IHUM 201 Exam 3
construction of a new Saint Peter (Donato Bramante), Michelangelo's Moses (tomb), School of Atheans, commissioning Michelangelo to create several other works after viewing the Pietà. Sistine Chapel.
Pope Julius II (qualities of, patron of which artists, etc.)
Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes, Pythagoras, Ptolemy, Euclid.
School of Athens, major figures of
Old Testament. Creation, Adam, Noah
Sistine Chapel (major themes and figures)
Michel- angelo returned to Bramante's plan for a central-domed church in the shape of a Greek cross and envisioned a ribbed, arched dome somewhat after the manner of the cathedral in Florence, but on a far larger scale
St. Peter's Basilica (Michelangelo's role, final plans)
In this voluminous (although unfinished) work, Aquinas sought to provide definitive reasoned answers to difficult questions, including the existence of God, the way to attain happiness, the nature of grace, and the coexistence of free will with divine omniscience. Aquinas's lifelong mission was to harmonize human reason and God's revealed truth as contained in the scriptures—faith and reason working together. The work that he produced in this effort is considered to be the ultimate refinement of the medieval scholastic method.
Summa Theologica (purpose, dedication, arguments, etc.)
This led English kings to seek to extend their power in France, invading on several occasions and even laying claim to the French crown. The struggle between the two dynasties only ended in the following century after the military campaign of Joan of Arc and the eventual defeat of the English.
The Hundred Years' War
sought to provide definitive reasoned answers to difficult questions, including the existence of God, the way to attain happiness, the nature of grace, and the coexistence of free will with divine omniscience
Thomas Aquinas
Machiavelli, The Prince
Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand what they are about. Therefore a wise lord cannot, nor ought he to, keep faith when such observance may be turned against him, and when the reasons that caused him to pledge it exist no longer. If men were entirely good this precept would not hold, but because they are bad, and will not keep faith with you, you too are not bound to observe it with them. Nor will there ever be wanting to a prince legitimate reasons to excuse this nonobservance. Of this endless modern examples could be given, showing how many treaties and engagements have been made void and of no effect through the faithlessness of princes; and he who has known best how to employ the fox has succeeded best.
Machiavelli, The Prince
Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you. . . . [Men] have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.
Petrarch, The Canzoniere
You who hear the sound, in scattered rhymes, of those sighs on which I fed my heart, in my first vagrant youthfulness, when I was partly other than I am,
one of the sections into which certain long poems are divided.
canto
preexistent melody, such as a plainchant excerpt, underlying a polyphonic musical composition (one consisting of several independent voices or parts).
cantus firmus mass
Songbook, Francesco Petrarch
canzoniere
based on the folk tune. advertise their sources in their titles, combining the sacred and the secular just as the art of the period eagerly synthesized Classical and Christian sources.
chanson mass
An artistic technique in which subtle gradations of value create the illusion of rounded three- dimensional forms in space; also termed modeling (from Italian for "light-dark").
chiaroscuro
peotic justice (Dante's inferno)
contrapasso
A position in which a figure is obliquely balanced around a central vertical axis. The body weight rests on one foot, shifting the body naturally to one side; the body becomes curved like a subtle S.
contrapposto
the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions.
dialectic
Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall.
fresco
A humorous or amorous poem set to music for a singer and two or three instrumentalists.
frottola
In linear perspective, the imaginary line (frequently where the earth seems to meet the sky) along which converging lines meet; also see vanishing point.
horizon line
focused on the value of the individual and the individual's capacity to achieve greatness. Instead of emphasizing humanity's lost and fallen state, it celebrated humanity's beauty and potential in art and literature.
humanism
Alloting a repeated single melody to one of the voices in a composition.
isorhythm
linear perspective, a system of creating an illusion of depth on a flat surface. All parallel lines (orthogonals) in a painting or drawing using this system converge in a single vanishing point on the composition's horizon line.
linear perspective
a gallery or room with one or more open sides, especially one that forms part of a house and has one side open to the garden.
