries thanks to an award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Sermisy composed for several French monarchs in the early 16th century, including François I and Henri II. His chansons were performed on a variety of instruments, but in this recording, four singers are accompanied only by a lute, a typical set-up of the time. Music like this, involving only a few performers, was probably heard in the private quarters of the palace, an intimate and exclusive experience.
How is it, my love, I beg you,
That you no longer seek my company?
I shall always be filled with sadness
Until the day you call me back and mean it;
I think you no longer need a lover,
Or that someone has slandered me to you,
Or that your heart has found a new love.
If you let love go at its pretty pace
your beauty will make a prisoner
If because of others you have forgotten me
God will give you what you deserve
but there is nothing bad in you capturing me
I wish that as much as you seem beautiful to me
As much or more be cruel to me.
http://media.vam.ac.uk/audio/dou-vient-cela-belle-how-is-it-my-love.mp3
Fine Knacks for Ladies is a madrigal - a poetic song. In it the singer presents himself as a humble pedlar. In the 16th century pedlars travelled from town to town selling combs, ribbons, knives, and other small objects, the 'knacks' of the title. This pedlar sings in elegant language that reflects his status as an educated member of court circles. Through the words to the song he argues eloquently that although his wares might seem superficially precious, they're worthless compared to the honesty and loyalty of his heart.
The piece was written in about 1600 by John Dowland, one of the most famous English composers of his day. He was known for his witty songs that could be performed with a variety of different voices and instruments. This one is performed to the accompaniment of a lute.
Good penniworthes, but money cannot woo,
I keep a fair, but for the fair to view,
A beggar may be liberal of love.
Tho' all my wares be trash, the heart is true,
the heart is true, the heart is true.
Great gifts are guiles and look for gifts again,
My trifles come, as treasures from my mind,
It is a precious jewel to be plain,
Sometimes in shell, the orient pearls we find.
All others take a sheaf, of me a grain,
of me a grain, of me a grain.
Within the pack, pins, points, laces, and gloves
And diverse toys, fitting a country fair
But in my heart, where duty serves and loves,
Turtles and twins, courts brood, a heavenly pair.
Happy the heart that thinks, of no removes,
of no removes, of no removes.
http://media.vam.ac.uk/audio/fine-knacks-for-ladies.mp3
Trionfo di Bacco (The Triumph of Bacchus) was written for a Florentine festival and would have been performed in the city's crowded streets. There were three major outdoor festivals each year in Florence. The feast of the patron saint of the city, St John the Baptist, was one of the most important and is still celebrated today. Trionfo di Bacco belongs to the Trionfo genre which focused on events from ancient history and mythology. It is one of the best examples of Florentine festival music written before 1500 to have survived. Trionfo were sometimes performed whilst short dramatic scenes were presented by people on wagons that travelled throughout the streets and squares of the city.
The words for Trionfo di Bacco were written by Lorenzo de' Medici, the de-facto ruler of the Florentine Republic between 1469–92. Under Lorenzo the festivals in Florence became even more spectacular as the city's best craftsmen, artists and artisans were commissioned to make magnificent designs and costumes.
Latin was the language used for music written for the church. However songs like this one were sung in the Italian vernacular and would have been understood by all. Composers took great care to insure the proper accentuation of the text, as the words had to be heard above the commotion of an outdoor festival.
In the recording you can listen to here, the three voices sing to the accompaniment of a lute. The popularity of this song means that it is most likely to have been performed in all sorts of situations: with the accompaniment and reinforcement of many more instruments and voices for outdoor performances or to the accompaniment of lute, as in this recording, for indoor renditions of the song.
A thing of beauty is lovely youth
Whose fleeting looks fade quite away
Let those who seek, find joy today,
tomorrow brings no certain truth.
Here are Bacchus and Ariadne
Both beautiful, and one loving the other
Because time escapes and deceives
Always together they are happy
These nymphs and other people
Are light-hearted anyway
Let those who seek, find joy today,
tomorrow brings no certain truth.
These joyful little satyrs
In love with the nymphs
In the caverns and in the woods
They have in their places one hundred traps
now fired up by Bacchus
They dance and jump again.
Let those who seek, find joy today,
tomorrow brings no certain truth.
Everyone open wide their ears
Of tomorrow no one should feed
Today each one of the young and old,
female and male, should be joyful
Every sad thought should fall
Let's have a party anyway
Let those who seek, find joy today,
tomorrow brings no certain truth.
Women and young lovers,
Long live Bacchus and long live Love!
Everyone play music, dance and sing!
The heart burns with sweetness!
No toil and no pain!
That what must be, it had better be
Let those who seek, find joy today,
tomorrow brings no certain truth.
http://media.vam.ac.uk/audio/trionfo-di-bacco-the-triumph-of-bacchus.mp3
Add to that this useful background and summary:
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13 Siena and Florence in the Fourteenth Century TOWARD A NEW HUMANISM 435
Siena and Florence: Civic and Religious Life in Tuscany 436
Siena: A Free Commune 437
Florence: Archrival of Siena 439
Painting: A Growing Naturalism 440
Duccio and Simone Martini 440
Cimabue and Giotto 442
Dante and the Rise of Vernacular Literature in Europe 446
Dante’s Divine Comedy 446
The Black Death and Its Literary Aftermath 449
Literature after the Black Death: Boccaccio’s Decameron 451
Petrarch’s Sonnets 453
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales 454
Women in Late Medieval Society 455
READINGS
13.1 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 1 460
13.2 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 34 448
13.3 from Dante, Paradiso, Canto 33 449
13.4 from Boccaccio, Decameron 451
13.5 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Dioneo’s Tale 462
13.6 Petrarch, Sonnet 134 454
13.7 from Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Prologue 454
13.8 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Filippa’s Tale 463
13.9 from Christine de Pizan, Book of the City of Ladies 456
13.10 Christine de Pizan, Tale of Joan of Arc 457
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel 444
MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES
Tempera Painting 446
Buon Fresco 447
CONTINUITY & CHANGE The Dance of Death 458
PART THREE THE RENAISSANCE AND THE AGE OF ENCOUNTER 1400–1600 464
14 Florence and the Early Renaissance HUMANISM IN ITALY 467
The State as a Work of Art: The Baptistery Doors, Florence Cathedral, and a New Perspective 468
The Gates of Paradise 470
Florence Cathedral 472
Scientific Perspective and Naturalistic Representation 472
Perspective and Naturalism in Painting: Masaccio 476
The Classical Tradition in Freestanding Sculpture: Donatello 478
The Medici Family and Humanism 479
Cosimo de’ Medici 479
Lorenzo the Magnificent: “… I find a relaxation in learning.” 482
Beyond Florence: The Ducal Courts and the Arts 486
The Montefeltro Court in Urbino 486
The Gonzaga Court in Mantua 488
The Sforza Court in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci 489
Florence after the Medici: The New Republic 493
READINGS
14.1 from Poliziano, Stanzas for the Joust of Giuliano de’ Medici (1475–78) 483
14.2 “Song of Bacchus,” or “Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne,” from Lorenzo de’ Medici: Selected Poems and Prose 485
14.3 from Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) 485
14.4 from Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, Book 1 (1513–18; published 1528) 497
14.5 from Giorgio Vasari, “Life of Leonardo: Painter and Sculptor of Florence,” in Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Architects, and Sculptors (1550, 1568) 498
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Brunelleschi’s Dome 474
CONTINUITY & CHANGE Michelangelo in Rome 495
13 Siena and Florence in the Fourteenth Century TOWARD A NEW HUMANISM 435
THINKING AHEAD
13.1 Compare and contrast civic life in Siena and Florence.
13.2 Outline how an increasingly naturalistic art replaced the Byzantine style in Italy.
13.3 Describe the distinguishing characteristics of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
13.4 Examine how the vernacular style developed after the Black Death.
Siena and Florence: Civic and Religious Life in Tuscany 436
How do the Sienese and Florentine republics compare?
The rival cities of Siena and Florence were located in Tuscany, the area of central Italy that lies between the Apennine Mountains, the central spine of the Italian peninsula, and a section of the Mediterranean known as the Tyrrhenian Sea (Map 13.1). Siena lies in the mountainous southern region of Tuscany, at the center of a rich agricultural zone famous for its olive oil and wine. Florence is located in the Arno River valley, the region’s richest agricultural district. Their rivalry dates back to the contest for supremacy between the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor during the time of Charlemagne (see Chapter 10). One faction, known as the Guelphs, sided with the pope, while another faction, the Ghibellines, sided with the emperor. Siena was generally considered a Ghibelline city, and Florence a Guelph stronghold, although factions of both parties competed for leadership within each city, especially in Florence. By the end of the thirteenth century, the pope retaliated against Siena for its Ghibelline leanings by revoking the city’s papal banking privileges and conferring them instead on Florence. As a result, by the fourteenth century, Florence would become the principal economic and political power in Tuscany.
Siena: A Free Commune 437
But in the late Middle Ages, Siena was still one of the most powerful cities in Europe. Its sense of its past lent it a feeling of historical weight. According to legend, its founders were Senius and Aschius, the sons of Remus, who with his brother, Romulus, founded Rome. Romulus had killed their father in a quarrel, and the boys, in retribution, stole Rome’s she-wolf shrine and carried it back to Siena, protected by a white cloud by day and a black cloud by night. The facade of the Palazzo Pubblico celebrates their feat: Sculptures of Romulus and Remus suckled by the she-wolf decorate it, and a heraldic crest, the balzana, consisting of a white field atop a black one, appears under each arch.
Siena remained a small Etruscan village for 700 years, until the Roman emperor Augustus colonized it in 13 bce. The town was dominated first by Rome and then by local nobles, Lombard and Frankish feudal counts, who arrived in successive invasions to rule in the name of their king. By the tenth century, large numbers of serfs had migrated from the surrounding countryside to three separate hilltop villages that soon merged into one. Feudal authorities were not altogether opposed to such migration. They had trained many of the serfs to manufacture the finished goods that they desired. It seemed practical to concentrate such production by chartering Siena and other towns. The charter stipulated that the townspeople would make manufactured goods, and in return, the feudal lord would protect them. Gradually, the towns gained more importance and power, and their citizens began to pay allegiance not to feudal lords or papal authority but to the wealthiest citizens of the community, whose power base was founded on cooperation and the orderly conduct of affairs. When Siena established itself, in 1125, as a free commune (a collective of people gathered together for the common good), it achieved an immense advantage over its feudal neighbors. “Town air brings freedom” was a common saying in the late Middle Ages. As the prospect of such freedom attracted an increasing number of people to Siena, its prosperity was soon unrivaled.
Florence: Archrival of Siena 439
Like Siena, Florence was extremely wealthy, and that wealth was based on trade. By the twelfth century, Florence was the center of textile production in the Western world and played a central role in European trade markets (Map 13.2). The Arno River provided ample water for washing and rinsing sorted wool and finished cloth. The city’s dyeing techniques were unsurpassed—to this day, the formulas for the highly prized Florentine reds remain a mystery. Dyestuffs were imported from throughout the Mediterranean and even the Orient, and each year, Florentine merchants traveled to England, Portugal, Spain, and Flanders to purchase raw wool for their manufactories.
As in Siena, it was the city’s bankers and money lenders who made Florence a vital player in world trade. Florentine bankers invented checks, credit, even life insurance. Most importantly, in 1252, they introduced Europe’s first single currency, the gold florin. By 1422, over 2 million florins were in circulation throughout Europe. This was a staggering number considering that a family could live comfortably on about 150 florins a year, and the finest palace cost about 1,000 florins. Florence was Europe’s bank, and its bankers were Europe’s true nobility.
Transition to the Renaissance – Siena & Florence, 6:25
Brief overview of historical developments leading to the Renaissance and the transitional paintings of Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto and others.
https://youtu.be/q8xR8KR0xUA
Painting: A Growing Naturalism 440
What came to replace the Byzantine style of painting in Italy, and why?
Even though Saint John the Baptist was the patron saint of Florence, the city, like Siena, relied on the Virgin Mary to protect it. Her image appeared frequently in the mendicant churches and elsewhere, and these images were said to perform miracles. Pilgrims from Tuscany and beyond flocked to Florence to receive the Madonna’s good graces. As in Siena, whenever the city was threatened—by war, by flood, by plague—the Madonna’s image was carried through the city in ceremonial procession. The two cities put themselves under the protection of the Virgin, and it was not long before they were competing to prove who could paint her the most magnificently. In the process, they began to represent her less in the stiff, abstracted manner of the Byzantine icon and more as a real person of flesh and blood.
Duccio and Simone Martini 440
After the Venetian rout of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade in 1204 (see Chapter 10), Byzantine imagery flooded Europe. One of the first artists to break from the Byzantine tradition was the Sienese native Duccio di Buoninsegna (active 1278–1318). In 1308, the commune commissioned Duccio to paint a Maestà, or Virgin and Child in Majesty (Fig. 13.5), to be set under the dome of Siena’s cathedral. The finished work was greeted with a great celebration. “On the day that it was carried to the [cathedral],” a contemporary chronicler reports
the shops were shut, and the bishop conducted a great and devout company of priests and friars in solemn procession, accompanied by… all the officers of the commune, and all the people, and one after another the worthiest with lighted candles in their hands took places near the picture, and behind came the women and children with great devotion… making the procession around the Campo, as is the custom, all the bells ringing joyously, trumpets and bagpipes playing, out of reverence for so noble a picture as is this.
Duccio was well aware of the greatness of his achievement. Along the base of the Virgin’s throne he wrote these words: “Holy Mother of God, give Siena peace and Duccio life because he painted Thee thus,” announcing both the artist’s piety and pride in his work and the growing prominence of artists in Italian society as a whole.
Sienese Art: Duccio, Martini, and Lorenzetti, 5:13
Works discussed: Duccio di Buoninsegna, Madonna Enthroned, c. 1285 (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) Simone Martini, Annunciation Altarpiece, 1333 (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country, 1338-1339 (Sala della Pace, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena) http://smarthistory.org/duccio-and-si...
https://youtu.be/0zfBltgsGVA
Cimabue and Giotto 442
Florence, too, had its master painters of the Virgin. At about the same time that Duccio was first becoming active in Siena, a painter known as Cimabue was painting a large-scale Virgin for the altarpiece of the Church of Santa Trinità in Florence (Fig. 13.7). Cimabue’s Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets solidified his position as the leading painter in Florence. Although its Byzantine roots are clear—following closely, for instance, a Byzantine hierarchy of figures, with the Madonna larger than the figures that surround her—the painting is remarkable on several fronts. First, it is enormous. Standing over 12 feet high, it seems to have begun a tradition of large-scale altarpieces, helping to affirm the altar as the focal point of the church. But most important are Cimabue’s concern for spatial volume and his treatment of human figures with naturalistic expressions. The throne is especially interesting, creating as it does a spatial setting for the scene, and the angels seem to be standing on the architectural frame; the front two clearly are. If the Virgin and Child are stock Byzantine figures, the four prophets at the base of the throne are surprisingly individualized, suggesting the increasing prominence of the individual personality in the era, an especially important characteristic, as we will see later in the chapter, of the literature of the period. These remarkably individual likenesses also tell us that Italian artists were becoming more skillful in painting with tempera, which allowed them to portray the world in everincreasing detail (see Materials & Techniques, page 446). Perhaps most interesting of all is the position of the Virgin’s feet, the right one propped upon the throne in an almost casual position.
Cimabue's Santa Trinita Madonna & Giotto's Ognissanti Madonna, 6:58
Cimabue's Santa Trinita Madonna, c. 1280-90 and Giotto's Ognissanti Madonna, c. 1310 More free lessons at: http://www.khanacademy.org/video?v=DK... Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker & Dr. Beth Harris
https://youtu.be/DKnFvXmUlOI
Dante and the Rise of Vernacular Literature in Europe 446
What are the distinguishing characteristics of Dante’s Divine Comedy?
Until the early twelfth century, the language of almost all educated circles in Europe, and certainly in literature, was Latin. Gradually, however, writers began to address their works to a wider lay audience and to write in the vernacular, the language spoken in the streets. The French led the way, in twelfth-century works such as the Song of Roland (see Chapter 10) and Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot (see Chapter 10), but early in the fourteenth century, vernacular works began to appear throughout Italy as well, spreading to the rest of Europe.
1.0 - 6 Rise of Nationalist Literature in the Late Middle Ages, 3:56
Nationalist Literature, Vernacular, Dante, Chaucer, Villon
https://youtu.be/_mpwHXLwauQ
Dante’s Divine Comedy 446
One of the greatest medieval Italian writers working in the vernacular was the poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). In Florence, in about 1308, he began one of the greatest works of the literary imagination, the Divine Comedy (Fig. 13.9). This poem records the travels of the Christian soul from Hell to Purgatory and finally to Salvation in three books—the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. It is by no means an easy journey. Dante, who is the leading character in his own poem, is led by the Roman poet Virgil, author of the Aeneid (see Chapter 6). (Virgil, too, visits the underworld in the sixth book of his poem.)
Dante's Inferno - Divine Comedy - Realms of the Dead - 7 Deadly Sins - after effects, 4:27
Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy, an epic poem, in the 14th century, where he tells of his journeys through the three realms of the dead: Inferno (hell), Purgatory (limbo), & Paradise (heaven). This video highlights the divisions of each realm, with dramatic scenes and background music. ***Please also watch my other DanteInferno video @ http://youtu.be/3LPsPm-YQ08
https://youtu.be/4CPug2geRSs
The Black Death and Its Literary Aftermath 449
How did the vernacular style continue to develop after the Black Death?
In 1316 and 1317, not long before Dante’s death, crop failures across Europe resulted in the greatest famine the continent had ever known. For two summers, the sun rarely shone (no one knew that huge volcanic eruptions thousands of miles away in Indonesia had sent vast clouds of ash into the atmosphere). Furthermore, between 1000 and 1300, the continent’s population had doubled to a point where it probably exceeded its ability to feed itself even in the best of times. In these dark years, which were followed by a century-long cooling period marked by too much rain to allow for good grain harvests, common people were lucky to eat, let alone eat well. Then, in December 1347, rats infested with fleas carrying bubonic plague arrived on the island of Sicily. They were carried on four Genoese ships that had set sail from Kaffa, a Genoese trading center on the Black Sea.
Exploring the Black Death in Literature, 5:03
EDUC 262 Educational Film (iMovie) Project Ever wonder where the Black Death/Bubonic Plague came from? Want to know how it has influenced literature? Then this is the video from you!
https://youtu.be/wOTZsURGANI
Literature after the Black Death: Boccaccio’s Decameron 451
The frank treatment of reality found in the visual arts carried over into literature, where the direct language of the vernacular proved an especially appropriate vehicle for rendering truth. The Decameron, or “Work of Ten Days,” is a collection of framed prose tales in the manner of The Thousand and One Nights and Nezami’s Haft Paykar (see Chapter 9). The Florentine writer Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–75), who lived through the plague, sets the stage for the 100 prose stories of the collection with a startlingly direct description of Florence in the ravages of the disease (Reading 13.4):
Decameron, 2:12
https://youtu.be/tctUnanAUmY
Petrarch’s Sonnets 453
One of Boccaccio’s best friends was the itinerant scholar and poet Francesco Petrarca (1304–74), known as Petrarch (Fig. 13.13). Raised near Avignon, in France, where the papacy had established itself in 1309 and where it remained through most of Petrarch’s lifetime, Petrarch studied at Montpellier and Bologna and traveled throughout northern France, Germany, and Italy. He was always in search of manuscripts that preserved the priceless literary works of antiquity—copying those he could not pry loose from monastic libraries. As he wrote to a friend in 1351, these manuscripts, in a Classical Latin and hard for monks to decipher, were in danger of being lost forever:
What is a Petrarchan Sonnet? | Petrarchan Sonnet Definition, Structure & Example, 2:07
What is a Petrarchan Sonnet? | Petrarchan Sonnet Definition, Structure & Example: This video will show you the structure, definition and history of a Petrarchan Sonnet. I hope you will enjoy it. Please, share and subscribe if you like it.
This is a sonnet form popularized by Petrarch, consisting of an octave with the rhyme scheme abbaabba and of a sestet with one of several rhyme schemes, as cdecde or cdcdcd.
https://youtu.be/NsPnUkVQyMA
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales 454
The first Englishman to translate Petrarch was Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1342–1400). Well-educated, able to read both Ovid and Virgil in the original Latin, Chaucer was a middle-class civil servant and diplomat. In 1368, both he and Petrarch were guests at a wedding in Milan Cathedral, and four years later, he was in Florence, where he probably met Boccaccio. Chaucer’s masterwork, The Canterbury Tales, is modeled roughly on Boccaccio’s Decameron, but it is written in verse, not prose, and is composed in heroic couplets. Like the Decameron, it is a framed collection of stories, this time told by a group of pilgrims traveling from London to the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1170, Becket had been murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II in a dispute over the rights and privileges of the Church.
Chaucer, Satire, and The Canterbury Tales Notes, 4:30
Lecture about Chaucer, Satire, and The Canterbury Tales
https://youtu.be/E0pZKXNzngg
Women in Late Medieval Society 455
The seven women in Boccaccio’s Decameron and characters like Chaucer’s Wife of Bath represent the increasing social prominence of women in medieval society. This is no doubt at least in part a reflection of the growing role of the Virgin in medieval religious life, and her prominence helped raise the dignity of women in general. By the thirteenth century, women were active in all trades, especially the food and clothing industries; they belonged to guilds, and increasingly had the opportunity to go to school and learn to read, at least in their vernacular languages. They were, however, still generally excluded from the learned professions of medicine and law, and they performed the same work as men for wages on the average 25 percent lower.