loggia
method of metal casting in which a molten metal is poured into a mold that has been created by means of a wax model. Benvenuto Cellini, Perseus Holding the Head of Medusa.
lost wax bronze casting
A song for two or three voices unaccompanied by instrumental music.
madrigal
the motet evolved to consist of melodic lines that echoed one another. Additionally, while the medieval motet could consist of texts written in vernacular language combined with Latin, the Renaissance motet was often composed to sacred Latin texts.
motet (changes from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance)
Gutenberg's invention
moveable type
An early form of polyphony using multiple melodic lines.
organum
In perspective, a line pointing to the vanishing point.
orthagonal lines
A form of musical expression characterized by many voices.
polyphony
An arrangement of four or more painted or carved panels that are hinged together.
polyptych
The term relief refers to a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane.
relief
developing a methodology and philosophy that involved logic, questioning, and debate. This approach to teaching and learning became known as scholasticism, the method of the schools.
scholasticism
sfumato, (from Italian sfumare, "to tone down" or "to evaporate like smoke"), in painting or drawing, the fine shading that produces soft, imperceptible transitions between colours and tones.
sfumato
Sprezzatura is an Italian word that first appears in Baldassare Castiglione's 1528 The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it"
sprezzaturra
lines that cross
transversal lines
n a parallel fashion, secular society also began to make relationships and love a central subject for song and literature, particularly in the works of the troubadours (men) and trobairitz (women), poets who celebrated love with new lyricism and openness.
troubadours and courtly love
("Renaissance Man") should do all things with sprezzatura, or effortless mastery.
uomo universale
In linear perspective, a point on the horizon where parallel lines appear to converge.
vanishing point
Peter Abelard was hired to be the private tutor for a brilliant young woman named Heloise
women's education in the Late Middle Ages
Word painting, also known as tone painting or text painting, is the musical technique of composing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song's lyrics or story elements in programmatic music.
word painting
Marie de France - The Lay of the Nightingale
"" Alas," cried she, " evil is come upon me. Neveragain may I rise from my bed in the night, and watchfrom the casement, so that I may see my friend. Onething I know full well, that he will deem my love is nomore set upon him. Woe to her who has none to giveher counsel. This I will do."
Marie de France - The Lay of Sir Launfal
"" Fair lady," he answered, " since it pleases youtobe so gracious, and to dower so graceless a knight withyour love, there is naught that you may bid me doright or wrong, evil or good that I will not do to theutmost of my power. I will observe your commandment,and serve in your quarrels. For you I renounce myfather and my father's house. This only I pray, thatI may dwell with you in your lodging, and that you willnever send me from your side."
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: "Prologue"
"A young student from Oxford rode with us too, Who'd begun his study of logic long ago. As lean was his horse as is a rake, And he himself was thin, I undertake; He looked emaciated, burdened down with care, His outer jacket was shabby and threadbare; For he had not yet obtained a pulpit, Nor for a worldly job would he be fit. For he would rather have at his bed's head Twenty books, each clad in black or red, Of Aristotle and his philosophy, Than rich robes, or fiddles, or gay psaltery."
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: "Prologue"
"Above all he was a philosopher; With little money and abiding hunger. But all that he might borrow from a friend On books and learning he would surely spend. And busily he'd pray God to keep the souls Of patrons who supported him in schools. Of study took he the utmost care and heed. Not one word spoke he more than his need, The style and reverence of his diction turning Dignified, commanding, fraught with deepest meaning. Thus flowing with moral virtue was his speech, And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach."