THINKING BACK
13.1 Compare and contrast civic life in Siena and Florence.
Tuscany was dominated by two competing city-states, Siena and Florence. Both were republics, and central to their success was a new form of government in which Church and State were closely aligned. Siena established itself in 1125 as a free commune. What is a commune? By the twelfth century, Florence was the center of textile production in the Western world and played a central role in European trade markets. As with Siena, it was the city’s bankers and money lenders who made Florence such a vital player in world trade. Also as in Siena, in Florence, the guilds controlled the commune. How would you define a guild?
13.2 Outline how an increasingly naturalistic art replaced the Byzantine style in Italy.
In both Siena and Florence, artists began to break from the Byzantine style. One of the first was Duccio, who began to incorporate the Gothic tendency to naturalism into his Maestà, painted for Siena’s cathedral. Even more naturalistic is Simone Martini’s Maestà, painted for the city hall. How would you compare them? Florence, too, had its master painters of the Virgin, Cimabue and Giotto. In what did the latter exceed the others in terms of the naturalism of his art?
13.3 Describe the distinguishing characteristics of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
In the early twelfth century, writers across Europe began to address their works to a wider lay audience and to write in the vernacular. How would you define the vernacular? What does it imply about this new literature’s audience? One of the greatest medieval Italian vernacular writers was the poet Dante Alighieri, whose Divine Comedy records the travels of the Christian soul from Hell to Purgatory and finally to Salvation in three books—the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. How does Dante’s poem reflect the epic tradition? Consider its relation to, for instance, the Odyssey and the Aeneid.
13.4 Examine how the vernacular style developed after the Black Death.
In December 1347, bubonic plague arrived in Sicily. Within months, the disease spread northward, through Europe. In Tuscany, the death rate in the cities ran somewhere near 60 percent. Many blamed the Jews, who were widely persecuted. One of the most remarkable accounts of the plague opens Boccaccio’s Decameron, a collection of stories told by young noblemen and women who have escaped Florence for the countryside. Perhaps reflecting the reality of death that surrounds them, the stories are themselves imbued with a realistic representation of life as it is truly lived. After the Black Death, the realistic treatment of life continued in vernacular literature. The sonnets of Petrarch, composed in memory of the poet’s beloved Laura, inaugurate one of the most important poetic forms in Western literature. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, modeled on Boccaccio’s Decameron, approach life in the Middle Ages with a realism even more profound than Boccaccio’s. Many of both Boccaccio’s and Chaucer’s characters are women. How do their female characters and Christine de Pizan’s help to establish new roles for women?
READINGS
13.1 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 1 460
13.2 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 34 448
13.3 from Dante, Paradiso, Canto 33 449
13.4 from Boccaccio, Decameron 451
13.5 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Dioneo’s Tale 462
13.6 Petrarch, Sonnet 134 454
13.7 from Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Prologue 454
13.8 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Filippa’s Tale 463
13.9 from Christine de Pizan, Book of the City of Ladies 456
13.10 Christine de Pizan, Tale of Joan of Arc 457
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel 444
MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES
Tempera Painting 446
Buon Fresco 447
CONTINUITY & CHANGE The Dance of Death 458
PART THREE THE RENAISSANCE AND THE AGE OF ENCOUNTER 1400–1600 464
During the period extending from about 1400 to 1600, Western European culture experienced a rebirth of Classical learning and values. For this reason we call the period the Renaissance, which means “rebirth” in French. By the middle of the fourteenth century, Dante Alighieri had picked the ancient Roman poet Virgil as his guide through his fictional Inferno and Purgatory, Petrarch was busy amassing his own Classical library, and Boccaccio, who like Dante wrote in the vernacular Italian instead of Latin, was also learning Greek.
At the dawn of the Renaissance, then, the values of the Classical past—simplicity, balance, and restraint in design, proportionality of parts, and purity of form—had already firmly established their place in Western culture. These values stimulated the emergence of humanism—the recovery, study, and spread of the art and literature of Greece and Rome, and the application of their principles to education, politics, social life, and the arts in general. In turn, humanism stimulated a new sense of the value of the individual. Each person had the capacity for self-determination in the search for truth and morality. Faith, sacred texts, or religious tradition were no longer the only guides.
After the Black Death, it seemed possible, even necessary, to begin again. In politics, feudal rule gave way to centralized forms of government. City-states flourished, strengthened by the influx of workers migrating from the countryside, as manufacture and trade supplanted agriculture as the basis of the European economy. The Church, which in medieval times had been the very foundation of Western culture, found itself challenged on all fronts. Politically, European monarchs questioned its authority. Philosophically, a growing class of intellectuals challenged its long-held doctrines. Morally, many of these same intellectuals denounced the behavior of its clergy and called for reform.
It was a time of invention and encounter. The printing press in Germany became a major instrument of change by making available to an ever-growing middle class works of literature, political tracts, and philosophical arguments that literally transformed their way of thinking. Even as the telescope revised human understanding of the cosmos and the world’s place in it, previously unknown civilizations in the Americas, Africa, and the Far East changed the Western understanding of its world. The Age of Encounter, which began in the fifteenth century and ended in the seventeenth, resulted in the colonization of most of the non-Western world. The effect of Western colonization was the displacement, enslavement, and large-scale death of native peoples. Those cultures that the West did not come to dominate—China and Japan especially—were deeply affected by their encounters with the West.
By the start of the sixteenth century, the humanistic spirit had begun to generate new forms of art and literature. The use of the rules of scientific perspective allowed for the convincing representation of three-dimensional space on the two-dimensional surface of a panel or canvas. The introduction of oil painting as a medium contributed to this naturalism by enabling artists to render the natural world in more precise detail than did tempera and to imitate effects of light and shadow both in the atmosphere and on the surface of objects. In architecture, structural innovations permitted the construction of the largest spaces since antiquity. New literary forms—the English sonnet, the personal essay, and popular theater—responded to a growing secular taste. And in music, where the courts maintained their own rosters of musicians, vernacular song and dance became popular even as the Church sanctioned innovative forms of polyphonic music for its liturgy. In this atmosphere, individual composers began to be recognized across Europe, and their works were published and widely circulated. Following the lead of the early fifteenth-century writer Christine de Pizan, women increasingly insisted on their own worth and dignity, assuming important roles as patrons, as artists in their own right, and, in England, as heads of state. All of these developments combined to bring Western culture to the threshold of modern life.
14 Florence and the Early Renaissance HUMANISM IN ITALY 467
THINKING AHEAD
14.1 Examine how sculpture and the use of scientific perspective were instrumental in the early development of the Italian Renaissance.
14.2 Discuss the influence of the Medici family on Florentine art and the development of humanist thought.
14.3 Describe how other Italian courts followed the lead of the humanist court in Florence.
14.4 Explain the symbolic significance of Michelangelo’s David.
The State as a Work of Art: The Baptistery Doors, Florence Cathedral, and a New Perspective 468
How did sculpture and the use of scientific perspective contribute to the “rebirth” that is the Italian Renaissance?
Florence was, in fact, so thoughtfully and carefully constructed over the course of the fifteenth century that later scholars would come to view it as a work of art in its own right. No event better exemplifies its character—and the character of the Italian Renaissance in general—than a competition held at the very beginning of the century, in 1401, to choose a designer for a pair of bronze doors for the north entrance to the city’s baptistery (Map 14.1; and see Fig. 14.1). The bapistery is a building standing in front of a cathedral and used for the Christian rite of baptism.
By the thirteenth century, a legend had developed that the Baptistery stood on the site of a Roman temple to Mars, subsequently rededicated to Saint John the Baptist. The octagonal building was thus the principal civic monument connecting Florence to its Roman roots, and it stood at the very heart of the city, in front of the cathedral, which was still under construction in 1401. The original doors, at the south entrance, had been designed by Andrea Pisano in 1336, before the advent of the Black Death, and the Wool Guild, or Arte della Lana (see Chapter 13), which was in charge of the Opera del Duomo—literally, the “Works of the Cathedral”—was determined to create a new comparable set of doors for the north entrance.
In many ways, it is remarkable that the competition to find the best design for the Baptistery doors could even take place. As much as four-fifths of the city-state’s population had died in the Black Death of 1348, and the plague had returned, though less severely, in 1363, 1374, 1383, and 1390. Finally, in the summer of 1400, it came again, this time killing 12,000 Florentines, about one-fifth of the population. Perhaps the guild hoped that a facelift for the Baptistery might appease an evidently wrathful God. Furthermore, civic pride and patriotism were also at stake. Milan, the powerful city-state to the north, had laid siege to Florence, blocking trade to and from the seaport at Pisa and creating the prospect of famine. The fate of the Florentine republic seemed to be in the balance.
Florentine Baptistery: The Renaissance Begins, 4:32
The competition that started the Renaissance (which is a thing). This is the story of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi. A note on my mistakes: The doors shown at the end of the video are not the doors Ghiberti made after 1401. His success after the competition inspired the commission of a second set of doors, and this second set is shown at the end of my video. He made them between 1425 and 1452. The original set appear on the north side of the Baptistery. Thank you to subscriber Nancy Pettigrew for calling this to my attention. Written, editing, and narrated by James Earle Feedback given by Mr. Jensen, Mr. Watzka, and Mr. Wong. All images are in the public domain, or shot by James Earle Works cited: Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King
https://youtu.be/x2CWfDghkZk
The Gates of Paradise 470
Ghiberti worked on the north-side doors for the next 22 years, designing 28 panels in four vertical rows illustrating the New Testament (originally the subject had been the Hebrew Bible, but the Wool Guild changed the program). Immediately upon their completion in 1424, the guild commissioned a second set of doors from Ghiberti for the east side of the Baptistery. These would take him another 27 years. Known as the Gates of Paradise because they open onto the paradiso, Italian for the area between a baptistery and the entrance to its cathedral, these doors depict scenes from the Hebrew Bible in ten square panels (Fig. 14.4). The borders surrounding them contain other biblical figures, as well as a self-portrait (Fig. 14.5). The artist’s head is slightly bowed, perhaps in humility, but perhaps, situated as it is just above the average viewer’s head, so that he might look out upon his audience. The proud image functions as both a signature and a bold assertion of Ghiberti’s own worth as an artist and individual.
Each of the panels in the east doors depicts one or more events from the same story. For instance, the first panel, at the upper left of the doors (Fig. 14.6), contains four episodes from the Book of Genesis: the Creation of Adam, at the bottom left; the Creation of Eve, in the center; the Temptation, in the distance behind the Creation of Adam; and the Expulsion, at the bottom right. This portrayal of sequential events in the same frame harkens back to medieval art. But if the content of the space is episodic, the landscape is coherent and realistic, stretching in a single continuity from the foreground into the far distance. The figures themselves hark back to Classical Greek and Roman sculpture. Adam, in the lower left-hand corner, resembles the recumbent god from the east pediment of the Parthenon (see Fig. 5.10 in Chapter 5), and Eve, in the right-hand corner, is a Venus of recognizably Hellenistic origin; compare Praxiteles’ fourth-century bce Aphrodite of Knidos (see Fig. 5.20 in Chapter 5).
Exploring Art History in the City: Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" (1425-1452), 5:04
Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" (1425-1452) stand as an achievement of the creativity and brilliance of the Florentine imagination during the early days of the Italian Renaissance. This video examines the narrative and stylistic charm of each panel as seen in the copy at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/academyo... The Academy of Art University Established in 1929, Academy of Art University is the largest accredited private art and design school in the US. Visit http://academyart.edu to learn about total costs, median student loan debt, potential occupations and other information. Interested in learning more? Follow us below Visit us on the web: http://academyart.edu Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AcademyofArt... Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/academy_of_art
https://youtu.be/3jlT-s9jGfI
Florence Cathedral 472
Construction of the Duomo (see Fig. 14.1), as Florence Cathedral is known, began in 1296 (see Chapter 12) under the auspices of the Opera del Duomo, which was controlled by the Wool Guild. The cathedral was planned as the most beautiful and grandest in all of Tuscany. It was not consecrated until 140 years later, and even then, was hardly finished. Over the years, its design and construction became a group activity as an ever-changing panel of architects prepared model after model of the church and its details were submitted to the Opera and either accepted or rejected.
Florence Cathedral, Italy, 3:21
The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (English: Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) is the cathedral church of Florence, Italy. The Duomo, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris. The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. The three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major attraction to tourists visiting the region of Tuscany. The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, and until development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed. The cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is currently Giuseppe Betori.
https://youtu.be/0l7VolYTGp8
Scientific Perspective and Naturalistic Representation 472
No aspect of the Renaissance better embodies the spirit of invention evidenced by both Brunelleschi’s dome and Dufay’s music than scientific, or linear perspective, which allowed artists to translate three-dimensional space onto a two-dimensional surface, thereby satisfying the age’s increasing taste for naturalistic representations of the physical world. It was the basis of what would later come to be called buon disegno, literally “good design” or “drawing,” but the term refers more to the intellectual conception of the work than to literal drawing. Giorgio Vasari (1511–74), whose Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Architects, and Sculptors is one of our most important sources of information about Italian Renaissance art in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, defined it as follows: “Design (disegno) is the imitation of the most beautiful things of nature in all figures whether painted or chiseled, and this requires a hand and genius to transfer everything which the eye sees, exactly and correctly, whether it be in drawings, on paper panel, or other surface, both in relief and sculpture.” It distinguished, in his mind, the art of Florence above all others.
Perspective and Naturalism in Painting: Masaccio 476
Although Alberti dedicated On Painting first and foremost to Brunelleschi, he also singled out several other Florentine artists. One of these was Masaccio, whose Trinity (Fig. 14.10) was probably painted in 1425. This fresco is painted directly on the wall of the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence and represents a chapel off the nave of that building. All of its architectural features are painted according to the laws of perspective, and the man and woman who kneel on what looks like a narrow ledge on either side of this chapel are so realistically positioned and naturalistically rendered that they seem to exist within our own space. (They are actually images of the donors who commissioned the work.)
Italian Renaissance Painter " Masaccio " (1401-1428), 3:41
Hi everyone! I truly love Italian renaissance paintings because of their perfection and beauty and a sense of massage as well as the emotions which they spread everywhere. So today I am sharing the work of one of such wonderful Italian painter. His name is Masaccio and he is known to be the first great painter of the Italian Renaissance. His work was called to be one of the innovative works in the use of scientific perspective which inaugurated the modern era in painting. - See more at: http://www.fineartandyou.com/2013/11/...
https://youtu.be/yf93BbnxKyk
The Classical Tradition in Freestanding Sculpture: Donatello 478
Masaccio probably learned about the Classical disposition of the body’s weight from Donatello, who had accompanied Brunelleschi to Rome years before. Many of Donatello’s own works seem to have been inspired by antique Roman sculpture.
This Classical inspiration is visible in one of his earliest commissions, a statue of Saint Mark created for one of Florence’s lesser guilds, the linen weavers and peddlers (Fig. 14.13). It was one of a number of commissions by the city’s guilds to decorate niches on the outer walls of Orsanmichele, a building originally constructed in 1336 as a market and grain store (in case of famine or siege). As early as 1339, it was decided that each of the city’s guilds should provide a statue of their respective patron saints to decorate each of the niches on the Orsanmichele’s outer walls, but by 1400, only three of the guilds had complied. As civic pressure was brought to bear on the guilds to fulfill their obligations in the first years of the fifteenth century, the city was treated to a virtual exposition of the new Classical direction in sculpture, a direction matched only by Ghiberti’s work on his two sets of doors for the Baptistery, the other great commissions of the era.
Donatello and the Renaissance, 6:26
This beautiful short video briefly describes the works and contribution of Donatello, one of the most famous sculptors of the Renaissance. It also describes 3 of his most famous works - David, Mary Magdalene and the Equestrian at Gattamelata. Music: Piero Umiliani - Crepuscolo sul mare (Twilight On the Sea) Coldplay - Life in Technicolor
https://youtu.be/qba1faCNl1I
The Medici Family and Humanism 479
How did the Medici family help shape humanist Florence?
The Medici were the most powerful family in Florentine affairs for 76 years, from 1418, when they became banker to the papacy, until 1494, when irate citizens removed them from power. (They were briefly exiled earlier, for one year, in 1433.) A family of bankers with offices in Pisa, Rome, Bologna, Naples, Venice, Avignon, Lyon, Geneva, Basel, Cologne, Antwerp, Bruges, and London during the fifteenth century, the Medici never ruled Florence outright, but they managed its affairs from behind the scenes.
Over the course of those 76 years, they molded and manipulated, controlled and cajoled, persuaded and provoked the citizens of Florence into becoming a citizenry befitting the city they envisioned, a city that in some sense they sculpted, painted, and built. For them, the city was their own personal work of art. But the Medici trained the citizenry so well, especially imbuing it with a fierce independence of spirit, that the people eventually chafed at the control that the family exercised, and rebelled.
Cosimo de’ Medici 479
The family’s power was fully cemented by Cosimo de’ Medici (1389–1464), who, as banker to the papacy, secured Florence’s domination over rival Siena (see Chapter 13), putting the city at the very center of Italian politics. He had inherited great wealth from his father and secured the family’s hold on the political fortunes of the city. Without upsetting the appearance of republican government, he mastered the art of behind-the-scenes power by controlling appointments to chief offices. But he also exerted considerable influence through his patronage of the arts. His father had headed the drive to rebuild the Church of San Lorenzo (see Fig. 14.8), which stood over the site of an early Christian basilica dedicated in 393. San Lorenzo thus represented the entire Christian history of Florence, and after his father’s death, Cosimo himself paid to complete its construction and decorate it. In return, it was agreed that no family crest other than the Medici’s would appear in the church. Cosimo also rebuilt the old monastery of San Marco for the Dominican Order, adding a library, cloister, chapter room, bell tower, and altarpiece. In effect, Cosimo had made the entire religious history of Florence the family’s own.
Lorenzo the Magnificent: “… I find a relaxation in learning.” 482
After Cosimo’s death in 1464, his son Piero (1416–69) followed in his father’s footsteps, championing the arts, supporting the Platonic Academy, and otherwise working to make Florence the cultural center of Europe. But when Piero died only five years after his father, his 20-year-old son Lorenzo (1449–92) assumed responsibility for leading the family and the city. So great and varied were his accomplishments that in his own time he was known as il Magnifico—“the Magnificent.”
HANGIN' AT LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT'S SUMMER 'COTTAGE', 2:43
Head for Poggio a Caiano, a half hour max blue bus trip from Via Nazzionale near the train station. The Villa, gardens and woods are open seven days a week with entrance every hour on the half hour. Be sure to ask the office for directions to the return bus stop (the arrival bus stop is on a one way street). Also, foreign Medici brides-to-be spent their first nights in Italy here. Total price for the half day trip is four euros (RT bus fare). Of course that is the Medici Villa over my shoulder. BIG THANKS to Laura Mongillo for her article that disclosed the wonderful day trip. Find her article at: http://www.eurocheapo.com/blog/floren...
https://youtu.be/QSGwV0rhIp4
Beyond Florence: The Ducal Courts and the Arts 486
How did the art and literature created in the ducal courts of Italy reflect Florentine humanist values?
Pico’s message of individual free will and of humanity’s ability to choose a path of virtue and knowledge inspired Lorenzo’s circle and the courts of other Italian city-states as well. These leaders were almost all nobility, not merchants like the Medici (who, it must be said, had transformed themselves into nobility in all but name), and each court reflected the values of its respective duke—and, very often, his wife. But if they were not about to adopt the republican form of government of Florence, they nevertheless all shared the humanistic values that were so thoroughly developed there.
Humanism and the Renaissance, 4:26
https://youtu.be/ULBFI3YvC2M
The Montefeltro Court in Urbino 486
One of the most prominent of these city-states was Urbino, some 70 miles east of Florence across the Apennine Mountains, where the military strategist and learned Duke Federigo da Montefeltro (1422–82) ruled. Federigo surrounded himself with humanists, scholars, poets, and artists, from whom he learned and from whom he commissioned works to embellish Urbino. He financed these expenditures through his talents as a condottiero, a mercenary soldier who was a valuable and highly paid ally to whomever could afford both him and his army. His court was also a magnet for young men who wanted to learn the principles of noble behavior.
The Gonzaga Court in Mantua 488
The marquis Ludovico Gonzaga (1414–78) brought his northern Italian city-state of Mantua, located on a marsh-surrounded plain between Milan and Venice, into prominence among the Italian courts in the middle of the fifteenth century. Like Federigo da Montefeltro in Urbino, the Gonzagas hired themselves out as mercenaries to other city-states, accumulating enormous wealth in this manner. At the same time, they encouraged literary studies and commissioned works of architecture and the other visual arts. The Gonzaga court exhibited the same mixture of humanist and chivalric values found at other Renaissance courts and likewise reflected the values of its ruler.
MANTUA glory of Gonzaga family, 1:00
Mantua, glory of Gonzaga family. A Vaghi per il mondo production, by Fabrizio Vaghi. See the full video "Pronti Partenza...Via", discovering MANTUA http://youtu.be/Su8QJpc9HHU
https://youtu.be/_Z63sJHurxY
The Sforza Court in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci 489
The Sforza family’s control over the court of Milan was somewhat less legitimate than most other ducal city-states in Italy. Francesco Sforza (1401–66) became ruler of Milan by marrying the illegitimate daughter, but sole heir, of the duke of Milan. His own illegitimate son, Ludovico (1451–1508), called il Moro, “the Moor,” because of his dark complexion, wrested control of the city from the family of Francesco’s legitimate brother and proclaimed himself Duke of Milan in 1494. Both Francesco and Ludovico understood the tenuousness of their claims to rule, and they actively sought to win the support of the people through the arts. They welcomed artists from throughout central Italy to their city and embraced humanism.