Marie de France - Prologue
"According to the witness of Priscian, it was the custom of ancient writers to express obscurely some portions of their books, so that those who came after might study with greater diligence to find the thought within their words. The philosophers knew this well, and were the more unwearied in labour, the more subtle in dis- tinctions, so that the truth might make them free. They were persuaded that he who would keep himself unspotted from the world should search for knowledge, that he might understand"
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: "Pardoner's Tale"
"And now that I have spoken of gluttony,Now will I warn you about gambling's lottery.Gambling's the very mother of lying,And of deceit and cursed forswearing,Blaspheming Christ, manslaughter, waste alsoOf property and time, and further know,It is shame and contrary to honour,To be known as a common gambler And ever the higher his estate,The more is he shunned and desolate.If a prince choose to play the lottery,In all his governance and policy,He is held, by common opinion,As the last of all in reputation"
Marie de France - The Lay of Sir Launfal
"Arthur looked upon his captive very evilly. " Vassal," said he, harshly, " you have done me a bitter wrong. It was a foul deed to seek to shame mein this ugly fashion, and to smirch the honour of the Queen. Is it folly or lightness which leads you to boast of that lady, the least of whose maidens is fairer, and goes more richly, than the Queen ?"
St. Francis of Assisi - The Canticle of Brother Sun
"Be praised, my Lord, for those who pardon through Your love and bear witness and trial. Blessed are those who endure in peace for they will be crowned by You, Most High. Be praised, my Lord, for our sister, bodily death. Whom no one living can escape. Woe to those who die in sin. Blessed are those who discover Thy holy will. The second death will do them no harm. Praise and bless the Lord. Render Him thanks. Serve Him with great humility. Amen."
Boccaccio, excerpt from the Prologue to The Decameron
"In the year then of our Lord 1348, there happened at Florence, the finest city in all Italy, a most terrible plague; which, whether owing to the influence of the planets, or that it was sent from God as a just punishment for our sins, had broken out some years before in the Levant, and after passing from place to place, and making incredible havoc all the way, had now reached the west"
Marie de France - Prologue
"In your honour, most noble and courteous King, towhom joy is a handmaid, and in whose heart all graciousthings are rooted, I have brought together these Lays,and told my tales in seemly rhyme. Ere they speakfor me, let me speak with my own mouth, and say," Sire, I offer you these verses. If you are pleased toreceive them, the fairer happiness will be mine, and themore lightly I shall go all the days of my life. Do notdeem that I think more highly of myself than I oughtto think, since I presume to proffer this, my gift." Hearken now to the commencement of the matter."
Castiglione, The Courtier
"It appears to me that you have advanced a very feeble argument for the imperfection of women. And, although this is not perhaps the right time to go into subtleties, my answer, based both on a reliable authority and on the simple truth, is that the substance of anything whatsoever cannot receive of itself either more or less; thus just as one stone cannot, as far as its essence is concerned, be more perfectly stone than another stone, nor one piece of wood more perfectly wood than another piece, so one man cannot be more perfectly man than another; and so, as far as their formal substance is concerned, the male cannot be more perfect than the female, since both the one and the other are included under the species man, and they differ in their accidents and not their essence"
Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica
"It was necessary for man's salvation that there should be a knowledge revealed by God besides philosophical science built up by human reason. Firstly, indeed, because man is directed to God, as to an end that surpasses the grasp of his reason: "The eye hath not seen, O God, besides Thee, what things Thou hast prepared for them that wait for Thee" (Is. 66:4)."
Castiglione, The Courtier
"Leaving aside, therefore, those virtues of the mind which she must have in common with the courtier, such as prudence, magnanimity, continence and many others besides, and also the qualities that are common to all kinds of women, such as goodness and discretion, the ability to take good care, if she is married, of her husband's belongings and house and children, and the virtues belonging to a good mother, I say that the lady who is at Court should properly have, before all else, a certain pleasing affability whereby she will know how to entertain graciously every kind of man with charming and honest conversation, suited to the time and the place and the rank of the person with whom she is talking"
Dante, The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise)
"Midway in our life's journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood. How shall I say what wood that was! I never saw so drear, so rank, so arduous a wilderness! Its very memory gives a shape to fear"
St. Francis of Assisi - The Canticle of Brother Sun
"Most high, omnipotent, good Lord To you alone belongs praise and glory, Honor and blessing. No one is worthy to breathe your name. Be praised, my Lord, for all your creatures. In the first place for [per] the blessed Brother Sun who gives us the day and enlightens us through You. He is beautiful and radiant in his great splendor Giving witness to You, most omnipotent One."