The most important of these artists was Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), who first arrived in Milan in 1482 as the emissary of Lorenzo de’ Medici to present a silver lyre, perhaps made by Leonardo himself, to Ludovico Sforza. Ludovico was embroiled in military matters, and Leonardo pronounced himself a military engineer, capable of constructing great “machines of war,” including designs for a catapult and covered vehicles that resemble modern-day armored cars.
The Sforza Castle in Milan - the fortress of the Duke, 2:49
Explore one of the biggest military buildings in Europe - find out more on http://www.leonardoamilano.org/english Transcript: Originally built in the XIV century as a military fortress, it became the Residence of the Duke during the Renaissance, when it was enriched and decorated in order to show the power of the duke well beyond its original military function. Let's have a look at the majestic fortress as it appears today. The first thing you notice is the impressive central tower. This tower was originally designed by the great Renaissance architect Filarete, but its fate was signed by a lightning which set fire to the explosives amassed in the tower. The tower exploded, and it wasn't rebuilt till the end of the XIX century, when the architect Luca Beltrami based his reconstruction on a surviving Filarete drawing. As you enter the castle, you'll find yourself in the great central courtyard, surrounded by walls, where you can easily imagine to be in the Renaissance. Go further into the castle through the second gate, and you can buy the tickets to visit the various museums hosted in the Castle. They are definitely worth a visit! I will point out only a few highlights here, but you'll find many more by yourself. The first is the Sala delle Asse, frescoed by Leonardo da Vinci with an intricate decoration of trees and leaves, as if to create a virtual garden. Leonardo put lots of symbols here, like its signature knot. The fresco is currently being restored, and we can't wait to see it in its original splendour. Another great artwork hosted in the Castle is the Pieta' Rondanini by Michelangelo, the last work of the great Renaissance master, an unfinished sculpture which is striking in its modernity, like a Modigliani sculpture. Don't miss the Sala della Balla, called after a Renaissance ball game which was played here. In this hall you can find twelve amazing giant tapestries designed by the Renaissance artist Bramantino, one for each month of the year, showing the activities that characterize each month. You will love the colours and richness of details of this textile masterworks! Finally, have a look the furniture museum, on the first floor. It exhibits the evolution of the Milanese furniture design from the Middle age to the contemporary. You will discover how the well known contemporary interior design has ancient roots.
https://youtu.be/zU7XgVxL4aI
Florence after the Medici: The New Republic 493
How did Michelangelo’s David symbolize the new Florentine republic?
In November 1494, the domination of Florence by the Medici family came to an end. Lorenzo had died two years earlier, and his successor, Piero the Unfortunate, faced with the threat of the same French invasion that ousted Ludovico Sforza in Milan, had blundered through a series of political moves and alliances until finally agreeing to cooperate with the French king, Charles VIII (1470–98). The Florentines would have none of it, and a mob drove Piero from the city. Into this power vacuum stepped a Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98), abbot of the monastery of San Marco. Although, as a priest, he could not hold office, and although the city, freed of the Medici, was ostensibly a republic once again, Savonarola wielded tremendous political control. He appealed, first and foremost, to a moralistic faction of the populace that saw, in the behavior of the city’s upper classes, and in their humanistic attraction to Classical Greek and Roman culture, clear evidence of moral decadence. He appealed as well to the Florentine populace’s desire to reestablish its identity as a republic, which by 1490 everyone recognized had been lost, so dominant had the Medici family become. As early as 1491, Savonarola had preached that Florence was little more than a den of thieves. The arrival of Charles VIII was the scourge of the Lord, he said, ridding the city of the decadent and tyrannical Medici.
Michelangelo, David, marble, 1501-04 (Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence), 5:39
Michelangelo, David, 1501-04, marble, 517 cm (Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence) More free lessons at: http://www.khanacademy.org/video?v=-o... A conversation with Khan Academy's Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris
https://youtu.be/-oXAekrYytA
THINKING BACK
14.1 Examine how sculpture and the use of scientific perspective were instrumental in the early development of the Italian Renaissance.
Florence was the center of the cultural revival that we have come to call the Renaissance, a “rebirth” that amounted to a revolution in human consciousness. How does the Baptistery doors competition of 1401 exemplify this new consciousness? How does Lorenzo Ghiberti’s new set of doors, the Gates of Paradise, articulate Renaissance values even more?
By 1418, Florence Cathedral still lacked a dome above its octagonal crossing. Brunelleschi won the competition for the dome’s design, a feat of architectural engineering unsurpassed in his day. For the cathedral’s consecration on March 25, 1436, French composer Guillaume Dufay created a new musical work, a motet called Nuper rosarum flores (“The Rose Blossoms”). How does Dufay’s composition reflect Brunelleschi’s feat?
Brunelleschi was also the first Renaissance artist to master the art of scientific perspective, probably as a result of his humanistic study of optics in Arab science and his own surveying of Roman ruins. What values does his interest in scientific perspective reflect? How does the work of sculptor Donatello also reflect these values?
14.2 Discuss the influence of the Medici family on Florentine art and the development of humanist thought.
Medici control of Florentine politics was secured by Cosimo de’ Medici, who surrounded himself with humanists. He sought their guidance about which books and manuscripts of the ancients to collect, and he commissioned translations of Greek philosophy and literature, championing especially the translations and interpretations of the works of Plato by Marsilio Ficino. How would you describe Ficino’s Neoplatonist philosophy? How does it recast Platonic thought? Cosimo’s grandson, Lorenzo, “the Magnificent,” continued the Medici tradition. His own circle of acquaintances included many of the greatest minds of the day, including the composer Heinrich Isaac, the poet Poliziano, the painter Botticelli, and the philosopher Pico della Mirandola. Can you describe how the work of each reflects humanistic principles?
14.3 Describe how other Italian courts followed the lead of the humanist court in Florence.
Lorenzo’s court inspired the courts of the leaders of other Italian city-states, the leaders of which were almost all nobility. In Urbino, Duke Federigo da Montefeltro championed the use of scientific perspective in the painting of Piero della Francesca. Also at Urbino, Baldassare Castiglione wrote The Book of the Courtier. How does this treatise define l’uomo universale? In Mantua, Ludovico Gonzaga commissioned the painter Andrea Mantegna to decorate his palazzo with highly illusionistic frescoes. And in Milan, Ludovico Sforza commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint the Last Supper for the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. What would you say is Leonardo’s greatest strength as a painter? How does his portraiture reflect humanistic values?
14.4 Explain the symbolic significance of Michelangelo’s David.
In 1494, a Florentine mob drove the last of the Medici rulers from the city. Yet, into the breach stepped the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, who preached a moralistic brand of fire and brimstone, condemning humanist values. At first wielding great political power, Savonarola was finally tried as a heretic in 1498, and burned at the stake. Afterward, a relieved city council sought to reassert republican values in visual terms, and commissioned the giant nude sculpture. Why did the story of David seem so appropriate a subject?
READINGS
14.1 from Poliziano, Stanzas for the Joust of Giuliano de’ Medici (1475–78) 483
14.2 “Song of Bacchus,” or “Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne,” from Lorenzo de’ Medici: Selected Poems and Prose 485
14.3 from Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) 485
14.4 from Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, Book 1 (1513–18; published 1528) 497
14.5 from Giorgio Vasari, “Life of Leonardo: Painter and Sculptor of Florence,” in Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Architects, and Sculptors (1550, 1568) 498
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Brunelleschi’s Dome 474
CONTINUITY & CHANGE Michelangelo in Rome 495
13 Siena and Florence in the Fourteenth Century TOWARD A NEW HUMANISM 435
Siena and Florence: Civic and Religious Life in Tuscany 436
Siena: A Free Commune 437
Florence: Archrival of Siena 439
Painting: A Growing Naturalism 440
Duccio and Simone Martini 440
Cimabue and Giotto 442
Dante and the Rise of Vernacular Literature in Europe 446
Dante’s Divine Comedy 446
The Black Death and Its Literary Aftermath 449
Literature after the Black Death: Boccaccio’s Decameron 451
Petrarch’s Sonnets 453
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales 454
Women in Late Medieval Society 455
READINGS
13.1 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 1 460
13.2 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 34 448
13.3 from Dante, Paradiso, Canto 33 449
13.4 from Boccaccio, Decameron 451
13.5 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Dioneo’s Tale 462
13.6 Petrarch, Sonnet 134 454
13.7 from Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Prologue 454
13.8 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Filippa’s Tale 463
13.9 from Christine de Pizan, Book of the City of Ladies 456
13.10 Christine de Pizan, Tale of Joan of Arc 457
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel 444
MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES
Tempera Painting 446
Buon Fresco 447
CONTINUITY & CHANGE The Dance of Death 458
PART THREE THE RENAISSANCE AND THE AGE OF ENCOUNTER 1400–1600 464
14 Florence and the Early Renaissance HUMANISM IN ITALY 467
The State as a Work of Art: The Baptistery Doors, Florence Cathedral, and a New Perspective 468
The Gates of Paradise 470
Florence Cathedral 472
Scientific Perspective and Naturalistic Representation 472
Perspective and Naturalism in Painting: Masaccio 476
The Classical Tradition in Freestanding Sculpture: Donatello 478
The Medici Family and Humanism 479
Cosimo de’ Medici 479
Lorenzo the Magnificent: “… I find a relaxation in learning.” 482
Beyond Florence: The Ducal Courts and the Arts 486
The Montefeltro Court in Urbino 486
The Gonzaga Court in Mantua 488
The Sforza Court in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci 489
Florence after the Medici: The New Republic 493
READINGS
14.1 from Poliziano, Stanzas for the Joust of Giuliano de’ Medici (1475–78) 483
14.2 “Song of Bacchus,” or “Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne,” from Lorenzo de’ Medici: Selected Poems and Prose 485
14.3 from Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) 485
14.4 from Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, Book 1 (1513–18; published 1528) 497
14.5 from Giorgio Vasari, “Life of Leonardo: Painter and Sculptor of Florence,” in Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Architects, and Sculptors (1550, 1568) 498
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Brunelleschi’s Dome 474
CONTINUITY & CHANGE Michelangelo in Rome 495
Question 1: Multiple Choice Incorrect Why does Virgil guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory? Given Answer: Incorrect Dante considered Virgil, author of the Greek Iliad, the greatest of the pagan poets Correct Answer: Virgil represented the embodiment of rationality out of 3 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Incorrect In what language did Chaucer write his Tales? Given Answer: Incorrect Latin Correct Answer: Middle English out of 3 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Incorrect Why did the Scrovegni family build and then hire Giotto to decorate Arena Chapel in Padua? Given Answer: Incorrect To sanctify the site of a Roman pagan arena Correct Answer: To atone for their flagrant usury out of 3 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct What literary trend does Boccaccio's Decameron introduce into Western literature? Given Answer: Correct Social realism Correct Answer: Social realism out of 3 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Correct Why by the end of the fourteenth century did Florence become an important banking city? Given Answer: Correct The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence Correct Answer: The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence out of 3 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct What 150-year time period in Italy did nineteenth-century historians label the Renaissance? Given Answer: Correct Mid fourteenth to early sixteenth Correct Answer: Mid fourteenth to early sixteenth out of 3 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Why probably did Brunelleschi use nine circles of horizontal ribs for the dome? Given Answer: Correct As the reverse of Dante's nine circles of hell Correct Answer: As the reverse of Dante's nine circles of hell out of 3 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Medici supporters hurl stones at Michelangelo's David as it was moved through the streets? Given Answer: Correct They understood David's symbolism of the city standing up to tyrants Correct Answer: They understood David's symbolism of the city standing up to tyrants out of 3 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct Who won the competition to create a dome for Florence Cathedral? Given Answer: Correct Filippo Brunelleschi Correct Answer: Filippo Brunelleschi out of 3 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Donatello depict his David as a young adolescent? Given Answer: Correct To symbolize Florence's youthful vitality and ability to conquer tyrants Correct Answer: To symbolize Florence's youthful vitality and ability to conquer tyrants
Question 1: Multiple Choice Correct Why in the Arena Chapel frescoes does Giotto deliberately abandon the Byzantine balance and symmetry? Given Answer: Correct To make the scenes look more realistic Correct Answer: To make the scenes look more realistic out of 3 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Correct According to legend, who founded Siena? Given Answer: Correct Remus's sons, Senius and Aschius Correct Answer: Remus's sons, Senius and Aschius out of 3 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Christine de Pizan become the first female professional writer in European history? Given Answer: Correct A widow, she needed to support her family Correct Answer: A widow, she needed to support her family out of 3 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct How does Duccio's Maestrá break from Byzantine portrayals of Mary and the Christ child? Given Answer: Correct Mary's body has substance, and Christ resembles an actual baby Correct Answer: Mary's body has substance, and Christ resembles an actual baby out of 3 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Correct Why is the camel in Giotto's Adoration of the Magi not exactly realistic? Given Answer: Correct It has blue eyes Correct Answer: It has blue eyes out of 3 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct According to legend, what originally had stood on the site of the baptistery? Given Answer: Correct A Roman temple to Mars Correct Answer: A Roman temple to Mars out of 3 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Why did the Florentines drive the Medici family from the city in 1494? Given Answer: Correct Piero de Medici formed an unpopular alliance with the French king Correct Answer: Piero de Medici formed an unpopular alliance with the French king out of 3 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct What distinction does Donatello's David hold? Given Answer: Correct The first life-size freestanding male nude since antiquity Correct Answer: The first life-size freestanding male nude since antiquity out of 3 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct Why does Michelangelo's Moses have horns? Given Answer: Correct A mistranslation of the Bible from Hebrew to Latin Correct Answer: A mistranslation of the Bible from Hebrew to Latin out of 3 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Lorenzo de' Medici prefer frottole sung in Italian, not Greek or Latin? Given Answer: Correct Italian was the most beautiful of languages for music Correct Answer: Italian was the most beautiful of languages for music
Question 1: Multiple Choice Correct Why were Siena's guilds able to rise to such levels of power? Given Answer: Correct Siena was an important manufacturing city Correct Answer: Siena was an important manufacturing city out of 3 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Correct Why did the flagellants believe Europe was devastated by plague? Given Answer: Correct God's wrath against human sins Correct Answer: God's wrath against human sins out of 3 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Correct Why does Virgil guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory? Given Answer: Correct Virgil represented the embodiment of rationality Correct Answer: Virgil represented the embodiment of rationality out of 3 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct Why by the end of the fourteenth century did Florence become an important banking city? Given Answer: Correct The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence Correct Answer: The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence out of 3 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Correct What is an advantage of the buon fresco (paint on wet plaster) technique? Given Answer: Correct The paint becomes part of the wall Correct Answer: The paint becomes part of the wall out of 3 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct Why was Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, so interested in Leonardo da Vinci? Given Answer: Correct Leonardo could design great machines of war for him Correct Answer: Leonardo could design great machines of war for him out of 3 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Lorenzo de' Medici invite the young Michelangelo Buonarroti to live in his palace? Given Answer: Correct Lorenzo recognized Michelangelo's artistic promise Correct Answer: Lorenzo recognized Michelangelo's artistic promise out of 3 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct Which is the only panel on the Baptistery doors to represent a single event? Given Answer: Correct Meeting of Solomon and Sheba Correct Answer: Meeting of Solomon and Sheba out of 3 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct Why does Dufay's Nuper rosarum flores repeat the fixed melody on 6, 4, 2, and 3 units per breve? Given Answer: Correct To mirror the proportions of Solomon's Temple and Florence Cathedral Correct Answer: To mirror the proportions of Solomon's Temple and Florence Cathedral out of 3 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Cosimo de' Medici found the Platonic Academy in Florence? Given Answer: Correct To provide a place for the study and discussion of Plato's works Correct Answer: To provide a place for the study and discussion of Plato's works
Question 1: Multiple Choice Correct Why were the people eager to buy the indulgences that Julius II sold to finance the St. Peter's project? Given Answer: Correct They wanted to shorten their stay in purgatory Correct Answer: They wanted to shorten their stay in purgatory out of 4 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Correct Why did early Venetians abandon the mainland for the swampy lagoon islands? Given Answer: Correct To flee the invading Lombards from the north Correct Answer: To flee the invading Lombards from the north out of 4 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Correct Who was permitted to join a Venetian scuole? Given Answer: Correct Anyone regardless of political group or class Correct Answer: Anyone regardless of political group or class out of 4 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Pope Julius II wish to identify himself with Julius Caesar? Given Answer: Correct Like Caesar, he wanted to defeat the hated French Correct Answer: Like Caesar, he wanted to defeat the hated French out of 4 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Correct Why in the School of Athens does Plato point toward the heavens? Given Answer: Correct It's the realm of ideal forms Correct Answer: It's the realm of ideal forms out of 4 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct As discussed in the chapter's "Continuity and Change" section, what was the irony of monk and humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus? Given Answer: Correct He opposed the Church's excesses yet loved beauty and art Correct Answer: He opposed the Church's excesses yet loved beauty and art out of 4 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Who is reflected in the mirror in Jan van Eyck's double portrait Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami? Given Answer: Correct Jan van Eyck Correct Answer: Jan van Eyck out of 4 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Flemish painters use oil instead of the tempera paint favored by the Italian Renaissance painters? Given Answer: Correct To create layers of paint that reflected light Correct Answer: To create layers of paint that reflected light out of 4 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct Marguerite de Navarre modeled her Heptameron on what earlier poet's work? Given Answer: Correct Boccaccio Correct Answer: Boccaccio out of 4 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct What did patrons of works such as Robert Campin's Mérode Altarpiece and Jan and Hubert van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece hope to gain through their financial support? Given Answer: Correct Personal salvation Correct Answer: Personal salvation
Question 1: Multiple Choice Correct What is an advantage of the buon fresco (paint on wet plaster) technique? Given Answer: Correct The paint becomes part of the wall Correct Answer: The paint becomes part of the wall out of 3 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Incorrect According to the chapter's "Continuity and Change" section, what was a positive effect of the bubonic plague? Given Answer: Incorrect Port regulations became stricter Correct Answer: Per capita wealth increased out of 3 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Correct Which guild in pre-1355 Siena was most powerful? Given Answer: Correct Merchants Correct Answer: Merchants out of 3 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct Why is the camel in Giotto's Adoration of the Magi not exactly realistic? Given Answer: Correct It has blue eyes Correct Answer: It has blue eyes out of 3 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Correct Why by the end of the fourteenth century did Florence become an important banking city? Given Answer: Correct The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence Correct Answer: The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence out of 3 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Donatello depict his David as a young adolescent? Given Answer: Correct To symbolize Florence's youthful vitality and ability to conquer tyrants Correct Answer: To symbolize Florence's youthful vitality and ability to conquer tyrants out of 3 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Why does Dufay's Nuper rosarum flores repeat the fixed melody on 6, 4, 2, and 3 units per breve? Given Answer: Correct To mirror the proportions of Solomon's Temple and Florence Cathedral Correct Answer: To mirror the proportions of Solomon's Temple and Florence Cathedral out of 3 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct What principle did Brunelleschi master and apply to his dome's design? Given Answer: Correct Scientific perspective Correct Answer: Scientific perspective out of 3 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct Why is Leonardo's Last Supper fresco in very bad shape today? Given Answer: Correct Leonardo painted dry plaster with oil, which flakes off Correct Answer: Leonardo painted dry plaster with oil, which flakes off out of 3 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct Why does Masaccio place the vanishing point in The Tribute Money behind Christ's head? Given Answer: Correct To identify Christ as the fresco's most important figure Correct Answer: To identify Christ as the fresco's most important figure
One 15-minute break at 8:00; roll taken before dismissal at 10:00 pm.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gmicksmith
To join our Slack HUM 111 group: send me your email address so I can invite you to Slack.
Blackboard is not smart enough to reveal email addresses.
For example: gmick.smith@strayer.edu
https://hum111.slack.com/
How have you used the Orai app?
https://www.oraiapp.com/
How about trying it for the Discussion?
Boost Linguistics
The Boost Editor improves language communication that is written by students.
Sign up at:
boost-ling.com/boost-text-editor/
In order to do this you can access Boost at boost-ling.com/boost-
There you’ll be able to copy and paste any text (email, article, assignment, blog, etc.) and improve the language for the emotion of JOY.
http://boost-ling.com/app/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B63nNuIP9mzpLXN3RER4cXlvN28/view
strayer.edu analysis
Alternative presentation site:
haikudeck.com
Tools:
https://elearningindustry.com/18-free-digital-storytelling-tools-for-teachers-and-students
Some tools (like Google StreetView, which has been used to verify geographical data) are fairly well-known. Others, like Google’s Public Data Explorer are a bit more obscure. This can be a “hidden gem” in Google’s toolkit.
https://www.google.com/publicdata/directory
My Maps
Sure, the ever-present Google Maps is what gets you from point A to point B when you’re out of town, but My Maps is an alternative for building a map-based infographic. See one example here, in which the New York Times mapped out the country’s uninsured in 2013.http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/12/18/uninsured-map/
StreetView
Download the StreetView app on your phone and use it to create immersive images. We’re giving it a whirl next time we visit one of those spiffy new offices companies are always announcing. Might not be exotic destinations like Taiwan’s Yushan North Peak or Chile’s Los Alerces Trail, but the whole point is making stories more ~immersive~.https://www.google.com/streetview/
Public Data Explorer
Code for Philly folks likely know all about this one. It’s an online dashboard for exploring multiple sources of publicly available data “without opening a spreadsheet,” Think unemployment data, broadband penetration or minimum wage through history.https://www.google.com/publicdata/directory
Google Images
We know, we know. You’ve likely been using Google Images since the sixth grade, but one use of it in particular is very timely: to verify an image’s true origin, perform a reverse image search.Not one of these tools require a master’s degree to use. It’s about figuring out what is valuable to you.
https://images.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl
Review
What caused the end of the Khmer Empire?
Decline
By the 14th century, the Khmer empire suffered a long, arduous, and steady decline. Historians have proposed different causes for the decline: the religious conversion from Vishnuite-Shivaite Hinduism to Theravada Buddhism that affected social and political systems, incessant internal power struggles among Khmer princes, vassal revolt, foreign invasion, plague, and ecological breakdown.For social and religious reasons, many aspects contributed to the decline of the Khmer empire. The relationship between the rulers and their elites was unstable – among the 27 Angkorian rulers, eleven lacked a legitimate claim to power, and civil wars were frequent. The Khmer empire focused more on the domestic economy and did not take advantage of the international maritime network. In addition, the input of Buddhist ideas conflicted and disturbed the state order built under the predominant Hinduism.
Conversion of faith
11th-century Cambodian sculpture of the Buddha
Looking at the archaeological record, however, archaeologists noticed that not only were the structures ceasing to be built, but the Khmer's historical inscription was also lacking from roughly 1300–1600. With this lack of historical content, there is unfortunately very limited archaeological evidence to work with. Archaeologists have been able to determine that the sites were abandoned and then reoccupied later by different people.
There is evidence that the Black Death had affected the situation described above, as the plague first appeared in China around 1330 and reached Europe around 1345. Most seaports along the line of travel from China to Europe felt the impact of the disease, which had a severe impact on life throughout South East Asia.
Foreign pressure
Seated Buddha from the 12th century
The new centre of the Khmer kingdom was in the southwest, at Oudong in the region of today's Phnom Penh. However, there are indications that Angkor was not completely abandoned. One line of Khmer kings may have remained there, while a second moved to Phnom Penh to establish a parallel kingdom. The final fall of Angkor would then be due to the transfer of economic – and therewith political – significance, as Phnom Penh became an important trade centre on the Mekong. Besides, severe droughts and ensuing floods were considered as one of the contributing factors to its fall. The empire focused more on regional trade after the first drought. Overall, climate change, costly construction projects, and conflicts over power between the royal family sealed the end of the Khmer empire.
Ecological breakdown
Satellite image of Angkor, the dried East Baray suggests the environmental changes in the region
Faith, foreign pressure, and ecological breakdown have all been advanced for the decline. No one theory has proved convincing or it may simply be a combination of all of these factors.
Angkor Adventure - The fall of the Great Khmer Empire re-edit, 4:15
Our tour guide explains the reason for the fall of the Great Khmer Empire that built the magnificent temples at Angkor Wat, the ancient city and seat of one of the Hindu kingdom and of the greatest empires of the 12th century.
https://youtu.be/O_zQMAbCmWc
Can you say more about the Benin Kingdom?
The Benin Empire was a pre-colonial empire located in what is now southern Nigeria. Its capital was Edo, now known as Benin City, Edo. It should not be confused with the modern-day country called Benin, formerly called Dahomey. The Benin Empire was "one of the oldest and most highly developed states in the coastal hinterland of West Africa, dating perhaps to the eleventh century CE", until it was annexed by the British Empire in 1897.
A Brief History of the Benin Empire, 4:09
https://youtu.be/vazknOVzZ_c
Were there any major civilizations in the Amazon or in Russia?
There is no record of a civilization in the Amazon.
The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of Varangians, the traders, warriors and settlers from the Baltic Sea region. Primarily they were Vikings of Scandinavian origin, who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas.[47] According to the Primary Chronicle, a Varangian from Rus' people, named Rurik, was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882 his successor Oleg ventured south and conquered Kiev,[48] which had been previously paying tribute to the Khazars, founding Kievan Rus'. Oleg, Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar khaganate and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.
In the 10th to 11th centuries Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe.[49] The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, particularly to the area known as Zalesye.
The age of feudalism and decentralization was marked by constant in-fighting between members of the Rurik Dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, Novgorod Republic in the north-west and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west.
Ultimately Kievan Rus' disintegrated, with the final blow being the Mongol invasion of 1237–40[51] that resulted in the destruction of Kiev[52] and the death of about half the population of Rus'.[53] The invading Mongol elite, together with their conquered Turkic subjects (Cumans, Kipchaks, Bulgars), became known as Tatars, forming the state of the Golden Horde, which pillaged the Russian principalities; the Mongols ruled the Cuman-Kipchak confederation and Volga Bulgaria (modern-day southern and central expanses of Russia) for over two centuries.[54]
Galicia-Volhynia was eventually assimilated by the Kingdom of Poland, while the Mongol-dominated Vladimir-Suzdal and Novgorod Republic, two regions on the periphery of Kiev, established the basis for the modern Russian nation.[20] The Novgorod together with Pskov retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongol yoke and were largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky, Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240, as well as the Germanic crusaders in the Battle of the Ice in 1242, breaking their attempts to colonize the Northern Rus'.
History of Europe #10 - Kievan Rus', England and Norse! 5:10
https://youtu.be/vntfSGJfqXM
Why did the Mayan sharpen their teeth?
Human tooth sharpening is the practice of manually sharpening the teeth, usually the front incisors. Filed teeth are customary in various cultures. Many remojadas figurines found in part of Mexico have filed teeth and it is believed to have been common practice in their culture. The Zappo Zap people of the Democratic Republic of Congo are believed to have filed their teeth.
Historically it was done for spiritual purposes, with some exceptions, but in modern times it is usually aesthetic in nature as an extreme form of body modification.
In Mayan culture, the teeth were sharpened, and sometimes had designs carved into them, to distinguish those in the upper-classes.
Stained glass: how long to clean, how removed?
1:52 How to Clean a Stained Glass Lead Panel
Delphi Artist Steena Gaut demonstrates how to clean cement off of a lead stained glass panel using whiting powder. http://bit.ly/pPnlKa
https://youtu.be/CL6lEeYmwYs
To clean the glass is not necessarily removed and cleaning is done slowly and carefully.
Careful cleaning of stained glass can be a very effective means of improving its overall condition, because its appearance and function are so heavily dependent on its ability to transmit light.
Unfortunately, owing to the fragility of corroded glass, nearly all cleaning treatments can cause changes in the surface of the glass that can expedite corrosion rates, or damage delicate paint layers (Romich et al. 2000). Thus, cleaning efforts should not necessarily be concerned with the complete removal of all encrustrations, but rather the careful thinning of these layers to a point where light can be transmitted through the glass at an acceptable level (Rauch 2004, 5). The simplest cleaning can be performed using carefully applied deionised water, although other mechanical or chemical means are often necessary, and must always be done slowly, in a controlled and focused manner (Rauch 2004, 5-6; Vogel et al. 2007, 9-10). Scalpels or a micro-jet process* can be used to gradually, mechanically thin out these encrustations layer by layer, in the lab. Conversely, poultices or gel pads steeped in a non-ionic detergent or EDTA can be applied to the surface of the glass for long periods of time for “deep, focused cleaning” (Rauch 2004, 6). With any of these methods, care must be taken to ensure the stability of painted layers, before treatment can take place. In the event that these layers appear particularly friable, it is necessary to clean the glass delicately with cotton swabs, and in more extreme cases, manually affix the original paint lines to the surface, under a microscope, by applying small tiny drops of resin at specific points (Rauch 2004, 6; Vogel et al. 2007, 10). Care should be taken not to remove any later over-painting without due consideration, as such layers may have historic value, in their own right (Rauch 2004, 7).
Within conservation, repairs are meant to last, but should also be as reversible as possible, in keeping with the general ethical guidelines of modern conservation practice (Sloane 1993, 13). In the context of stained glass, repairs can involve treatment of the glass itself, treatment of missing areas, or structural consolidation of the matrix or surrounding architectural fabric.
Broken glass is typically repaired in one of thee ways: copper foiling (thin copper tape that is applied to both sides of the break and then soldered); epoxy edge-gluing; and silicone edge-gluing. Each of these has its own inherent benefits and problems. For instance, copper foiling produces a strong, reversible, attractive repair, but is unsuitable for use with unstable glass because of the heat involved in the application process. Epoxy edge-gluing on the other hand is strong and nearly invisible, but deteriorates in direct sunlight, while silicone edge-gluing dries clear and is easily reversible, but unfortunately refracts light differently from glass, making such repairs more readily apparent (Vogel et al. 2007, 12).
Missing areas can be filled or replaced but should be done so with caution. All additions must be marked as such, and documented. Ultimately, “it is nearly always better to use an imperfect original piece of glass than to replace it” (Vogel et al. 2007, 12). Modern replacement of glass with “exact” replicas is virtually impossible, and goes against conservation philosophy by potentially clouding viewers’ perception of the original. Instead it is preferable to use similarly coloured, but clearly differentiated glass in order to preserve the aesthetic effect of the stained glass without sacrificing the integrity of the original (Rauch 2004, 7; Vogel et al. 2007, 11).
Structurally speaking it is most important to keep the frame intact and in good condition, to ensure the overall safety of the window (Vogel et al. 2007, 10). That being said, the original materials that make up this matrix are also integral aspects of the historic value and artistic design of the panel and should be preserved. Steps should always be taken to ensure that panels retain their current matrix whenever possible, rather than opting for replacement (CVMA 2004).
Where did the idea of cleaning arise and who was the first to complete a stained glass?
Coloured glass has been produced since ancient times. Both the Egyptians and the Romans excelled at the manufacture of small coloured glass objects. Phoenicia was important in glass manufacture with its chief centres Sidon, Tyre and Antioch. The British Museum holds two of the finest Roman pieces, the Lycurgus Cup, which is a murky mustard colour but glows purple-red to transmitted light, and the Portland vase which is midnight blue, with a carved white overlay.
In early Christian churches of the 4th and 5th centuries, there are many remaining windows which are filled with ornate patterns of thinly-sliced alabaster set into wooden frames, giving a stained-glass like effect.
Evidence of stained glass windows in churches and monasteries in Britain can be found as early as the 7th century. The earliest known reference dates from 675 AD when Benedict Biscop imported workmen from France to glaze the windows of the monastery of St Peter which he was building at Monkwearmouth. Hundreds of pieces of coloured glass and lead, dating back to the late 7th century, have been discovered here and at Jarrow.[5]
In the Middle East, the glass industry of Syria continued during the Islamic period with major centres of manufacture at Raqqa, Aleppo and Damascus and the most important products being highly transparent colourless glass and gilded glass, rather than coloured glass. The production of coloured glass in Southwest Asia existed by the 8th century, at which time the alchemist Jābir ibn Hayyān, in Kitab al-Durra al-Maknuna, gave 46 recipes for producing coloured glass and described the technique of cutting glass into artificial gemstones.[6]
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A perfume flask from 100 BC to 200 AD -
The Portland Vase, a rare example of Roman flashed glass -
An alabaster window in Orvieto Cathedral, Italy -
Stained glass in the Nasir al-Mulk mosque in Shiraz, Iran
Medieval glass
Stained glass, as an art form, reached its height in the Middle Ages when it became a major pictorial form used to illustrate the narratives of the Bible to a largely illiterate populace.In the Romanesque and Early Gothic period, from about 950 AD to 1240 AD, the untraceried windows demanded large expanses of glass which of necessity were supported by robust iron frames, such as may be seen at Chartres Cathedral and at the eastern end of Canterbury Cathedral. As Gothic architecture developed into a more ornate form, windows grew larger, affording greater illumination to the interiors, but were divided into sections by vertical shafts and tracery of stone. This elaboration of form reached its height of complexity in the Flamboyant style in Europe, and windows grew still larger with the development of the Perpendicular style in England.
Integrated with the lofty verticals of Gothic cathedrals and parish churches, glass designs became more daring. The circular form, or rose window, developed in France from relatively simple windows with openings pierced through slabs of thin stone to wheel windows, as exemplified by the West front of Chartres Cathedral, and ultimately to designs of enormous complexity, the tracery being drafted from hundreds of different points, such as those at Sainte-Chapelle, Paris and the "Bishop's Eye" at Lincoln Cathedral.
While stained glass was widely manufactured, Chartres in France was the greatest centre of stained glass manufacture, producing glass of unrivalled quality.
Were Gothic Cathedrals used for a different purpose than Romanesque Cathedrals?
Theologically, no, but they were characteristically different.
Romanesque: simpler rounded arches weight was on walls Gothic: more complex pointed arches weight was on columns, pilasters (rectangle column) and arches more buttresses
Complete and submit Week 7 Quiz 6: Chapters 11 and 12
- Read the following from your textbook:
- Chapter 13: Siena and Florence in the Fourteenth Century
- Chapter 14: Florence and the Early Renaissance – in Italy
- View the Week 7 Would You Like to Know More? videos
- Explore the Week 7 Music Folder
- Do the Week 7 Explore Activities
- Participate in the Week 7 Discussion (choose only one (1) of the discussion options)
The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia [diˈviːna komˈmɛːdja]) is an epic poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
On the surface, the poem describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven;but at a deeper level, it represents, allegorically, the soul's journey towards God. At this deeper level, Dante draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy and the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called "the Summa in verse".
The work was originally simply titled Comedìa and the word Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio. The first printed edition to add the word divina to the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce,[8] published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.
Would You Like to Know More? - Dante and The Divine Comedy
Click the image below to learn more about Dante and the Divine Comedy.
Although there were several competing theories as to the etiology of the Black Death, analysis of DNA from victims in northern and southern Europe published in 2010 and 2011 indicates that the pathogen responsible was the Yersinia pestis bacterium, probably causing several forms of plague.
The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of Central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching Crimea by 1343.
From there, it was most likely carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships.
Spreading throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, the Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population.
In total, the plague may have reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350–375 million in the 14th century.
The world population as a whole did not recover to pre-plague levels until the 17th century.
The plague recurred occasionally in Europe until the 19th century.
The plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history.Would You Like to Know More? - The Black Death
Click the image below to learn more about Dante and the Divine Comedy.
Ring side seat!--Join Dante's spiritual tour of the afterlife.
Ring side seat!--Join Dante's spiritual tour of the afterlife.
Ring side seat!--Join Dante's spiritual tour of the afterlife.
https://blackboard.strayer.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/HUM/111/1146/Week6/WYLTKM-Dante/story.html
The Black Death or Black Plague was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1346–1353.
Although there were several competing theories as to the etiology of the Black Death, analysis of DNA from victims in northern and southern Europe published in 2010 and 2011 indicates that the pathogen responsible was the Yersinia pestis bacterium, probably causing several forms of plague.
The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of Central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching Crimea by 1343.
From there, it was most likely carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships.
Spreading throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, the Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population.
In total, the plague may have reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350–375 million in the 14th century.
The world population as a whole did not recover to pre-plague levels until the 17th century.
The plague recurred occasionally in Europe until the 19th century.
The plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history.Would You Like to Know More? - The Black Death
Click the image below to learn more about the Black Death.
Click the image below to learn more about the Black Death.
Devastation and Recovery: A "big picture" look at the Black Death of 1347-1350, and some of the unexpected impacts.
Click the image below to learn more about humanism and the Medici.
Click the image below to learn more about the Black Death.
Devastation and Recovery: A "big picture" look at the Black Death of 1347-1350, and some of the unexpected impacts.
Devastation and Recovery: A "big picture" look at the Black Death of 1347-1350, and some of the unexpected impacts.
https://blackboard.strayer.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/HUM/111/1146/Week6/WYLTKM-BlackDeath/story.html
Renaissance humanism is the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.
The term Renaissance humanism is contemporary to that period—Renaissance (rinascimento "rebirth") and "humanist" (whence modern humanism; also Renaissance humanism to distinguish it from later developments grouped as humanism).
Renaissance humanism was a response to the utilitarian approach and what came to be depicted as the "narrow pedantry" associated with medieval scholasticism.
Humanists sought to create a citizenry able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity and thus capable of engaging in the civic life of their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudent actions.
This was to be accomplished through the study of the studia humanitatis, today known as the humanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy.
According to one scholar of the movement,
There were important centres of humanism in Florence, Naples, Rome, Venice, Genoa, Mantua, Ferrara, and Urbino.
The House of Medici (/ˈmɛdᵻtʃi/ MED-i-chee; Italian pronunciation: [ˈmɛːditʃi]) was an Italian banking family, political dynasty and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century.
The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, seeing the Medici gain political power in Florence — though officially they remained citizens rather than monarchs.
The Medici produced three Popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X (1513–1521), Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), and Pope Leo XI (1605); two regent queens of France—Catherine de' Medici (1547–1559) and Marie de' Medici (1600–1610). In 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence. In 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici. The grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the earlier grand dukes, but by the time of Cosimo III de' Medici, Tuscany was fiscally bankrupt.
Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. Like other signore families, they dominated their city's government, they were able to bring Florence under their family's power, and they created an environment where art and humanism could flourish.
They along with other families of Italy, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua, fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance.
The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe.
There are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a time.
From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italy and Europe.
A notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. The Medici family were among the earliest businesses to use the system.
Renaissance humanism is the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.
The term Renaissance humanism is contemporary to that period—Renaissance (rinascimento "rebirth") and "humanist" (whence modern humanism; also Renaissance humanism to distinguish it from later developments grouped as humanism).
Renaissance humanism was a response to the utilitarian approach and what came to be depicted as the "narrow pedantry" associated with medieval scholasticism.
Humanists sought to create a citizenry able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity and thus capable of engaging in the civic life of their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudent actions.
This was to be accomplished through the study of the studia humanitatis, today known as the humanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy.
According to one scholar of the movement,
Early Italian humanism, which in many respects continued the grammatical and rhetorical traditions of the Middle Ages, not merely provided the old Trivium with a new and more ambitious name (Studia humanitatis), but also increased its actual scope, content and significance in the curriculum of the schools and universities and in its own extensive literary production. The studia humanitatis excluded logic, but they added to the traditional grammar and rhetoric not only history, Greek, and moral philosophy, but also made poetry, once a sequel of grammar and rhetoric, the most important member of the whole group.Humanism was a pervasive cultural mode and not the program of a small elite, a program to revive the cultural legacy, literary legacy, and moral philosophy of classical antiquity.
There were important centres of humanism in Florence, Naples, Rome, Venice, Genoa, Mantua, Ferrara, and Urbino.
The House of Medici (/ˈmɛdᵻtʃi/ MED-i-chee; Italian pronunciation: [ˈmɛːditʃi]) was an Italian banking family, political dynasty and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century.
The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, seeing the Medici gain political power in Florence — though officially they remained citizens rather than monarchs.
The Medici produced three Popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X (1513–1521), Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), and Pope Leo XI (1605); two regent queens of France—Catherine de' Medici (1547–1559) and Marie de' Medici (1600–1610). In 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence. In 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici. The grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the earlier grand dukes, but by the time of Cosimo III de' Medici, Tuscany was fiscally bankrupt.
Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. Like other signore families, they dominated their city's government, they were able to bring Florence under their family's power, and they created an environment where art and humanism could flourish.
They along with other families of Italy, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua, fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance.
The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe.
There are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a time.
From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italy and Europe.
A notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. The Medici family were among the earliest businesses to use the system.
Click the image below to learn more about humanism and the Medici.
Click the image below to learn more about humanism and the Medici.
Bankrolling the Renaissance: Explore how the Medici and others made the Renaissance possible.
Bankrolling the Renaissance: Explore how the Medici and others made the Renaissance possible.
Bankrolling the Renaissance: Explore how the Medici and others made the Renaissance possible.
https://blackboard.strayer.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/HUM/111/1146/Week7/WYLTKM-Humanism/story.html
Week 7 Explore
Late Medieval Art, Literature, and Plague
It was believed to have arrived from Asia in late 1348 and caused more than one epidemic in that century – though its impact on English society from 1348 to 1350 was terrible. No amount of medical knowledge could help England when the plague struck. It was also to have a major impact on England’s social structure which lead to the Peasants Revolt of 1381.
- Chapter 13 (pp. 449-453, 456, 462-3), Boccaccio; (pp. 453-4), Petrarch; (pp. 454-6), Chaucer; (pp. 455-457), Christine de Pisan
- Chapter 13 ( 449-451, 458), The Plague
- The Plague at http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/black_death_of_1348_to_1350.htm
The Black Death of 1348 to 1350
Citation: C N Trueman "The Black Death of 1348 to 1350"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 5 Mar 2015. 20 Oct 2016.
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 5 Mar 2015. 20 Oct 2016.
In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kill 1.5 million people out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350.
No medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease.
After 1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century. Understandably, peasants were terrified at the news that the Black Death might be approaching their village or town.
The Black Death is the name given to a deadly plague (often called bubonic plague, but is more likely to be pneumonic plague) which was rampant during the Fourteenth Century. No medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease.
After 1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century. Understandably, peasants were terrified at the news that the Black Death might be approaching their village or town.
It was believed to have arrived from Asia in late 1348 and caused more than one epidemic in that century – though its impact on English society from 1348 to 1350 was terrible. No amount of medical knowledge could help England when the plague struck. It was also to have a major impact on England’s social structure which lead to the Peasants Revolt of 1381.
Up until recently the Black Death was thought to have been caused by fleas carried by rats that were very common in towns and cities. When the fleas bit into their victims, it was thought they were literally injecting them with the disease.
However evidence produced by forensic scientists and archaeologists in 2014 from human remains in the north of the City of London suggests that fleas could not actually have been responsible for an infection that spread so fast – it had to be airborne. Once the disease reached the lungs of the malnourished, it was then spread to the wider population through sneezes and coughs. Whatever the cause of the infection, death was often very quick for the weaker victims. By Spring 1349 the Black Death had killed six out of every ten Londoners.