Dante, The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise)
"My tranced being stared fixed and motionless upon that vision, ever more fervent to see in the act of seeing, Experiencing that Radiance, the spirit is so indrawn it is impossible even to think of ever turning from it. For the good which is the will's ultimate object is all subsumed in It; and, being removed, all is defective which in It is perfect. Now in my recollection of the rest I have less power to speak than any infant wetting its tongue yet at its mother's breast."
Christine de Pisan, excerpt from The Book of the City of Ladies
"Not all men (and especially the wisest) share the opinion that it is bad for women to be educated. But it is very true that many foolish men have claimed this because it displeased them that women knew more than they did. Your father, who was a great scientist and philosopher, did not believe that women were worth less by knowing science; rather, as you know, he took great pleasure from seeing your inclination to learning. The feminine opinion of your mother, however, who wished to keep you busy with spinning and silly girlishness, following the common custom of women, was the major obstacle to your being more involved in the sciences."
Castiglione, The Courtier
"Now if you mean the body, because man is more robust, more quick and agile, and more able to endure toil, I say that this is an argument of very little validity since among men themselves those who possess these qualities more than others are not more highly regarded on that account; and even in warfare, when for the most part the work to be done demands exertion and strength, the strongest are not the most highly esteemed. If you mean the mind, I say that everything men can understand, women can too; and where a man's intellect can penetrate, so along with it can a woman's"
Dante, The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise)
"On a day for dalliance we read the rhyme of Lancelot, how love had mastered him. We were alone with innocence and dim time. Pause after pause that high old story drew our eyes together while we blushed and paled; but it was one soft passage overthrew our caution and our hearts. For when we read how her fond smile was kissed by such a lover, he who is one with me alive and dead breathed on my lips the tremor of his kiss. That book, and he who wrote it, was a pander. That day we read no further." As she said this, the other spirit, who stood by her, wept so piteously, I felt my senses reel and faint away with anguish. I was swept by such a swoon as death is, and I fell, as a corpse might fall, to the dead floor of Hell"
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
"Reply to Objection 1: Although those things which are beyond man's knowledge may not be sought for by man through his reason, nevertheless, once they are revealed by God, they must be accepted by faith. Hence the sacred text continues, "For many things are shown to thee above the understanding of man" (Ecclus. 3:25). And in this, the sacred science consists."
Christine de Pisan, excerpt from The Book of the City of Ladies
"Sappho, possessed of sharp wit and burning desire for constant study in the midst of bestial and ignorant men, frequented the heights of Mount Parnassus, that is, of perfect study. Thanks to her fortunate boldness and daring, she kept company with the Muses, that is, the arts and sciences, without being turned away. She entered the forest of laurel trees filled with may boughs, greenery, and different colored flowers, soft fragrances and various aromatic spices, where Grammar, Logic, noble Rhetoric, Geometry, and Arithmetic live and take their leisure. She went on her way until she came to the deep grotto of Apollo, god of learning, and found the brook and conduit of the fountain of Castalia, and took up the plectrum and quill of the harp and played sweet melodies, with the nymphs all the while leading the dance, that is, following the rules of harmony and musical accord."
Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica
"Sciences are differentiated according to the various means through which knowledge is obtained. For the astronomer and the physicist both may prove the same conclusion: that the earth, for instance, is round: the astronomer by means of mathematics (i.e., abstracting from matter), but the physicist by means of matter itself. Hence there is no reason why those things which may be learned from philosophical science, so far as they can be known by natural reason, may not also be taught us by another science so far as they fall within revelation. Hence theology included in sacred doctrine differs in kind from that theology which is part of philosophy."
Boccaccio, excerpt from the Prologue to The Decameron
"The oxen, asses, sheep, goats, swine, and the dogs themselves, ever faithful to their masters, being driven from their own homes, were left to roam at will about the fields, and among the standing com, which no one cared to gather, or even to reap; and many times, after they had filled themselves in the day, the animals would return of their own accord like rational creatures at night"
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: "Pardoner's Tale"
"The proudest then of these profligates threeAnswered again: What, knave of sorry grace!Why are you all cloaked save for your face?Why have you lived so long, in your old age?' The old man stared hard into his visage,And spoke thus: 'Because I cannot findAny man, though I have walked to Inde,Neither in city, nor in distant village,Who will exchange his youth for my age.And therefore have I all my years still,As long as it may further the Lord's will.No death, alas, will take away my life!"
Boccaccio, excerpt from the Prologue to The Decameron
"These facts, and others of the like sort, occasioned various fears and devices amongst those who survived, all tending to the same uncharitable and cruel end; which was, to avoid the sick, and every thing that had been near them, expecting by that means to save themselves. And some holding it best to live temperately, and to avoid excesses of all kinds, made parties, and shut themselves up from the rest of the world; eating and drinking moderately of the best, and diverting themselves with music, and such other entertainments as they might have within doors; never listening to anything from without, to make them uneasy."
Christine de Pisan, excerpt from The Book of the City of Ladies
"This Sappho had a beautiful body and face and was agreeable and pleasant in appearance, conduct, and speech. But the charm of her profound understanding surpassed all the other charms with which she was endowed, for she was expert and learned in several arts and sciences, and she was not only well-educated in the works and writings composed by others but also discovered many new things herself and wrote many books and poems. Concerning her, Boccaccio has offered these fair words couched in the sweetness of poetic language: "Sappho, possessed of sharp wit and burning desire for constant study in the midst of bestial and ignorant men, frequented the heights of Mount Parnassus, that is, of perfect study."
Marie de France - The Lay of the Nightingale
"This bachelor set his love upon his neighbour's wife. By reason of his urgent prayers, his long suit and service, and by reason that all men spake naught of him but praise perchance, also, for reason that he was never far from her eye presently this lady came to set her heart on him again."
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: "Pardoner's Tale"
"Thus do I preach against the very viceI too indulge in, which is avarice.Though I myself am guilty of that sin,Yet I have power these other folk to winFrom avarice, and bitterly to repent.Yet that is not my principal intent;I preach only out of covetousness.Enough now of that subject, I suggest."
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: "Pardoner's Tale"
"When he was replete with wine at a feast,At his own table ordered, like any beast,The slaying of John the Baptist, guiltless.Seneca too says a good thing, doubtless:He says, there's no difference he can findBetween some fellow who has lost his mindAnd one who is a drunkard through and through,But says that madness, when it overcomes youLasts longer than does ever drunkenness.O gluttony, so full of wickedness!O thou reason for our first confusion!O original cause of our damnation,Till Christ bought us with his blood again!"
Marie de France - The Lay of the Nightingale
"When the husband heard the lady's words he laughed within himself for wrath and malice. He purposed that very soon the nightingale should sing within a net. So he bade the servants of his house to devise fillets and snares, and to set their cunning traps about the orchard."
Dante, The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise)
"how she married Ninus and succeeded him to the throne of that wide land the Sultans hold. The other is Dido; faithless to the ashes of Sichaeus, she killed herself for love. The next whom the eternal tempest lashes is sense-drugged Cleopatra. See Helen there, from whom such ill arose. And great Achilles, who fought at last with love in the house of prayer. And Paris. And Tristan." As they whirled above he pointed out more than a thousand shades of those torn from the mortal life by love."
Marie de France - The Lay of Sir Launfal
"well I know that you think little of woman and her love. There are sins more black that a man may have upon his soul. Traitor you are,and false. Right evil counsel gave they to my lord,who prayed him to suffer you about his person. Youremain only for his harm and loss."
Petrarch, The Canzoniere
A pure white hind appeared to me with two gold horns, on green grass, between two streams, in a laurel's shade, at sunrise, in the unripe season. Her aspect was so sweet and proud I left all my labour to follow her: as a miser, in search of treasure, makes his toil lose its bitterness in delight.