It symptoms were described in 1348 by a man called Boccaccio who lived in Florence, Italy:
| “The first signs of the plague were lumps in the groin or armpits. After this, livid black spots appeared on the arms and thighs and other parts of the body. Few recovered. Almost all died within three days, usually without any fever.” |
Written evidence from the time indicates that nearly all the victims died within three days though a small number did last for four days.
Why did the plague spread so quickly?
In towns and cities people lived very close together and they knew nothing about contagious diseases. If they did, they would have avoided close contact with others (staying at least a metre apart) if they themselves were ill or if others around them were ill. They would also have been careful to cover their mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.
Additionally, the disposal of bodies was very crude and helped to spread the disease still further as those who handled the dead bodies did not protect themselves in any way.
Lack of medical knowledge meant that people tried anything to help them escape the disease.
One of the more extreme was the flagellants.
These people wanted to show their love of God by whipping themselves, hoping that God would forgive them their sins and that they would be spared the Black Death.
One of the more extreme was the flagellants.
These people wanted to show their love of God by whipping themselves, hoping that God would forgive them their sins and that they would be spared the Black Death.
Flagellants hoping to escape the Black Death
The Black Death had a huge impact on society.
Fields went unploughed as the men who usually did this were victims of the disease.
Harvests would not have been brought in as the manpower did not exist. Animals would have been lost as the people in a village would not have been around to tend them.
Fields went unploughed as the men who usually did this were victims of the disease.
Harvests would not have been brought in as the manpower did not exist. Animals would have been lost as the people in a village would not have been around to tend them.
Therefore whole villages would have faced starvation.
Towns and cities would have faced food shortages as the villages that surrounded them could not provide them with enough food.
Those lords who lost their manpower to the disease, turned to sheep farming as this required less people to work on the land. Grain farming became less popular – this, again, kept towns and cities short of such basics as bread.
One consequence of the Black Death was inflation – the price of food went up creating more hardship for the poor. In some parts of England, food prices went up by four times.
Towns and cities would have faced food shortages as the villages that surrounded them could not provide them with enough food.
Those lords who lost their manpower to the disease, turned to sheep farming as this required less people to work on the land. Grain farming became less popular – this, again, kept towns and cities short of such basics as bread.
One consequence of the Black Death was inflation – the price of food went up creating more hardship for the poor. In some parts of England, food prices went up by four times.
How did peasants respond?
Those who survived the Black Death believed that there was something special about them – almost as if God had protected them. Therefore, they took the opportunity offered by the disease to improve their lifestyle.
Feudal law stated that peasants could only leave their village if they had their lord’s permission.
Now many lords were short of desperately needed labour for the land that they owned.
After the Black Death, lords actively encouraged peasants to leave the village where they lived to come to work for them. When peasants did this, the lord refused to return them to their original village.
Now many lords were short of desperately needed labour for the land that they owned.
After the Black Death, lords actively encouraged peasants to leave the village where they lived to come to work for them. When peasants did this, the lord refused to return them to their original village.
Peasants could demand higher wages as they knew that a lord was desperate to get in his harvest.
So the government faced the prospect of peasants leaving their villages to find a better ‘deal’ from a lord thus upsetting the whole idea of the Feudal System which had been introduced to tie peasants to the land. Ironically, this movement by the peasants was encouraged by the lords who were meant to benefit from the Feudal System.
To curb peasants roaming around the countryside looking for better pay, the government introduced the Statute of Labourers in 1351 that stated:No peasants could be paid more than the wages paid in 1346. No lord or master should offer more wages than paid in 1346. No peasants could leave the village they belonged to.
Though some peasants decided to ignore the statute, many knew that disobedience would lead to serious punishment.
This created great anger amongst the peasants which was to boil over in 1381 with the Peasants Revolt. Hence, it can be argued that the Black Death was to lead to the Peasants Revolt.
Was there a cure for the Black Death?This created great anger amongst the peasants which was to boil over in 1381 with the Peasants Revolt. Hence, it can be argued that the Black Death was to lead to the Peasants Revolt.
No, but at the time, there were many ‘cures’ suggested.
Some of the best accounts from the period come from the leading writers.
Giovanni Boccaccio (/boʊˈkɑːtʃiˌoʊ, -tʃoʊ, bə-/; Italian: [dʒoˈvanni bokˈkattʃo]; 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist.
Boccaccio wrote a number of notable works, including The Decameron and On Famous Women.
He wrote his imaginative literature mostly in the Italian vernacular, as well as other works in Latin, and is particularly noted for his realistic dialogue which differed from that of his contemporaries, medieval writers who usually followed formulaic models for character and plot.
Francesco Petrarca (Italian pronunciation: [franˈtʃesko peˈtrarka]; July 20, 1304 – July 20, 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (/ˈpiːtrɑːrk, ˈpɛtrɑːrk/), was an Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Renaissance.
Petrarch is often considered the founder of Humanism. In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch's works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio, and, to a lesser extent, Dante Alighieri.
Petrarch would be later endorsed as a model for Italian style by the Accademia della Crusca. Petrarch's sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. He is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the "Dark Ages."[3] This standing back from his time was possible because he straddled two worlds—the classical and his own modern day.[4]
Geoffrey Chaucer (/ˈtʃɔːsər/; c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to be buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.
While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten-year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Among his many works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. He is best known today for The Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer's work was crucial in legitimizing the literary use of the Middle English vernacular at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
Christine de Pizan (also seen as de Pisan ; French pronunciation: [kʁistin də pizɑ̃] (
listen) ; 1364 – c. 1430) was an Italian French late medieval author.She served as a court writer for several dukes (Louis of Orleans, Philip the Bold of Burgundy, and John the Fearless of Burgundy) and the French royal court during the reign of Charles VI. She wrote both poetry and prose works such as biographies and books containing practical advice for women. She completed forty-one works during her 30-year career from 1399–1429. She married in 1380 at the age of 15, and was widowed 10 years later. Much of the impetus for her writing came from her need to earn a living to support her mother, a niece and her two surviving children. She spent most of her childhood and all of her adult life in Paris and then the abbey at Poissy, and wrote entirely in her adopted language, Middle French.
Her early courtly poetry is marked by her knowledge of aristocratic custom and fashion of the day, particularly involving women and the practice of chivalry. Her early and later allegorical and didactic treatises reflect both autobiographical information about her life and views and also her own individualized and humanist approach to the scholastic learned tradition of mythology, legend, and history she inherited from clerical scholars and to the genres and courtly or scholastic subjects of contemporary French and Italian poets she admired. Supported and encouraged by important royal French and English patrons, she influenced 15th-century English poetry. Her success stems from a wide range of innovative writing and rhetorical techniques that critically challenged renowned writers such as Jean de Meun, author of the Romance of the Rose, which she criticized as immoral.
In recent decades, Christine de Pizan's work has been returned to prominence by the efforts of scholars such as Charity Cannon Willard, Earl Jeffrey Richards and Simone de Beauvoir. Certain scholars have argued that she should be seen as an early feminist who efficiently used language to convey that women could play an important role within society. This characterization has been challenged by other critics, who say that it is either an anachronistic use of the word or a misinterpretation of her writing and intentions.
The writers of the time tell us a great deal about the period; the most important event of the time was the Black Death.
In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kill 1.5 million people out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350. No medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease. After 1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century. Understandably, peasants were terrified at the news that the Black Death might be approaching their village or town.
The Black Death | Top 5 Facts, 2:48
https://youtu.be/coDVVsTuEco
Leonardo da Vinci
- Chapter 14 (pp. 489-492), art of da Vinci; review Week 7 Music Folder
- Partial restoration of the Last Supper at http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/LeonardoLastSupper.htm
Full picture, Schematic Diagram of the Last Supper,
Bruce Boucher on The Last Supper (art historian):
Leonardo's composition points, in fact, in another direction, for it conforms to traditional Florentine depictions of the Last Supper, stressing the betrayal and sacrifice of Jesus rather than the institution of the Eucharist and the chalice.
Florentine theology, as in the later Reformation theology, moves away from the early Church emphasis on the Eucharist and chalice.
and Dan Brown
Author of The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown's] preposterous theory that the figure of the Apostle John is really Mary Magdalene also founders in the face of the facts.
The painting happens to be on the wall in the refectory of the Dominican convent annexed to the church, where the monks ate all their meals. Not only would such a place be ill-suited for subversive art, given that it was never viewed by the public, the Dominican order had the responsibility of seeking out heresy before it spread. Only a colossal fool would paint a heresy where the monks could study it day after day. While no evidence suggest that Leonardo held the church in contempt, proof abounds that he was no fool.
http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/LeonardoLastSupper.htm
The most recent restoration of Leonardo's Last Supper was completed in May 1999. Work on this most recent restoration began in 1979 to repair areas where paint had flaked away, and quickly expanded to uncover fragments of the original painting covered by repainting from the above "early restorations."
Pinin Brambilla Barcilon has conducted this latest restoration of Leonardo's Last Supper under the auspices of Milan's Superintendent for Artistic and Historic Heritage. She is a renowned restoration artist who made use of various new technologies to bring life back into Leonardo's masterpiece.
Brambilla's task was first and foremost to stop further deterioration. Chemical analysis suggested that the over-painting which remained, was still eating away at Leonardo's original paint, and areas that were flaking away were taking parts of Leonardo's work with it as well. So, she decided the most pressing project was to remove everything that had been added after Leonardo finished the painting in 1498.
The restoration therefore demanded accuracy at the micron level, and attention to the smallest details. Microscopic pictures were utilized to magnify most areas of the painting. Such pictures demonstrated how mold, glue, repaint, and smog collected on the painting while infrared reflectoscopy enabled restorers to see the artist's original painting under layers of paint. Small diameter coring surveys also were performed. Samples taken from the corings were analyzed in laboratories to provide information on colors and materials utilized by Leonardo da Vinci. Miniature TV cameras inserted in the boreholes also provided information on the cracks and cavities. Sonar and radar surveys were also taken to provide information about the elastic and structural characteristics of the masonry and base that the painting resides upon.
Therefore using the above technologically advanced techniques for analysis and employing the use of solvents to remove multiple layers, Pinin Brambilla faced an extremely slow and meticulous process. Often, only an area the size of a postage stamp was cleaned each day. The twenty year project has proved to be quite successful however.
Once referring to Leonardo's Last Supper as a sick patient, Brambilla has proclaimed that she and her colleagues have been able to give back a reading of the dimensions, "of the expressive and chromatic intensity that we thought was lost forever." Brambilla, besides letting the original colors come through, added some basic color to blank areas in a way that the addition cannot be confused by the viewer with the original color. In certain areas, blank spots were left and not even painted over. Most importantly, the restorer believes that the luminosity of the original painting has been regained.
Leonardo's Last Supper was reopened to the public in May 1999. The painting is now preserved by a sophisticated air filtration system, moistured monitored environment, and dust-filtering chambers. Visitors must make reservations and groups are limited to 25 people for viewing times of only 15 minutes.
- Images, article, and 16th century copy of the Last Supper at http://www.abcgallery.com/L/leonardo/leonardo4.html
The copy and the original:
http://www.abcgallery.com/L/leonardo/leonardo4.html
Which do you prefer? And why?
To illustrate Renaissance painting to its fullest, and as an expression of Eucharistic, Medieval Christianity, consider two paintings.
http://arthistoryblogger.blogspot.com/2011/09/last-supper-as-painted-by-ghirlandaio.html
- Leonardo’s work in science and invention at http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/models-exhibited (scroll down to thumbnail photos; click to enlarge and read more information)
http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/models-exhibited/
This is one example of his brilliant anticipation of later, successful inventions; however, he conceived of them centuries before they were possible.
Leonardo tries repeatedly to apply to a flying machine the articulations of a bird's wing in the various phases of flight: he calls this type of mechanical flight instrument flight.
Codex Atlanticus, sheet 934
In this week's readings (chaps. 13-14), there are two musical compositions mentioned, both of them in chapter 14. These (or decent equivalents) can be found on YouTube. Watch and give them a listen. Here below is some background and description of each--and the link to the YouTube (and sometimes other helps).
- Nuper Rosarum Flores (by Guillaume Dufay) (chap. 14, p. 472)
-
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8hx_hguwTo (The Latin text is http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=46201 and an English translation is at https://kevgru.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/guillaume-du-fays-nuper-rosarum-flores/ )
This polyphonic motet was composed by Dufay for the occasion of the consecration of Florence's great cathedral in the spring of 1436. The ceremony had flowers all over, and the Pope dedicated a golden rose at the high altar. In Italian, the cathedral’s formal name would be Santa Maria del Fiore, or St. Mary of the Flower). Dufay’s motet, given its title from its first line, is Nuper Rosarum Flores, which means "Recently Blossoms of Roses…". He makes use of a fixed melody with complex but beautiful vocals. Note our book's discussion (p. 472 in chap. 14) about how Dufay tried to mirror this composition on the proportions of Solomon's Temple. After reading p. 472, give the YouTube above a listen.
Nuper Rosarum Flores, Harvard Chamber Singers, 6:10Translation of text:
Recently Roses (came)
as a gift of the Pope,
although in cruel winter,
to you, heavenly Virgin.
Dutifully and blessedly is dedicated
(to you) a temple of magnificient design.
May they together be perpetual ornaments.
Today the Vicar
of Jesus Christ and Peter’s
successor, Eugenius,
this same most spacious
sacred temple with his hands
and with holy waters
he is worthy to concecrate.
Therefore, gracious mother
and daughter of your offspring,
Virgin, ornament of virgins,
your Florence’s people
devoutly pray
so that together with all mankind,
with mind and body, their entreaties may
move you.
Through your prayer,
your anguish and merits,
may (the people) deserver to receive of the Lord,
born of you according to the flesh,
the benefits of grace
and the remission of sins.
Amen.
Guillaume Dufay’s Motet Nuper rosarum flores was written for the consecration of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Florence, Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (English translation: Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower), on March 25, 1436. The event was monumental in that it was attended by Pope Eugene the IV, who made an offering of a golden rose, to decorate the high altar, a week before the consecration. Both of these events are mentioned in the text of the motet. It is noteworthy that it was very uncommon for the Pope to attend the dedication of a church.
Du Fay uses Terribilis est locus iste, an introit traditionally used for the consecration of churches, as the cantus firmus of his work. These words come from the Book of Genesis (Gen 28:17) and can be translated as “Awesome is this place.”
The piece is written for four voices and the sound is treble dominant, which is common for DuFay’s music. When viewing the score, the upper two voices are the only ones who sing the text. The phrases line up, more or less, at the start and end of each phrase.
Du Fay based the music on elements of the church’s architecture. The dome of the church was designed by architect Filippo Brunelleschi who created the innovative double vaulted design of the cupola. It is believed that Dufay echoed this design in the lower two voices by having them sing the cantus firmus without words. This happens at four distinct times in the piece. The two lower voices are an octave and a fifth apart and their entrances are offset and rhythmically altered with no distinct diminution or augmentation that can quickly be detected. Eye witness accounts of the day’s ceremony state that there were many singers and instrumentalists performing which could suggest that the cantus firmus was played on instruments and/or the voices were doubled by them. The following link is a performance where the cantus firmus is played by organ. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOkf_wxIcfQ
(No longer available)
The word “Successor” stands out a great deal because of Du Fay’s use of canonic imitation in the upper two voices and the stark use of an open perfect 5th, between all four voices, at that point in the music. The following word “Eugenius” is given additional attention through homorhythmic scoring, again in the top two voices. This is the first time in the piece where the voices sing the same rhythm on the same word. The effect is very strong and, aside from Du Fay’s obvious attempt at impressing the Pope, a good indication that variety is a must in good music. The only other place where there is an almost (with some variety) unified rhythmic treatment of a word, this time with all four voices, is at the very end with the word “Amen.”
There is a great deal of structure to Du Fay’s work here. Each phrase has 7 syllables, an obvious nod to the use of the number 7 in the bible.
If the entire piece were to be divided into four parts, each section begins with the upper two voices and is eventually accompanied by the cantus firmus which continues until the final cadence of these sections. In the score each section is represented by 28 measures. Each section is broken into 14 measures of just the upper voices followed by 14 measures with cantus firmus. The duration of each section, however, varies based on their time signatures. If a constant tempo is assumed and the time signatures of the cantus firmus are reduced to having a common denominator then we can see these as being 12/4, 8/4, 4/4, 6/4 or a ratio of 6:4:2:3. This ratio reflects the proportions of the cathedral itself.
These last observations could be seen more as a theoretical analysis than something appropriate for a listening blog. This undoubtedly raises the question “can such organization be depicted aurally?” Whether some people have the ability to hear such things is debatable. Regardless, it is my opinion that every bit of detail that goes into the organization of music has a profound effect on the final product, the sound. It also gives a glimpse into the high level of craftsmanship possessed by these composers which, in my opinion, is so often missing in compositions today, often under the guise of “I just write what I hear.” Wouldn’t it be nice to have composers today give the same devotion to their audience as Du Fay did his, whether it was the church, the Pope, or just the people in attendance for the consecration of this place of worship?
The Chamber Singers of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum perform Dufay's Nuper Rosarum Flores
https://youtu.be/m8hx_hguwTo
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- Un di Lieto (Heinrich Isaac) (chap. 14, p. 483)
Read p. 483 (in chap. 14) carefully. Then give this a listen. This is an example of a lighthearted frottola song that is clearly simpler than some of the polyphonic church music that had developed over the years. Isaac lived in the late 1400s and early 1500s AD.
Does this sound simpler and possibly more popular as a result than the polyphonic church music?
Heinrich Isaac - Un dì lieto giammai (Lorenzo de' Medici), 4:42Does this sound simpler and possibly more popular as a result than the polyphonic church music?
https://youtu.be/RADd6Io2WG4
-----------------------------
Four examples:
O Rosa bella
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/r/renaissance-music/
Four examples:
O Rosa bella
D'où vient cela, belle
Fine Knacks for Ladies
Trionfo di Bacco
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/r/renaissance-music/
BONUS: If you wish to listen to some more music composed in the 1400s and 1500, try the selections at the following link—some are sacred music, and some are secular. These are from the website of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum:
O Rosa bella
http://media.vam.ac.uk/audio/o-rosa-bella-o-lovely-rose.mp3
Songs which reflected the heartbreak and pain of love were extremely popular in the 14th and 15th centuries.This one, O Rosa bella (O Lovely Rose), describes courtly love, a formalised secret passion between aristocrats that was both erotic and spiritual, even morally uplifting. This type of song was first written in the 12th century by the troubadours; aristocratic poets of southwest France.The music for O Rosa bella was written around 1400 by Johannes Ciconia, a Franco-Flemish composer, who worked mainly in Italy. The original singers were probably soloists from the court chapel or cathedral choir. In this recording the piece is performed with two male voices accompanied by a lute. This recording was made by the Royal College of Music especially for the Medieval & Renaissance Galleries thanks to an award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
O lovely rose
My sweet soul
Don't leave me to die
In courtly love
Aie, leave me
in pain, I must end
in serving well and faithfully loving
Rescue me already
from my pining
Heart of my heart, don't leave me to suffer
O beautiful rose
oh my sweet soul
don't leave me to die in courtly love
My sweet soul
Don't leave me to die
In courtly love
Aie, leave me
in pain, I must end
in serving well and faithfully loving
Rescue me already
from my pining
Heart of my heart, don't leave me to suffer
O beautiful rose
oh my sweet soul
don't leave me to die in courtly love
http://media.vam.ac.uk/audio/o-rosa-bella-o-lovely-rose.mp3
D'où vient cela, belle (How is it, my love) is one of the most famous works written by one of the greatest masters of the Renaissance chanson, Claudin de Sermisy. A chanson is a lyrical song with French words. This one is the sad lament of a jilted lover, wondering how it is that his beloved no longer wants him.Sermisy composed for several French monarchs in the early 16th century, including François I and Henri II. His chansons were performed on a variety of instruments, but in this recording, four singers are accompanied only by a lute, a typical set-up of the time. Music like this, involving only a few performers, was probably heard in the private quarters of the palace, an intimate and exclusive experience.
How is it, my love, I beg you,
That you no longer seek my company?
I shall always be filled with sadness
Until the day you call me back and mean it;
I think you no longer need a lover,
Or that someone has slandered me to you,
Or that your heart has found a new love.
If you let love go at its pretty pace
your beauty will make a prisoner
If because of others you have forgotten me
God will give you what you deserve
but there is nothing bad in you capturing me
I wish that as much as you seem beautiful to me
As much or more be cruel to me.
http://media.vam.ac.uk/audio/dou-vient-cela-belle-how-is-it-my-love.mp3
Fine Knacks for Ladies is a madrigal - a poetic song. In it the singer presents himself as a humble pedlar. In the 16th century pedlars travelled from town to town selling combs, ribbons, knives, and other small objects, the 'knacks' of the title. This pedlar sings in elegant language that reflects his status as an educated member of court circles. Through the words to the song he argues eloquently that although his wares might seem superficially precious, they're worthless compared to the honesty and loyalty of his heart.
The piece was written in about 1600 by John Dowland, one of the most famous English composers of his day. He was known for his witty songs that could be performed with a variety of different voices and instruments. This one is performed to the accompaniment of a lute.
Good penniworthes, but money cannot woo,
I keep a fair, but for the fair to view,
A beggar may be liberal of love.
Tho' all my wares be trash, the heart is true,
the heart is true, the heart is true.
Great gifts are guiles and look for gifts again,
My trifles come, as treasures from my mind,
It is a precious jewel to be plain,
Sometimes in shell, the orient pearls we find.
All others take a sheaf, of me a grain,
of me a grain, of me a grain.
Within the pack, pins, points, laces, and gloves
And diverse toys, fitting a country fair
But in my heart, where duty serves and loves,
Turtles and twins, courts brood, a heavenly pair.