PIco della Mirandola - Oration on the Dignity of Man
Admittedly great though these reasons be, they are not the principal grounds, that is, those which may rightfully claim for themselves the privilege of the highest admiration. For why should we not admire more the angels themselves and the blessed choirs of heaven? At last it seems to me I have come to understand why man is the most fortunate of creatures and consequently worthy of all admiration and what precisely is that rank which is his lot in the universal chain of Being—a rank to be envied not only by brutes but even by the stars and by minds beyond this world. It is a matter past faith and a wondrous one.
Marriage is no excuse for not loving. He who is not jealous can not love. No one can be bound by two loves. Love is always growing or diminishing. Love rarely lasts when it is revealed. A new love expells an old one. Moral integrity alone makes one worthy of love. He who is vexed by the thoughts of love eats little and seldom sleeps. Every action of a lover ends in the thought of his beloved. The true lover believes only that which he thinks will please his beloved. Love can deny nothing to love. ect..
Andreas Capellanus' Rules of Love
Term used to describe sophisticated music of the 14th century. Took full advantage of the potential for more complex rhythms, featuring increasingly sophisticated polyphonic works that also exhibited greater richness of sound and harmony. A distinctive feature of much fourteenth-century music was the isorhythm
Ars Nova
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon (then in the Kingdom of Arles, part of the Holy Roman Empire, now in France) rather than in Rome.[1] The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by Philip IV of France.
Avignon Papacy
Bernard of Clairvaux, venerated as Saint Bernard, was a Burgundian abbot and a major leader in the revitalization of Benedictine monasticism through the nascent Cistercian Order.
Bernard of Clairvaux
started in the east. came with rats on boats.
Black Death (Bubonic Plague)
Primavera is an elabo- rate allegory of love, presided over by the figure of Venus in the center of the composition standing beneath her son, Cupid. The painting has been interpreted as a symbolic representation of the joining of physical love (desire) and spiritual love (the love of God) in the sacred bond of matrimony. The Birth of Venus was painted for the Medici. Venus, born of the foam of the sea, drifts along on a large scallop shell to the shore of her sacred island of Cyprus, aided by the sweet breaths of entwined zephyrs.
Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, main ideas of
Laura Cereta
But I cannot bear the babbling and chattering women, glowing with drunkenness and wine, whose impudent words harm not only our sex but even more themselves. Empty-headed, they put their heads together and draw lots from a stockpot to elect each other [number one]; but any women who excel they seek out and destroy with the venom of their envy.
Castiglione casts his book as the record of a conversation that took place at Urbino during the occasion of a pope's visit. description of the ideal courtier The influence of Renaissance humanism on Castiglione's conception of the ideal courtier is fairly clear. Just as humanism argued in favor of human beings' potential and ability to achieve, Castiglione encourages excellence in every pursuit.
Castiglione's The Courtier, main ideas, audience, etc.
In the following portion of his autobiography, Cellini recalls his casting of the statue. (Percyus and Medusa)
Cellini's autobiographical excerpt
typical example of a widespread medieval narrative genre, the exemplum, a short story meant to illustrate a moral lesson in a memorable or powerful way. The pardoner begins by telling his listeners that he is a fraud and a sham, a wicked man who deceives others and cheats them out of their money. However, he also insists on his ability to preach a very moral sermon, one that condemns the very vice that he is guilty of. Greed is root of all evil.
Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale
Each sin is punished by an appropriate contrapasso Satan chews eternally on the bodies of Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius, all imitators of the evil one's own crimes against the God of Heaven. simonists, church officials who sold offices and positions rather than giving them to the most spiritual or deserving, are here shoved headfirst into small spaces shaped like money bags. The grafters, who used their political positions to steal from the public, are punished for their "sticky fingers" by being plunged into boiling pitch. The traitors, those who destroyed human society and friendship, are stuck in a frozen lake, enduring the kind of isolation and devastation that they helped to cause. Adulterers blown around in a fiery whirlwind, a reminder that in life they let themselves be swept away by their passion. (Paolo and Francesca)
Dante's Divine Comedy and Inferno: location, guide names, punishments, organization, etc.
For Donatello, the close encounter with antique reliefs and statuary would lead to the revival of Classical principles in his sculpture. Most Classically inspired work is his David. The contrapposto stance and body proportions are reminiscent of Greek prototypes that were mimicked by Roman artists.