Happy the heart that thinks, of no removes,
of no removes, of no removes.
http://media.vam.ac.uk/audio/fine-knacks-for-ladies.mp3
Trionfo di Bacco (The Triumph of Bacchus) was written for a Florentine festival and would have been performed in the city's crowded streets. There were three major outdoor festivals each year in Florence. The feast of the patron saint of the city, St John the Baptist, was one of the most important and is still celebrated today. Trionfo di Bacco belongs to the Trionfo genre which focused on events from ancient history and mythology. It is one of the best examples of Florentine festival music written before 1500 to have survived. Trionfo were sometimes performed whilst short dramatic scenes were presented by people on wagons that travelled throughout the streets and squares of the city.
The words for Trionfo di Bacco were written by Lorenzo de' Medici, the de-facto ruler of the Florentine Republic between 1469–92. Under Lorenzo the festivals in Florence became even more spectacular as the city's best craftsmen, artists and artisans were commissioned to make magnificent designs and costumes.
Latin was the language used for music written for the church. However songs like this one were sung in the Italian vernacular and would have been understood by all. Composers took great care to insure the proper accentuation of the text, as the words had to be heard above the commotion of an outdoor festival.
In the recording you can listen to here, the three voices sing to the accompaniment of a lute. The popularity of this song means that it is most likely to have been performed in all sorts of situations: with the accompaniment and reinforcement of many more instruments and voices for outdoor performances or to the accompaniment of lute, as in this recording, for indoor renditions of the song.
A thing of beauty is lovely youth
Whose fleeting looks fade quite away
Let those who seek, find joy today,
tomorrow brings no certain truth.
Here are Bacchus and Ariadne
Both beautiful, and one loving the other
Because time escapes and deceives
Always together they are happy
These nymphs and other people
Are light-hearted anyway
Let those who seek, find joy today,
tomorrow brings no certain truth.
These joyful little satyrs
In love with the nymphs
In the caverns and in the woods
They have in their places one hundred traps
now fired up by Bacchus
They dance and jump again.
Let those who seek, find joy today,
tomorrow brings no certain truth.
Everyone open wide their ears
Of tomorrow no one should feed
Today each one of the young and old,
female and male, should be joyful
Every sad thought should fall
Let's have a party anyway
Let those who seek, find joy today,
tomorrow brings no certain truth.
Women and young lovers,
Long live Bacchus and long live Love!
Everyone play music, dance and sing!
The heart burns with sweetness!
No toil and no pain!
That what must be, it had better be
Let those who seek, find joy today,
tomorrow brings no certain truth.
http://media.vam.ac.uk/audio/trionfo-di-bacco-the-triumph-of-bacchus.mp3
Add to that this useful background and summary:
(Not found)
"Late Medieval Art, Literature, and Plague" Please respond to the following, using sources under the Explore heading as the basis of your response:
Late Medieval Art, Literature, and Plague
- Quote a one (1) or two (2) line section that you enjoy from Petrarch, Chaucer, Boccaccio, or Christine de Pisan, and provide your reason(s) for the choice. Next, describe the historical significance of the writer whose work you have chosen. Comment on the degree to which the Black Death epidemic (1347-1350 CE) impacted that writer’s work. Compare the writer you chose to a specific writer (whether prose writer or poet or lyricist) of modern times.
Late Medieval Art, Literature, and Plague
- Chapter 13 (pp. 449-453, 456, 462-3), Boccaccio; (pp. 453-4), Petrarch; (pp. 454-6), Chaucer; (pp. 455-457), Christine de Pisan
- Chapter 13 ( 449-451, 458), The Plague
- The Plague at http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/black_death_of_1348_to_1350.htm
"Leonardo, the Renaissance Master" Please respond to the following, using sources under the Explore heading as the basis of your response:
Leonardo da Vinci
- Describe the moment captured in Leonardo’s Last Supper painting, and discuss the reasons why disciples are shown on the same side of the table. Describe the most well-known techniques that Leonardo used to give more realism to the painting. Next, discuss one (1) of Leonardo’s inventions (or proposed inventions) that most fascinates or surprises you, and explain why. Compare Leonardo to some modern figure of the 20th or 21st century.
Leonardo da Vinci
- Chapter 14 (pp. 489-492), art of da Vinci; review Week 7 Music Folder
- Partial restoration of the Last Supper at http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/LeonardoLastSupper.htm
- Images, article, and 16th century copy of the Last Supper at http://www.abcgallery.com/L/leonardo/leonardo4.html
- Leonardo’s work in science and invention at http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/models-exhibited (scroll down to thumbnail photos; click to enlarge and read more information)
13 Siena and Florence in the Fourteenth Century TOWARD A NEW HUMANISM 435
Siena and Florence: Civic and Religious Life in Tuscany 436
Siena: A Free Commune 437
Florence: Archrival of Siena 439
Painting: A Growing Naturalism 440
Duccio and Simone Martini 440
Cimabue and Giotto 442
Dante and the Rise of Vernacular Literature in Europe 446
Dante’s Divine Comedy 446
The Black Death and Its Literary Aftermath 449
Literature after the Black Death: Boccaccio’s Decameron 451
Petrarch’s Sonnets 453
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales 454
Women in Late Medieval Society 455
READINGS
13.1 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 1 460
13.2 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 34 448
13.3 from Dante, Paradiso, Canto 33 449
13.4 from Boccaccio, Decameron 451
13.5 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Dioneo’s Tale 462
13.6 Petrarch, Sonnet 134 454
13.7 from Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Prologue 454
13.8 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Filippa’s Tale 463
13.9 from Christine de Pizan, Book of the City of Ladies 456
13.10 Christine de Pizan, Tale of Joan of Arc 457
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel 444
MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES
Tempera Painting 446
Buon Fresco 447
CONTINUITY & CHANGE The Dance of Death 458
PART THREE THE RENAISSANCE AND THE AGE OF ENCOUNTER 1400–1600 464
14 Florence and the Early Renaissance HUMANISM IN ITALY 467
The State as a Work of Art: The Baptistery Doors, Florence Cathedral, and a New Perspective 468
The Gates of Paradise 470
Florence Cathedral 472
Scientific Perspective and Naturalistic Representation 472
Perspective and Naturalism in Painting: Masaccio 476
The Classical Tradition in Freestanding Sculpture: Donatello 478
The Medici Family and Humanism 479
Cosimo de’ Medici 479
Lorenzo the Magnificent: “… I find a relaxation in learning.” 482
Beyond Florence: The Ducal Courts and the Arts 486
The Montefeltro Court in Urbino 486
The Gonzaga Court in Mantua 488
The Sforza Court in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci 489
Florence after the Medici: The New Republic 493
READINGS
14.1 from Poliziano, Stanzas for the Joust of Giuliano de’ Medici (1475–78) 483
14.2 “Song of Bacchus,” or “Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne,” from Lorenzo de’ Medici: Selected Poems and Prose 485
14.3 from Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) 485
14.4 from Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, Book 1 (1513–18; published 1528) 497
14.5 from Giorgio Vasari, “Life of Leonardo: Painter and Sculptor of Florence,” in Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Architects, and Sculptors (1550, 1568) 498
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Brunelleschi’s Dome 474
CONTINUITY & CHANGE Michelangelo in Rome 495
13 Siena and Florence in the Fourteenth Century TOWARD A NEW HUMANISM 435
THINKING AHEAD
13.1 Compare and contrast civic life in Siena and Florence.
13.2 Outline how an increasingly naturalistic art replaced the Byzantine style in Italy.
13.3 Describe the distinguishing characteristics of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
13.4 Examine how the vernacular style developed after the Black Death.
Siena and Florence: Civic and Religious Life in Tuscany 436
How do the Sienese and Florentine republics compare?
The rival cities of Siena and Florence were located in Tuscany, the area of central Italy that lies between the Apennine Mountains, the central spine of the Italian peninsula, and a section of the Mediterranean known as the Tyrrhenian Sea (Map 13.1). Siena lies in the mountainous southern region of Tuscany, at the center of a rich agricultural zone famous for its olive oil and wine. Florence is located in the Arno River valley, the region’s richest agricultural district. Their rivalry dates back to the contest for supremacy between the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor during the time of Charlemagne (see Chapter 10). One faction, known as the Guelphs, sided with the pope, while another faction, the Ghibellines, sided with the emperor. Siena was generally considered a Ghibelline city, and Florence a Guelph stronghold, although factions of both parties competed for leadership within each city, especially in Florence. By the end of the thirteenth century, the pope retaliated against Siena for its Ghibelline leanings by revoking the city’s papal banking privileges and conferring them instead on Florence. As a result, by the fourteenth century, Florence would become the principal economic and political power in Tuscany.
Siena: A Free Commune 437
But in the late Middle Ages, Siena was still one of the most powerful cities in Europe. Its sense of its past lent it a feeling of historical weight. According to legend, its founders were Senius and Aschius, the sons of Remus, who with his brother, Romulus, founded Rome. Romulus had killed their father in a quarrel, and the boys, in retribution, stole Rome’s she-wolf shrine and carried it back to Siena, protected by a white cloud by day and a black cloud by night. The facade of the Palazzo Pubblico celebrates their feat: Sculptures of Romulus and Remus suckled by the she-wolf decorate it, and a heraldic crest, the balzana, consisting of a white field atop a black one, appears under each arch.
Siena remained a small Etruscan village for 700 years, until the Roman emperor Augustus colonized it in 13 bce. The town was dominated first by Rome and then by local nobles, Lombard and Frankish feudal counts, who arrived in successive invasions to rule in the name of their king. By the tenth century, large numbers of serfs had migrated from the surrounding countryside to three separate hilltop villages that soon merged into one. Feudal authorities were not altogether opposed to such migration. They had trained many of the serfs to manufacture the finished goods that they desired. It seemed practical to concentrate such production by chartering Siena and other towns. The charter stipulated that the townspeople would make manufactured goods, and in return, the feudal lord would protect them. Gradually, the towns gained more importance and power, and their citizens began to pay allegiance not to feudal lords or papal authority but to the wealthiest citizens of the community, whose power base was founded on cooperation and the orderly conduct of affairs. When Siena established itself, in 1125, as a free commune (a collective of people gathered together for the common good), it achieved an immense advantage over its feudal neighbors. “Town air brings freedom” was a common saying in the late Middle Ages. As the prospect of such freedom attracted an increasing number of people to Siena, its prosperity was soon unrivaled.
Florence: Archrival of Siena 439
Like Siena, Florence was extremely wealthy, and that wealth was based on trade. By the twelfth century, Florence was the center of textile production in the Western world and played a central role in European trade markets (Map 13.2). The Arno River provided ample water for washing and rinsing sorted wool and finished cloth. The city’s dyeing techniques were unsurpassed—to this day, the formulas for the highly prized Florentine reds remain a mystery. Dyestuffs were imported from throughout the Mediterranean and even the Orient, and each year, Florentine merchants traveled to England, Portugal, Spain, and Flanders to purchase raw wool for their manufactories.
As in Siena, it was the city’s bankers and money lenders who made Florence a vital player in world trade. Florentine bankers invented checks, credit, even life insurance. Most importantly, in 1252, they introduced Europe’s first single currency, the gold florin. By 1422, over 2 million florins were in circulation throughout Europe. This was a staggering number considering that a family could live comfortably on about 150 florins a year, and the finest palace cost about 1,000 florins. Florence was Europe’s bank, and its bankers were Europe’s true nobility.
Transition to the Renaissance – Siena & Florence, 6:25
Brief overview of historical developments leading to the Renaissance and the transitional paintings of Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto and others.
https://youtu.be/q8xR8KR0xUA
Painting: A Growing Naturalism 440
What came to replace the Byzantine style of painting in Italy, and why?
Even though Saint John the Baptist was the patron saint of Florence, the city, like Siena, relied on the Virgin Mary to protect it. Her image appeared frequently in the mendicant churches and elsewhere, and these images were said to perform miracles. Pilgrims from Tuscany and beyond flocked to Florence to receive the Madonna’s good graces. As in Siena, whenever the city was threatened—by war, by flood, by plague—the Madonna’s image was carried through the city in ceremonial procession. The two cities put themselves under the protection of the Virgin, and it was not long before they were competing to prove who could paint her the most magnificently. In the process, they began to represent her less in the stiff, abstracted manner of the Byzantine icon and more as a real person of flesh and blood.
Duccio and Simone Martini 440
After the Venetian rout of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade in 1204 (see Chapter 10), Byzantine imagery flooded Europe. One of the first artists to break from the Byzantine tradition was the Sienese native Duccio di Buoninsegna (active 1278–1318). In 1308, the commune commissioned Duccio to paint a Maestà, or Virgin and Child in Majesty (Fig. 13.5), to be set under the dome of Siena’s cathedral. The finished work was greeted with a great celebration. “On the day that it was carried to the [cathedral],” a contemporary chronicler reports
the shops were shut, and the bishop conducted a great and devout company of priests and friars in solemn procession, accompanied by… all the officers of the commune, and all the people, and one after another the worthiest with lighted candles in their hands took places near the picture, and behind came the women and children with great devotion… making the procession around the Campo, as is the custom, all the bells ringing joyously, trumpets and bagpipes playing, out of reverence for so noble a picture as is this.
Duccio was well aware of the greatness of his achievement. Along the base of the Virgin’s throne he wrote these words: “Holy Mother of God, give Siena peace and Duccio life because he painted Thee thus,” announcing both the artist’s piety and pride in his work and the growing prominence of artists in Italian society as a whole.
Sienese Art: Duccio, Martini, and Lorenzetti, 5:13
Works discussed: Duccio di Buoninsegna, Madonna Enthroned, c. 1285 (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) Simone Martini, Annunciation Altarpiece, 1333 (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country, 1338-1339 (Sala della Pace, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena) http://smarthistory.org/duccio-and-si...
https://youtu.be/0zfBltgsGVA
Cimabue and Giotto 442
Florence, too, had its master painters of the Virgin. At about the same time that Duccio was first becoming active in Siena, a painter known as Cimabue was painting a large-scale Virgin for the altarpiece of the Church of Santa Trinità in Florence (Fig. 13.7). Cimabue’s Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets solidified his position as the leading painter in Florence. Although its Byzantine roots are clear—following closely, for instance, a Byzantine hierarchy of figures, with the Madonna larger than the figures that surround her—the painting is remarkable on several fronts. First, it is enormous. Standing over 12 feet high, it seems to have begun a tradition of large-scale altarpieces, helping to affirm the altar as the focal point of the church. But most important are Cimabue’s concern for spatial volume and his treatment of human figures with naturalistic expressions. The throne is especially interesting, creating as it does a spatial setting for the scene, and the angels seem to be standing on the architectural frame; the front two clearly are. If the Virgin and Child are stock Byzantine figures, the four prophets at the base of the throne are surprisingly individualized, suggesting the increasing prominence of the individual personality in the era, an especially important characteristic, as we will see later in the chapter, of the literature of the period. These remarkably individual likenesses also tell us that Italian artists were becoming more skillful in painting with tempera, which allowed them to portray the world in everincreasing detail (see Materials & Techniques, page 446). Perhaps most interesting of all is the position of the Virgin’s feet, the right one propped upon the throne in an almost casual position.
Cimabue's Santa Trinita Madonna & Giotto's Ognissanti Madonna, 6:58
Cimabue's Santa Trinita Madonna, c. 1280-90 and Giotto's Ognissanti Madonna, c. 1310 More free lessons at: http://www.khanacademy.org/video?v=DK... Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker & Dr. Beth Harris
https://youtu.be/DKnFvXmUlOI
Dante and the Rise of Vernacular Literature in Europe 446
What are the distinguishing characteristics of Dante’s Divine Comedy?
Until the early twelfth century, the language of almost all educated circles in Europe, and certainly in literature, was Latin. Gradually, however, writers began to address their works to a wider lay audience and to write in the vernacular, the language spoken in the streets. The French led the way, in twelfth-century works such as the Song of Roland (see Chapter 10) and Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot (see Chapter 10), but early in the fourteenth century, vernacular works began to appear throughout Italy as well, spreading to the rest of Europe.
1.0 - 6 Rise of Nationalist Literature in the Late Middle Ages, 3:56
Nationalist Literature, Vernacular, Dante, Chaucer, Villon
https://youtu.be/_mpwHXLwauQ
Dante’s Divine Comedy 446
One of the greatest medieval Italian writers working in the vernacular was the poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). In Florence, in about 1308, he began one of the greatest works of the literary imagination, the Divine Comedy (Fig. 13.9). This poem records the travels of the Christian soul from Hell to Purgatory and finally to Salvation in three books—the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. It is by no means an easy journey. Dante, who is the leading character in his own poem, is led by the Roman poet Virgil, author of the Aeneid (see Chapter 6). (Virgil, too, visits the underworld in the sixth book of his poem.)
Dante's Inferno - Divine Comedy - Realms of the Dead - 7 Deadly Sins - after effects, 4:27
Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy, an epic poem, in the 14th century, where he tells of his journeys through the three realms of the dead: Inferno (hell), Purgatory (limbo), & Paradise (heaven). This video highlights the divisions of each realm, with dramatic scenes and background music. ***Please also watch my other DanteInferno video @ http://youtu.be/3LPsPm-YQ08
https://youtu.be/4CPug2geRSs
The Black Death and Its Literary Aftermath 449
How did the vernacular style continue to develop after the Black Death?
In 1316 and 1317, not long before Dante’s death, crop failures across Europe resulted in the greatest famine the continent had ever known. For two summers, the sun rarely shone (no one knew that huge volcanic eruptions thousands of miles away in Indonesia had sent vast clouds of ash into the atmosphere). Furthermore, between 1000 and 1300, the continent’s population had doubled to a point where it probably exceeded its ability to feed itself even in the best of times. In these dark years, which were followed by a century-long cooling period marked by too much rain to allow for good grain harvests, common people were lucky to eat, let alone eat well. Then, in December 1347, rats infested with fleas carrying bubonic plague arrived on the island of Sicily. They were carried on four Genoese ships that had set sail from Kaffa, a Genoese trading center on the Black Sea.
Exploring the Black Death in Literature, 5:03
EDUC 262 Educational Film (iMovie) Project Ever wonder where the Black Death/Bubonic Plague came from? Want to know how it has influenced literature? Then this is the video from you!
https://youtu.be/wOTZsURGANI
Literature after the Black Death: Boccaccio’s Decameron 451
The frank treatment of reality found in the visual arts carried over into literature, where the direct language of the vernacular proved an especially appropriate vehicle for rendering truth. The Decameron, or “Work of Ten Days,” is a collection of framed prose tales in the manner of The Thousand and One Nights and Nezami’s Haft Paykar (see Chapter 9). The Florentine writer Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–75), who lived through the plague, sets the stage for the 100 prose stories of the collection with a startlingly direct description of Florence in the ravages of the disease (Reading 13.4):
Decameron, 2:12
https://youtu.be/tctUnanAUmY
Petrarch’s Sonnets 453
One of Boccaccio’s best friends was the itinerant scholar and poet Francesco Petrarca (1304–74), known as Petrarch (Fig. 13.13). Raised near Avignon, in France, where the papacy had established itself in 1309 and where it remained through most of Petrarch’s lifetime, Petrarch studied at Montpellier and Bologna and traveled throughout northern France, Germany, and Italy. He was always in search of manuscripts that preserved the priceless literary works of antiquity—copying those he could not pry loose from monastic libraries. As he wrote to a friend in 1351, these manuscripts, in a Classical Latin and hard for monks to decipher, were in danger of being lost forever:
What is a Petrarchan Sonnet? | Petrarchan Sonnet Definition, Structure & Example, 2:07
What is a Petrarchan Sonnet? | Petrarchan Sonnet Definition, Structure & Example: This video will show you the structure, definition and history of a Petrarchan Sonnet. I hope you will enjoy it. Please, share and subscribe if you like it.
This is a sonnet form popularized by Petrarch, consisting of an octave with the rhyme scheme abbaabba and of a sestet with one of several rhyme schemes, as cdecde or cdcdcd.
https://youtu.be/NsPnUkVQyMA
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales 454
The first Englishman to translate Petrarch was Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1342–1400). Well-educated, able to read both Ovid and Virgil in the original Latin, Chaucer was a middle-class civil servant and diplomat. In 1368, both he and Petrarch were guests at a wedding in Milan Cathedral, and four years later, he was in Florence, where he probably met Boccaccio. Chaucer’s masterwork, The Canterbury Tales, is modeled roughly on Boccaccio’s Decameron, but it is written in verse, not prose, and is composed in heroic couplets. Like the Decameron, it is a framed collection of stories, this time told by a group of pilgrims traveling from London to the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1170, Becket had been murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II in a dispute over the rights and privileges of the Church.
Chaucer, Satire, and The Canterbury Tales Notes, 4:30
Lecture about Chaucer, Satire, and The Canterbury Tales
https://youtu.be/E0pZKXNzngg
Women in Late Medieval Society 455
The seven women in Boccaccio’s Decameron and characters like Chaucer’s Wife of Bath represent the increasing social prominence of women in medieval society. This is no doubt at least in part a reflection of the growing role of the Virgin in medieval religious life, and her prominence helped raise the dignity of women in general. By the thirteenth century, women were active in all trades, especially the food and clothing industries; they belonged to guilds, and increasingly had the opportunity to go to school and learn to read, at least in their vernacular languages. They were, however, still generally excluded from the learned professions of medicine and law, and they performed the same work as men for wages on the average 25 percent lower.
THINKING BACK
13.1 Compare and contrast civic life in Siena and Florence.
Tuscany was dominated by two competing city-states, Siena and Florence. Both were republics, and central to their success was a new form of government in which Church and State were closely aligned. Siena established itself in 1125 as a free commune. What is a commune? By the twelfth century, Florence was the center of textile production in the Western world and played a central role in European trade markets. As with Siena, it was the city’s bankers and money lenders who made Florence such a vital player in world trade. Also as in Siena, in Florence, the guilds controlled the commune. How would you define a guild?
13.2 Outline how an increasingly naturalistic art replaced the Byzantine style in Italy.
In both Siena and Florence, artists began to break from the Byzantine style. One of the first was Duccio, who began to incorporate the Gothic tendency to naturalism into his Maestà, painted for Siena’s cathedral. Even more naturalistic is Simone Martini’s Maestà, painted for the city hall. How would you compare them? Florence, too, had its master painters of the Virgin, Cimabue and Giotto. In what did the latter exceed the others in terms of the naturalism of his art?
13.3 Describe the distinguishing characteristics of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
In the early twelfth century, writers across Europe began to address their works to a wider lay audience and to write in the vernacular. How would you define the vernacular? What does it imply about this new literature’s audience? One of the greatest medieval Italian vernacular writers was the poet Dante Alighieri, whose Divine Comedy records the travels of the Christian soul from Hell to Purgatory and finally to Salvation in three books—the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. How does Dante’s poem reflect the epic tradition? Consider its relation to, for instance, the Odyssey and the Aeneid.
13.4 Examine how the vernacular style developed after the Black Death.
In December 1347, bubonic plague arrived in Sicily. Within months, the disease spread northward, through Europe. In Tuscany, the death rate in the cities ran somewhere near 60 percent. Many blamed the Jews, who were widely persecuted. One of the most remarkable accounts of the plague opens Boccaccio’s Decameron, a collection of stories told by young noblemen and women who have escaped Florence for the countryside. Perhaps reflecting the reality of death that surrounds them, the stories are themselves imbued with a realistic representation of life as it is truly lived. After the Black Death, the realistic treatment of life continued in vernacular literature. The sonnets of Petrarch, composed in memory of the poet’s beloved Laura, inaugurate one of the most important poetic forms in Western literature. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, modeled on Boccaccio’s Decameron, approach life in the Middle Ages with a realism even more profound than Boccaccio’s. Many of both Boccaccio’s and Chaucer’s characters are women. How do their female characters and Christine de Pizan’s help to establish new roles for women?
READINGS
13.1 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 1 460
13.2 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 34 448
13.3 from Dante, Paradiso, Canto 33 449
13.4 from Boccaccio, Decameron 451
13.5 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Dioneo’s Tale 462
13.6 Petrarch, Sonnet 134 454
13.7 from Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Prologue 454
13.8 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Filippa’s Tale 463
13.9 from Christine de Pizan, Book of the City of Ladies 456
13.10 Christine de Pizan, Tale of Joan of Arc 457
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel 444
MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES
Tempera Painting 446
Buon Fresco 447
CONTINUITY & CHANGE The Dance of Death 458
PART THREE THE RENAISSANCE AND THE AGE OF ENCOUNTER 1400–1600 464
During the period extending from about 1400 to 1600, Western European culture experienced a rebirth of Classical learning and values. For this reason we call the period the Renaissance, which means “rebirth” in French. By the middle of the fourteenth century, Dante Alighieri had picked the ancient Roman poet Virgil as his guide through his fictional Inferno and Purgatory, Petrarch was busy amassing his own Classical library, and Boccaccio, who like Dante wrote in the vernacular Italian instead of Latin, was also learning Greek.
At the dawn of the Renaissance, then, the values of the Classical past—simplicity, balance, and restraint in design, proportionality of parts, and purity of form—had already firmly established their place in Western culture. These values stimulated the emergence of humanism—the recovery, study, and spread of the art and literature of Greece and Rome, and the application of their principles to education, politics, social life, and the arts in general. In turn, humanism stimulated a new sense of the value of the individual. Each person had the capacity for self-determination in the search for truth and morality. Faith, sacred texts, or religious tradition were no longer the only guides.
After the Black Death, it seemed possible, even necessary, to begin again. In politics, feudal rule gave way to centralized forms of government. City-states flourished, strengthened by the influx of workers migrating from the countryside, as manufacture and trade supplanted agriculture as the basis of the European economy. The Church, which in medieval times had been the very foundation of Western culture, found itself challenged on all fronts. Politically, European monarchs questioned its authority. Philosophically, a growing class of intellectuals challenged its long-held doctrines. Morally, many of these same intellectuals denounced the behavior of its clergy and called for reform.
It was a time of invention and encounter. The printing press in Germany became a major instrument of change by making available to an ever-growing middle class works of literature, political tracts, and philosophical arguments that literally transformed their way of thinking. Even as the telescope revised human understanding of the cosmos and the world’s place in it, previously unknown civilizations in the Americas, Africa, and the Far East changed the Western understanding of its world. The Age of Encounter, which began in the fifteenth century and ended in the seventeenth, resulted in the colonization of most of the non-Western world. The effect of Western colonization was the displacement, enslavement, and large-scale death of native peoples. Those cultures that the West did not come to dominate—China and Japan especially—were deeply affected by their encounters with the West.
By the start of the sixteenth century, the humanistic spirit had begun to generate new forms of art and literature. The use of the rules of scientific perspective allowed for the convincing representation of three-dimensional space on the two-dimensional surface of a panel or canvas. The introduction of oil painting as a medium contributed to this naturalism by enabling artists to render the natural world in more precise detail than did tempera and to imitate effects of light and shadow both in the atmosphere and on the surface of objects. In architecture, structural innovations permitted the construction of the largest spaces since antiquity. New literary forms—the English sonnet, the personal essay, and popular theater—responded to a growing secular taste. And in music, where the courts maintained their own rosters of musicians, vernacular song and dance became popular even as the Church sanctioned innovative forms of polyphonic music for its liturgy. In this atmosphere, individual composers began to be recognized across Europe, and their works were published and widely circulated. Following the lead of the early fifteenth-century writer Christine de Pizan, women increasingly insisted on their own worth and dignity, assuming important roles as patrons, as artists in their own right, and, in England, as heads of state. All of these developments combined to bring Western culture to the threshold of modern life.
14 Florence and the Early Renaissance HUMANISM IN ITALY 467
THINKING AHEAD
14.1 Examine how sculpture and the use of scientific perspective were instrumental in the early development of the Italian Renaissance.
14.2 Discuss the influence of the Medici family on Florentine art and the development of humanist thought.
14.3 Describe how other Italian courts followed the lead of the humanist court in Florence.
14.4 Explain the symbolic significance of Michelangelo’s David.
The State as a Work of Art: The Baptistery Doors, Florence Cathedral, and a New Perspective 468
How did sculpture and the use of scientific perspective contribute to the “rebirth” that is the Italian Renaissance?
Florence was, in fact, so thoughtfully and carefully constructed over the course of the fifteenth century that later scholars would come to view it as a work of art in its own right. No event better exemplifies its character—and the character of the Italian Renaissance in general—than a competition held at the very beginning of the century, in 1401, to choose a designer for a pair of bronze doors for the north entrance to the city’s baptistery (Map 14.1; and see Fig. 14.1). The bapistery is a building standing in front of a cathedral and used for the Christian rite of baptism.
By the thirteenth century, a legend had developed that the Baptistery stood on the site of a Roman temple to Mars, subsequently rededicated to Saint John the Baptist. The octagonal building was thus the principal civic monument connecting Florence to its Roman roots, and it stood at the very heart of the city, in front of the cathedral, which was still under construction in 1401. The original doors, at the south entrance, had been designed by Andrea Pisano in 1336, before the advent of the Black Death, and the Wool Guild, or Arte della Lana (see Chapter 13), which was in charge of the Opera del Duomo—literally, the “Works of the Cathedral”—was determined to create a new comparable set of doors for the north entrance.
In many ways, it is remarkable that the competition to find the best design for the Baptistery doors could even take place. As much as four-fifths of the city-state’s population had died in the Black Death of 1348, and the plague had returned, though less severely, in 1363, 1374, 1383, and 1390. Finally, in the summer of 1400, it came again, this time killing 12,000 Florentines, about one-fifth of the population. Perhaps the guild hoped that a facelift for the Baptistery might appease an evidently wrathful God. Furthermore, civic pride and patriotism were also at stake. Milan, the powerful city-state to the north, had laid siege to Florence, blocking trade to and from the seaport at Pisa and creating the prospect of famine. The fate of the Florentine republic seemed to be in the balance.
Florentine Baptistery: The Renaissance Begins, 4:32
The competition that started the Renaissance (which is a thing). This is the story of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi. A note on my mistakes: The doors shown at the end of the video are not the doors Ghiberti made after 1401. His success after the competition inspired the commission of a second set of doors, and this second set is shown at the end of my video. He made them between 1425 and 1452. The original set appear on the north side of the Baptistery. Thank you to subscriber Nancy Pettigrew for calling this to my attention. Written, editing, and narrated by James Earle Feedback given by Mr. Jensen, Mr. Watzka, and Mr. Wong. All images are in the public domain, or shot by James Earle Works cited: Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King
https://youtu.be/x2CWfDghkZk
The Gates of Paradise 470
Ghiberti worked on the north-side doors for the next 22 years, designing 28 panels in four vertical rows illustrating the New Testament (originally the subject had been the Hebrew Bible, but the Wool Guild changed the program). Immediately upon their completion in 1424, the guild commissioned a second set of doors from Ghiberti for the east side of the Baptistery. These would take him another 27 years. Known as the Gates of Paradise because they open onto the paradiso, Italian for the area between a baptistery and the entrance to its cathedral, these doors depict scenes from the Hebrew Bible in ten square panels (Fig. 14.4). The borders surrounding them contain other biblical figures, as well as a self-portrait (Fig. 14.5). The artist’s head is slightly bowed, perhaps in humility, but perhaps, situated as it is just above the average viewer’s head, so that he might look out upon his audience. The proud image functions as both a signature and a bold assertion of Ghiberti’s own worth as an artist and individual.
Each of the panels in the east doors depicts one or more events from the same story. For instance, the first panel, at the upper left of the doors (Fig. 14.6), contains four episodes from the Book of Genesis: the Creation of Adam, at the bottom left; the Creation of Eve, in the center; the Temptation, in the distance behind the Creation of Adam; and the Expulsion, at the bottom right. This portrayal of sequential events in the same frame harkens back to medieval art. But if the content of the space is episodic, the landscape is coherent and realistic, stretching in a single continuity from the foreground into the far distance. The figures themselves hark back to Classical Greek and Roman sculpture. Adam, in the lower left-hand corner, resembles the recumbent god from the east pediment of the Parthenon (see Fig. 5.10 in Chapter 5), and Eve, in the right-hand corner, is a Venus of recognizably Hellenistic origin; compare Praxiteles’ fourth-century bce Aphrodite of Knidos (see Fig. 5.20 in Chapter 5).
Exploring Art History in the City: Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" (1425-1452), 5:04
Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" (1425-1452) stand as an achievement of the creativity and brilliance of the Florentine imagination during the early days of the Italian Renaissance. This video examines the narrative and stylistic charm of each panel as seen in the copy at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/academyo... The Academy of Art University Established in 1929, Academy of Art University is the largest accredited private art and design school in the US. Visit http://academyart.edu to learn about total costs, median student loan debt, potential occupations and other information. Interested in learning more? Follow us below Visit us on the web: http://academyart.edu Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AcademyofArt... Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/academy_of_art
https://youtu.be/3jlT-s9jGfI
Florence Cathedral 472
Construction of the Duomo (see Fig. 14.1), as Florence Cathedral is known, began in 1296 (see Chapter 12) under the auspices of the Opera del Duomo, which was controlled by the Wool Guild. The cathedral was planned as the most beautiful and grandest in all of Tuscany. It was not consecrated until 140 years later, and even then, was hardly finished. Over the years, its design and construction became a group activity as an ever-changing panel of architects prepared model after model of the church and its details were submitted to the Opera and either accepted or rejected.
Florence Cathedral, Italy, 3:21
The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (English: Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) is the cathedral church of Florence, Italy. The Duomo, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris. The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. The three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major attraction to tourists visiting the region of Tuscany. The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, and until development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed. The cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is currently Giuseppe Betori.
https://youtu.be/0l7VolYTGp8
Scientific Perspective and Naturalistic Representation 472
No aspect of the Renaissance better embodies the spirit of invention evidenced by both Brunelleschi’s dome and Dufay’s music than scientific, or linear perspective, which allowed artists to translate three-dimensional space onto a two-dimensional surface, thereby satisfying the age’s increasing taste for naturalistic representations of the physical world. It was the basis of what would later come to be called buon disegno, literally “good design” or “drawing,” but the term refers more to the intellectual conception of the work than to literal drawing. Giorgio Vasari (1511–74), whose Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Architects, and Sculptors is one of our most important sources of information about Italian Renaissance art in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, defined it as follows: “Design (disegno) is the imitation of the most beautiful things of nature in all figures whether painted or chiseled, and this requires a hand and genius to transfer everything which the eye sees, exactly and correctly, whether it be in drawings, on paper panel, or other surface, both in relief and sculpture.” It distinguished, in his mind, the art of Florence above all others.
Perspective and Naturalism in Painting: Masaccio 476
Although Alberti dedicated On Painting first and foremost to Brunelleschi, he also singled out several other Florentine artists. One of these was Masaccio, whose Trinity (Fig. 14.10) was probably painted in 1425. This fresco is painted directly on the wall of the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence and represents a chapel off the nave of that building. All of its architectural features are painted according to the laws of perspective, and the man and woman who kneel on what looks like a narrow ledge on either side of this chapel are so realistically positioned and naturalistically rendered that they seem to exist within our own space. (They are actually images of the donors who commissioned the work.)
Italian Renaissance Painter " Masaccio " (1401-1428), 3:41
Hi everyone! I truly love Italian renaissance paintings because of their perfection and beauty and a sense of massage as well as the emotions which they spread everywhere. So today I am sharing the work of one of such wonderful Italian painter. His name is Masaccio and he is known to be the first great painter of the Italian Renaissance. His work was called to be one of the innovative works in the use of scientific perspective which inaugurated the modern era in painting. - See more at: http://www.fineartandyou.com/2013/11/...
https://youtu.be/yf93BbnxKyk
The Classical Tradition in Freestanding Sculpture: Donatello 478
Masaccio probably learned about the Classical disposition of the body’s weight from Donatello, who had accompanied Brunelleschi to Rome years before. Many of Donatello’s own works seem to have been inspired by antique Roman sculpture.
This Classical inspiration is visible in one of his earliest commissions, a statue of Saint Mark created for one of Florence’s lesser guilds, the linen weavers and peddlers (Fig. 14.13). It was one of a number of commissions by the city’s guilds to decorate niches on the outer walls of Orsanmichele, a building originally constructed in 1336 as a market and grain store (in case of famine or siege). As early as 1339, it was decided that each of the city’s guilds should provide a statue of their respective patron saints to decorate each of the niches on the Orsanmichele’s outer walls, but by 1400, only three of the guilds had complied. As civic pressure was brought to bear on the guilds to fulfill their obligations in the first years of the fifteenth century, the city was treated to a virtual exposition of the new Classical direction in sculpture, a direction matched only by Ghiberti’s work on his two sets of doors for the Baptistery, the other great commissions of the era.
Donatello and the Renaissance, 6:26
This beautiful short video briefly describes the works and contribution of Donatello, one of the most famous sculptors of the Renaissance. It also describes 3 of his most famous works - David, Mary Magdalene and the Equestrian at Gattamelata. Music: Piero Umiliani - Crepuscolo sul mare (Twilight On the Sea) Coldplay - Life in Technicolor
https://youtu.be/qba1faCNl1I
The Medici Family and Humanism 479
How did the Medici family help shape humanist Florence?
The Medici were the most powerful family in Florentine affairs for 76 years, from 1418, when they became banker to the papacy, until 1494, when irate citizens removed them from power. (They were briefly exiled earlier, for one year, in 1433.) A family of bankers with offices in Pisa, Rome, Bologna, Naples, Venice, Avignon, Lyon, Geneva, Basel, Cologne, Antwerp, Bruges, and London during the fifteenth century, the Medici never ruled Florence outright, but they managed its affairs from behind the scenes.
Over the course of those 76 years, they molded and manipulated, controlled and cajoled, persuaded and provoked the citizens of Florence into becoming a citizenry befitting the city they envisioned, a city that in some sense they sculpted, painted, and built. For them, the city was their own personal work of art. But the Medici trained the citizenry so well, especially imbuing it with a fierce independence of spirit, that the people eventually chafed at the control that the family exercised, and rebelled.
Cosimo de’ Medici 479
The family’s power was fully cemented by Cosimo de’ Medici (1389–1464), who, as banker to the papacy, secured Florence’s domination over rival Siena (see Chapter 13), putting the city at the very center of Italian politics. He had inherited great wealth from his father and secured the family’s hold on the political fortunes of the city. Without upsetting the appearance of republican government, he mastered the art of behind-the-scenes power by controlling appointments to chief offices. But he also exerted considerable influence through his patronage of the arts. His father had headed the drive to rebuild the Church of San Lorenzo (see Fig. 14.8), which stood over the site of an early Christian basilica dedicated in 393. San Lorenzo thus represented the entire Christian history of Florence, and after his father’s death, Cosimo himself paid to complete its construction and decorate it. In return, it was agreed that no family crest other than the Medici’s would appear in the church. Cosimo also rebuilt the old monastery of San Marco for the Dominican Order, adding a library, cloister, chapter room, bell tower, and altarpiece. In effect, Cosimo had made the entire religious history of Florence the family’s own.
Lorenzo the Magnificent: “… I find a relaxation in learning.” 482
After Cosimo’s death in 1464, his son Piero (1416–69) followed in his father’s footsteps, championing the arts, supporting the Platonic Academy, and otherwise working to make Florence the cultural center of Europe. But when Piero died only five years after his father, his 20-year-old son Lorenzo (1449–92) assumed responsibility for leading the family and the city. So great and varied were his accomplishments that in his own time he was known as il Magnifico—“the Magnificent.”
HANGIN' AT LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT'S SUMMER 'COTTAGE', 2:43
Head for Poggio a Caiano, a half hour max blue bus trip from Via Nazzionale near the train station. The Villa, gardens and woods are open seven days a week with entrance every hour on the half hour. Be sure to ask the office for directions to the return bus stop (the arrival bus stop is on a one way street). Also, foreign Medici brides-to-be spent their first nights in Italy here. Total price for the half day trip is four euros (RT bus fare). Of course that is the Medici Villa over my shoulder. BIG THANKS to Laura Mongillo for her article that disclosed the wonderful day trip. Find her article at: http://www.eurocheapo.com/blog/floren...
https://youtu.be/QSGwV0rhIp4
Beyond Florence: The Ducal Courts and the Arts 486
How did the art and literature created in the ducal courts of Italy reflect Florentine humanist values?
Pico’s message of individual free will and of humanity’s ability to choose a path of virtue and knowledge inspired Lorenzo’s circle and the courts of other Italian city-states as well. These leaders were almost all nobility, not merchants like the Medici (who, it must be said, had transformed themselves into nobility in all but name), and each court reflected the values of its respective duke—and, very often, his wife. But if they were not about to adopt the republican form of government of Florence, they nevertheless all shared the humanistic values that were so thoroughly developed there.
Humanism and the Renaissance, 4:26
https://youtu.be/ULBFI3YvC2M
The Montefeltro Court in Urbino 486
One of the most prominent of these city-states was Urbino, some 70 miles east of Florence across the Apennine Mountains, where the military strategist and learned Duke Federigo da Montefeltro (1422–82) ruled. Federigo surrounded himself with humanists, scholars, poets, and artists, from whom he learned and from whom he commissioned works to embellish Urbino. He financed these expenditures through his talents as a condottiero, a mercenary soldier who was a valuable and highly paid ally to whomever could afford both him and his army. His court was also a magnet for young men who wanted to learn the principles of noble behavior.
The Gonzaga Court in Mantua 488
The marquis Ludovico Gonzaga (1414–78) brought his northern Italian city-state of Mantua, located on a marsh-surrounded plain between Milan and Venice, into prominence among the Italian courts in the middle of the fifteenth century. Like Federigo da Montefeltro in Urbino, the Gonzagas hired themselves out as mercenaries to other city-states, accumulating enormous wealth in this manner. At the same time, they encouraged literary studies and commissioned works of architecture and the other visual arts. The Gonzaga court exhibited the same mixture of humanist and chivalric values found at other Renaissance courts and likewise reflected the values of its ruler.
MANTUA glory of Gonzaga family, 1:00
Mantua, glory of Gonzaga family. A Vaghi per il mondo production, by Fabrizio Vaghi. See the full video "Pronti Partenza...Via", discovering MANTUA http://youtu.be/Su8QJpc9HHU
https://youtu.be/_Z63sJHurxY
The Sforza Court in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci 489
The Sforza family’s control over the court of Milan was somewhat less legitimate than most other ducal city-states in Italy. Francesco Sforza (1401–66) became ruler of Milan by marrying the illegitimate daughter, but sole heir, of the duke of Milan. His own illegitimate son, Ludovico (1451–1508), called il Moro, “the Moor,” because of his dark complexion, wrested control of the city from the family of Francesco’s legitimate brother and proclaimed himself Duke of Milan in 1494. Both Francesco and Ludovico understood the tenuousness of their claims to rule, and they actively sought to win the support of the people through the arts. They welcomed artists from throughout central Italy to their city and embraced humanism.