Donatello (sculptures, importance)
Eleanor was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204. For medieval women (noblewomen of the court, at least) this represented a dramatic reversal of social power, and it is not surprising that the culture of courtly love found eager supporters among women, particularly the powerful Eleanor of Aquitaine (granddaughter of Duke William) who promoted it at the court of France during her first marriage, to King Louis VII, and then in England after her subsequent marriage to King Henry II.
Eleanor of Aquitaine
the most important Christian humanist in Europe. Attempted to combine Classical learning and a simple interiorized approach to Christian living. Heavy critique of the Church. (The Praise of Folly)
Erasmus (intellectual contributions and ideas)
Machiavelli, The Prince
Every one admits how praiseworthy it is in a prince to keep faith, and to live with integrity and not with craft. Nevertheless our experience has been that those princes who have done great things have held good faith of little account, and have known how to circumvent the intellect of men by craft, and in the end have overcome those who have relied on their word. You must know there are two ways of contesting, the one by the law, the other by force; the first method is proper to men, the second to beasts; but because the first is frequently not sufficient, it is necessary to have recourse to the second. Therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to avail himself of the beast and the man
Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti. Competition. Abraham and Isaac story.
Florentine Baptistry Doors competition (subject, competitors)
Laura Cereta
For knowledge is not given as a gift, but [is gained] with diligence. The free mind, not shirking effort, always soars zealously toward the good, and the desire to know grows ever more wide and deep. It is because of no special holiness, therefore, that we [women] are rewarded by God the Giver with the gift of exceptional talent. Nature has generously lavished its gifts upon all people, opening to all the doors of choice through which reason sends envoys to the will, from which they learn and convey its desires
the Black Death, the Great Schism, and the Hundred Years' War (French and the English)
Fourteenth Century, major events and changes
Savonarola lived at the Convent of San Marco in Florence from 1490 until his execution in 1498. His urgent preaching against the vanities of Florence in general and the degeneracy of its art and culture in particular had an electric effect on the populace wanted a restored republic with a strong ethical and theocratic base.
Fra Savonarola
composer of polyphony, especially the Mass for Pope Marcellus, conservative masses. In the purity of his style, his return to the ideal values of the past, and the inventiveness of his own musical contributions, Palestrina is a perfect example of a Renaissance artist.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
In 1307, a pope sympathetic to the French king moved the papacy to Avignon in southern France. Several succeeding popes also were viewed as supporting French political goals instead of maintaining a spiritual neutrality. This eventually led to a split, known as the Great Schism, with different groups of cardinals electing rival popes. It was a situation that was unresolved until 1417.
Great Schism
a fraternal society of craftsmen or merchants, was a cross between a modern-day union and a fraternal organization like the Elks or the Knights of Columbus.
Guilds
composed nuper rosarum flores for dedication of Florence cathedral. (Solomons temple) came up with soprano, alto, tenner, base. L'homme armé mass: a motet mass - chanson mass based on folk tune
Guillaume Dufay
PIco della Mirandola - Oration on the Dignity of Man
I have read in the records of the Arabians, reverend Fathers, that Abdala the Saracen, when questioned as to what on this stage of the world, as it were, could be seen most worthy of wonder, replied: "There is nothing to be seen more wonderful than man." In agreement with this opinion is the saying of Hermes Trismegistus: "A great miracle, Asclepius, is man." But when I weighed the reason for these maxims, the many grounds for the excellence of human nature reported by many men failed to satisfy me—that man is the intermediary between creatures, the intimate of the gods, the king of the lower beings, by the acuteness of his senses, by the discernment of his reason, and by the light of his intelligence the interpreter of nature, the interval between fixed eternity and fleeting time, and (as the Persians say), the bond, nay, rather, the marriage song of the world, on David's testimony but little lower than the angels
Laura Cereta
I know: he had lived on the brink of dying, for death— the end of nature—unmakes all things. We are all dust and shadow, but the days of men are unlike one another; unlike are their misfortunes, and unlike their ends. While I have lived, my prayers have come to naught. This life will ever be the nurse of my misery, I believe. But let the injury, forgotten for a short while, be restored to its place in history—the injury which, because of one man's death, has cruelly and unjustly pried up, lacerated, and dismembered my life, once quiet as though selected in safety
last great development of Gothic art. magnificent colors, fashionable costumes, and richly embellished fabrics. courtly elegance and delicacy.