The most important of these artists was Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), who first arrived in Milan in 1482 as the emissary of Lorenzo de’ Medici to present a silver lyre, perhaps made by Leonardo himself, to Ludovico Sforza. Ludovico was embroiled in military matters, and Leonardo pronounced himself a military engineer, capable of constructing great “machines of war,” including designs for a catapult and covered vehicles that resemble modern-day armored cars.
The Sforza Castle in Milan - the fortress of the Duke, 2:49
Explore one of the biggest military buildings in Europe - find out more on http://www.leonardoamilano.org/english Transcript: Originally built in the XIV century as a military fortress, it became the Residence of the Duke during the Renaissance, when it was enriched and decorated in order to show the power of the duke well beyond its original military function. Let's have a look at the majestic fortress as it appears today. The first thing you notice is the impressive central tower. This tower was originally designed by the great Renaissance architect Filarete, but its fate was signed by a lightning which set fire to the explosives amassed in the tower. The tower exploded, and it wasn't rebuilt till the end of the XIX century, when the architect Luca Beltrami based his reconstruction on a surviving Filarete drawing. As you enter the castle, you'll find yourself in the great central courtyard, surrounded by walls, where you can easily imagine to be in the Renaissance. Go further into the castle through the second gate, and you can buy the tickets to visit the various museums hosted in the Castle. They are definitely worth a visit! I will point out only a few highlights here, but you'll find many more by yourself. The first is the Sala delle Asse, frescoed by Leonardo da Vinci with an intricate decoration of trees and leaves, as if to create a virtual garden. Leonardo put lots of symbols here, like its signature knot. The fresco is currently being restored, and we can't wait to see it in its original splendour. Another great artwork hosted in the Castle is the Pieta' Rondanini by Michelangelo, the last work of the great Renaissance master, an unfinished sculpture which is striking in its modernity, like a Modigliani sculpture. Don't miss the Sala della Balla, called after a Renaissance ball game which was played here. In this hall you can find twelve amazing giant tapestries designed by the Renaissance artist Bramantino, one for each month of the year, showing the activities that characterize each month. You will love the colours and richness of details of this textile masterworks! Finally, have a look the furniture museum, on the first floor. It exhibits the evolution of the Milanese furniture design from the Middle age to the contemporary. You will discover how the well known contemporary interior design has ancient roots.
https://youtu.be/zU7XgVxL4aI
Florence after the Medici: The New Republic 493
How did Michelangelo’s David symbolize the new Florentine republic?
In November 1494, the domination of Florence by the Medici family came to an end. Lorenzo had died two years earlier, and his successor, Piero the Unfortunate, faced with the threat of the same French invasion that ousted Ludovico Sforza in Milan, had blundered through a series of political moves and alliances until finally agreeing to cooperate with the French king, Charles VIII (1470–98). The Florentines would have none of it, and a mob drove Piero from the city. Into this power vacuum stepped a Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98), abbot of the monastery of San Marco. Although, as a priest, he could not hold office, and although the city, freed of the Medici, was ostensibly a republic once again, Savonarola wielded tremendous political control. He appealed, first and foremost, to a moralistic faction of the populace that saw, in the behavior of the city’s upper classes, and in their humanistic attraction to Classical Greek and Roman culture, clear evidence of moral decadence. He appealed as well to the Florentine populace’s desire to reestablish its identity as a republic, which by 1490 everyone recognized had been lost, so dominant had the Medici family become. As early as 1491, Savonarola had preached that Florence was little more than a den of thieves. The arrival of Charles VIII was the scourge of the Lord, he said, ridding the city of the decadent and tyrannical Medici.
Michelangelo, David, marble, 1501-04 (Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence), 5:39
Michelangelo, David, 1501-04, marble, 517 cm (Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence) More free lessons at: http://www.khanacademy.org/video?v=-o... A conversation with Khan Academy's Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris
https://youtu.be/-oXAekrYytA
THINKING BACK
14.1 Examine how sculpture and the use of scientific perspective were instrumental in the early development of the Italian Renaissance.
Florence was the center of the cultural revival that we have come to call the Renaissance, a “rebirth” that amounted to a revolution in human consciousness. How does the Baptistery doors competition of 1401 exemplify this new consciousness? How does Lorenzo Ghiberti’s new set of doors, the Gates of Paradise, articulate Renaissance values even more?
By 1418, Florence Cathedral still lacked a dome above its octagonal crossing. Brunelleschi won the competition for the dome’s design, a feat of architectural engineering unsurpassed in his day. For the cathedral’s consecration on March 25, 1436, French composer Guillaume Dufay created a new musical work, a motet called Nuper rosarum flores (“The Rose Blossoms”). How does Dufay’s composition reflect Brunelleschi’s feat?
Brunelleschi was also the first Renaissance artist to master the art of scientific perspective, probably as a result of his humanistic study of optics in Arab science and his own surveying of Roman ruins. What values does his interest in scientific perspective reflect? How does the work of sculptor Donatello also reflect these values?
14.2 Discuss the influence of the Medici family on Florentine art and the development of humanist thought.
Medici control of Florentine politics was secured by Cosimo de’ Medici, who surrounded himself with humanists. He sought their guidance about which books and manuscripts of the ancients to collect, and he commissioned translations of Greek philosophy and literature, championing especially the translations and interpretations of the works of Plato by Marsilio Ficino. How would you describe Ficino’s Neoplatonist philosophy? How does it recast Platonic thought? Cosimo’s grandson, Lorenzo, “the Magnificent,” continued the Medici tradition. His own circle of acquaintances included many of the greatest minds of the day, including the composer Heinrich Isaac, the poet Poliziano, the painter Botticelli, and the philosopher Pico della Mirandola. Can you describe how the work of each reflects humanistic principles?
14.3 Describe how other Italian courts followed the lead of the humanist court in Florence.
Lorenzo’s court inspired the courts of the leaders of other Italian city-states, the leaders of which were almost all nobility. In Urbino, Duke Federigo da Montefeltro championed the use of scientific perspective in the painting of Piero della Francesca. Also at Urbino, Baldassare Castiglione wrote The Book of the Courtier. How does this treatise define l’uomo universale? In Mantua, Ludovico Gonzaga commissioned the painter Andrea Mantegna to decorate his palazzo with highly illusionistic frescoes. And in Milan, Ludovico Sforza commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint the Last Supper for the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. What would you say is Leonardo’s greatest strength as a painter? How does his portraiture reflect humanistic values?
14.4 Explain the symbolic significance of Michelangelo’s David.
In 1494, a Florentine mob drove the last of the Medici rulers from the city. Yet, into the breach stepped the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, who preached a moralistic brand of fire and brimstone, condemning humanist values. At first wielding great political power, Savonarola was finally tried as a heretic in 1498, and burned at the stake. Afterward, a relieved city council sought to reassert republican values in visual terms, and commissioned the giant nude sculpture. Why did the story of David seem so appropriate a subject?
READINGS
14.1 from Poliziano, Stanzas for the Joust of Giuliano de’ Medici (1475–78) 483
14.2 “Song of Bacchus,” or “Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne,” from Lorenzo de’ Medici: Selected Poems and Prose 485
14.3 from Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) 485
14.4 from Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, Book 1 (1513–18; published 1528) 497
14.5 from Giorgio Vasari, “Life of Leonardo: Painter and Sculptor of Florence,” in Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Architects, and Sculptors (1550, 1568) 498
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Brunelleschi’s Dome 474
CONTINUITY & CHANGE Michelangelo in Rome 495
Resources on the Renaissance
Medici
Humanism
13 Siena and Florence in the Fourteenth Century TOWARD A NEW HUMANISM 435
Siena and Florence: Civic and Religious Life in Tuscany 436
Siena: A Free Commune 437
Florence: Archrival of Siena 439
Painting: A Growing Naturalism 440
Duccio and Simone Martini 440
Cimabue and Giotto 442
Dante and the Rise of Vernacular Literature in Europe 446
Dante’s Divine Comedy 446
The Black Death and Its Literary Aftermath 449
Literature after the Black Death: Boccaccio’s Decameron 451
Petrarch’s Sonnets 453
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales 454
Women in Late Medieval Society 455
READINGS
13.1 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 1 460
13.2 from Dante, Inferno, Canto 34 448
13.3 from Dante, Paradiso, Canto 33 449
13.4 from Boccaccio, Decameron 451
13.5 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Dioneo’s Tale 462
13.6 Petrarch, Sonnet 134 454
13.7 from Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Prologue 454
13.8 from Boccaccio, Decameron, Filippa’s Tale 463
13.9 from Christine de Pizan, Book of the City of Ladies 456
13.10 Christine de Pizan, Tale of Joan of Arc 457
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel 444
MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES
Tempera Painting 446
Buon Fresco 447
CONTINUITY & CHANGE The Dance of Death 458
PART THREE THE RENAISSANCE AND THE AGE OF ENCOUNTER 1400–1600 464
14 Florence and the Early Renaissance HUMANISM IN ITALY 467
The State as a Work of Art: The Baptistery Doors, Florence Cathedral, and a New Perspective 468
The Gates of Paradise 470
Florence Cathedral 472
Scientific Perspective and Naturalistic Representation 472
Perspective and Naturalism in Painting: Masaccio 476
The Classical Tradition in Freestanding Sculpture: Donatello 478
The Medici Family and Humanism 479
Cosimo de’ Medici 479
Lorenzo the Magnificent: “… I find a relaxation in learning.” 482
Beyond Florence: The Ducal Courts and the Arts 486
The Montefeltro Court in Urbino 486
The Gonzaga Court in Mantua 488
The Sforza Court in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci 489
Florence after the Medici: The New Republic 493
READINGS
14.1 from Poliziano, Stanzas for the Joust of Giuliano de’ Medici (1475–78) 483
14.2 “Song of Bacchus,” or “Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne,” from Lorenzo de’ Medici: Selected Poems and Prose 485
14.3 from Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) 485
14.4 from Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, Book 1 (1513–18; published 1528) 497
14.5 from Giorgio Vasari, “Life of Leonardo: Painter and Sculptor of Florence,” in Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Architects, and Sculptors (1550, 1568) 498
FEATURES
CLOSER LOOK Brunelleschi’s Dome 474
CONTINUITY & CHANGE Michelangelo in Rome 495
Question 1: Multiple Choice Incorrect Why does Virgil guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory? Given Answer: Incorrect Dante considered Virgil, author of the Greek Iliad, the greatest of the pagan poets Correct Answer: Virgil represented the embodiment of rationality out of 3 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Incorrect In what language did Chaucer write his Tales? Given Answer: Incorrect Latin Correct Answer: Middle English out of 3 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Incorrect Why did the Scrovegni family build and then hire Giotto to decorate Arena Chapel in Padua? Given Answer: Incorrect To sanctify the site of a Roman pagan arena Correct Answer: To atone for their flagrant usury out of 3 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct What literary trend does Boccaccio's Decameron introduce into Western literature? Given Answer: Correct Social realism Correct Answer: Social realism out of 3 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Correct Why by the end of the fourteenth century did Florence become an important banking city? Given Answer: Correct The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence Correct Answer: The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence out of 3 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct What 150-year time period in Italy did nineteenth-century historians label the Renaissance? Given Answer: Correct Mid fourteenth to early sixteenth Correct Answer: Mid fourteenth to early sixteenth out of 3 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Why probably did Brunelleschi use nine circles of horizontal ribs for the dome? Given Answer: Correct As the reverse of Dante's nine circles of hell Correct Answer: As the reverse of Dante's nine circles of hell out of 3 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Medici supporters hurl stones at Michelangelo's David as it was moved through the streets? Given Answer: Correct They understood David's symbolism of the city standing up to tyrants Correct Answer: They understood David's symbolism of the city standing up to tyrants out of 3 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct Who won the competition to create a dome for Florence Cathedral? Given Answer: Correct Filippo Brunelleschi Correct Answer: Filippo Brunelleschi out of 3 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Donatello depict his David as a young adolescent? Given Answer: Correct To symbolize Florence's youthful vitality and ability to conquer tyrants Correct Answer: To symbolize Florence's youthful vitality and ability to conquer tyrants
Question 1: Multiple Choice Correct Why in the Arena Chapel frescoes does Giotto deliberately abandon the Byzantine balance and symmetry? Given Answer: Correct To make the scenes look more realistic Correct Answer: To make the scenes look more realistic out of 3 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Correct According to legend, who founded Siena? Given Answer: Correct Remus's sons, Senius and Aschius Correct Answer: Remus's sons, Senius and Aschius out of 3 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Christine de Pizan become the first female professional writer in European history? Given Answer: Correct A widow, she needed to support her family Correct Answer: A widow, she needed to support her family out of 3 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct How does Duccio's Maestrá break from Byzantine portrayals of Mary and the Christ child? Given Answer: Correct Mary's body has substance, and Christ resembles an actual baby Correct Answer: Mary's body has substance, and Christ resembles an actual baby out of 3 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Correct Why is the camel in Giotto's Adoration of the Magi not exactly realistic? Given Answer: Correct It has blue eyes Correct Answer: It has blue eyes out of 3 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct According to legend, what originally had stood on the site of the baptistery? Given Answer: Correct A Roman temple to Mars Correct Answer: A Roman temple to Mars out of 3 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Why did the Florentines drive the Medici family from the city in 1494? Given Answer: Correct Piero de Medici formed an unpopular alliance with the French king Correct Answer: Piero de Medici formed an unpopular alliance with the French king out of 3 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct What distinction does Donatello's David hold? Given Answer: Correct The first life-size freestanding male nude since antiquity Correct Answer: The first life-size freestanding male nude since antiquity out of 3 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct Why does Michelangelo's Moses have horns? Given Answer: Correct A mistranslation of the Bible from Hebrew to Latin Correct Answer: A mistranslation of the Bible from Hebrew to Latin out of 3 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Lorenzo de' Medici prefer frottole sung in Italian, not Greek or Latin? Given Answer: Correct Italian was the most beautiful of languages for music Correct Answer: Italian was the most beautiful of languages for music
Question 1: Multiple Choice Correct Why were Siena's guilds able to rise to such levels of power? Given Answer: Correct Siena was an important manufacturing city Correct Answer: Siena was an important manufacturing city out of 3 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Correct Why did the flagellants believe Europe was devastated by plague? Given Answer: Correct God's wrath against human sins Correct Answer: God's wrath against human sins out of 3 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Correct Why does Virgil guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory? Given Answer: Correct Virgil represented the embodiment of rationality Correct Answer: Virgil represented the embodiment of rationality out of 3 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct Why by the end of the fourteenth century did Florence become an important banking city? Given Answer: Correct The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence Correct Answer: The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence out of 3 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Correct What is an advantage of the buon fresco (paint on wet plaster) technique? Given Answer: Correct The paint becomes part of the wall Correct Answer: The paint becomes part of the wall out of 3 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct Why was Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, so interested in Leonardo da Vinci? Given Answer: Correct Leonardo could design great machines of war for him Correct Answer: Leonardo could design great machines of war for him out of 3 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Lorenzo de' Medici invite the young Michelangelo Buonarroti to live in his palace? Given Answer: Correct Lorenzo recognized Michelangelo's artistic promise Correct Answer: Lorenzo recognized Michelangelo's artistic promise out of 3 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct Which is the only panel on the Baptistery doors to represent a single event? Given Answer: Correct Meeting of Solomon and Sheba Correct Answer: Meeting of Solomon and Sheba out of 3 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct Why does Dufay's Nuper rosarum flores repeat the fixed melody on 6, 4, 2, and 3 units per breve? Given Answer: Correct To mirror the proportions of Solomon's Temple and Florence Cathedral Correct Answer: To mirror the proportions of Solomon's Temple and Florence Cathedral out of 3 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Cosimo de' Medici found the Platonic Academy in Florence? Given Answer: Correct To provide a place for the study and discussion of Plato's works Correct Answer: To provide a place for the study and discussion of Plato's works
Question 1: Multiple Choice Correct Why were the people eager to buy the indulgences that Julius II sold to finance the St. Peter's project? Given Answer: Correct They wanted to shorten their stay in purgatory Correct Answer: They wanted to shorten their stay in purgatory out of 4 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Correct Why did early Venetians abandon the mainland for the swampy lagoon islands? Given Answer: Correct To flee the invading Lombards from the north Correct Answer: To flee the invading Lombards from the north out of 4 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Correct Who was permitted to join a Venetian scuole? Given Answer: Correct Anyone regardless of political group or class Correct Answer: Anyone regardless of political group or class out of 4 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Pope Julius II wish to identify himself with Julius Caesar? Given Answer: Correct Like Caesar, he wanted to defeat the hated French Correct Answer: Like Caesar, he wanted to defeat the hated French out of 4 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Correct Why in the School of Athens does Plato point toward the heavens? Given Answer: Correct It's the realm of ideal forms Correct Answer: It's the realm of ideal forms out of 4 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct As discussed in the chapter's "Continuity and Change" section, what was the irony of monk and humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus? Given Answer: Correct He opposed the Church's excesses yet loved beauty and art Correct Answer: He opposed the Church's excesses yet loved beauty and art out of 4 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Who is reflected in the mirror in Jan van Eyck's double portrait Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami? Given Answer: Correct Jan van Eyck Correct Answer: Jan van Eyck out of 4 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Flemish painters use oil instead of the tempera paint favored by the Italian Renaissance painters? Given Answer: Correct To create layers of paint that reflected light Correct Answer: To create layers of paint that reflected light out of 4 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct Marguerite de Navarre modeled her Heptameron on what earlier poet's work? Given Answer: Correct Boccaccio Correct Answer: Boccaccio out of 4 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct What did patrons of works such as Robert Campin's Mérode Altarpiece and Jan and Hubert van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece hope to gain through their financial support? Given Answer: Correct Personal salvation Correct Answer: Personal salvation
Question 1: Multiple Choice Correct What is an advantage of the buon fresco (paint on wet plaster) technique? Given Answer: Correct The paint becomes part of the wall Correct Answer: The paint becomes part of the wall out of 3 points Question 2: Multiple Choice Incorrect According to the chapter's "Continuity and Change" section, what was a positive effect of the bubonic plague? Given Answer: Incorrect Port regulations became stricter Correct Answer: Per capita wealth increased out of 3 points Question 3: Multiple Choice Correct Which guild in pre-1355 Siena was most powerful? Given Answer: Correct Merchants Correct Answer: Merchants out of 3 points Question 4: Multiple Choice Correct Why is the camel in Giotto's Adoration of the Magi not exactly realistic? Given Answer: Correct It has blue eyes Correct Answer: It has blue eyes out of 3 points Question 5: Multiple Choice Correct Why by the end of the fourteenth century did Florence become an important banking city? Given Answer: Correct The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence Correct Answer: The Pope conferred Siena's papal banking privileges on Florence out of 3 points Question 6: Multiple Choice Correct Why did Donatello depict his David as a young adolescent? Given Answer: Correct To symbolize Florence's youthful vitality and ability to conquer tyrants Correct Answer: To symbolize Florence's youthful vitality and ability to conquer tyrants out of 3 points Question 7: Multiple Choice Correct Why does Dufay's Nuper rosarum flores repeat the fixed melody on 6, 4, 2, and 3 units per breve? Given Answer: Correct To mirror the proportions of Solomon's Temple and Florence Cathedral Correct Answer: To mirror the proportions of Solomon's Temple and Florence Cathedral out of 3 points Question 8: Multiple Choice Correct What principle did Brunelleschi master and apply to his dome's design? Given Answer: Correct Scientific perspective Correct Answer: Scientific perspective out of 3 points Question 9: Multiple Choice Correct Why is Leonardo's Last Supper fresco in very bad shape today? Given Answer: Correct Leonardo painted dry plaster with oil, which flakes off Correct Answer: Leonardo painted dry plaster with oil, which flakes off out of 3 points Question 10: Multiple Choice Correct Why does Masaccio place the vanishing point in The Tribute Money behind Christ's head? Given Answer: Correct To identify Christ as the fresco's most important figure Correct Answer: To identify Christ as the fresco's most important figure
Question 1: Multiple Choice
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Why does Dante place Judas, Brutus, and Cassius in the lowest level of his hell?Given Answer: 
They were traitorsCorrect Answer: They were traitors
Question 2: Multiple Choice
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Who was Florence's patron saint?Given Answer: John the BaptistCorrect Answer: John the Baptist
Question 3: Multiple Choice
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How does Duccio's Maestrá break from Byzantine portrayals of Mary and the Christ child?Given Answer: Mary's body has substance, and Christ resembles an actual babyCorrect Answer: Mary's body has substance, and Christ resembles an actual baby
Question 4: Multiple Choice
-
Why in the Arena Chapel frescoes does Giotto deliberately abandon the Byzantine balance and symmetry?Given Answer: To make the scenes look more realisticCorrect Answer: To make the scenes look more realistic
Question 5: Multiple Choice
-
Why does Virgil guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory?Given Answer: 
Dante's family claimed to descend from VirgilCorrect Answer: Virgil represented the embodiment of rationality
Question 6: Multiple Choice
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How does Ghiberti's winning design differ from Brunelleschi's?Given Answer: The main action is on the side, not centerCorrect Answer: The main action is on the side, not center
Question 7: Multiple Choice
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Why were the Medici the most powerful family in Florence from 1418-1494?Given Answer: They were bankers to the papacyCorrect Answer: They were bankers to the papacy
Question 8: Multiple Choice
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Why are Ghiberti's doors known as the Gates of Paradise?Given Answer: They open onto the paradiso, the area in front of the cathedralCorrect Answer: They open onto the paradiso, the area in front of the cathedral
Question 9: Multiple Choice
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What implicit lesson does Mantega's Camera Picta send to Ludovico Gonzaga, ruler of Mantua?Given Answer: A ruler always is in the public eyeCorrect Answer: A ruler always is in the public eye
Question 10: Multiple Choice
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