International style
Petrarch, The Canzoniere
It did not seem to me to be a time to guard myself against Love's blows: so I went on confident, unsuspecting; from that, my troubles started, amongst the public sorrows. Love discovered me all weaponless, and opened the way to the heart through the eyes, which are made the passageways and doors of tears:
Painted rich guy and his wife. Van Eyck signed the painting (as one might a legal document) in what appears as an inscription above the framed circular mirror: Johannes van Eyck fuit hic (Latin for "Jan van Eyck was here"). The Ghent altarpiece (polyptych) Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife
Jan van Eyck, major works and themes
added chanson and motet used text expression and word painting came up with paraphrase mass (borrowed melody used in all vocal parts) and imitation mass (borrowed polyphonic source)
Josquin des Prez
argued that the historical record demonstrates that rulers who invariably follow traditional moral values do not gain or retain power Asserts that it is better to be feared than loved as a ruler, since fear can be counted on
Machiavelli, main ideas in The Prince
First attained wealth and political power in Florence in the 13th century through its success in commerce and banking.
Medici Family (location, source of wealth, influence)
physician and biblical scholar, and is considered to be the most important medieval Jewish philosopher. One of his best-known works is The Guide for the Per- plexed.
Moses Maimonides
Laura Cereta
My ears are wearied by your carping. You brashly and publicly not merely wonder but indeed lament that I am said to possess as fine a mind as nature ever bestowed upon the most learned man. You seem to think that so learned a woman has scarcely before been seen in the world. You are wrong on both counts, Sempronius, and have clearly strayed from the path of truth and disseminate falsehood. I agree that you should be grieved, indeed, you should be ashamed, for you have ceased to be a living man, but have become an animated stone; having rejected the studies which make men wise, you rot in torpid leisure. Not nature but your own soul has betrayed you, deserting virtue for the easy path of sin.
PIco della Mirandola - Oration on the Dignity of Man
Neither a fixed abode nor a form that is thine alone nor any function peculiar to thyself have we given thee, Adam, to the end that according to thy longing and according to thy judgment thou mayest have and possess what abode, what form, and what functions thou thyself shalt desire. The nature of all other beings is limited and constrained within the bounds of laws prescribed by Us. Thou, constrained by no limits, in accordance with thine own free will, in whose hand We have placed thee, shalt ordain for thyself the limits of thy nature. We have set thee at the world's center that thou mayest from thence more easily observe whatever is in the world. We have made thee neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with honor, as though the maker and molder of thyself, thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer. Thou shalt have the power to degenerate into the lower forms of life, which are brutish. Thou shalt have the power, out of thy soul's judgment, to be reborn into the higher forms, which are divine.
Petrarch, The Canzoniere
Now, my Lord, the eleventh year revolves since I was bowed under that pitiless yoke, which to those most subject to it is most fierce. Have pity on my unworthy suffering: lead back my wandering thoughts to a better place: remind them how you hung, today, upon the cross.
A form of Gothic architecture developed in England and characterized by extreme vertical emphasis and fan vaulting.
Perpendicular style
dialectic. sought to reconcile pagan learning with Christian subject matter,
Peter Abelard
refused many offers of regular employment, preferring to maintain a less secure independence rather than take on a well-paying but burdensome career. Laura died of the Black Plague in 1348 finds more interest in the joys and pains of this earthly life
Petrarch (poetry style and themes, his main profession, Laura)
argues that humans stand at the apex of the world in such a way such as to create the link between the world of God and that of the creation, thereby expressing the core of Renaissance humanism.
Pico della Mirandola's ideas on freedom and from Oration on the Dignity of Man